She is a violinist born in Rochester, New York to parents who were studying at the Eastman School of Music. She began to study the violin with her father when she was five years old followed by William Primrose and Henri Temianka.
She debuted with the Utah Symphony Orchestra when she was 13 years old and completed her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music. From there she became a member of Vienna’s Klaring Quartet and the Austrian Radio Orchestra.
She returned to America to earn her Master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music and Northern Illinois University and after an invitation by Sir Georg Solti became a first violin of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1987.
In 2013 she took medical leave for a visual condition known as bulls-eye maculopathy. She has returned to performing by having her music displayed onto a touch-screen to enable her to continue her musical career with the orchestra.
In the recording studio she has performed on albums that include Corigliano: Symphony No. 1, Wagner: Overtures and Preludes, Samuel Barber: The Lovers; Prayers of Kierkegaard and Brahms: Violin Concerto/Sonata No. 3 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Impressions by Chip Davis and Yellowstone: The Music Of Nature, Halloween and Halloween: Monster Mix by Manheim Steamroller.
Sources:
- https://cso.org/about/performers/chicago-symphony-orchestra/violins/alison-dalton/
- https://csosoundsandstories.org/alison-daltons-vision-cso-violinist-innovates-as-her-eyesight-evolves/
- https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2018/classical-violinist-vision-loss.html
- https://www.chicagomaroon.com/2015/08/31/chicago-symphony-orchestra-violinist-engineers-triumphant-comeback/
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/3599587-Alison-Dalton
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/alison-dalton-mn0001762650