Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with violin soloist James Ehnes will perform a program entitled “Postcards from Paris” in the next Dallas Morse Coors Concert Series (DMCCS) production of the 2025-26 season. The event will be held on Sunday, October 26 at 4 p.m. in Bailey Hall on the Cornell campus.
Renowned for their collaborative spirit, the GRAMMY-Award winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra has played without a conductor since their inception, performing with “edge-of-the-seat intensity” and displaying an “infectious love for making music” (NY Times) for audiences around the world. Making his long-awaited Orpheus debut, violinist James Ehnes glamorizes the gorgeous French aesthetic in Camille Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and Chausson’s Poème. To honor the 150th birthday of Maurice Ravel, a new commission from Cornell alum Zachary Wadsworth brings Ravel's Piano Trio in A Minor into the chamber orchestra repertoire. Composer and violist Jessica Meyer has a keen ear for ensemble color, and her friends in Orpheus are ready to dispatch her newly commissioned Cartes Postales.
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a radical experiment in musical democracy, proving for over fifty years what happens when exceptional artists gather with total trust in each other and faith in the creative process. At home in New York and in the many concert halls it visits in the U.S. and beyond, Orpheus begins their next fifty years with a renewed commitment to enriching and reflecting the surrounding community. The sound of Orpheus is defined by relationships, and guest artists have always been crucial partners in the process. Orpheus brings out the best in their collaborators, with bonds that deepen over time, as heard in the long arc of music-making with soloists such as Richard Goode, Vadim Gluzman, Anne Akiko Meyers and Branford Marsalis.
James Ehnes has established himself as one of the most sought-after musicians on the international stage. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism and an unfaltering musicality, Ehnes is a favorite guest at the world’s most celebrated concert halls. Recent orchestral highlights include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Cleveland Orchestra. Alongside his concerto work, Ehnes maintains a busy recital schedule. He performs regularly at the Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center Chicago, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Ravinia, Montreux, Verbier Festival, Dresden Music Festival, and Festival de Pâques in Aix. A devoted chamber musician, he is the leader of the Ehnes Quartet and the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society. Ehnes has an extensive discography and has won many awards for his recordings, including two GRAMMYs, three Gramophone Awards, and twelve Juno Awards.
Find artist and program information, subscriptions, single tickets, and student memberships on the DMCCS website, cornellconcertseries.com. Free evening parking is available at the Forest Home [37 Forest Home Dr.] and Hoy garages.
The Dallas Morse Coors Concert Series has been hosting musicians and ensembles of international stature since 1903. Originally featuring Western classical artists, the series presented Ravi Shankar in 1987 and has since grown to encompass a broader spectrum of the world's great music. In 2025, the Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts made a gift to Cornell University, renaming the long-standing Cornell Concert Series to the Dallas Morse Coors Concert Series.
