About
Official Site: http://www.orionquartet.com/The Orion String Quartet is one of the most sought after ensembles in the United States. They remain on the cutting edge of programming with numerous commissions from composers Chick Corea, Alexander Goehr, Leon Kirchner, Marc Neikrug, Peter Lieberson and Wynton Marsalis, and enjoy a creative partnership with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. With over fifty performances this year, the members of the Orion String Quartet – violinists Daniel Phillips and Todd Phillips (brothers who share the first violin chair equally), violist Steven Tenenbom and cellist Timothy Eddy – have worked with such legendary figures as Pablo Casals, Rudolf Serkin, Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin, András Schiff, members of TASHI and the Beaux Arts Trio, as well as the Budapest, Végh, Galimir and Guarneri String Quartets. Their repertoire this season includes cycles of Beethoven and Mozart, in addition to mixed programs of Haydn, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Dvorák, Bartók, Zwilich and Schulhoff. The Orion serves as Quartet-in-Residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and New York's Mannes College of Music. Last summer, the Orion String Quartet returned to the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival after giving performances in Lofoten, Norway, Canada's National Arts Centre, at Chamber Music Northwest and the Bard College Conservatory of Music. In the 2005-2006 season, they have been re-invited to Indiana University to perform a series of six concerts presenting the complete cycle of Mozart's viola quintets with Atar Arad, along with an extensive residency schedule. Additional engagements include the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia, Houston, Montreal, Corpus Christi and Phoenix. In May 2006, the Quartet continues its long-standing relationship with Wynton Marsalis by giving the world premiere of his new work for string quartet at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The Quartet has achieved a reputation for definitive interpretation of the Beethoven String Quartets. In May 2000, the ensemble performed the entire cycle in a series of free concerts at Alice Tully Hall, with additional outreach activities in four boroughs of New York City. Presented in conjunction with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Beethoven 2000 supported six New York community arts organizations in honor of their contribution to children's education. The Quartet has subsequently performed the complete Beethoven cycle in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Deerfield (MA), Indiana University in Bloomington and a multi-season cycle is currently underway in San Juan, PR. The critically lauded, five-concert performance cycle in Pittsburgh took place over a period of three days. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "The ensemble's performances had the seemingly infinite attention to detail – from the voicing of a chord to the nuance of a phrase – that results from their long and loving exploration of Beethoven's quartets." The members of the Quartet maintain a strong dedication to the next generation of musical artists and serve on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music, Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School and Queens College, where they teach private lessons, give chamber music classes and offer intensive coaching programs for young professional string quartets. They have also served as faculty members of the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall and the Summer Institute for Advanced Quartet Studies in Aspen. Since 1993, the Orion String Quartet has maintained a summer residency at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival that included a three-year project of commissioned quartets by Danish composer Per Nørg&oring;rd, John Harbison and Chick Corea. The Quartet also premiered Marc Neikrug's piano quintet as part of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival's spring 2004 tour, which was subsequently recorded with Corea's The Adventures of Hippocrates for Spring 2006 release on Koch Records. Since its inception, the Orion String Quartet has been consistently praised for the fresh perspective and individuality it brings to performances, offering diverse programs that juxtapose classic works of the standard quartet literature with masterworks by living composers; the Quartet's recordings reflect this diversity. For Sony Classical, the Orion recorded Wynton Marsalis's first classical composition for strings, At the Octoroon Balls (String Quartet No. 1). Commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the work was written for and premiered by the ensemble. Other critically acclaimed recordings include Dvorák's "American" String Quartet and Piano Quintet with Peter Serkin and Mendelssohn's Octet with the Guarneri String Quartet, both on Arabesque. Heard on National Public Radio's Performance Today, the Orion String Quartet has also appeared on A&E's Breakfast with the Arts, PBS's Live from Lincoln Center, and three times on ABC-TV's Good Morning America. In October 2004, they participated in the first WNYC Radio collaboration with BBC World Service's popular syndicated program, Music Party. This special performance heard in New York and over 40 countries worldwide features works by Haydn, Beethoven, Ravel, Bartók, Chick Corea and Wynton Marsalis. Additionally, the Quartet was photographed with Drew Barrymore by Annie Leibovitz for the April 2005 issue of Vogue. The Orion String Quartet gained immediate attention in the classical music world when its founding members, each with distinguished solo and chamber music careers, officially formed the ensemble in 1987. The Quartet chose its name from the Orion constellation as a metaphor for the unique personality each musician brings to the group in its collective pursuit of the highest musical ideals. |
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Orion String Quartet
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Orion String Quartet Newsletter |
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Orion String Quartet Discography (1title)
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