AMY BETH HORMAN,
Violinist

American violinist Amy Beth Horman began her violin studies at the age of five. At seventeen, she withdrew from high school to compete for a place in the doctoral program at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris. Subsequently, among an international field of applicants, Ms. Horman won the highly coveted Premier Prix in Solo Violin at that level and within two years she had completed the Third Cycle for Solo Violin under the tutelage of Gerard Poulet. Following the completion of her studies, she has established herself as a soloist and chamber musician through numerous orchestral and recital appearances. Ms. Horman's appearances are always eagerly anticipated: The Washington Post has hailed her as "having the stuff of greatness."

In January 2005 Ms. Horman made her debut with the New Mexico Symphony, performing Mozart's 4 th Violin Concerto with Music Director Guillermo Figueroa conducting. Of that performance, Maestro Figueroa wrote "Ms. Horman is an excellent, refined performer. Her violinistic skills are of the highest order, with a fluent, polished technique, and a warm, appealing, dark burnished tone."

Among other recent orchestral appearances have been performances of the Brahms, Nielsen, Mendelssohn and Barber concertos with several orchestras in the mid-Atlantic region as well as recitals with such artists as pianist Brian Ganz, with soprano Rosa Lamoreaux, and with pianist Michael Sheppard at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre as part of the National Philharmonic's 2004 Chamber Music Series. During the summer of 2004, pianist Awadagin Pratt personally invited Ms. Horman to participate in his "Next Generation" Chamber Music Festival.

In January 2003 Ms. Horman made her debut with the Fairfax Symphony under the baton of Music Director William Hudson in a performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Of this performance, The Washington Post critic wrote "Violinist Amy Beth Horman showed she had the virtuosity and stamina necessary to navigate Beethoven's colossal Violin Concerto… Horman traced soaring lines and rich textures with a golden, full tone that complemented the full-blooded support of the orchestra."

Ms. Horman won the Deane Sherman Award as one of Maryland's most promising young artists in 2000. In 2001 she was awarded the Amadeus Career Grant by the Amadeus Orchestra, an ensemble with whom she subsequently has been regularly featured; her appearances with that orchestra during the 2002-03 season included a performance of the J. S. Bach Double Concerto with her mentor Jody Gatwood as well as a performance as soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4.

Ms. Horman won both the high school and college divisions of the National Symphony Orchestra's Young Soloists Competition. Since making her debut with the NSO as a Young Soloists winner, she has performed with in Europe with such orchestras as l'Orchestre de Meudon and l'Orchestre Regional de Paris. In the Washington metropolitan area, she has performed with the Fairfax and McLean Symphonies, the Prince Georges Philharmonic and the Amadeus Orchestra. She has also performed at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater and on its Millenium Stage series, at Constitution Hall and at the Strathmore Center for the Performing Arts. She has been featured on French-Swiss television and on American radio broadcasts.

Review Quotes

"Ms. Horman is an excellent, refined performer. Her violinistic skills are of the highest order, with a fluent, polished technique, and a warm, appealing, dark burnished tone. I am delighted to recommend her as an exciting, outstanding violinist, a great asset to an orchestral or chamber season, and a surefire hit with any audience."

“Violinist Amy Beth Horman showed she had the virtuosity and stamina necessary to navigate Beethoven’s colossal Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61… Horman traced the soaring lines and rich textures with golden, full tone.” [performance with the Fairfax Symphony]

“Pairing Horman with the expertise of pianist Brian Ganz, Stravinsky’s Duo Concertante rebooted the evening with its fresh effusions of tonal lyricism, immaculate craftsmanship and invigorating rhythmic playfulness. Violinist and pianist had a firm grip on the music’s interworkings, alternating episodes of percussive tension with wistful melodic reflection … Horman’s bow captured the untamed thrust of the Brahms.” [Recital, Strathmore Hall]

“Intelligence and emotional generosity … unerring sense of line and gift for highlighting important themes … She brought passionate intensity to a program of disparate works, from Franck’s familiar Sonata in A and a Bach partita that sounded characteristically like the ruminative thoughts of the composer in measured reflection to a sonata by Corigliano … Her vigorous reading of a soaring solo passage in the Corigliano … had members of the audience quietly craning their necks forward as if in hope of bathing a little deeper in her exceptionally warm tone.” [Roth Concert Series]

“She was transfixing in the classics … Her Heifetz bespoke a budding virtuoso. Her Mozart bespoke a musician.” [Recital, Strathmore Hall]

“…having the stuff of greatness.”

“ . . . it was a real treat to have soloist Amy Beth Horman perform the [Carl Nielsen] Violin Concerto with the JCC Orchestra … Horman was in full control throughout the long opening movement, gentle and melodic in the surprisingly icy slow movement, and navigated the tricky dance rhythms of the finale with ease … Ms. Horman made a very good case for the piece.”

“… brilliant and commanding … shimmering tone … supple technique…”

“… unerring sense of line and gift for highlighting important themes … passionate intensity.”

“Horman traced the soaring lines and rich textures with a golden, full tone that complemented the full-blooded support of the orchestra.”

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