Mary Rose Scanlon is a versatile violinist and violist with an international career spanning classical performance, contemporary music, electronic music, and cross-cultural research. Born in New Mexico, USA, she discovered her passion for music early on, studying violin and viola in addition to piano, oboe, and voice.
In Rome, she won the Giovani Musici Competition and performed with ensembles such as the Camerata Fiorentina and Opera Stravaganza.
Mary Rose is currently the second violinist of Salut Salon, the internationally acclaimed Hamburg-based quartet celebrated for its virtuosic, theatrical, and genre-blending approach to classical music. With Salut Salon, she has performed in major venues and festivals including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, TivoliVredenburg Utrecht, the Bonn Opera House, the Fouras Festival (France), the Pegomas Festival (Nice), the Hohenstaufen Music Festival, as well as concert halls in Bad Kissingen, Aalen, Ravensburg, Rosenheim, Munich, Unterföhring, Padova, Gorizia, and Neustadt in Holstein.
She performs with Angelika Bachmann, Rahel Rilling, Kristiina Rokachevich, and Maria Weil.
Alongside her work with Salut Salon, Mary Rose is the co-founder and co-director of Ensamble Mexiterráneo, a project dedicated to building bridges between Mexican and Mediterranean musical traditions through performance, research, and cultural dialogue. With the ensemble, she has performed at the MARKK Museum Hamburg, the University of Hamburg, the Cremona Festival in Italy, and the Sala Accademica of the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Her passion for traditional and early Mexican music led her to Mexico City, where she collaborated with Samuel Chavira and Maestro Manuel Mejía in the study and performance of huasteco, huapango, son jarocho, and Mexican Baroque. She has performed at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), giving a lecture on the relationship between architecture and music and presenting a concert for Ehecatl 21, in addition to collaborating with the Orquesta Típica de Milpa Alta.