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A perennial favorite, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra once again brings its innovative musical style to Lafayette College. The orchestra will perform 8 p.m. Friday, April 30 at Lafayette’s Williams Center for the Arts. Tickets are $22 and may be purchased from the box office by calling 610-330-5009.
Lafayette will host an open rehearsal at 5:30 p.m. prior to the Friday concert. The public is welcome to attend and to observe the special rehearsal techniques which Orpheus uses to hone their “conductorless” approach to performance.
For their final Lafayette engagement this spring, Orpheus will perform a program that includes Prokofiev’s Sinfonietta, Faure’s Suite from Pelleas and Melisande, and Beethoven’s towering work Violin Concerto in D major, featuring internationally acclaimed violinist Elmar Oliveira as soloist.
American-born Oliveira is one of the most commanding violinists of this era, combining impeccable artistry and old-world elegance. A performer renowned for embracing musical variety, Oliveira has earned the distinction of expanding traditional repertoire boundaries by championing contemporary music as well as rarely heard works of the past.
Oliveira has garnered countless accolades throughout his career. A two-time Grammy nominee, he is the first and only American violinist to win the Gold Medal at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky International Competition and the only violinist to receive the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. Oliveira has performed at concert venues in major cities worldwide, is a prodigious and frequent recording artist, and serves on several prestigious violin competition juries.
Celebrating its 27th season, Orpheus is recognized as one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras. The orchestra is known most notably for its innovative method of self-governing without the leadership of a conductor. Orchestra members assume responsibility for repertory, programming, rehearsal techniques and rotation of seating arrangements allowing each player to serve as section leader. Orpheus has toured worldwide and has garnered numerous awards including 1998 Ensemble of the Year from Musical America as well as a Grammy nomination for its recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 9 and 25 with Richard Goode.
The performance is sponsored, in part, by grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts.