Orpheus & Alessio Bax On Tour

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Alessio Bax on 6-City US Tour

For immediate release

New York City’s resident chamber orchestra and the celebrated pianist tour through Virginia, Alabama, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, and offer a livestream

• Orpheus Chamber Orchestra remains one of the most prolific collaborators in classical music, with partnerships ranging in genre, instrument, nationality, concept, and artistic medium. In recent seasons, Orpheus has presented concerts with the likes of Renaud Capuçon and Branford Marsalis, with violinists, trumpet players, and singers, with Fazil Say and Arturo Sandoval, with whiskey distilleries and nursing homes, with actor Liev Schreiber and works of modern art, among many others

• Touring remains a cornerstone of Orpheus’ season every year, and in February 2023 the Orchestra embarks on a six-city tour with pianist Alessio Bax

• The tour comprises dates in Charlottesville, VA; Opelika and Auburn, AL; Dallas, TX; Manhattan, KS; and Lincoln, NE

• The final performance of the tour at the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln, NE, will also be livestreamed

• Orpheus and Bax bring programs with pieces by Respighi, Chopin, Dvořák, and Schubert

• This season marks a major milestone in the Orchestra’s history, as it reaches its 50th anniversary in 2022/23

• For Orpheus, whose credo was and continues to be based on a uniquely-egalitarian operations model, this achievement is one that is especially meaningful to the musicians, staff, and board, as its original mission in the 1970s to become a truly democratic space for music-making has only strengthened over the decades.

FULL CONCERT LISTING

Tuesday, February 21, 2023, 7:30PM
Cabell Hall - Charlottesville, VA
RESPIGHI - Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 3
CHOPIN - Piano Concerto No. 2 Op. 21 (arr. Kenner & Dombek)
Alessio Bax, piano
DVOŘÁK - Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22

Thursday, February 23, 2023, 7:30PM
Opelika Center for the Performing Arts - Opelika, AL
RESPIGHI - Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 3
CHOPIN - Piano Concerto No. 2 Op. 21 (arr. Kenner & Dombek)
Alessio Bax, piano
DVOŘÁK - Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22

Friday, February 24, 2023, 7:30PM
Woltosz Theatre, Auburn University - Auburn, AL
CHOPIN - Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 11 (arr. Kenner & Dombek)
Alessio Bax, piano
SCHUBERT - Chamber Symphony in B-flat Major (after Piano Sonata D. 960) (arr. Heribert Breuer)

Sunday, February 26, 2023, 5:30PM
Highland Park UMC - Dallas, TX
CHOPIN - Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 11 (arr. Kenner & Dombek)
Alessio Bax, piano
SCHUBERT - Chamber Symphony in B-flat Major (after Piano Sonata D. 960) (arr. Heribert Breuer)

Tuesday, February 28, 2023, 7:30PM
McCain Auditorium - Manhattan, KS
RESPIGHI - Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 3
CHOPIN - Piano Concerto No. 2 Op. 21 (arr. Kenner & Dombek)
Alessio Bax, piano
SCHUBERT - Chamber Symphony in B-flat Major (after Piano Sonata D. 960) (arr. Heribert Breuer)

Wednesday, March 1, 2023, 7:30PM
Lied Center for Performing Arts - Lincoln, NE (livestream)
CHOPIN - Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 11 (arr. Kenner & Dombek)
SCHUBERT - Chamber Symphony in B-flat Major (after Piano Sonata D. 960) (arr. Heribert Breuer)

ABOUT ORPHEUS:
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a radical experiment in musical democracy, proving for 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 or 30 musicians together, the complexities and payoffs get magnified exponentially. Within its first decade, Orpheus made Carnegie Hall its home and became a global sensation through its tours Europe and Asia. Its catalogue 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 its relationships, and guest artists have always been crucial partners in the process. Orpheus brings the best out of its collaborators, and those bonds deepen over time, as heard in the long arc of music-making with soloists such as Richard Goode and Branford Marsalis, and in the commitment to welcoming next-generation artists including Nobyuki Tsujii and Tine Thing Helseth. Breaking down the barriers of classical repertoire, partnerships with Brad Mehldau, Wayne Shorter, Ravi Shankar and many others from the sphere of jazz and beyond have redefined what a chamber orchestra can do. Relationships with composers and dozens of commissions have been another crucial way that Orpheus stretches itself, including a role for Jessie Montgomery as the orchestra’s first ever Artistic Partner. 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 its next fifty years with a renewed commitment to enriching and reflecting the surrounding community. It will continue its groundbreaking work with those living with Alzheimer’s Disease through Orpheus Reflections, and the Orpheus Academy as well as the Orpheus Leadership Institute spread the positive lessons of trust and democracy to young musicians and those in positions of power. Each year, Access Orpheus reaches nearly 2000 public school students in all five boroughs of New York City, bringing music into their communities and welcoming them to Carnegie Hall. 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.

ABOUT ALESSIO BAX:
Combining exceptional lyricism and insight with consummate technique, Alessio Bax is without a doubt “among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public” (Gramophone). He catapulted to prominence with First Prize wins at both the Leeds and Hamamatsu International Piano Competitions, and is now a familiar face on five continents, not only as a recitalist and chamber musician, but also as a concerto soloist who has appeared with more than 150 orchestras, including the London, Royal, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the New York, Boston, Dallas, Cincinnati, Sydney, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, and the NHK Symphony in Japan, collaborating with such eminent conductors as Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Andrew Davis, Fabio Luisi, Sir Simon Rattle, Yuri Temirkanov, and Jaap van Zweden.

Bax constantly explores many facets of his career. He released his eleventh Signum Classics album, Italian Inspirations, whose program was also the vehicle for his solo recital debut at New York’s 92nd Street Y as well as on tour. He recently embarked on a trio tour of Spain with violinist Joshua Bell and cellist Steven Isserlis. Bax and his regular piano duo partner, Lucille Chung, gave recitals at New York’s Lincoln Center and were featured with the St. Louis Symphony and Stéphane Denève. He has also presented the complete works of Beethoven for cello and piano with cellist Paul Watkins in New York City. Next season he will make his debut with the Milwaukee Symphony, performing Brahms’ second piano concerto and will return for the fourth time for two recitals at the historic Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. This past summer was highlighted by his fifth season as Artistic Director of Tuscany’s Incontri in Terra di Siena festival as well as return appearances at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival with the Dallas Symphony and Fabio Luisi conducting.

Bax revisited Mozart’s K. 491 and K. 595 concertos, as heard on Alessio Bax Plays Mozart, for his recent debuts with the Boston and Melbourne Symphonies, both with Sir Andrew Davis, and with the Sydney Symphony, which he led himself from the keyboard. Other recent highlights include the pianist’s Auckland Philharmonia debut, concerts in Israel, a Japanese tour featuring dates with the Tokyo Symphony, a U.S. tour with flutist Emmanuel Pahud and an Asian tour with Daishin Kashimoto. Recent seasons also saw Bax make his solo recital debut at London’s Wigmore Hall, and give concerts at L.A.’s Disney Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Center, and New York’s Carnegie Hall. In 2009, he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and four years later he received both the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award and the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists.

Bax’s celebrated Signum Classics discography includes Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” and “Moonlight” Sonatas (a Gramophone “Editor’s Choice”); Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto; Bax & Chung, a duo disc with Lucille Chung; Alessio Bax plays Mozart, recorded with London’s Southbank Sinfonia; Alessio Bax: Scriabin & Mussorgsky (named “Recording of the Month … and quite possibly … of the year” by MusicWeb International); Alessio Bax plays Brahms (a Gramophone “Critics’ Choice”); Bach Transcribed; and Rachmaninov: Preludes & Melodies (an American Record Guide “Critics’ Choice 2011”). Recorded for Warner Classics, his Baroque Reflections album was also a Gramophone “Editor’s Choice.” He performed Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata for Daniel Barenboim in the PBS-TV documentary Barenboim on Beethoven: Masterclass, available on DVD from EMI.

At age 14, Bax graduated with top honors from the conservatory of Bari, his hometown in Italy, and after further studies in Europe, he moved to the United States in 1994. A Steinway artist, he lives in New York City with pianist Lucille Chung and their daughter, Mila. He was invited to join the piano faculty of Boston’s New England Conservatory in the fall of 2019.

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