NEW YORK, NY (September 8, 2014)—Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s 2014-15 season features its annual concert series at Carnegie Hall, three world premieres of Orpheus-commissioned works, a seven-city tour in Europe, a return to California, and the expansion of the Access Orpheus program in New York schools. The world premieres are part of American Notes, Orpheus’ new commissioning initiative of works from composers who represent varied perspectives on American music. The composers chosen for American Notes this season are American-born, Brooklyn-based composer-pianist Timo Andres, British-born, Chicago-based composer Anna Clyne, and Turkish composer-pianist Fazıl Say. Mr. Say also performs as piano soloist with Orpheus at Carnegie Hall and on the European tour as part of the roster of guest soloists making their Orpheus debuts this season, which includes violinists Jennifer Koh and Augustin Dumay. Pianist Jonathan Biss returns as guest soloist with Orpheus to open its 42nd season.

The full 2014-15 season schedule and details of concerts at Carnegie and on tour are listed below. Subscriptions to the Carnegie concerts are available through Orpheus at (212) 896-1704 or www.orpheusnyc.org. Single tickets may be purchased from Carnegie Hall through the box office at (212) 247-7800 or www.carnegiehall.org starting today at 11 a.m.

Executive Director Krishna Thiagarajan says, “Orpheus continues to be an orchestra of constant refocus and revitalization. For 2014-15, we have planned an extraordinary season with repertoire based on the exploration of music as a means to widen horizons, break through boundaries, and inspire our listeners to rethink the standard concept of classical music, with thoughtful and intellectual soloists who have a refined aesthetic and are excellent collaborators. This season we introduce a number of new initiatives and see growth in our current programs through the launch of our American Notes commissioning program, the expansion of our Access Orpheus education program, and new corporate residencies as part of Orpheus Institute. We are also excited to now be represented by Baker Artists, an emerging and dynamic agency that I believe fits the nature of Orpheus by supporting our innovative ideas in creating concerts and new platforms.”

Mr. Thiagarajan continues, “Last year we saw a number of great accomplishments, including 20 sold-out concerts in three continents, an increase in attendance at our concerts overall, our first self-produced recording, and a balanced budget, and we will continue on our path of positive growth. In coming seasons, we look forward to increased international and domestic tours. We already have strong ties with our core international markets, Germany and Japan, but we are also redeveloping our core market in South America, which has significant growth potential, and touring to more regions in the U.S.”

Orpheus’ opening concert at Carnegie Hall this season is on Thursday, October 23, with featured soloist Jonathan Biss performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor. The program includes Ellen Taafe Zwilich’s Prologue and Variations in celebration of the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer’s 75th birthday season as well as the overture to Rossini’s La cambiale di matrimonio and Poulenc’s Sinfonietta. Mr. Biss, a faculty member of the Curtis Institute of Music, teaches the online video course Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, is in the process of recording Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas, and has published a Kindle Single on performing these sonatas.On October 18 and 19, Orpheus tours to Indiana with Mr. Biss, with performances at the Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, outside Indianapolis, and at the Goshen College Music Center.

On Saturday, December 6, Orpheus continues its Carnegie series with Jennifer Koh on violin and the Orpheus-commissioned work by Anna Clyne. Ms. Koh performs Bach’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor and Ms. Clyne’s Rest These Hands, a rearrangement and expansion of the original version for recorded layers and violin, which references the Bach tradition. Ms. Koh is an artist noted for both her marathon performances of Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas and her three-part Bach & Beyond project, which pairs the sonatas and partitas with 20th-century works and new commissions for solo violin. Rest These Hands will be the second work by Ms. Clyne to be premiered by Ms. Koh since they began collaborating in 2009. Also on the Carnegie program are Mozart’s Symphony No. 34 in C Major and Grieg’s Holberg Suite, an Orpheus favorite and signature work from its catalog of Deutsche Grammophon recordings. Ms. Koh joins Orpheus on its California tour as the chamber orchestra return to perform there for the first time since 2007, with a concert presented by Cal Poly Arts on November 1 and by Stanford University on November 2 in the new Bing Concert Hall. Rest These Hands receives its world premiere performance with Ms. Koh, making her Orpheus debut, at the Cal Poly Arts performance in San Luis Obispo. Orpheus also performs with Ms. Koh at Purchase College on November 30.

The third Carnegie Hall concert, on Saturday, February 7, features Augustin Dumay in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Orpheus performing the New York premiere of a new work commissioned from Timo Andres. The program opens with Orpheus’ first performance of the orchestral suite from Les Boréades by French-Baroque composer Jean-Phillip Rameau and closes with Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major. Mr. Dumay gained international recognition in 1979 when he performed in Paris at the request of Herbert von Karajan. He has since made close to 40 recordings and performs with major orchestras around the world. Mr. Andres was a finalist for Orpheus’ Project 440, an initiative to identify rising talent among a new generation of composers in 2010, the same year Nonesuch Records released his debut album Shy and Mighty. Other compositions by Mr. Andres include a piano quintet for Mr. Biss and the Elias String Quartet, a solo work titled Old Friend for pianist Kirill Gerstein, and chamber works for ensembles including the Attaca Quartet and yMusic. Orpheus performs the world premiere of Mr. Andres’ work at Lafayette College in Easton, PA on February 6.

In its final Carnegie concert of the season on Saturday, April 11, Orpheus performs the New York premiere of a newly commissioned work for chamber orchestra by Fazıl Say, who also plays Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major with Orpheus in the same program. Making a rare U.S. appearance in his Orpheus debut this season, Mr. Say has an active international career as a composer and pianist with frequent engagements in Europe. A graduate of the Berlin Conservatory of Music, Mr. Say was awarded first prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York in 1995. At this concert, the chamber orchestra also performs two other Orpheus favorites and signature works from its Deutsche Grammophon recording catalog—Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and Haydn’s Symphony No. 80 in D Minor. The world premiere performance of Mr. Say’s work takes place at Lafayette College on April 8.

Mr. Thiagarajan says, “The Mozart piano concerto is well-suited for Fazıl Say because he is very much like a young Mozart, or an excellent pianist-composer who is outspoken and energetic. Fazıl likes to try things out, mix genres in his compositional style, and use cultural influences from the Middle East, specifically Turkey, in ways similar to Bartók with Hungarian references or Kodály with Czech ones. We haven’t seen the Turkish influence in classical music publically at this high level of art form until now. In our changing, globalizing world, he is a very important musician and composer to bring to a New York stage, and the perfect collaborator with Orpheus.”

Following this Carnegie concert is Orpheus’ major international tour this season in Europe. Orpheus tours to Germany, Austria, and Hungary from April 16 to 24, performing with Mr. Say in Cologne, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Berlin, St. Pölten, and Innsbruck. Orpheus also performs a concert in Budapest, replacing the Mozart concerto with Bartók’s Divertimento.

Orpheus continues to strengthen its cultural presence in New York with the expansion of its Access Orpheus program to the Isaac Newton Middle School for Math & Science in East Harlem and the Turtle Bay Music School, an established community music center. Through Access Orpheus, public school students receive classroom visits from Orpheus musicians and are invited to observe Orpheus’ open-forum rehearsals. Since summer 2012, Naumburg Orchestral Concerts has presented Orpheus in its annual free outdoor concert series in Central Park, and Orpheus performs in collaboration with Naumburg again in summer 2015.

The 2014-15 season marks Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s 42nd year of making internationally acclaimed music, from classical to contemporary, while reinventing the way individuals and organizations across the world think about collaboration, outreach, and democratic leadership. Performing without a conductor, Orpheus integrates musicians into virtually every facet of the organization, including artistic and administrative decisions, by rotating musical leadership roles for each piece and running open-forum rehearsals. Having commissioned and premiered 42 original works since it was founded in 1972 by Julian Fifer and a group of like-minded young musicians, Orpheus strives to expand the repertoire for chamber orchestra and to date has recorded 71 albums, including the Grammy® Award-winning Shadow Dances: Stravinsky Miniatures and its first self-produced album of Beethoven’s fifth and seventh symphonies, released in February 2014. In addition to its annual concert series at Carnegie Hall, summer performances for the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts series, and national tours, Orpheus has established an international reputation from tours to Europe, Asia, and South America.

The conductor-less ensemble’s signature trademarked mode of operation, the Orpheus Process™, is an original method that places democracy at the center of artistic execution and has been the focus of studies at Harvard and Stanford, and of leadership seminars at Morgan Stanley and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, among others. This approach is the basis of two education and engagement programs: Access Orpheus, which provides free learning opportunities, including in-class visits, tickets, and educational material, for over 1,500 New York City public school students each year; and the Orpheus Institute, which teaches experiential training in collective leadership to the next generation of musicians, university students, musical entrepreneurs, and business leaders, through residencies at select universities and conservatories that have included Dartmouth College, the Interlochen Arts Academy, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Maryland. As artists-in-residence, Orpheus has visited these campuses to facilitate coaching sessions, rehearsals, and master classes as well as play concerts. In the coming season, Orpheus continues to share its leadership methods and performance practices through open rehearsals and training programs while providing its audiences with the highest level of musicianship and programming.  

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Orpheus Chamber Orchestra 2014-15 Season Schedule
Performances with Jonathan Biss, piano

ROSSINI                                   Overture to La cambiale di matrimonio
BEETHOVEN                            Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37
ELLEN TAAFFE ZWILICH         Prologue and Variations
POULENC                                 Sinfonietta

Saturday, October 18 at 7 p.m.
The Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts
Carmel, IN

Sunday, October 19 at 4 p.m.
Goshen College Music Center, Sauder Concert Hall
Goshen, IN

Thursday, October 23 at 8 p.m. (Opening night celebration at Carnegie)
Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium
New York, NY    

Performances with Jennifer Koh, violin

GRIEG                                     Holberg Suite, Op. 40
BACH                                       Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, BWV 1041
ANNA CLYNE                           Rest These Hands (world premiere)
MOZART                                  Symphony No. 34 in C Major, K. 338

Saturday, November 1 at 8 p.m.
Christopher Cohan Center for Cal Poly Arts
San Luis Obispo, CA

Sunday, November 2 at 7 p.m.
Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University
Stanford, CA

Sunday, November 30 at 3 p.m.
The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College
Purchase, NY

Saturday, December 6 at 7 p.m.
Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium
New York, NY    

Performances with Augustin Dumay, violin  

RAMEAU                                  Orchestral suite from Les Boréades
MENDELSSOHN                       Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64
TIMO ANDRES                         [Orpheus commission] (world premiere)
SCHUBERT                              Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, D. 485

Friday, February 6 at 8 p.m.
Williams Center for the Arts at Lafayette College
Easton, PA

Saturday, February 7 at 7 p.m.
Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium
New York, NY    

Performances with Fazıl Say, piano  

WAGNER                                 Siegfried Idyll
MOZART                                  Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488*
FAZIL SAY                                [Orpheus commission] (world premiere)
HAYDN                                     Symphony No. 80 in D Minor, Hob. I:80

*Replaced with Bartók’s Divertimento for the concert in Budapest on April 24  

Wednesday, April 8 at 8 p.m.
Williams Center for the Arts at Lafayette College
Easton, PA

Saturday, April 11 at 7 p.m.
Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium
New York, NY

Thursday, April 16 at 8 p.m.
Kölner Philharmonie
Cologne, Germany

Friday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Großer Saal
Hamburg, Germany

Sunday, April 19, time TBA
Kongresshaus Stadhalle
Heidelberg, Germany

Monday, April 20 at 8 p.m.
Konzerthaus Berlin, Großer Saal
Berlin, Germany

Wednesday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Festspielhaus, Großer Saal
St. Pölten, Austria

Thursday, April 23 at 8 p.m.
Congress Innsbruck, Saal Tirol
Innsbruck, Austria

Friday, April 24, time TBA (Orpheus only)
Franz Liszt Academy
Budapest, Hungary

To purchase subscriptions for the Carnegie concerts, please contact Orpheus at (212) 896-1704 or visit orpheusnyc.org. Single tickets will be available for purchase starting on Monday, September 8 (today) at 11 a.m. from Carnegie Hall through the box office at (212) 247-7800 or carnegiehall.org.

Orpheus is represented in North America exclusively by Baker Artists, LLC, and in Europe by Konzertdirektion Schmid.