Vocal Piano & Interpretation
Pianist Margo Garrett is well known to audiences for her frequent performances in chamber, sonata, and vocal recitals. The large roster of internationally known artists with whom she has long performing relationships include sopranos Kathleen Battle, Barbara Bonney, Elizabeth Futral, Beverly Hoch, the late Judith Raskin, Lucy Shelton, Dawn Upshaw, Benita Valente, mezzo Shirley Close, tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, violinists Jaime Laredo and Daniel Phillips, violist Paul Neubauer, and cellists Sharon Robinson, Matt Haimowitz, and the late Stephen Kates. Her recordings can be found on the Albany, CRI, Deutsche Grammophon (including the 1992 Grammy winner for Best Vocal Recital), Dorian, Musical Heritage Society, Nonesuch, and Sony Classical labels. Active for many years in the world of contemporary music, she has premiered more than 30 works.
Ms. Garrett is a dedicated leader among educators of collaborative pianists. She returned in 2000 to the Juilliard School collaborative piano faculty, which she headed from 1985 to 1992. From 1992 to 2004, she was the first holder of the Ethel Alice Hitchcock Chair in Accompanying and Coaching at the University of Minnesota's School of Music, the first privately endowed collaborative chair in the United States. At the Tanglewood Music Center she directed the vocal fellowship program for the last six of her 19 years of teaching there. As co-director with her teacher and mentor, the late Samuel Sanders, of the Cape and Islands Music Festival, Ms. Garrett was awarded the American Society of Composers and Publishers Most Creative Programming Award. From 1999 through 2006, Ms. Garrett was the faculty chair of the Steans Institute for Young Artist's vocal and chamber music programs at Chicago Symphony's Ravinia Festival.
In recent seasons Ms. Garrett was in residence at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, served on the panel of judges for the 15th International Robert Schumann Vocal Competition in Zwickau, presented classes and recitals at the Vancouver International Song Institute, was a guest faculty member at the Aspen School of Music, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Michigan, and toured Brazil with her trio, FIATI. The 2009 season will be Ms. Garrett's first at the Music Academy.