Orion Ensemble Features Music by John Williams, Mozart, et al. in May

The Orion Ensemble's 2010-11 season concludes in May with a program featuring Mahler, Mozart, Bolcom and Williams, as well as special guest artists. Performances take place May 1 at Fox Valley Presbyterian Church in Geneva, May 8 at Music Institute of Chicago's Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston and May 18 at Roosevelt University's Ganz Hall in Chicago.

Celebrating the composer's 150th birthday, Orion performs Gustav Mahler's Piano Quartet in A Minor for Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano (1876), the sole authenticated surviving work of his early creative output (he was perhaps 15 or 16 years old). This single-movement work in sonata form demonstrates the renewed influence of Classicism during the late Romantic era; classical influences, however, in no way detract from the piece's dramatic Romantic spirit and poignant emotions.

William Bolcom's Little Suite of Four Dances for E-flat Clarinet and Piano (1984) pairs seemingly light and entertaining music with technically difficult playing for the clarinetist. Each of the movements is based on early 20th-century popular dance music genres, including ragtime and the apache, a violent dance associated with Parisian street culture. The third movement, Quasi-Waltz, is an homage to Joseph Kosma, composer of many popular songs with Jacques Prévert, including "Autumn Leaves." The final movement, Soft Shoe, mimics a style of tap dancing in soft-soled shoes that was popular in vaudeville shows.

Pre-eminent film composer John Williams composed Air and Simple Gifts for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano for the swearing-in ceremony of Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration in 2009. The work consists of a short original melody by Williams, followed by his arrangement of the well-known mid-19th-century Shaker song "Tis the Gift to Be Simple" by American composer Joseph Brackett, Jr.

Two special guests join the Ensemble for Mozart's Quintet in G Minor K.516 for Two Violins, Two Violas and Cello (1787): CSO Second Violinist Baird Dodge, who plays the viola on this program, and violinist Stefan Hersh, a founding member of Callisto Ensemble and faculty member at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. This work of artistic maturity is an excellent example of Mozart's second phase-when his compositions were characterized by their exemplary balance, regularity, symmetry and logic, the very features that define him as the paragon of Classical period style.

Founded in 1992, the Orion Ensemble boasts a roster of five superb musicians- Florentina Ramniceanu (violin), Jennifer Marlas (viola), Judy Stone (cello), Kathryne Pirtle (clarinet) and Diana Schmück (piano)-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 group is also currently the Ensemble-in-Residence at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts. In addition to its annual four-concert series at three venues, the Orion Ensemble tours, performing in chamber music series across the country. Its most recent CD is Twilight of the Romantics. The Orion Ensemble is supported in part by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture; the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; and the Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development.

The Orion Ensemble's final concert program of the 2010-11 season takes place Sunday, May 1, 7 p.m. at Fox Valley Presbyterian Church, 227 East Side Drive in Geneva; Sunday, May 8, 3 p.m. at Music Institute of Chicago's Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue in Evanston; and Wednesday, May 18, 7:30 p.m. at Roosevelt University's Ganz Hall, 430 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Single tickets are $26, $23 for seniors and $10 for students; children 12 and younger are free. All programming is subject to change. For tickets or more information, call 630-628-9591 or visit orionensemble.org.

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