ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PREMIERES NEW ARRANGEMENT OF STRAVINSKY’S DIVERTIMENTO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA WITH 2015 WARNER MUSIC PRIZE WINNER AUGUSTIN HADELICH AT CARNEGIE HALL ON DECEMBER 5 AT 7:00 PM

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ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PREMIERES NEW ARRANGEMENT
OF STRAVINSKY’S DIVERTIMENTO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA
WITH 2015 WARNER MUSIC PRIZE WINNER AUGUSTIN HADELICH
AT CARNEGIE HALL ON DECEMBER 5 AT 7:00 PM

NEW YORK, NY (October 29, 2015) – Orpheus Chamber Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall presenting a concert that will feature the New York premiere of a new arrangement for violin and orchestra of the Divertimento from Stravinsky’s ballet Le baiser de la fée (The Fairy’s Kiss) by Dmitry Sitkovetsky to be performed with German-Italian violinist Augustin Hadelich in his Orpheus debut. The new arrangement by Mr. Sitkovetsky is an Orpheus commission, and the piece will receive its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall on December 5 at 7 p.m. The program opens with Handel’s Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 5, followed by Mr. Sitkovetsky’s arrangement of Stravinsky’s Divertimento from Le baiser de la fée and Tchaikovsky’s Valse-Scherzo, Op. 34, both of which feature Mr. Hadelich as soloist, and closes with Respighi’s Gli Uccelli (The Birds). Subscriptions for two or more concerts in the 2015-16 Carnegie Hall Signature Series are available through Orpheus at (212) 896-1704 or www.OrpheusNYC.org. Single tickets priced from $14.50 to $110 are available from Carnegie Hall by phone at (212) 247-7800, online at www.CarnegieHall.org, or in person at the box office.

Stravinsky’s Divertimento has an 87-year history of evolution that culminates in this new arrangement for orchestra and violin. Stravinsky wrote the original ballet version of Le baiser de la fée in 1928 incorporating elaborated melodies from early piano pieces and songs by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The work was then transcribed in 1932 by the composer and violinist Samuel Dushkin into a piece for violin and piano called Divertimento from Le baiser de la fée. In 1934, Stravinsky arranged an orchestral suite from the ballet with the same name. Although separate versions of the Divertimento exist for orchestra and for violin with piano accompaniment, the arrangement of the Divertimento by Mr. Sitkovetsky is the first for violin and orchestra.

Mr. Sitkovetsky, a renowned violinist and conductor who presently serves as Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, also arranged The Goldberg Variations for string trio in 1985, inspired by the 1981 Glenn Gould recording and the 300th anniversary of Bach’s birth. “When I was invited to create a new version of Stravinsky’s Divertimento for violin and chamber orchestra, I was very excited by the challenge ahead of me,” said Mr. Sitkovetsky. “Stravinsky himself had a penchant for re-visiting his own works. He both enlarged them, turning 4-hands piano pieces for children into a full orchestra suite, and reduced them, paring an orchestral score down to a violin and piano duo. There was another inspiring fact: Stravinsky’s ballet is based on lesser-known tunes by Tchaikovsky – much like Tchaikovsky’s Mozartiana, the composer’s homage to his own musical hero. This rich and fascinating context called for a new approach to transcription.”

Mr. Hadelich, who was recently named the 2015 recipient of the inaugural Warner Music Prize, has played Stravinsky’s Divertimento for Violin and Piano since the age of eleven and was an integral part in the project of arranging this piece for solo violin and chamber orchestra. “I was excited about the idea of making a new arrangement of the Divertimento for solo violin and chamber orchestra, a version that couples the virtuosic excitement of Stravinsky’s violin transcription with the rich colors of his orchestral suite,” said Mr. Hadelich. ”It has been a joy to work with Dmitry Sitkovetsky, and I am thrilled with his arrangement.” This will be Mr. Hadelich’s first appearance at Carnegie Hall since the Warner Prize announcement.

Orpheus Artistic Director and Programming Coordinator Dov Scheindlin points out that Orpheus is continually seeking to expand the repertoire for chamber orchestra. “We love to help create and give birth to a new repertoire of pieces that fit our orchestration,” said Mr. Scheindlin.

Also on the program is Tchaikovsky’s Valse-Scherzo, Op. 34, which will be performed by Mr. Hadelich. Pairing this work with the Divertimento will continue to explore the link between Russian composers Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky. Mr. Hadelich said, “For this new arrangement, we chose an instrumentation similar to Tchaikovsky’s Valse-Scherzo, which appears on the second half of the program. In recitals, I have often performed the Divertimento and the Valse-Scherzo together; I hope the new arrangement and this pairing will more clearly reveal the Tchaikovsky within the Stravinsky.”

About Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
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.

The Orpheus Process™, an original method that places democracy at the center of artistic execution, has been the focus of studies at Harvard, and of leadership seminars at Morgan Stanley and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, among others. The collaborative process is also shared with grade-school and university-level students through two Orpheus programs. Access Orpheus engages close to 2,500 New York City public school students from all five boroughs through in-class visits, invitations to orchestra rehearsals, free tickets to Carnegie Hall, and supplementary curricula material. Orpheus Institute 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; Orpheus has visited these campuses to facilitate coaching sessions, business leadership training, and musical master classes, as well as to perform in concert.

About Augustin Hadelich
Continuing to astonish audiences with his phenomenal technique, poetic sensitivity, and gorgeous tone, Augustin Hadelich has established himself as one of the great violinists of his generation. His remarkable consistency throughout the repertoire, from Bach and Beethoven to Ligeti and Adès, is seldom encountered in a single artist.

Highlights of Augustin Hadelich’s 2015/2016 season include debuts with the Chicago Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, as well as return performances with the London Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the symphonies of Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Louisville, Milwaukee, New Jersey, Oregon, Seattle, Utah, and Vancouver. Other projects include a return to the Wigmore Hall in London, a recording with the London Philharmonic, a residency with the Bournemouth Symphony, and numerous recital appearances in Germany.

The 2006 Gold Medalist of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Augustin Hadelich is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant (2009), a Borletti—Buitoni Trust Fellowship in the UK (2011), Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award (2012), and the inaugural Warner Music Prize (2015).

The son of German parents, Mr. Hadelich was born and raised in Italy. A resident of New York City since 2004 and now an American citizen, he holds an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Joel Smirnoff. He plays on the 1723 “Ex—Kiesewetter” Stradivari violin, on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

About Dmitry Sitkovetsky
Dmitry Sitkovetsky is an artist whose creativity defies categorizing. He has built up an active and successful career as a violinist, conductor, arranger, festival director and also a TV presenter. Sitkovetsky has performed as a soloist with a number of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin, New York and LA Philharmonic Orchestras, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Concertgebouw Orchestra, all of the major London orchestras, NHK, Chicago, Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. He has performed at a number of high-profile festivals including Salzburg, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Verbier, Enescu (Bucharest), Ravinia, Hollywood Bowl, Mostly Mozart and Festival del Sole (Napa Valley). In 2003, he was appointed Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, a position he currently holds with great success.

Among his guest engagements in the upcoming 2015-16 season he will play all Bach Solo Sonatas and Partitas at the Ravello Festival, will play chamber music concerts at La Jolla Chamber Music Festival, return at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest with his New European String Chamber Orchestra and collaborate with Moscow Soloists & Yuri Bashmet, Moscow Philharmonic & Viktoria Mullova, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra & Vladimir Fedosseyev as well as Odense Symfoniorkester. He will conduct his first opera production – Puccini’s La Boheme – with Vaasa Opera in Finland, where he was the Artistic Director of the Korsholm Festival for 10 years.
Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, Dmitry Sitkovetsky grew up in Moscow studying at the Moscow Conservatory and after his emigration in 1977, at the Juilliard School in New York. Since 1987 he has resided in London with his wife, Susan, and their daughter, Julia. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: dimasitko.

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ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Saturday, December 5, at 7 p.m.
Isaac Stern Auditorium/Ronald O. Perelman Stage
Carnegie Hall
Augustin Hadelich, violin

HANDEL                Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 5
STRAVINSKY        Divertimento from Le baiser de la fée for Violin and Orchestra
(New York premiere of arrangement by Dmitry Sitkovetsky)
TCHAIKOVSKY     Valse-Scherzo, Op. 34
RESPIGHI             Gli Uccelli (The Birds)

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