Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performs two springtime concerts in New Jersey

For immediate release

With guest artists Maxim Lando and Chad Hoopes, audiences in Carteret and Morris will experience exuberant Chopin, Dvořák, Mendelssohn, and Mussorgsky

• The “dazzling fire-eater” (ARTS San Francisco) pianist Maxim Lando joins Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at the Carteret Performing Arts Center (Carteret, NJ) on Friday, April 14 at 7PM

• Though just 20 years old, the pianist has already begun a formidable international performing and recording career, with his explosive, palpable musicality. His list of accolades include Musical America’s New Artist of the Month, the Vendome Grand Prize, the Gilmore Young Artist Award, first prize at the New York Franz Liszt International Piano Competition, first prize at the Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, and many others

Orpheus & Maxim Lando
Carteret Performing Arts Center | Carteret, NJ
APR 14 2023 | 7:00PM

Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 11 (arr. Kenner & Dombek)
Maxim Lando, piano
Dvořák Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22

• Orpheus performs Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with guest violinist Chad Hoopes and the stunning “Pictures at an Exhibition” reimagined by Jannina Norpoth in the intimacy of Morris Museum’s Bickford Theatre on Wednesday, May 3 at 8PM

• Hoopes, who has been lauded by The New York Times as “prodigiously talented,” joins Orpheus after a string of performances with top orchestras around the world for a thrilling evening of masterful artistry

• Premiered in January 2023 at Carnegie Hall, “Pictures at an Exhibition” received enthusiastic reviews including this statement from Oberon’s Grove: “Mussorgsky's ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ was given in a fresh arrangement by Jannina Norpoth, and she gets major kudos for her luxuriant, imaginative vision of the music.”

• The friendship between the Morris Museum and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra began when members of the ensemble performed atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking lot to a socially-distanced audience in October 2020 as part of the inaugural Lot of Strings Music Festival. The relationship has since flourished with indoor performances featuring the full ensemble and guest artists like Fazil Say and Angela Hewitt

Orpheus & Chad Hoopes
Morris Museum | Morristown, NJ
MAY 3 2023 | 8:00PM

Mendelssohn (arr. David Walter) Violin Concerto in E minor, op.64
Chad Hoopes, violin
Mussorgsky (arr. Jannina Norpoth) Pictures at an Exhibition

• Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is nothing short of a cultural icon in New York City’s vibrant classical music scene. Famously conductor-less since its inception, Orpheus is built upon a democratic model of operations in which all musicians are equal, all decisions are shared, and all artistic leadership is appointed from within. 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.

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 MAXIM LANDO:

American pianist Maxim Lando has been described as a “dazzling fire-eater” (ARTS San Francisco), a “pianist who dares to do things not considered by others” (ConcertNet, The Classical Music Network) and as “a total musical being” (The New Criterion). He was lauded by Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times as displaying “brilliance and infectious exuberance in his New York debut” combined with “impressive delicacy” and a “wild-eyed danger.”

Maxim first made international headlines performing together with Lang Lang, Chick Corea, and The Philadelphia Orchestra led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Carnegie Hall’s 2017 Opening Night Gala. Since then, he has performed with major orchestras around the world including Pittsburgh Symphony, Russian National Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, Hawaii Symphony, St. Petersburg Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Kazakh State Philharmonic, Beijing NCPA Orchestra, and many others.

A recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Young Artist Award, Maxim is also First Prize winner in both the 2022 New York Franz Liszt International Competition and The Vendome Prize 2021/22. He continues to garner international attention on the largest stages, this past year returning to Carnegie Hall to perform Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 with Orchestra of St. Luke’s led by Gabor Hollerung. As winner of the 2021 Juilliard Concerto Competition, he made his Alice Tully Hall debut performing Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Juilliard Orchestra led by Xian Zhang.

In 2020 Maxim was named Musical America’s New Artist of the Month, and in 2018 at the age 16, Maxim won First Prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. His following sold-out recital debuts at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall and the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater included Liszt’s complete Transcendental Etudes and were hailed by the New York Times as a concert “You Won’t Want To Miss!”

Maxim has been featured as a Guest Artist at numerous festivals including Gilmore Piano Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Kissinger Sommer (Germany), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival (Germany), Ravinia Festival, Skaneateles Festival, Rising Stars Munich, Musical Olympus International Festival (Russia), and Samos Young Artist Festival (Greece). Recital highlights include performances at the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, Carnegie Hall Presents, Symphony Hall in Shenzhen, Chicago’s Millennium Park, Lied Center of Kansas, Beethoven Haus in Bonn, GRAMMY Salute to Classical Music, and University of Georgia Athens Presents. He was invited by Lang Lang to perform for the historic opening of Steinway and Sons in Beijing, and performed Rachmaninoff 3rd Concerto for an outdoor audience of 50,000 people with Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in Madison, Wisconsin.

Maxim partners frequently with violinist Daniel Hope, and is passionate about chamber music and unusual repertoire. He has collaborated with Lynn Harrell, Julian Rachlin, and the Danish String Quartet among others, and plays regularly with Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players in New York City. His CD “Into Madness” with German violinist Tassilo Probst, was recorded by Bavarian Radio on Berlin Classics and released this past August. The double album continues to receive the highest critical acclaim, with Radio Bremen Zwei announcing “Two 19-year-old newcomers are stirring up the world of classical music.”

Dedicated to making classical music accessible to his own generation, Maxim has been featured on CNN’s Best of Quest, NPR, BBC Radio 4, WQXR, Bavarian Radio, Israel’s “Intermezzo with Arik”, and Russia’s TV Kultura. A proponent of Sing For Hope’s mission, he served as a last-minute replacement for Lea Salonga at its 2017 Gala.

Earlier awards that greatly impacted Maxim’s musical life with support and opportunities include Gold Prize at the 16th International Television Competition “The Nutcracker” in Moscow, and Second Place at the 2015 Kissingen Piano Olympics in Germany. He has also received an Audience Award and continued support from the Musical Olympus Foundation.

Maxim is a proud alumnus of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, and studies with long-time mentors Hung- Kuan Chen and Tema Blackstone at The Juilliard School.

ABOUT CHAD HOOPES:

Acclaimed by critics worldwide for his exceptional talent and magnificent tone, American violinist Chad Hoopes has remained an impressive, consistent, and versatile performer with many of the world’s leading orchestras since winning First Prize at the Young Artists Division of the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition.

Hoopes is a 2017 recipient of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fischer Career Grant. Former winners include Kirill Gerstein, Yuja Wang, Leila Josefowicz, Joshua Bell and Hilary Hahn.

Highlights of past and present seasons include performances with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse for the premiere of Qigang Chen’s concerto “La joie de la souffrance.” He has performed with leading orchestras including San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston and National Symphony, as well as Minnesota Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Hoopes frequently performs with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Additionally, he has performed recitals at the Ravinia Festival, Tonhalle Zürich, the Louvre, and at Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series in New York City.

His debut recording with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra under Kristjan Järvi featured the Mendelssohn and Adams concertos was released in 2014 on the French label Naïve. The recording was enthusiastically received by both press and public. His recording of Bernstein’s Violin Sonata with pianist Wayne Marshall will be released this autumn.

Hoopes is a frequent guest artist at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland, the Rheingau Festival, and at Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where he was named the winner of the prestigious Audience Award. He served as Munich Symphony Orchestra’s first Artist in Residence, a position created specifically for him after his highly acclaimed debut with the orchestra.

Born in Florida, Hoopes began his violin studies at the age of three in Minneapolis, and continued his training at the Cleveland Institute of Music under David Cerone and Joel Smirnoff. He additionally studied at the Kronberg Academy with Professor Ana Chumachenco, who remains his mentor.

Hoopes plays the 1991 Samuel Zygmuntowicz, ex Isaac Stern violin.

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