The Australian Chamber Orchestra with Dawn Upshaw

“For vitality, elegance, playfulness and technical prowess … it would be hard to top the ACO…  This crackerjack ensemble plays with the sort of fleet rhythmic control and tonal purity that most chamber groups can only envy.” – San Francisco Chronicle

The Australian Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Artistic Director and Lead Violin Richard Tognetti, is on a 10-stop North American tour this month, culminating in a final performance at Carnegie Hall.  The Cornell Concert Series is pleased to bring this dynamic ensemble, joined by world-renowned American soprano Dawn Upshaw, to Ithaca just prior to their NYC date. The 8 p.m. concert on Friday, April 27, 2012 at Bailey Hall features works of early modern and 19th-century masters, and Grammy-winning composer Maria Schneider’s Winter Morning Walks, composed for Ms. Upshaw and the ACO. Premiered last summer at the Ojai Festival, these settings are inspired by poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner Ted Kooser, whose morning walks during his recovery from cancer treatment led to a series of postcards (to his friend, writer Jim Harrison) in which common things and daily events evoke elegantly wrought poems.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra – a product of Australia’s vibrant, adventurous and enquiring spirit – garners enthusiastic acclaim from audiences and critics everywhere for their performances and recordings of music spanning six centuries. Founded in 1975 and lead since 1989 by the outstanding Australian violinist, conductor and composer Richard Tognetti, the ACO has performed in 343 cities in 37 countries. The ensemble’s unique artistic style encompasses not only classical masterworks, but innovative cross-artform projects and a vigorous commissioning program as well. Mr. Tognetti performs on period, modern and electric instruments, and his numerous arrangements, compositions and transcriptions have expanded the chamber orchestra repertoire and been performed throughout the world.

The ACO’s dedication and musicianship has created warm relationships with such celebrated soloists as Emmanuel Pahud, Steven Isserlis, Christian Lindberg, Melvyn Tan, and Ms. Upshaw – a 2007 MacArthur Fellow and four-time Grammy awardee heard on over 50 recordings, including the million-selling Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Górecki. For the Bailey Hall performance of Winter Morning Walks, Ms. Schneider will also be in attendance.