Orion Ensemble Opens 20th Season with ORION BEGINNINGS Tonight, 10/10

In addition to its annual four-concert series in three areas, the Orion Ensemble will appear on the broadcast series "Live from WFMT" November 26, 2012 and May 6, 2013 and in the Chicago Cultural Center's Lunchbreak Series "Classical Mondays" October 15 and November 19, 2012. Orion also tours, performing in chamber music series across the country. Its most recent CD is Twilight of the Romantics.

 

Founded in 1992, the Orion Ensemble boasts a roster of five superb musicians-Kathryne Pirtle (clarinet), Florentina Ramniceanu (violin), Diana Schmück (piano), Judy Stone (cello) and Jennifer Marlas (viola)- who have performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chicago's Music of the Baroque orchestra, and at music festivals including Ravinia, Aspen, Mostly Mozart, Hollywood Bowl, Taos Chamber Music, Salzburg and Banff. The Chicago Tribune called Orion "one of Chicago's most vibrant, versatile and distinctive ensembles," and the Chicago Sun-Times said Orion is "what chamber music should be all about: Individual virtuosity melded into a group personality." The Orion Ensemble received a Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming for its critically acclaimed millennium celebration, "An Inside Look at Contemporary Music." The Orion Ensemble is supported in part by grants from the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation and the Illinois Arts Council. For a brief history, click here.

 

The Orion Ensemble's "Orion Beginnings" concert program takes place Wednesday, October 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Roosevelt University's Ganz Memorial Hall, 430 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago; Sunday, October 14 at 7 p.m. at Fox Valley Presbyterian Church, 227 East Side Drive in Geneva; and Sunday, October 21 at 7:30 p.m. at Music Institute of Chicago's Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue in Evanston. Single tickets are $26, $23 for seniors and $10 for students; admission is free for children 12 and younger. A four-ticket flexible subscription provides a 10 percent savings on full-priced tickets. For tickets or more information, call 630-628-9591 or visit orionensemble.org.