Orpheus Performs with Jazz Legend Wayne Shorter at Carnegie Hall

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Orpheus Performs with Jazz Legend Wayne Shorter at Carnegie Hall on
February 1, 8 p.m. The Wayne Shorter Quartet featuring Brian Blade, John Patitucci, and Danilo Pérez. BEETHOVEN: Overture: Creatures of Prometheus - IVES: Symphony No. 3, The Camp Meeting - SHORTER: Pegasus - SHORTER: The Three Marias - SHORTER: Prometheus Unbound. Since its founding in 1972, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra has sought to challenge itself by collaborating with some of the most innovative minds in music.

Proving that ensemble techniques are centered around constant listening and learning rather than rigid genre constraints, Orpheus has not shyed away from performing with artists from other musical worlds, such as Ravi Shankar, Chris Thile, Brad Mehldau, and now jazz living legend, Wayne Shorter. Continuing their landmark 40th season, Orpheus will appear at Carnegie Hall on February 1, 2013 with Wayne Shorter and his quartet. Together they will explore the intersections and convergences of classical and jazz music by playing several compositions by Shorter arranged for orchestra. Beethoven's Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus and Ives's Symphony No. 3, The Camp Meeting complete the evening's program.

Beethoven composed The Creatures of Prometheus in 1801, just as he was coming to accept his gradual loss of hearing. Little is known about the ballet performed at the Imperial Theatre in Vienna for which the piece was written, but Beethoven's charming overture has become one of the most beloved in the repertoire. Ives's Symphony No. 3, The Camp Meeting-like much of the composer's work-draws inspiration from church music and popular hymns that Ives knew as a child in Connecticut. Filled with complex harmonies and meters, the symphony received its premiere more than 40 years after its composition with the help of composer and Ives devotee Lou Harrison. The piece would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Wayne Shorter, who turns 80 this year, marked a musical milestone in 2007 by joining the Los Angeles Philharmonic and other world-class orchestras to unveil his new symphonic repertoire including striking reworkings of earlier compositions and newly composed material. Since then, Shorter has worked extensively in classical music. The rich harmonic palette and the interaction between orchestra and soloists make the music compelling and interesting to audiences as well as energizing for orchestral musicians. Orpheus will function as a leading voice in the dialogue and interplay with improvisations by Shorter and his quartet.

The Wayne Shorter Quartet is comprised of Wayne Shorter, Brian Blade, John Patitucci, and Danilo Pérez. Drummer Brian Blade has worked with artists such as Joshua Redman, Kenny Garrett, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Bill Frisell. He has also released three solo albums. John Patitucci is a two-time Grammy-winning jazz double bass and jazz fusion electric bass player. His first solo recording reached No. 1 on the Billboard Jazz charts, and he is currently Professor of Jazz Studies at City College of New York. Born in Panama in 1965, pianist Pérez has influenced contemporary music through his distinctive Pan-American jazz. He currently directs the Berklee Global Jazz Institute at Berklee College of Music; serves as the President of the Danilo Pérez Foundation, which provides outreach music programs to children living in extreme poverty in Panama; and was recently named a UNESCO Artist for Peace.

A self-governing organization, the Grammy Award-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1972 by a group of fellow musicians who aspired to perform diverse orchestral repertoire using chamber-music ensemble techniques. Today, Orpheus continues to uphold this philosophy, performing without a conductor and rotating musical leadership roles for each work. Striving to empower its musicians by integrating them into virtually every facet of the organization, Orpheus is changing the way the world thinks about musicians, conductors, and orchestras. The musical results of this method are extraordinary: The Chicago Tribune cheers, "Orpheus Chamber Orchestra shattered the mold, becoming in the process one of the more memorable events in this festival's 13-year history." And The New York Times raves, "Orpheus, whose string players perform with the physical verve of members of a string quartet, produced a convincingly full-blooded sound." The Los Angeles Times agrees: "A virtuosic whole...they're fast. They're together. They're aggressive. They can be electrifying."

One of the most influential saxophonists and composers in the pantheon of modern music, let alone jazz, Wayne Shorter will celebrate his 80th terrestrial year in 2013. Tom Moon of NPR has noted, "At a time when most musicians are content to collect the lifetime-achievement awards and honorary degrees, Shorter is creating not just some of the most intense music of his career but some of the most intense improvised music available." Shorter has been regarded as a pioneer since his emergence in the 1950s. His trajectory has restlessly embodied continual exploration and unencumbered momentum. Shorter recently re-signed with Blue Note Records, and will release his first album as a leader for the iconic label in 43 years with the February 5, 2013 release of Without A Net, a searing new album with his long-running quartet featuring pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade. Reviews of Shorter's recent live performances are exercises in superlative overload. Calling it "the most skillful, mutually attuned and fearlessly adventurous small jazz group on the planet, " The Guardian (UK) said that the quartet "celebrates humanity's hope for harmony." An entire generation of musicians and fans alike see and hear him as a humble master who has created a timeless vocabulary – as vital as it is unbound.

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