In his inaugural season, conductor Roger Kalia spoke before an audience at Symphony NH’s performance at the Keefe Center for the Arts in Nashua on Saturday night, introducing guest violinist Annelle Gregory, who as a soloist has performed with symphonies all over the United States.

Saturday night’s program featured Gyorgy Ligeti’s “Concert Romanesc,” Felix Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concierto, E Minor,” and Antonin Dvorak’s “Symphony No. 8, G Major.”

Speaking to Gregory, the 1st Prize & Audience Choice Award winner of the 2017 National Sphinx Competition and a Laureate of the 2013 Stradivarius International Violin Competition, Kalia asked what intrigued her about music and performing and what was her impetus for playing the violin.

“All the female members of my family either play some kind of instrument or sing,” she said. “Naturally, I grew up hearing a lot of that. I started on piano when I was about four but I don’t remember much of it. But when I was seven, my second grade teacher read a book to our class about the violin. So, I went home and told my parents that I wanted a violin and they said no. I begged them and begged them and finally they bought me one for my eighth birthday.”

Gregory studied music at UCLA, under the tutelage of famed New York Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, who joined the orchestra in 1980 under Andre Kostelanetz and performed as a soloist every year until his retirement at the end of the 2011-12 season.

Kalia asked about Gregory about her training with the renowned Dicterow and also her experience in working musically in Russia.

“Well, the most-stark difference, of course, between American teachers and Russian teachers is how they teach,” she said. “Probably you’re familiar with the stereotype that Russian teachers are super strict and they don’t compliment you very much, which is true. I started with a Russian teacher in America, actually, when I moved on to college, that was the first time in a long time that I had an American teacher.”

At her first lesson with Dicterow, she said she played something she considered new and unpolished and, after, he garnered her with praise.

“He said, ‘That sounded so great!'” she shared. “‘You just got it! You’ll just have a few things to work on after that.’ And I just stared at him, because what I just played sounded so out of tune. I realized that he was really, really nice. And one of the sweetest guys that I’ve ever known.”

Gregory continued to work with Dicterow after college, before studying at the Moscow Conservatory International School for two summers. She said the environment was very strict but enjoyed her time, entrenching herself in Russian music. In 2017, she released the first-ever CD of Rachmaninoff’s complete violin/piano works, recorded with pianist Alexander Sinchuk.  The CD received international acclaim and aired on radio stations across the U.S. and Europe.  Her most recent CD, “Russian Music for Solo Violin and Orchestra” with conductor Dmitry Yablonsky and the Kiev Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra was released by Naxos in 2019.

Of Gregory, David Brown, of LA Opus said, “As virtuosic and impeccable in intonation as you could hope for.” And New York Concert Review’s Rorianne Schrade wrote, “[Gregory’s] performance had boldness and panache… a touch of inspiration… brilliant.”

On April 3 and 4, 2020, Gregory will perform in concert with Modesto Symphony, with Juan-Miguel Hernandez (viola) and conductor David Lockington, at the Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto, California.