Bach’s endless melodies, braided and tangled in an ecstasy of counterpoint, lift music to rapturous heights. His Orchestral Suite showcasing a fleet-fingered flutist and his “Double” Concerto for dueling violins prove how even his works of sheer entertainment ripple with undercurrents of spiritual urgency. Felix Mendelssohn applies Bach’s lessons of interwoven lines to make his precocious Violin Concerto in D Minor soar with uncommon energy, especially when the Korean superstar Bomsori Kim approaches it with her signature “balletic grace” (The Strad). Adolphus Hailstork, an elder statesman among Black American composers who is enjoying a long-overdue renaissance, revisits his childhood singing in church choirs for a Bach-inflected journey that begins and ends in a state of exaltation.

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Orpheus & Bomsori Kim

Carnegie Hall

It’s always a party when Nobuyuki Tsujii sits in with Orpheus, especially when they revel in the shimmering virtuosity of Chopin. Instead of the usual orchestration that puts the ensemble deep in the background, a bespoke arrangement by Shuying Li lets the musicians of Orpheus be true partners. The raucous characters and grand spectacles of a Venetian Ball come roaring to life in Zachary Wadsworth’s update of Schumann’s beloved piano score, Carnaval. A new work from composer/flutist/vocalist Nathalie Joachim kicks off the festivities with a celebration of her Haitian culture.

Orpheus & Nobuyuki Tsujii

Brooks Center for the Performing Arts

Florida State University

The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

The luxurious strings of Orpheus expand Dvorak’s iconic American Quartet into a Chamber Symphony, magnifying the vibrant sounds rooted in spirituals and Native drumming. The authentic American language that Dvorak envisioned really flowered when jazz seeped into the concert hall, as in this Clarinet Concerto that Aaron Copland wrote for the “King of Swing” himself, Benny Goodman, performed here by Anthony McGill in his long-awaited Orpheus debut. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s miniature symphony samples everything from Bach to pop as it paints an intergenerational portrait of an American family.

Orpheus & Anthony McGill

The 92nd Street Y

Please join us online or in-person for a special Orpheus Reflections™ program in partnership with CaringKind connect2culture®, a program engaging people with dementia and their caregivers through cultural experiences.

The program will include a trio of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra musicians performing music by classical Spanish composers, including works by Bizet and Ponce and a selection of popular songs like Quizas, Quizas, Quizas, Por Una Cabeza, and The Girl from Ipanema.

Orpheus Reflections at CaringKind

CaringKind

Join Orpheus in celebrating the triumphant opening of our 2023-24 Season with a cocktail reception, dinner, and performance. An exclusive toast with Orpheus musicians will follow the concert.

Opening Night Celebration

Trattoria Dell'Arte

Orpheus and saxophonist Branford Marsalis have spent decades fine-tuning a connection that transcends stylistic labels. They revisit Ibert’s Concertino da Camera from their landmark 2001 album together, Creation, and bask in a close-knit arrangement of Debussy’s sultry Rhapsody. Veteran Orpheus orchestrators Javier Diaz and Jannina Norpoth make the ensemble shine in foreign escapades from two geniuses of genre-hopping: George Gershwin and Cuba’s Ernesto Lecuona. Antonio Garcia, a jazz composer and trombonist steeped in the same New Orleans currents that nourished the Marsalis family, stirs the American melting pot in a new work for Orpheus.

Orpheus & Branford Marsalis

Williams Center for the Arts

Purchase College

Orpheus stands up for justice and freedom in this homage to courageous voices. Beethoven, an unyielding critic of despots, channeled his ardor and rage into music for Goethe’s historical drama about a local hero defying foreign occupiers. Featuring an incisive new translation and the clarion voice of Karen Slack, Orpheus illuminates the eternal truths of Egmont. Will Liverman, the “muscular-voiced baritone” (The New York Times) who astonished the world with his starring role in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones at the Metropolitan Opera, joins Orpheus to reimagine spirituals in a tribute to the heroic singer-activist Paul Robeson.

Orpheus with Will Liverman & Karen Slack

American pianist Maxim Lando has been described as a “dazzling fire-eater” (ARTS San Francisco) and “a total musical being” (The New Criterion). He was lauded by Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times as displaying “brilliance and infectious exuberance” combined with “impressive delicacy” and a “wild-eyed danger.”

Orpheus & Maxim Lando

Carteret Performing Arts Center

Orpheus & Alessio Bax

Auburn University

Highland Park United Methodist Church

University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Orpheus and Alessio Bax

University of Virginia

Kansas State University

Opelika High School

Orpheus refreshes the memorable images of Pictures at an Exhibition with a new arrangement by Jannina Norpoth that uses incisive ensemble virtuosity to magnify the overlooked details in Mussorgsky’s original piano score. A new piece by rising star Hanna Benn takes its own visual flight of fancy, responding to works by women of color in the MoMA collection. Rendering Prokofiev’s unflinching violin sonata as a raw and vulnerable dialogue with strings and percussion, Renaud Capuçon plays “with a disarming sureness of touch, his silvery tonal purity combining with a tantalizing Gallic restraint.”

Orpheus & Renaud Capuçon

Yavapai College

Scottsdale Center For The Performing Arts

Orpheus & Angela Hewitt

Morris Museum

Shalin Liu Performance Center

Join Orpheus in celebrating the triumphant opening of our 50th Anniversary Season with a cocktail reception, dinner, and performance. An exclusive toast with Orpheus musicians and Tine Thing Helseth will follow the concert.

50th Anniversary Opening Night Celebration

The rousing brilliance and reflective sheen of the trumpet propels Orpheus into its second half-century! Luminous trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth returns with Hummel’s masterpiece of classical clarity, and Orpheus brings back symphonies that helped define the group’s effervescent sound in its concerts and recordings from the 1980s. A new fanfare by composer and horn virtuoso Jeff Scott honors this landmark anniversary.

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

Apr 16, 2024

Orpheus & Bomsori Kim

20 - 27 Jan, 2024

Orpheus & Nobuyuki Tsujii

Dec 14, 2023

Orpheus & Anthony McGill

Oct 19, 2023

Orpheus Reflections at CaringKind

Oct 14, 2023

Opening Night Celebration

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

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