Orpheus Chamber Orchestra To Perform In Bronxville

BRONXVILLE, NY — The Reformed Church of Bronxville will host the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at 7 p.m. Friday, March 17 in the church's Sanctuary.

The performance is free to all, and general admission seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The church is located at 180 Pondfield Rd. in Bronxville.

Organizers said the concert is dedicated to the memory of Emily McKnight Corry, a passionate lover of classical music, who was a member of The Reformed Church for 51 years until her death on May 21, 2016, and taught eighth grade church school.

"We are delighted to host the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra," said Dr. Sándor Szabó, minister of music at The Reformed Church.

"It is one of the premier chamber ensembles in the world, and their mission of providing the highest caliber of music to the public fits with our own dedication to serving the community with almost a dozen concerts each year — all free to the community," he said.

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1972 by a group of like-minded young musicians determined to combine the intimacy and warmth of a chamber ensemble with the richness of an orchestra. With 71 albums, including the Grammy Award-winning Shadow Dances: Stravinsky Miniatures, and 43 commissioned and premiered original works, Orpheus rotates musical leadership roles and strives to perform diverse repertoire through collaboration and open dialogue. Performing without a conductor, Orpheus presents an annual series at Carnegie Hall and tours extensively to major national and international venues.

The concert at the Reformed Church will feature Felix Mendelssohn's Nocturno for Winds; Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 5; Anton Webern's Five Movements for Strings and Robert Schumann's exuberant Cello Concerto, performed with the extraordinary American cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

Weilerstein, who recently recorded her fifth album on Decca Classics, made her major orchestral debut in 1995 at age 13 with the Cleveland Orchestra, and a year later her Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony. Since then, she has appeared with every major orchestra in the United States and Europe, and has appeared at festivals ranging from Aspen and Edinburgh to Salzburg and Tanglewood. In 2011, she was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship.

For more information, visit www.reformedchurch.org, or call The Reformed Church office at 914-337-6776.

Photo credit: Paul Stuart.