ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA AND PINCHAS ZUKERMAN PERFORM MOZART’S VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 3 AND BEETHOVEN’S ROMANCE FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA NO. 1 AT CARNEGIE HALL ON MARCH 19, 2016  

Performance to feature the New York premiere
of Harold Meltzer’s Vision Machine commissioned by Orpheus  

Program also includes J.C. Bach’s Symphony in G minor, Op. 6. No. 6
and Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin

NEW YORK, NY (February 11, 2016) – Orpheus Chamber Orchestra presents its final Signature Series concert of the season in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, March 19 at 7:00 p.m. featuring violinist Pinchas Zukerman as soloist. The performance, which marks Mr. Zukerman’s highly-anticipated Orpheus debut, will be his only New York orchestral appearance this season. The program includes J.C. Bach’s Symphony in G minor, Op. 6 No. 6; Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major, K. 216 and Beethoven’s Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in G Major, Op. 40, both with Mr. Zukerman; the New York premiere of American composer Harold Meltzer’s Vision Machine, an Orpheus commission; and Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin.

Tickets priced from $14.50 to $110 are available from Carnegie Hall by phone through CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, online at carnegiehall.org, or in person at the box office at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue. Orpheus performs the same program with Mr. Zukerman on its spring tour, with concerts taking place at the Kauffman Center in Kansas City on Friday, March 18, at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto on Sunday, March 20 and at Michigan State University’s Wharton Center for Performing Arts in East Lansing on Monday, March 21.

The concert continues the orchestra’s season-long focus on musical influence and adaptation. The program begins with Johann Christian Bach’s Symphony in G minor, a piece Orpheus performs for the first time. J.C. Bach, who played a key role in the development of the Classical style, was a strong influence on Mozart, who in turn influenced Beethoven. Orpheus Artistic Director and violist Dov Scheindlin said, “Mozart’s Third Violin Concerto is a piece with which Pinchas Zukerman is deeply associated; he’s recorded all the Mozart Violin Concertos. The piece pairs nicely with J.C. Bach’s symphony and also shows off Pinchas’ musicianship and abilities. The Violin Concerto is followed by Beethoven’s Romance; a very gentle Beethoven – not the stormy, angry Beethoven, but more reflective and in line with the Mozart piece that precedes it.”

The second half of the program features the New York premiere of contemporary American composer Harold Meltzer’s Vision Machine, a new work commissioned by Orpheus as part of the American Notes initiative, which explores musical perspectives on national identity. Mr. Meltzer, who is originally from Brooklyn and currently resides in the East Village, cites the experience of architecture as his inspiration for Vision Machine. The piece takes its title from French architect Jean Nouvel’s description of a residential skyscraper he designed, which overlooks Frank Gehry’s IAC building on West 18th Street in Chelsea. Mr. Meltzer, who was fascinated by the two structures, visited Nouvel’s skyscraper and looked across the street at Gehry’s building. “At that point, the form of Vision Machine started to take shape,” said Mr. Meltzer. “These structures are a part of my life, and they are fascinating buildings. The hundreds of panels of glass in the façade of Nouvel’s tower seem to move independently and appear to have different colors, depending on the light. Gehry’s IAC building looks like a sailing ship or an iceberg; it is the subject of another commission I have.” The world premiere of Vision Machine will be performed in Kansas City at the concert preceding Orpheus’ appearance at Carnegie Hall.

The program concludes with Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin, a piece Mr. Scheindlin described as “an Orpheus classic.” “It’s Ravel’s arrangement of his own piano piece, so it ties together our theme for the year of pieces that have been repurposed and that created opportunities for different ensembles to hear different things,” continued Mr. Scheindlin. “The Ravel piece is lightly influenced by the life of Couperin, who was a French Baroque composer. While there’s nothing that sounds very much like Couperin in it, the piece is an homage to the general world of French early 18th-century music.”

The 2015-16 season marks Orpheus Chamber Orchestra‘s 43rd year of creating 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. With over 70 albums, collaborations with leading contemporary soloists, more than 40 commissioned works as part of its history, and its ongoing American Notes commissioning initiative, Orpheus strives to expand the repertoire for chamber orchestra and continues to develop its international reputation through innovative projects and tours to Europe, Asia, and South America.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1948, Pinchas Zukerman came to America in 1962 where he studied at The Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian. His enthusiasm for teaching has resulted in innovative programs in London, New York, China, Israel and Ottawa. Mr. Zukerman is equally respected as violinist, violist, conductor, pedagogue and chamber musician. Mr. Zukerman’s 2015-2016 season includes over 100 performances worldwide, bringing him to North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. He leads the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London as well as on a U.S. tour. Additional engagements include the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas and New World Symphony Orchestras. Overseas he visits the Mariinsky, Korean Chamber and San Carlo Orchestras, tours with Salzburg Camerata and Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and returns to Australia for various appearances. Recitals in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Australia, and tours with the Zukerman Trio in the US, Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan and South America round out the season. In 2016, he begins his tenure as Artist-in-Association with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. He has been awarded the Medal of Arts, the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence and was appointed as the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative’s first instrumentalist mentor in the music discipline. Pinchas Zukerman’s extensive discography contains over 100 titles, and has earned him two Grammy awards and 21 nominations. His recent releases include Brahms’ Double Concerto with cellist Amanda Forsyth and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. On February 26, Decca will release a new album of Pinchas Zukerman with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performing works by Elgar and Vaughan Williams.

Founder and co-director for fifteen years of the new music ensemble Sequitur, Harold Meltzer is inspired by a wide variety of stimuli, from architectural spaces here and abroad to postmodern fairy tales and messages inscribed in fortune cookies. His first recording, released in 2010 by Naxos on its American Classics label, was named one of the CDs of the year in The New York Times. A Pulitzer Prize Finalist in 2009 for his sextet Brion, Mr. Meltzer has been awarded the Rome Prize, the Barlow Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and both the Charles Ives Fellowship and the Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has taught at Amherst and Vassar Colleges. Recent works include Variations on a Summer Day (2012-15), commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation; That Obscure Object of Desire (2012), commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation; Kreisleriana (2012-14), commissioned by the McKim Fund at the Library of Congress; and Aqua (2011-12), commissioned through the award of the Barlow Prize for the Avalon, Lydian, and Pacifica Quartets. Other recent commissions have come from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and pianist Ursula Oppens, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Volti, Music from China, the Boston Chamber Music Society, Meet the Composer, the Barlow Endowment, the Minnesota Commissioning Club, the ASCAP Foundation for the New York Festival of Song, Concert Artists Guild, and Piano Spheres.

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Saturday, March 19, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
57th Street at Seventh Avenue, New York, NY
ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Pinchas Zukerman, violin

J.C. BACH                    Symphony in G minor, Op. 6 No. 6
MOZART                      Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major, K. 216
BEETHOVEN                 Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in G Major, Op. 40
H. MELTZER                 Vision Machine (New York premiere)
RAVEL                          Le tombeau de Couperin

Tickets priced from $14.50 to $110 are available from Carnegie Hall by phone through CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, online at carnegiehall.org, or in person at the box office at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue. For further information visit orpheusnyc.org.

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