Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio, MM

Professor of Music and Violin/Viola; Director of Orchestra Career Studies Program
Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio

Summary

Described by Gramophone Magazine as a "violinist who most often takes your breath away" and praised as an "expressive and passionate chamber musician" by the San Antonio Express-News, Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio enjoys a varied performing and recording career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader.

Professor of Violin and Viola at the University of Nevada, Reno and member of the Argenta Trio, she is also artistic director of Cactus Pear Music Festival, which she founded in 1997 while serving as concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony. Previously First Assistant Principal Second Violin of The Cleveland Orchestra, under Christoph von Dohnányi, she toured and recorded internationally with this ensemble for eight seasons. Sant'Ambrogio has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. as well as in Mexico, Canada, Estonia, Sweden, Ghana, Italy, Peru and Chile. In 2009, she was appointed concertmaster of the Lancaster Festival Orchestra and the following year was appointed concertmaster of the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra. That same year she was awarded University's prestigious Alan Bible Teaching Excellence Award. In addition to her active performing career, Sant'Ambrogio is devoted to teaching serious young violinists, many who have won positions in America's symphonies and universities.

Sant'Ambrogio has a discography of over 75 orchestral and chamber music CDs. Audiophile Review described her "Johannes Brahms: The Violin Sonatas" CD as one of "fine readings of great finesse, rich coloring and complete understanding." Her other releases include "Late Dates with Mozart;" "Going Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola" and "Soaring Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola, II" on the MSR Classics label, as well as "Argenta Trio: The Piano Trios of Felix Mendelssohn" on Bridge Records.

She frequently performs and teaches at various festivals including Bach, Dancing & Dynamite Society (Wisconsin), Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (Washington), Nevada Chamber Music Festival, Music in the Vineyards (California), Round Top Festival Institute (Texas) and Tuckamore Festival (Newfoundland, Canada).

Her chamber music activities have included performances and recordings with such noted artists as William Preucil, Ida Kavafian, Richard Stoltzman, David Shifrin, Richard Goode, Walter Trampler, Anne Epperson, Jon Kimura Parker and Gunther Schuller. She is featured in chamber music recordings under the Arabesque, Bridge Records and MSR Classics labels and her live concert performances are heard on National Public Radio's Performance Today. Sant'Ambrogio has performed as first violinist with the Miami String Quartet and has been a guest artist with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing at both the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers. She toured Italy with Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project, toured extensively throughout Ohio with Cleveland's Myriad and for 10 years performed with the Amici String Quartet, of which she was a founding member. Sant'Ambrogio studied with and was the graduate assistant to Donald Weilerstein at The Eastman School of Music, where she received her master of music degree. Previously, she received her bachelor of music degree with distinction from Indiana University as a scholarship student of Laurence Shapiro and James Buswell.

The name Sant'Ambrogio is frequently found in concert programs throughout America. John Sant'Ambrogio, former principal cellist of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, gave his daughter Stephanie her first violin lessons at the age of five. Her sister Sara is a cellist with the Naumberg Award-winning Eroica Trio. For 30 years, the Sant'Ambrogio family directed Red Fox Music Camp, which was founded by grandmother Isabelle Schiebler Sant'Ambrogio, a celebrated concert pianist. The legacy of teaching music has been passed down in the Sant'Ambrogio family for four generations.

Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio plays a violin crafted in 1757 by J.B. Guadagnini of Milan, Italy, the city from which the family name Sant'Ambrogio originates.

Recordings

Education

  • MM, Eastman School of Music
  • BM, Indiana University