Florida Orchestra loses key player
Concertmaster Amy Schwartz Moretti is taking the same position with the Oregon Symphony in Portland.
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
Published May 25, 2004
The Florida Orchestra has lost one of its bright young stars, possibly the most well-known of its 80 players.
Amy Schwartz Moretti, in her fifth season as concertmaster, has been named to the same position with the Oregon Symphony in Portland, beginning in August.
"It's a very nice job for me," Moretti said Monday. "As a musician, I'm always looking where I can go with my career. How much better can I make my playing as I progress? When I played with them, I felt I could go there and continue to progress. I just feel like it's the next step for me in my career."
Moretti, 28, joined the Florida Orchestra fresh out of graduate school at the Cleveland Institute of Music. "My five years here have been so amazing," she said. "I wouldn't be where I am now if it weren't for this orchestra."
She is the second first-chair player to announce a departure. Demarre McGill, the principal flute, is taking the same position with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. McGill, 28, was a recipient last year of the prestigious Avery Fisher Artist Program career grant.
The orchestra announced Monday that he will be replaced by Andrea Kaplan, who was chosen from among 39 players who auditioned. She is finishing her master's degree at Rice University, and will join the orchestra in the fall.
The financial instability of the Florida Orchestra played a part in Moretti's departure. "It's having its problems, but I think every orchestra is having its problems right now," she said. "Of course you always think about that. But it didn't play a major role in my decision to do this. I'm thinking more about my career and the way it's progressing."
At the beginning of this season, Florida Orchestra musicians had their pay cut by 17 percent as part of an effort by the board of trustees to balance the $7.5-million budget. The musicians do not have a labor contract for next season.
The Oregon pay scale is "a nice step up in salary from our base pay to their base pay," Moretti said.
The base salary in the Oregon Symphony, with 84 musicians, is $40,536 for a 41-week season. The Florida Orchestra has a base salary of $23,870 for a 31-week season.
Most orchestra musicians earn more than the minimum. Concertmasters traditionally make at least double the base salary. In the 2002-03 season, Moretti had compensation of $75,620 plus benefits of $4,537, according to the orchestra's most recent tax return. She did not say what she would be making in Oregon.
Monday, executive director Leonard Stone said in a statement about Moretti: "Given the talent, grace, personality and charm that is the essence of Amy, there is very little surprise in this achievement. For her, it is a wonderful opportunity, and we all wish her the very best."
Moretti was one of 11 candidates who performed as concertmaster with the Oregon Symphony, whose music director, Carlos Kalmar, just completed his inaugural season. She played in two programs, one in December with Baroque repertoire that included Vivaldi's Four Seasons, featuring her as a soloist, and the other this month, with Mahler's Second Symphony. Among the other candidates were the associate concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony and assistant concertmasters with the Baltimore and Atlanta symphony orchestras.
In addition to her concertmaster duties, Moretti is an active recitalist and chamber musician in the Tampa Bay area. She is artistic director of Bay Area Music, which holds a two-week chamber music workshop for student musicians at the Mahaffey Theater at Bayfront Center in June.
"It's something I'm going to continue. I'm coming back every summer to do that," said Moretti, who will be the soloist in a Mozart violin concerto with the orchestra next season.
Florida Orchestra concertmaster auditions will probably take place this summer or fall. Moretti thinks the orchestra will survive such high-profile departures as hers and McGill's.
"I think orchestras always go through change," she said. "When (resident conductor) Tom Wilkins left, that was a hard person to lose. I think this orchestra is able to do great things. They're going to be just fine. I'm not worried about them at all."
[Last modified May 24, 2004, 22:43:15]
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