Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg

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Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg
Background information
Birth name Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg
Born January 10, 1961 (1961-01-10) (age 47)
Flag of Italy Rome, Italy
Genre(s) Classical
Occupation(s) musician, author
Instrument(s) Violin
Years active 1986-present
Label(s) EMI, Nonesuch, NSS Music
Website Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg

Nadja Rose Catherine Salerno-Sonnenberg (born Rome, Italy, January 10, 1961) is an Italian-born classical violinist, author, and teacher. She is a United States citizen.

Contents

[edit] Career

Salerno-Sonnenberg emigrated with her family to the United States at the age of eight, relocating to Cherry Hill, New Jersey. She studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and later with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School of Music. In 1981, she became the youngest-ever prizewinner in the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition. She has been honored with an Avery Fisher Career Grant (1983), and in 1999 she received the Avery Fisher Prize, for "outstanding achievement and excellence in music."

She was a frequent guest on NBC's The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and has also been featured on the CBS News 60 Minutes news program. In May 1999, 60 Minutes II aired a follow-up to 60 Minutes' 1986 feature about her. She has also appeared on the sitcom Dharma & Greg

Salerno-Sonnenberg has released many recordings on the Angel/Emi Classics, Nonesuch, and NSS Music labels. She has performed with orchestras around the world and played at the White House. She has also performed with such popular artists as Mandy Patinkin, Joe Jackson, and Mark O'Connor. She has frequently collaborated with the pianist Anne-Marie McDermott.

In 1989, she wrote Nadja: On My Way (ISBN-10: 051757392X. ISBN-13: 978-0517573921), an autobiography written for children. In May 1999 she received an honorary Master of Musical Arts degree from New Mexico State University, the first honorary degree that university ever awarded.

She is the subject of Paola di Florio's documentary, Speaking in Strings, released by Docurama.

She has been named the Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, and will begin leading the orchestra in the Fall of 2008. [1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Salerno-Sonnenberg to direct New Century Chamber Orchestra

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/22/state/n143357S70.DTL, January 22, 2008, Associated Press]

[edit] Partial discography

On Angel/Emi Classics:

  • Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, Massenet (1990)
  • Brahms: Violin Concerto in D/Bruch: Concerto #1 in G Minor (1990)
  • Vivaldi - The Four Seasons (1991)
  • It Ain't Necessarily So (1992)
  • Barber: Violin Concerto; Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 (1992)
  • Sibelius: Violin Concerto; Chausson: Poeme for Violin & Orchestra (1993)
  • Bella Italia: From the Aspen Music Festival (1997)
  • Night & Day (1998)

On Nonesuch:

  • Humoresque (1998)
  • Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Sergio and Odair Assad (2000)

On NSS Music:

  • Live (2005)
  • Tchaikovsky & Assad: Concertos in D major (2005)
  • Merry: A Holiday Journey (2006)

[edit] External links