Since winning the First Silver Medal and Radio Prize in the Geneva International Competition at the age of eighteen, Patricia McCarty has performed to consistent critical acclaim throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan, appearing as soloist with orchestras such as the Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Boston Pops, Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn, l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Kyoto Symphony , Shinsei Nihon Symphony and Turiae Camerata of Valencia. Her recital appearances include New York, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Valencia, Geneva, four International Viola Congresses and a debut at London's Wigmore Hall hailed by the Times to be "an outstanding exhibition of string playing of the highest American class." Ms. McCarty has been awarded two National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Grants, the John Knowles Paine Award for performance of new American music, and Gramophone's "Critics' Choice" designation for her recording of works by Rebecca Clarke on a Northeastern compact disc.
As chamber musician Ms. McCarty participates in the Sarasota Festival, and has also performed at Aspen, Marlboro and Tanglewood. A frequent guest artist with the Boston Chamber Music Society, she has toured with them as well as with Music from Marlboro, the Lenox Quartet and Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and she has recorded chamber works by Loeffler, Brahms and Dvorak for Northeastern and Nonesuch. Other collaborations include musicians as diverse as composer Lou Harrison and his gamelan ensemble, Maureen Forrester, Joseph Silverstein, Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, and jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, whose work for viola and orchestra Ms. McCarty commissioned, premiered and has recorded for ECM.
Soloist in the New York premiere of the orchestral version of Britten's Lachrymae, Ms. McCarty has performed world premieres of works by Daniel Pinkham, Tibor Serly, Jerome Rosen, Marjorie Merryman, Elizabeth Vercoe and Martin Amlin. Her research of viola repertoire has produced articles published in Symphony Magazine, Strings, American Viola Society Journal and American String Teacher. Former assistant principal violist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Ms. McCarty presently teaches at the Boston Conservatory and the Longy School in Cambridge.
J.S. Bach - Six Cello Suites performed on viola
Patricia McCarty, viola
Ashmont 6100 2CDs
Disc 1
Suites 1,2,3, BWV 1007-1009
Disc 2
Suites 4,5,6, BWV 1010-1012
After study and comparison of facsimiles of the Anna Magdalena Bach, the Kellner and two later eighteenth century manuscripts, as well as the first published edition of these suites, Patricia McCarty has devised bowings to convey much of the intent of the early manuscripts within the context of the modern viola and bow. All repeats are performed, many with ornamentation, for which critics internationally have praised Ms. McCarty's performance of other Baroque repertoire for its "embroidery and poetry." Suite VI is performed in the original key of D major rather than the often done transcription to G. All suites are performed in the natural acoustic of the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, New York.
"McCarty captures unerringly the various dance styles and the different tonalities; even the E flat major Suite, notoriously difficult to bring off, shines triumphantly through all those flats thanks to her unfailing intonation. The whole performance of the D major Suite is a tour de force...and McCarty's fulminating performance of [the C minor Suite's] Prelude and Fugue makes me wish she would tackle Bach's solo violin works as well." (designated a "Strad Selection" disc)The Strad
Price: $19
Click Here to Order
Rebecca Clarke - Music for Viola
Northeastern NR212-CD
"players of the very first class...A revelation...splendid performances and beautiful sound...a composer I now believe to have been one of the very best of her time" -- GRAMOPHONE
Keith Jarrett - Bridge of Light
ECM New Series 1450
"Rather than suggest new directions for 20th century music, Jarrett aims for the heart." -- STEREOPHILE
Charles Martin Loeffler - Songs
Northeastern LP
"The viola songs find McCarty playing with unusual finesse and exercise of imagination." -- BOSTON GLOBE
- "Patricia McCarty's viola recital was an outstanding exhibition of string-playing of the highest American class---accurate intonation and a marvelous strength and variety of tone ... the potency of McCarty's performance was remarkable."
- TIMES, London
- "The predominantly youthful audience of attentive listeners filling Kölner Philharmonie responded to the performance of Jarrett's Bridge of Light with frenetic applause. Patricia McCarty articulated the cantabile, expansive gestures of the solo part powerfully and with much detail."
- KÖLNISCHE RUNDSCHAU
- "...a violist of the highest quality, whose impressive range and purity of tone, and fluid technique were coupled with acute musicality and pleasing stage presence."
- MUSIC & MUSICIANS
- "To hear such a violist is not an occurance of every day or every year. Only words were lacking for it to truly be poetry in music."
- EL MERCANTIL VALENCIANO
- "...a most excellent violist, she projected infectious enjoyment with total technical command, a big, warm, expressive tone, and perfectly poised changes of mood and character."
- Edith Eisler, STRINGS
- "[her] beautifully constructed, judiciously performed Weill Hall program...of exclusively American composers, made a truly exemplary impression."
- Harris Goldsmith, NEW YORK CONCERT REVIEW
- "...a compelling, suave-toned soloist."
- NEW YORK TIMES
- "...a sensational instrumentalist, and a lively solo personality. The beauty of her tone, the oil-smooth technique, the centered yet volatile interpretive instinct sent the mind in search of comparison---Patricia McCarty plays the viola the way Marilyn Horne sings."
- BOSTON GLOBE