Orpheus Chamber Orchestra opens its 2017-2018 season on Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. at Carnegie Hall joined by virtuoso pianist André Watts

André Watts

Concert Includes New York Premiere of Asunder by Vijay Iyer,
As Well As Works by Mozart and Beethoven

New York, NY (September 12, 2017) — Orpheus Chamber Orchestra opens its 2017-2018 season on Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 8:00 p.m, presenting a performance in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall. The orchestra is joined by virtuoso pianist André Watts for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9, K. 271 “Jeunehomme.” The program also includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, and the New York premiere of Vijay Iyer’s Asunder.

Iyer explains that “Asunder seeks to elicit unlikely or even impossible unities in the traditional orchestra formation. This objective is approached by reassembling instruments into unusual groupings while specifying a literal ‘balance of power’ among groups, and ceding a certain amount of control of the flow of events to the players.”

This program is also presented on Thursday, October 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska; Saturday, October 14 at 8:00 p.m. at the Norton Center for the Arts’ Newlin Hall in Danville, Kentucky; Sunday, October 15 at 4:00 p.m. at the Loeb Playhouse in West Lafayette, Indiana presented by Purdue Convocations; Sunday, October 22 at 3:00 p.m. at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center; and Friday, October 27 at 8:00 p.m. at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, PA, with Janice Carissa as piano soloist.

Program Information
Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
André Watts, piano

VIJAY IYER - Asunder (New York Premiere)
MOZART - Piano Concerto No. 9, K. 271 “Jeunehomme”
BEETHOVEN - Symphony No. 1

Ticket Information
Subscriptions for Carnegie Hall concerts can be purchased by visiting orpheusnyc.org or calling 212-896-1704. Single tickets for the October 26 performance, priced from $12.50 to $115, are available for purchase at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57th and 7th, can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website at carnegiehall.org.

 

About André Watts André Watts burst upon the music world at the age of 16, when Leonard Bernstein chose him to make his debut with the New York Philharmonic on one of the orchestra’s Young People's Concerts, which was broadcast nationwide on CBS. Two weeks later, Bernstein asked Watts to fill in last minute for the ailing Glenn Gould in performances of Liszt's E-flat Concerto with the New York Philharmonic, launching Watts’ career.

  

A perennial favorite with orchestras throughout the US, Watts is also a regular guest at the major summer music festivals including Ravinia, the Hollywood Bowl, Saratoga and Tanglewood. He has appeared frequently on television, on numerous programs produced by PBS, the BBC, and the Arts and Entertainment Network. His 1976 New York recital on Live From Lincoln Center was the first full-length recital broadcast in the history of television, while his performance at the 38th Casals Festival in Puerto Rico was nominated for an Emmy Award in Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cultural Programming.

Watts’ extensive discography includes recordings of works by Gershwin, Chopin, Liszt, and Tchaikovsky for CBS Masterworks; works by Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt and Chopin for Angel/EMI; and the concertos of Liszt, MacDowell, Tchaikovsky, and Saint-Saëns on the Telarc label. He is also included in the Great Pianists of the 20th Century series for Philips. In May 2016, SONY Classical released ANDRE WATTS – The Complete Columbia Album Collection, which features all of the concerto and solo recordings Watts made for Columbia Masterworks. The 12-CD set includes his legendary recordings of concertos by Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Liszt with conductors Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Erich Leinsdorf and Thomas Schippers, and solo works by Liszt, Beethoven, Schubert, Debussy, Chopin and Gershwin.

Among his many honors, André Watts received a 2011 National Medal of Arts, given by the President of the United States to individuals who are deserving of special recognition for their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts in the United States. In June 2006, he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl of Fame to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 10. He is also the recipient of the 1988 Avery Fisher Prize. At 26, Watts was the youngest person ever to receive an Honorary Doctorate from Yale University and he has since received numerous honors from highly respected schools including the University of Pennsylvania, Brandeis University, The Juilliard School, and the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Watts was appointed to the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in May 2004.