ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PERFORMS FREE CONCERT ON JULY 15 AT 7:30 P.M. AS PART OF THE 2014 NAUMBURG ORCHESTRAL CONCERTS

NEW YORK, NY (June 12, 2014)—In its third consecutive season with the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra plays an all-Beethoven program on Tuesday, July 15 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the free, annual, open-air summer concert series at the historic Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, located south of the 72nd Street cross-drive in Manhattan. The three Beethoven works on the program are the Coriolan Overture, Op. 62; Octet for Winds in E-flat major, Op. 103; and Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21. A thousand seats are provided on a first-come, first-served basis to this ticketless concert. Benches around the Concert Ground are also available. WQXR broadcasts the concert live on 105.9 FM and via live-stream at www.wqxr.org. For more information, visit www.naumburgconcerts.org.  

In an onstage interview at an Orpheus concert at Carnegie Hall in 2012, one of the players said that in the orchestra’s first decades, there was disagreement about whether its chamber-music approach would work for Beethoven. After Orpheus last performed an all-Beethoven program at a sold-out Carnegie concert this past January, The New York Times responded, “It doesn’t only work, it’s delightful … Orpheus had snap in the Coriolan Overture.” Orpheus will bring back the Coriolan Overture to open this coming Naumburg performance, followed by Beethoven’s Octet for Winds. In their review of Orpheus’ first self-produced album featuring recent live performances of Beethoven’s Fifth and Seventh Symphonies, Gramophone said Orpheus performed “in their trademark virtuoso, positive style.” “The Seventh in particular [showed] the creativity-through-collaboration model working at full blend and firing on all cylinders,” and the Presto of that symphony “[found] Orpheus at their most brilliant yet.” Orpheus will conclude the Naumburg concert with Beethoven’s First Symphony.

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Naumburg Orchestral Concerts recently extended their collaboration for the annual summer concert series through 2016. Since their first concert on the series in the summer of 2012, Orpheus has presented programs of popular and lesser-known pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries, including works by Bartók, Beethoven, Grieg, Haydn, Rossini, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky. 

Orpheus Executive Director Krishna Thiagarajan said, “It is very important to me that Orpheus has a presence in the New York summer scene, with an outlet that is free and accessible for everyone. Naumburg has a wonderful history and Orpheus is proud to be a part of this extraordinary series.”    

About Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

A standard-bearer of innovation and artistic excellence, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is one of the world’s foremost chamber orchestras. Orpheus was founded in 1972 by Julian Fifer and a group of young musicians determined to combine the intimacy and warmth of a chamber ensemble to the richness of an orchestra. With 71 albums, including the Grammy Award-winning Shadow Dances: Stravinsky Miniatures and its first self-produced album featuring Beethoven’s Fifth and Seventh Symphonies, released in February 2014, and 42 commissioned and premiered original works, Orpheus rotates musical leadership roles for each work, and strives to perform diverse repertoire through collaboration and open dialogue.

Performing without a conductor, Orpheus presents an annual series at Carnegie Hall and tours extensively to major national and international venues, including recent tours to Japan, Germany, and Colombia. The 2014-15 season includes debut appearances by violinists Jennifer Koh and Augustin Dumay, new Orpheus-commissioned works by Timo Andres and Anna Clyne, and both a debut appearance and new Orpheus-commissioned work by pianist Fazıl Say. The season also continues an ongoing exploration of Beethoven in performance with pianist Jonathan Biss. New looks at favorites from the Orpheus catalog of recordings, such as Haydn’s Symphony No. 80, Grieg’s Holberg Suite, and Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, will demonstrate how these musicians have evolved over decades of playing together. For more information, visit www.orpheusnyc.com.      

About the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts

For 109 years, the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts has continuously presented free, outdoor, summer classical music concerts to New Yorkers and it is the oldest such concert series in the United States. Named after and inspired by founder and philanthropist Elkan Naumburg, who donated the Naumburg Bandshell to New York City in 1923, the series seeks to stimulate and encourage new and expanded audiences for classical music in the informal and beautiful setting of Central Park. Mr. Naumburg was the first, and for many years the only, patron of music to give free concerts in the Parks to the people of New York, defraying all the expense and supervising all the details, including the selection of programs and soloists. His son, Walter, further reinforced the family tradition of supporting classical music when he established the Walter W. Naumburg Prize in 1926, as did his grand-niece, Eleanor Naumburg Sanger, who co-founded WQXR, New York’s classical music radio station. After Elkan Naumburg’s death in 1924, his sons, Walter W. Naumburg and George W. Naumburg, continued the park concerts. When Walter W. Naumburg died in 1959, his will provided for the perpetuation of these concerts. Today, the concerts feature promising new talent and promote the professional development of young composers and conductors. The Naumburg Orchestral Concerts is a non-profit organization managed by a volunteer board of trustees; contributions towards its programs are fully tax-deductible. Live recordings of the free Naumburg concerts are broadcast on WQXR. For more information, visit www.naumburgconcerts.org.