Welcome to Season 31!
We are delighted to have you with us for a season of “Orion Specialties”—classic beloved repertoire, new discoveries, forgotten gems AND a world premiere!
In addition to playing some of our most revered repertoire—the Brahms Clarinet Trio, the Mozart Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, the Fauré Piano Quartet in C Minor and Dvořák’s Piano Trio “Dumky”—we are sharing wonderful works we have not played on our series in the past. You will hear the soulful Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Clarinet Quintet, the exciting Shostakovich Piano Quintet and a fantastic collaboration with jazz pianist and great friend Bradley Williams, who will join us for a tribute to the music of the iconic Paquito D'Rivera, along with a world premiere that Bradley is writing for us!
We also encourage you to join us for Orion’s Spring Benefit on April 7 following the 3 PM concert at Aurora’s beautiful New England Congregational Church.
We have a great season planned for you, and we hope that our performances will inspire you and bring you joy!
Kathy, Florentina, Diana and Judy
2023-2024 Season
July, 2023.
Thirty-one years ago, three young artists who were passionate about chamber music decided to present a concert of chamber works for violin, clarinet and piano—an unusual combination at the time--with so many new possibilities. Shortly after their first appearance, Orion included viola and cello, and the possibilities became endless.
Together with you, our audiences the Orion Ensemble became a landmark in Chicago's rich cultural life, and through our live broadcasts on WFMT and streaming, we are reaching people throughout the world. Our Twilight of the Romantics CD (Cedille Records) received high praises from Gramophone Magazine in London. We collaborated with some of the world’s most acclaimed artists, including Dale Clevenger, Alex Klein, Michel Debost, Ian Maksin, Julia Bentley, Stephen Boe, Mathias Tacke, Patrice Michaels, Julian Gray, Kuang-Hao Huang, and many more. We created a unique and robust educational partnership program that inspires young musicians.
And, most importantly, we expanded the repertoire for this instrumentation; we have premiered dozens of works written for us by composers including Augusta Read Thomas, Robert Kritz, Sebastian Huydts, Justinian Tamusuza, Jackson Berkey, Ilya Levinson, James Wintle, Miguel De La Cerna and so many others.
We couldn’t have done it without you, our incredible audiences, board members and supporters, along with the Illinois Arts Council, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the John R. Halligan Charitable Fund and the Farny R. Wurlitzer Foundation Fund.
The powerful intimacy of chamber music has been at the heart of our fantastic journey and we would like to once again extend our deepest gratitude to all our musicians, sponsors, donors and volunteers who have contributed to our success!
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES!
We are so happy to have you with us for Orion’s 31st season, promising a musical celebration to be remembered!
Please subscribe to our entire season filled with beloved chamber music works and join us for our Spring Benefit on April 7th at the New England Congregational Church in Aurora, following our 3PM concert. Orion’s musicians and guests are looking forward to sharing our beautiful music with all of you!
— Florentina, Kathy, Judy and Diana
Discography
Twilight of the Romantics
In 2006, the Orion Ensemble recorded two lesser-known romantic-era chamber works by Josef Labor and Walter Rabl on Cedille Recordsfor an album entitled Twilight of the Romantics. As commended by Gramophone, “Both pieces are worthy of performance, especially when taken up by musicians as sensitive and cohesive as those in the Chicago-based Orion Ensemble.” ClassicsToday.com’s David Hurwitz wrote, “The performances by the Orion Ensemble are extremely fine. Balances in mixed ensembles such as this, particularly with a piano involved, always are a bit tricky, but not here. Everything falls naturally into place, and the interpretations are unfailingly lively and stylish.”
All Mozart
Liver performances of the following Mozart works: Piano Quartet in G (K. 478), Clarinet Quartet in B flat (K. 378) and Piano Quartet in E flat (K. 493).
A Celebration of American Chamber Music
The first studio-recorded album of the Orion Ensemble, "Made in America", appeared in 2001 amid criticalacclaim. “The program obviously was chosen for its stylistic variety, and there isn’t a weak work in the bunch.” (John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune) It features works by Peter Shickele, Augusta Read Thomas, Jackson Berkey, and Robert Kritz. The album was initiated after the success of Orion’s millennium celebration.