Biography

Jodie DeSalvo has captured national and international attention with her classical and jazz interpretations of the masters of keyboard literature. Upon winning the Artist International Competition in 1988, Ms. DeSalvo made her Carnegie Hall debut to critical acclaim with an encore performance two years later at Lincoln Center. She has been a top prize winner in the Young Keyboard Artists Competition, the American Music Scholarship Competition and the National Federation of Music Clubs Competition. A graduate of the Hartt and Manhattan Schools of Music, and a former student of John Browning and Gary Graffman, she is also a past recipient of the Artist Fellowship Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

   Ms. DeSalvo has toured extensively as piano soloist appearing with the orchestras of Chicago, Geneva, Lucerne, San Francisco, Hartford, and Chautauqua under the batons of noted Maestros Christopher Wilkins, David Effron, Paul Freeman, and Gisele Ben Dor. Having called Fort Wayne her home for nine years, she has appeared with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic numerous times under the direction of Ron Ondrejka and Edvard Tchivzhel as well as serving as principal orchestral pianist. A frequent soloist with the Naples Philharmonic, she has appeared on the classical and pops series with Jorge Mester, Jeff Tyzik, Bruce Hangen., and Stuart Chafetz. A noted chamber player, Ms. DeSalvo has collaborated with cellists Sharon and Keith Robinson, violinists Glenn Basham and Jennifer Frautschi, pianist Robert Wells, the Miami String Quartet, the Bergonzi String Quartet and members of the American String Quartet. She has also  performed at such prestigious festivals as Brevard, Chautauqua, and Birch Creek, where she has served as the piano faculty chair for the last twenty-four seasons. She has performed over 100 times on National Public Radio. Most recently, Ms. DeSalvo has toured with the Double Keyboard built by Wisconsin piano technician Peter Nehlssen. Her sold out performances of the Poulenc two piano concerto received rave reviews and the piano is unique in its existence as there are only nine remaining in the world.

  Ms. DeSalvo has become equally proficient as a conductor. Having built choral programs in several private and public schools, she has traveled twice with her high school chorus on an extensive tour of Italy during Easter week. The chorus performed in Venice, and Florence, and Siena, culminating in a performance in Rome on Easter Sunday. She returned to Italy and Greece the following season and also completed a concert tour throughout England and France. Last spring, Ms. DeSalvo performed with the chorus on a ten day tour of Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Italy and the group also returned to Carnegie Hall for a second command performance as part of the National Youth Choir.

  Jodie DeSalvo loves to play the piano and loves to have fun, so it is within the last ten years that she has broadened her horizons on the concert stage by giving tribute concerts to the art of Victor Borge, renowned pianist/comedian. She has found great joy in interpreting some of his best loved skits, including Phonetic Punctuation and Inflationary Language, as well as writing some of her own original material. These concert performances are well loved and enjoyed by the older audiences who knew him, and the younger audiences who have grown to love his music and his humor. It is Ms. DeSalvo’s unique stage presence and ebullient personality that equally captivates audiences as well as her artistry. One becomes completely at home listening to program notes or personal asides speckled with humor and laughter that put everyone in the audience at ease.

  Ms. DeSalvo has recorded and produced 13 CDs of solo literature, chamber, and choral music, including three CD’S with Naples Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Basham.  This season, Jodie and Glenn are celebrating their thirtieth year together on the concert stage with two different performances at Artis Naples in February. Ms. DeSalvo’s recital/ lecture series at Artis-Naples is now in its fifteenth year and has sold out for the last eight seasons.