Mainly Mozart has named pianist Anne-Marie McDermott as artistic director of its Spotlight chamber music series, returning a familiar face to the helm of the San Diego nonprofit's flagship winter programming. The appointment brings back a musician who built the Spotlight Series into its current form more than a decade ago, and who has also held festival leadership roles in Colorado and Florida.
The move was confirmed by Mainly Mozart and reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, which described McDermott as a New York pianist and veteran music festival curator. According to the same report, McDermott curated the Spotlight Series previously from 2011 until 2020, and Nancy Laturno has led the series since 2022. McDermott is quoted saying she was thrilled to return to Mainly Mozart, and Laturno said McDermott's new leadership role will showcase her talents as both performer and programmer, per the Union-Tribune's reporting.
McDermott's history with the organization goes back three decades. She first performed at Mainly Mozart in 1996, the same year the organization launched its winter piano recital series at the Neurosciences Institute, now known as The Auditorium at TSRI, according to Mainly Mozart's own history page. The winter series later expanded with additional venues in Carlsbad in 2004 and Rancho Santa Fe in 2006, that same organizational history shows. By 2013, Mainly Mozart's materials noted McDermott was already in her second year curating the Spotlight Chamber Music Series at that point in her first tenure.
A Packed 2027 Calendar Across San Diego
Mainly Mozart has also announced its 2027 Spotlight Series schedule, which the Union-Tribune reports will run Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between late January and early May, spanning a dozen concerts at area concert halls and private homes. The lineup brings together violinist Erin Keefe, clarinetist Osmo Vänskä, pianist Delvan Lin, violinist Paul Huang, cellist Carter Brey, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and piano duo Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe, alongside McDermott herself, per the same report.
The repertoire mixes the expected with the unexpected: works by Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven and Debussy appear alongside arrangements of pieces by Radiohead and Leonard Cohen, the Union-Tribune notes. Scheduled programs include Huang and McDermott performing on January 30 and 31, Keefe, Vänskä and Lin on February 20 and 21, Anderson and Roe on April 3 and 4, and McGill, Brey and McDermott closing out the run on May 1 and 2. Saturday concerts take place at Scripps Research Auditorium in La Jolla, while Sunday and Friday performances are held at La Valle Coastal Club in Rancho Santa Fe, with Friday night shows featuring the same repertoire and performers as the Sunday concerts.
Mainly Mozart's Spotlight Series lists McDermott as its current artistic director on its own ticketing page, where the organization describes the series as bringing acclaimed musicians together across four weekends. That same page confirms Huang and McDermott are set to perform Mozart's Violin Sonata in C Major, K. 296, while also listing Keefe, Vänskä and Lin, as well as Brey, McGill and McDermott, among the series' performers. Spotlight performances resumed at the Scripps Research Auditorium after the 2020 pandemic shutdown, the Union-Tribune reports. Tickets for the 2027 season are on sale at mainlymozart.org/purchase, with Saturday concerts priced at $65 and $95 and Sunday concerts priced at $125 and $250.
A Résumé Built on Festival Leadership
McDermott's return to San Diego comes as she winds down another major post. She has decided to conclude her tenure as artistic director of the Bravo! Vail Music Festival at the end of the 2026 season, a role she has held in Colorado since 2011. The Union-Tribune's report frames her departure from Vail as a 16-year tenure concluding there.
During her time at Bravo! Vail, McDermott doubled the number of performances the festival presented and introduced an international chamber orchestra residency, according to the Vail Daily. She also founded the festival's Symphonic Commissioning Project, which co-commissions new works with each of Bravo! Vail's resident orchestras, the Vail Daily reported. Mainly Mozart's own biography page notes she also serves as artistic director of the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival in Florida and of the McKnight Center's Chamber Music Festival, and that highlights of her 2024-25 season included three performances of Amy Cheney Beach's Piano Concerto with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.
Looking ahead, McDermott said she and Laturno are discussing ideas beyond the Spotlight Series itself, according to the Union-Tribune's reporting, suggesting the collaboration between the two curators may extend further into Mainly Mozart's programming. For now, the focus is the 37-year-old nonprofit's 2027 season, which pairs the series' chamber-music roots with a lineup stretching from Mozart's sonatas to arrangements of Leonard Cohen.
