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Susanna Perry Gilmore, violin
Susanna Perry Gilmore joined the Omaha Symphony in 2011 and enjoys a multifaceted career as solo artist, chamber musician, and orchestral concertmaster. Performing on both mod- ern and period instruments and versatile in diverse styles from classical to fiddling, she is hailed as a player who is both “thrilling and sensitive” by the Memphis Commercial Appeal, “luminous and hypnotic” by the Omaha World Herald, and “authentic with exquisite good taste” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. She has frequently been heard in chamber ensembles on National Public Radio shows such as Performance Today, A Prairie Home Companion, and America’s Music Festivals.
After beginning her career as a chamber player, at the age of twenty-six Ms. Gilmore became concertmaster of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. There, as in Omaha, she frequently ap- peared as a soloist performing works such as Mozart’s Violin Concerto in A Major, Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto, Ravel’s Tzi– gane, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. In July 2014 she per- formed the European premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s The Singing Rooms for solo violin, choir and orchestra in Paris, France. In May 2016 she was guest concertmaster and soloist with the Naples Philharmonic, Florida, for a baroque concert and was soloist and leader of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti for the inaugural concert of the Tippet Rise Music Festival, Montana in June 2016.
Ms. Gilmore has been a frequent guest violinist/fiddler with the acclaimed period music en- semble Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland), with whom she appears on the CD “Sugarloaf Mountain: An Appalachian Gathering” (Billboard Top 10 classical bestseller) and the CD “Sephardic Journey: Wanderings of the Spanish Jews” (Billboard Top 10 classical bestseller) which features the early 17th-century composer Salamone Rossi. In the spring of 2017 she will perform Sugarloaf Moun– tain around the U.S. culminating in a performance at the National Gallery in D.C. in April.
Ms. Gilmore holds a Bachelor’s degree from Oxford University (UK), where she studied mu- sicology and performed both early music and symphonic repertoire while studying privately with Yfrah Neaman. She spent a post-graduate year in the Advanced Solo Studies Program at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Upon returning to the United States, she earned a Master’s in Violin Performance from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with James Buswell. Prior to her studies in England, Ms. Gilmore studied with Christian Teal at the Blair School of Music in the pre-college program and as a child began her violin studies with Mimi Zweig at Indiana University. On baroque violin Ms. Gilmore has studied with Robert Mealy, Cynthia Roberts, and Marilyn McDonald at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute.
Ms. Gilmore learned to play Celtic fiddle in her youth through sitting in on Irish sessions during her years in Nashville and England. In March 2016 she made her Celtic fiddle debut in Omaha on the Celtic Pops concerts, which she helped produce.
When not working as a classical and baroque violinist and fiddler, Ms. Gilmore spends time with her two daughters Katy and Zoe. She performs on a 1776 Joseph Odoardi violin.