Orpheus in the Blogosphere Visit the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's website at www.orpheusnyc.org

A sigh-inducing piece. This footage was taken on day #1 of the tour: Richmond, Virgina: Rehearsing Dvorak’s String Serenade.

Deicing the wings of the plane, and other tour memories

It snowed quite a bit in Durham, North Carolina. But snow never hinder laughter and smiles!

Karl Doty is a former of student of Orpheus bassist Don Palma. There’s also a sneak peek of Sea Orpheus towards the end.

As my internship at Orpheus is coming to an end, I only wish that I could be staying longer! The staff at Orpheus has been more welcoming and helpful than I could have imagined, and the experience I have received has been tremendous.

I am a junior at DePauw University majoring in music business, and came to Orpheus for a 4-week internship during my school’s “winter term” in January 2010. A large portion of my time was spent with Beth in the Marketing department. She was extremely helpful in always explaining the different aspects of marketing, and why we were doing things instead of just giving me instructions and sending me on my way. I got a lot of valuable hands-on experience, and always felt like what I was doing really mattered.

I also had the opportunity to work with the Operations and Development departments. In Operations, I helped with practical issues about rehearsals and touring, and also got to help out with the Access Orpheus education program. I helped out any time they needed an extra hand in development, and was always told my work was greatly appreciated.

I really enjoyed learning about all aspects of Orpheus, and witnessing first-hand how everyone worked together towards their upcoming February concert. I also attended a few rehearsals, and watched the musicians’ fascinating process of conductor-less performance. Orpheus was recommended to me by a fellow student who was a previous intern, and she was definitely right that it was an incredible experience!

–Colette Novak, DePauw University Class of 2011

visit http://www.orpheusnyc.org/employment.html to learn more about our internship opportunities.

But we won’t count that 6th one against her…there were no violins in the score.

Let’s hear and see some music making! Angela Hewitt rehearses Bach with Orpheus for the first time.

What does Mary Gould, a long-time subscriber and donor, has to say about the first rehearsal of the Bach concerto and what she’s looking forward to on February 6 at Carnegie Hall?  That’s not the only place we’re taking this program. – come to www.orpheusnyc.org/hewitt.html to learn more about this program and the tour.

See and hear Liz Mann describe the first rehearsal of Sea Orpheus! The flute part is not easy…but nothing Liz Mann can’t handle. She likes challenges.

By Aaron Grad

With the debut of Sea Orpheus by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra concludes its groundbreaking New Brandenburg Project, uniting six of the world’s leading composers under the shared inspiration of Bach. These six “New Brandenburgs” are the latest signals of Orpheus’ dedication to new music, bringing the orchestra’s tally of commissions close to 30. That list alone is impressive (see below for a full chronology), but the deeper marvel is how Orpheus creates new music with the same spirit of personal commitment and dynamic collaboration that informs all of their musical activities.

Orpheus’ first major effort to commission new music also brought diverse composers together. In 1988, the young ensemble partnered with two friendly rivals, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, to unveil new works by Michael Gandolfi, Fred Lerdahl and Jacob Druckman. Orpheus’ record label Deutsche Grammophon then took the rare step of recording the new music, along with an earlier commission from William Bolcom. The resulting album, Points of Departure, showcased Orpheus’ facility with cutting-edge repertoire, and provided broad international exposure for the four composers. As Orpheus bassist Donald Palma recalled, the composers were “tickled pink to be on the yellow label”—a reference to the German imprint’s iconic and influential logo.

Palma’s experiences provide keen insight into the bonds that link Orpheus and its composer-collaborators. Besides entering Orpheus as a founding member, he was a linchpin in New York’s close-knit new music community, performing (along with many Orpheus colleagues) in contemporary ensembles such as Speculum Musicae and the American Composers Orchestra. Interactions among that circle led to many of Orpheus’ later commissions: Peter Lieberson’s Horn Concerto, for example, drew upon the composer’s long friendship with Orpheus (and Speculum Musicae) member William Purvis; Susan Botti’s violin feature Within Darkness also developed from an earlier chamber music collaboration, with Orpheus violinist Martha Caplin.

Bringing a new piece of music to life requires patient and painstaking work. Once Orpheus receives a new piece (already the product of years of programming meetings, months of composing, and weeks of engraving, proofreading and printing), the librarian distributes parts and copies of the score, so that each musician can see how the individual lines relate to the whole ensemble. Then the rehearsal process begins, starting with a “core” group of principal players for that piece. Asked what makes the process of learning a new piece different than standard repertoire, Martha Caplin mused, “The score is vital, and the core group of players becomes even more important,” so that they can enter the first full group rehearsal with “strong musical intention.” The musicians sometimes have a newer resource available to them as well: listening to a synthesizer’s rendition of the written score. According to Caplin, dangers can arise from hearing a computer realization that is “next-to-impossible to recreate in real-life playing.” She also noted that the composers want the human input and personality of live interpreters, just as the orchestra wants to fully understand the composer’s wishes. Orpheus is unusual among orchestras in that composers are not only invited to attend rehearsals, but they are able to converse directly with the group and individual players, in ample sessions that allow moving beyond the bare minimum of successfully running a piece from start to finish. This special treatment of composers and their music has garnered Orpheus a near superhuman reputation among the community; Caplin remembered a rehearsal at which the violinists asked one composer to adjust a problematic pizzicato passage, and he replied, “But you’re Orpheus, you can do anything!”

Orpheus has celebrated a flurry of commissions in recent years, with half of the group’s world premieres dating from the last six seasons. Besides the New Brandenburg Project, other broad collaborations blossomed, such as the Cheswatyr New Music Initiative, a partnership of The Cheswatyr Foundation, American Music Center, National Public Radio, WNYC Radio and Orpheus, which commissioned new works from Marc Mellits and Ingram Marshall. Orpheus has also worked with some of the field’s living legends recently, including Joan Tower, Charles Wuorinen, Ravi Shankar, and Ned Rorem. Now Orpheus is preparing its next major commissioning initiative, this time reaching out to emerging composers. The project will offer a crop of nominated applicants broad publicity and online networking with the Orpheus audience, mentorship from a diverse panel of industry experts, and four coveted commissions for new works to be unveiled during the 2011-12 Carnegie Hall season.

Orpheus began commissioning new works more than 25 years ago because, as Donald Palma explained, “we felt a commitment to keep the culture alive.” As we say goodbye to the New Brandenburg Project after four fruitful years, we can look forward to Orpheus’ engagement with the next generation of chamber orchestra repertoire, and surely many more generations to come.