Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's Annual Gala Honors Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers

For immediate release

This elegant event at the scenic Tribeca Rooftop celebrates another season of the iconic conductorless orchestra and the brilliant violinist

On May 7, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra presents a special event at one of New York City’s most breathtaking locations, its Annual Gala, with a thrilling concert set by the Orchestra and acclaimed violinist Anne Akiko Meyers. Declared “the Wonder Woman of commissioning” by The Strad, Meyers’s contributions to new music cannot be measured or overstated, and her personal accolades include a Grammy Award nomination and a coveted spot on NPR Tiny Desk series. Recently, Meyers performed the world premiere of New Chaconne, a work by Philip Glass which she commissioned, at the Laguna Beach Music Festival; and, in May 2025 she and Orpheus will debut a newly-commissioned work for violin and orchestra by Eric Whitacre.

For this gala, Anne will be sharing a new orchestral arrangement of Eric Whitacre’s Seal Lullaby, which she commissioned especially for the occasion.

Schedule

6:15pm: Cocktails

7:30pm: Concert with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra & Anne Akiko Meyers

8:30pm: Dinner and Silent Auction

CONCERT PROGRAM

Handel - Concerto Grosso Op 3 No 2 HWV 313 in B♭major

Dvorak - Romance for Violin and Strings
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin 

Eric Whitacre/Newman - Seal Lullaby
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin

Bernstein (arr. Bateman/Hanzlik) - West Side Story Suite
America
Maria
Mambo

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 Anne Akiko Meyers

Anne Akiko Meyers, one of the world’s most esteemed violinists, has been called “the Wonder Woman of commissioning” by The Strad. A trailblazer in her field, Anne has collaborated with today’s most important composers, conductors, orchestras and presenters, creating a remarkable collection of new violin repertoire for future generations. Since her teens, Anne has performed around the world as soloist with leading orchestras and in recital.

Anne received a GRAMMY® Award nomination for her live recording with Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Philharmonic of Arturo Márquez’s Fandango, a concerto for violin and orchestra written for her in 2021, which has already been performed more than 25 times. The recording is the latest of more than 40 releases, which have become staples of classical music radio and streaming platforms.

Highlights from Anne’s 2023-24 season include performances of the Philip Glass Concerto No.1 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and with the Prague Philharmonia; Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on its U.S. Tour; the world premiere of Billy Childs’s requiem In The Arms of the Beloved, with the Los Angeles Master Chorale; an appearance on NPR’s popular Tiny Desk series; and a residency at the Laguna Beach Music Festival, where she is the 2024 artistic director. Upcoming commissions include a work for violin and orchestra by Eric Whitacre, and New Chaconne by Philip Glass.

Last season’s highlights included appearances with the L.A. Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel in Los Angeles, at Carnegie Hall – marking the LA Phil’s return to Carnegie Hall in over 32 years – and at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City. Anne premiered Blue Electra, a new violin concerto by Michael Daugherty, which she debuted to massive critical acclaim at The Kennedy Center with Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra, a performance which can be streamed on Medici.TV. She also released Mysterium, a recording of newly imagined violin/choral music by Bach and Morten Lauridsen, with Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Shining Night, which features world premieres and new arrangements of music by Bach, Brouwer, Corelli, Ellington, Piazzolla, Ponce, and Lauridsen, with pianist Fabio Bidini and guitarist Jason Vieaux.

Anne has worked closely with some of the most important composers of the last half century, including Arvo Pärt (Estonian Lullaby), Einojuhani Rautavaara (Fantasia, his final complete work), John Corigliano (cadenzas for the Beethoven Violin Concerto; Lullaby for Natalie), Arturo Márquez (Fandango), Michael Daugherty (Blue Electra), Mason Bates and Adam Schoenberg (violin concertos), Jakub Ciupiński, Jennifer Higdon, Samuel Jones, Morten Lauridsen, Wynton Marsalis, Akira Miyoshi, Gene Pritsker, Somei Satoh, and Joseph Schwantner, performing world premieres with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle, Washington D.C., Helsinki, Hyogo, Leipzig, London, Lyon, and New Zealand.

Anne’s first national television appearances were on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at the age 11, followed by performances that include Evening At Pops with John Williams, CBS Sunday Morning, Great Performances, Countdown with Keith Olbermann (in a segment that was the third most popular story of that year), The Emmy Awards, and The View. John Williams personally chose Anne to perform Schindler’s List for a Great Performances PBS telecast and Arvo Pärt invited her to be his guest soloist at the opening ceremony concerts of his new center and concert hall in Estonia.

Krzysztof Penderecki selected Anne to perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto at the 40th Pablo Casals Festival with the Montreal Symphony which was broadcast on A&E. Anne also premiered Samuel Jones’s Violin Concerto with the All-Star Orchestra led by Gerard Schwarz in a nationwide PBS broadcast special and a Naxos DVD release. Her recording of Somei Satoh’s Birds in Warped Time II was used by architect Michael Arad for his award-winning design submission, which today has become The World Trade Center Memorial in lower Manhattan.

Career highlights include a performance of the Barber Violin Concerto at the Australian Bicentennial Concert for an audience of 750,000 in Sydney Harbour; performances for the Emperor and Empress Akihito of Japan; for Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, in a Museumplein Concert with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; and the national anthem at T-Mobile Park in Seattle and Dodger Stadium. She was profiled on NPR’s Morning Edition with Linda Wertheimer and All Things Considered with Robert Siegel, and she curated “Living American” on Sirius XM Radio’s Symphony Hall.

Anne has been featured in commercials and advertising campaigns including Anne Klein, shot by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz; J.Jill; Northwest Airlines; DDI Japan; and TDK; and was the inspiration for the main character’s career path in the novel, The Engagements, by the popular author, J. Courtney Sullivan. She collaborated with children’s book author and illustrator, Kristine Papillon, on Crumpet the Trumpet, appearing as the character Violetta the violinist, and featured in a documentary about legendary radio personality, Jim Svejda. Outside of traditional classical, Anne has collaborated with a diverse array of artists including jazz icons Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis; avant-garde musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto; electronic music pioneer, Isao Tomita; pop-era act, Il Divo; and singer, Michael Bolton.

Anne was born in San Diego and grew up in Southern California where she and her mother would travel eight hours round trip from the Mojave Desert to Pasadena for lessons with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the predecessor to the Colburn School of Performing Arts. Anne moved to New York at the age of 14 to study at The Juilliard School with legendary teacher, Dorothy DeLay, and with Masao Kawasaki and Felix Galimir; she signed with management at 16; and recorded her debut album of the Barber and Bruch Violin Concertos with the RPO at Abbey Road Studios at 18. She has received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Distinguished Alumna Award and an Honorary Doctorate from The Colburn School. She serves on the Board of Trustees of The Juilliard School.

Anne performs on Larsen Strings with the Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, dated 1741, considered by many to be the finest sounding violin in existence.

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