For immediate release

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s 2025/26 season is driven by accessibility, collaboration, and innovation

Opening Night concert at Carnegie Hall is free-of-charge to everyone, via their new audience initiative, Orpheus For All Guest artists include James Ehnes, Stella Chen, Nobuyuki Tsujii, Marc-André Hamelin, and Jeremy Denk

Founded over 50 years ago as a groundbreaking, self-governing ensemble, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra remains unique not only in its internal democratic model, but how that democracy dynamically guides its musical identity. Galvanized by the core tenet that every player’s voice matters equally, Orpheus strikes a rare balance between honoring the traditions of classical music as well as challenging its norms, and allowing both to navigate the ensemble’s unwavering pursuit of artistic excellence. The orchestra’s distinctive, conductorless approach eliminates the dominance of a single entity, ensuring all members are valued for their musical, intellectual, and personal contributions to the ensemble. This commitment to collaboration in such profound practice has cultivated five decades of intentional listening - between each musician, among each section, and from orchestra to audience. In that spirit, Orpheus is proud to launch its newest pilot program and boldest accessibility initiative to date, Orpheus for All; this program, thanks to the generosity of Orpheus’s dedicated donors, ensures that every ticket on opening night (October 25, 2025) will be free of charge.

Programs like Orpheus For All are the pinnacle of Orpheus’s democratic spirit, and in addition to regular support from individuals and institutions, Orpheus has received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts regularly for more than 47 years. As a result, those resources have been utilized for impactful performances and engagement across the nation. “With the recent termination of our NEA grant, and the grants of excellent arts institutions around the country, we reaffirm that the arts are not a luxury for a select few, but a necessity for everyone,” says Executive Director Alexander Scheirle.

Orpheus remains steadfast in their programming, and they stand in solidarity with other artistic entities who remain committed to their missions.

This season at Carnegie Hall and beyond, Orpheus welcomes collaborators who share this passion for musical curiosity and inclusivity, with the vibrancy of violinists James Ehnes and Stella Chen, the return of Orpheus’s official honorary member, Nobuyuki Tsujii, an expansive eight-city tour with virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin, and a one-night only engagement with Jeremy Denk at 92NY.

Executive Director Alexander Scheirle states, “Orpheus undertook an experiment in collaboration fifty years ago as an orchestra without a conductor, pioneering a model of inclusion that has since influenced the entire industry. In many ways, Orpheus for All is the inevitable next step in our mission. As we raise our own standards of accessibility, we strive to redefine what inclusion in the arts truly means. We know the appetite for classical music is as strong as ever as evidenced by our sold-out concerts here in New York and internationally. Thanks to generous donors, this pilot makes it possible to welcome new audiences and share Orpheus with more New Yorkers than ever before.”

In the 2025/26 season, innovation is the common thread uniting each thrilling program, all of which primarily comprise new arrangements of a breadth of classical repertoire. The season opens with Ehnes, an Orpheus commission by composer and violist Jessica Meyer, followed by arrangements of the French masters, Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Chausson, and Ravel. In January 2026, the audience in Zankel Hall will hear Orpheus and Stella Chen in arrangements of Villa-Lobos, Piazzolla, and the highly acclaimed Sitkovetsky arrangements of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. A new work by Viet Cuong co-commissioned with the NOI Festival, Beethoven and Brahms close the season in April with Nobuyuki Tsujii returning at the piano.

Orpheus carries its vital energy beyond New York City, shared by Marc-André Hamelin, “a performer of near-superhuman technical prowess,” on tour throughout the United States in spring 2026. With appearances in New England, the Midwest, and the South, the musicians will perform works by Michi Wiancko, Mozart, Schubert, Liszt, and Mr. Hamelin.

Carnegie Hall - Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Saturday, October 25, 2025 (additional tour dates to be announced) Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
James Ehnes, violin

Postcards from Paris

DEBUSSY: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Arranged by Paul Chihara
SAINT-SAËNS: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A Minor, Op. 28
Arranged by David Walter
CHAUSSON: Poème for violin & orchestra, Op. 25
Arranged by David Walter
Jessica MEYER: Cartes Postales
World Premiere, commissioned by Orpheus
RAVEL: Chamber Symphony (after Piano Trio in A Minor, M. 67a)
Orchestrated by Zachary Wadsworth, commissioned by Orpheus

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Carnegie Hall - Zankel Hall
Saturday, January 31, 2026 (additional tour dates to be announced) Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Stella Chen, violin

Seasons of Change

VILLA-LOBOS: Aria from Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5
Arranged by John Krance
PIAZZOLLA: Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
Arranged by Leonid Desyatnikov
BACH: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
Orchestrated by Dmitry Sitkovetsky

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Orpheus Chamber Orchestra & Marc Andre Hamelin, on tour
Feb 27 – March 9, 2026 (full dates and programs to be announced) Works by MOZART, SCHUBERT, MICHI WIANCKO, LISZT, and Marc-André HAMELIN

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92NY - Kaufmann Concert Hall
Sunday, March 29, 2026
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Jeremy Denk, piano 

Beethoven and the Great Beyond

SCHUBERT: Chamber Symphony in B-flat Major (after Piano Sonata D. 960)
orch. Heribert Breuer
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 1 for Piano in C Major, Op. 15

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Carnegie Hall - Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Saturday, April 25, 2026 (additional tour dates to be announced)
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Nobuyuki Tsujii, piano

Wisdom of Youth

Viet CUONG: New Work
World premiere, commissioned by Orpheus and The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center’s National Orchestral Institute + Festival at the University of Maryland
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19
BRAHMS: Chamber Symphony (after Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8)
orchestrated by Michael Stephen Brown, commissioned by Orpheus

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ABOUT ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a radical experiment in musical democracy, proving for over fifty years what happens when exceptional artists gather with total trust in each other and faith in the creative process. Orpheus began in 1972 when cellist Julian Fifer assembled a group of New York freelancers in their early twenties to play orchestral repertoire as if it were chamber music. In that age of co-ops and communes, the idealistic Orpheans snubbed the “corporate” path of symphony orchestras and learned how to play, plan,and promote concerts as a true collective, with leadership roles rotating from the very first performance.

It’s one thing for the four players of a string quartet to lean into the group sound and react spontaneously, but with 20 to30 musicians together, the complexities and payoffs are magnified exponentially. Within its first decade, Orpheus made Carnegie Halltheirhome and became a global sensation through tours of Europe and Asia. Their catalog of recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Nonesuch,and other labels grew to include more than 70 albums that still stand as benchmarks of the chamber orchestra repertoire, including Haydn symphonies, Mozart concertos, and twentieth-century gems by Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Ravel, and Bartók.

The sound of Orpheus is defined by relationships, and guest artists have always been crucial partners in the process. Orpheus brings out the best in their collaborators, with bonds that deepen over time, as heard in the long arc of music-making with soloists such as Richard Goode, Vadim Gluzman, Anne Akiko Meyers, and Branford Marsalis, and in the commitment to welcoming next-generation artists including Nobuyuki Tsujii, Tine Thing Helseth, and Caleb Teicher. By partnering with jazz legends Brad Mehldau, Wayne Shorter, and Vijay Iyer, as well as actors Christine Baranski and Liev Schreiber, Orpheus expands the boundaries of what a chamber orchestra can achieve. Collaborating with composers like Jessie Montgomery, Billy Childs, and Fazil Say hasbeen another crucial way Orpheus evolves, commissioning numerous world-premieres every year. Having proven the power of direct communication and open-mindedness within the ensemble, the only relationship Orpheus has never had any use for is one with a conductor.

At home in New York and in the many concert halls it visits in the U.S. and beyond, Orpheus begins their next fifty years with a renewed commitment to enriching and reflecting the surrounding community. Orpheus Reflections™ brings the healing power of music to those living with dementia and their caregivers. Celebrating more than twenty years, Access Orpheus Shares the orchestra's collaborative process with 1,500 New York City Public School students annually through coachings, school visits, and unparalleled access to their rehearsals and performances at Carnegie Hall. And through the Orpheus Leadership Institute, the musicians impart positive lessons of leadership and democracy to global organizations and businesses. Always evolving as artists and leaders, the Orpheus musicians carry their legacy forward, counting on their shared artistry and mutual respect to make music and effect change.

Hannah Goldshlack-Wolf
hannah@wildkatpr.com 
+1 917 330 2046