Orpheus and Maxim Vengerov's Carnegie Hall Perspectives

For immediate release

The renowned violinist and Orpheus perform the entire Mozart catalog for violin and orchestra across two consecutive evenings

• Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will be presented by Carnegie Hall via their Perspectives series, with two consecutive concerts with Maxim Vengerov, called “one of the greatest violinists in the world” (Classic FM)

• The programs traverse the vast, joyful anthology of Mozart’s complete works for violin and orchestra

• Violinist Miho Saegusa (Orpheus member musician) and violist Lawrence Power join Vengerov in the Concertone for Two Violins and Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat Major for violin and viola, K. 364, respectively

• This occasion marks the first that Orpheus will be presented in a Carnegie Perspectives program, and the first of Vengerov’s three-year Perspectives series
  

• Watch the trailer video HERE

• Following the extraordinary milestone of its 50th season in 2022-2023, Orpheus began compiling rare memorabilia - photos, programs, and personal anecdotes - from its archives which has been released as a commemorative book, available for the first time at these concerts, and online

Wednesday, November 6, 2024 at 8PM
Carnegie Hall - Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Maxim Vengerov, violin
Miho Saegusa, violin
All-Mozart program:
Concertone for Two Violins, K. 190
Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major, K. 216
Adagio for Violin and Orchestra in E Major, K. 261
Violin Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Major, K. 207
Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major, K. 218

Thursday, November 7, 2024 at 8PM
Carnegie Hall - Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Maxim Vengerov, Violin
Lawrence Power, Viola
All-Mozart program:
Violin Concerto No. 2 in D Major, K. 211
Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219, Turkish
Sinfonia concertante in E-flat Major for Violin and Viola, K. 364

About Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

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 of Europe and Asia. Its catalog of recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Nonesuch and other labels grew to include more that 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 Nobuyuki 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 this communal legacy forward, counting on their shared artistry and mutual respect to make music and effect change.

About Maxim Vengerov

Universally hailed as one of the world’s finest musicians, and often referred to as the greatest living string player in the world today, Grammy award winner Maxim Vengerov also enjoys international acclaim as a conductor and is one of the most in-demand soloists.

Born in 1974, he began his career as a solo violinist at the age of five, won the Wieniawski and Carl Flesch international competitions at ages 10 and 15 respectively, studied with Galina Tourchaninova and Zakhar Bron, made his first recording at the age of 10, and went on to record extensively for high-profile labels including Melodia, Teldec and EMI, earning among others, Grammy and Gramophone artist of the year awards.

In 2007 he followed in the footsteps of his mentor, the late Mstislav Rostropovich, and turned his attention to conducting and in 2010 was appointed the first chief conductor of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra. June 2014 saw Mr Vengerov graduate with a Diploma of Excellence from the Moscow Institute of Ippolitov-Ivanov with professor Yuri Simonov and he has since finished a further 2-year program of opera conducting.

Highlights of recent seasons saw Mr Vengerov opening the season of the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala with Maestro Chailly, a Residence with Monte Carlo Philharmonic and the Philharmonie in Paris as well as a world wide recital tours. Highlights of the 22/23 season saw him in an extensive US and Canadian recital tour including Berkeley, Kansas City, New York and Toronto, and an 11 concerts tour in the UK. Other orchestral performances as a soloist include Montreal, Vienna, London, Paris and Taiwan and chamber music concerts with Evgeny Kissin and Stephen Isserliss at Carnegie Hall, and in Switzerland with Simon Trpcesky and Stephen Isserliss. He also joined Aspen and Bravo Vale Festival in the States this summer in Recital, Masterclasses and Concerto performance with Fabio Luisi and the Dallas SO and celebrated 40 years on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in a big gala concert in April 2023. In 2023/24 he will open the Shanghai International Festival with Christoph Eschenbach, will embarque on another world wine Recital tour including America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia and will perform orchestra concerts in amongst others in Vienna, Paris and Milan.

In 2020 Maxim Vengerov became Classic FM’s first solo Artist in Residence and released a new recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with conductor Myung-Whun Chung and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, coupled with works by Saint-Säens and Ravel as well as a live recital from Carnegie Hall.

As one of Mr Vengerov’s greatest passions is the teaching and encouraging of young talent, he has held various teaching positions around the world. He currently holds the Stephan and Viktoria Schmidheiny Stiftungsprofessor at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and since September 2016 he is also the Polonsky Visiting Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2018 Maxim Vengerov became the Goodwill Ambassador of the Musica Mundi School – a unique institution, which supports young talents. With the vision of democratising the access of music learning, he launched his own online platform in January 2021:www.maximvengerov.com and created an impact across 170 countries and over 190 million reach. His first year programs include partnerships with musical institutions from around the world, the Lottery Ticket program, guest artist series inaugurated with Brett Yang from TwoSet Violin, as well as his new global community group who’s initiatives include the world leading Mentoring program, rural musical communities initiative and the Musical Pen Pals program for children.

Mr Vengerov has been profiled in a series of documentaries, including Playing by Heart, which was recorded by Channel Four Television and screened at the Cannes Television Festival in 1999, and Living the Dream, which was released worldwide and received the Gramophone Award for Best Documentary in 2008.

Mr Vengerov has received prestigious fellowships and honours from a number of institutions. In 2012 he was awarded an Honorary Visiting Fellowship at Trinity College Oxford and in 2019 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Music London and in 2019 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Music London and the Order of Cultural Merit from the Palace Monte Carlo.

Mr Vengerov has also received numerous awards including Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra) (2003), two Gramophone awards (1994, 1995), a Classical Brit Award (2004), five Edison Classical Music Awards (1995, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2004), two ECHO awards (1997, 2003) and a World Economic Forum Crystal award (2007) – honouring artists who have used their art to improve the state of the world.

He plays the ex-Kreutzer Stradivari (1727).

About Miho Saegusa

Violinist Miho Saegusa, a versatile chamber musician and orchestral leader, cherishes the spirit of collaboration and the joy of shared music-making. She is a founding member of the Grammy-nominated Aizuri Quartet, recipient of the 2022 Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America, Grand Prize and CAG Management Prize at the 2018 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, along with top prizes at the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. For Aizuri, the string quartet is a living art and springboard for community, collaboration, curiosity, and experimentation. Its engaging and thought-provoking programs, branded by The New York Times as “genuinely exciting” and “imaginative,” connect the string quartet to storytelling and the many layers of the human experience.

Aizuri's debut album Blueprinting, released by New Amsterdam Records, earned a 2019 GRAMMY Award nomination. Earthdrawn Skies, the Quartet’s second album, was named one of NPR’s “10 Best Classical Albums of 2023.” In 2022, Aizuri was one of the fellows of the Artist Propulsion Lab, a project of New York City’s classical radio station WQXR. In addition to the world’s great chamber music halls and series, the Quartet has performed in an eclectic variety of settings. Aizuri opened for and performed five nights of performances with the legendary band Wilco at New York’s United Palace Theatre, and appeared with Wilco on CBS’s The Tonight Show with Steven Colbert. With the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ken-David Masur, the Quartet performed John Adams’s string quartet concerto Absolute Jest. The Quartet appeared in Kronos Quartet’s 2023 Kronos Festival at SFJAZZ, performing works from Kronos’s groundbreaking 50 For the Future initiative. Since 2023, Aizuri has been ensemble-in-residence with New York Youth Symphony’s Crescendo program.

Miho’s passion for chamber ensembles was ignited and nurtured through memorable summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Steans Institute, and Aspen Music Festival and School. During these summers, she collaborated with venerated musicians such as Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Arnold Steinhardt, David Soyer, Miriam Fried, and Lynn Harrell. In addition to the Aizuri albums, Miho recorded ela with the Concordia Chamber Players, featuring music by Amy Beach, Louise Farrenc, and Ellen Taafe Zwilich.

In addition to chamber music, Miho loves the energy and intimacy of chamber orchestras. She is a member and has served as an Artistic Director and Personnel Coordinator of the celebrated Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. For five seasons she was Concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and since 2001 is a member of Iris Orchestra, now Iris Collective, where she has held the Isaac Stern Concertmaster Chair on numerous occasions. Miho has been a guest with the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center, Ottawa’s National Arts Center Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, NOVUS NY, Gamut Bach Ensemble, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, A Far Cry, and the Knights.

Miho has been featured as soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Iris Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Aspen Concert Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, and the Yale Symphony Orchestra. As the first recipient of the Aspen Music Festival and School's Dorothy DeLay Fellowship, Miho performed in the Festival's memorial tribute to Miss DeLay with the Aspen Chamber Symphony and conductor David Zinman. Additional honors include prizes at the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Auditions, Wieniawski-Lipinski International Competition, Yehudi Menuhin International Competition, Juilliard Concerto Competition, and Yale University's William Waite Competition. Miho is a recipient of both the Scholarship and Music Awards from the Japanese American Association of New York.

Born in Kitakyushu, Japan, Miho has played the violin since the age of five. She is very grateful to her principal teachers Masao Kawasaki and Dorothy DeLay for encouraging curiosity. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University, and completed graduate work at The Juilliard School, earning her Master of Music and Artist Diploma. While touring, Miho loves creating memories through food in addition to music. Whenever possible she likes to explore local restaurants and farmers markets, and experiments with recipes when back at home.

About Lawrence Power

Internationally-acclaimed viola player Lawrence Power is widely heralded for his richness of sound, technical mastery and his passionate advocacy for new music. Lawrence has advanced the cause of the viola both through the excellence of his performances, whether in recitals, chamber music or concertos and the creation of the Viola Commissioning Circle (VCC), which has led to a substantial body of fresh repertoire for the instrument by today’s finest composers. Lawrence has premiered concertos by leading composers such as James MacMillan, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Julian Anderson, Alexander Goer, and through the VCC has commissioned works by Anders Hillborg, Thomas Adès, Gerald Barry, Cassandra Miller and Magnus Lindberg.

Lawrence is Resident Artist at the Southbank Centre in 2024/25, which commences with a recital with Thomas Adès featuring works by Adès, Britten, Dowland, Stravinsky and Berio where they will be joined by a percussionist and internationally renowned dancer and choreographer Jonathan Goddard. Further performances include the UK Premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Viola Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, a ‘Lock-in’ featuring live performance and cinematic projection and a newly commissioned project from creative studio Âme.

Elsewhere in the season, Lawrence will give the German, US and Austrian premiere of the Lindberg Viola Concerto with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester (Alan Gilbert), St Louis Symphony (Hannu Lintu) and Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg (Aivis Greters). Further highlights include the Konzerthausorchester Berlin (Ivan Fisher), Orchestre National de Belgique (Antony Hermus) and a return to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for the Scottish premiere of Anders Hillborg’s Viola Concerto conducted by Andrew Manze.

Over the past decade, Lawrence has become a regular guest performer with orchestras of the highest calibre, from Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Stockholm, Bergen and Warsaw Philharmonic orchestras to the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, BBC Symphony, Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras, with conductors such as such as Osmo Vänska, Lahav Shani, Parvo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Andrew Manze, Edward Gardner, Nicholas Collon, Ilan Volkov and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Lawrence enjoys play-directing orchestras from both violin and viola, most recently at the Edinburgh International Festival with Scottish Ensemble, Australian National Academy of Music and with Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and leads his own orchestra, Collegium, made up of fine young musicians from across Europe. He is on the faculty at Zurich’s Hochschule der Kunst and gives masterclasses around the world, including at the Verbier Festival.

As a chamber musician he is in much demand and regularly performs at Verbier, Salzburg, Aspen, Oslo and other festivals with artists such as Steven Isserlis, Nicholas Alstaedt, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Vilde Frang, Maxim Vengerov and Joshua Bell. Lawrence was announced in 2021 as an Associate Artist at the Wigmore Hall, a position lasting for five years, with artists performing at least once each season. 

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