It’s an anniversary gift like no other.
In honor of The Orion Ensemble’s 30th year, composer and friend of the chamber group Jackson Berkey wrote “Homage to Emily Dickinson.”
“He loves the fact that we celebrated 30 years together, which is a very rare thing in a chamber ensemble,” violinist Florentina Ramniceanu said.
“He contacted us. It’s kind of sweet. We’re celebrating 30 years of performing together and he’s celebrating his 80th birthday. He wrote it as a gift to us and it’s a celebration of our music and of his 80th.”
The new piece will have its world premiere when The Orion Ensemble performs its second concert of the season at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 27 at Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30 at PianoForte Studios in Chicago, and at 7 p.m. Dec. 4 at New England Congregational Church in Aurora. A livestream of the Evanston and Chicago concerts will be available for free on The Orion Ensemble’s YouTube channel. The channel will host a recording of the concert for a limited time.
Orion clarinetist Kathryne Pirtle, violinist Ramniceanu, pianist Diana Schmück and cellist Judy Stone, along with guest violist Stephen Boe, will perform the concert.
Inspired by poetry, Berkey, who is a co-founder of Mannheim Steamroller, wrote the one-movement piece for Orion’s instrumentation of violin, cello, piano and clarinet. The piece also includes viola.
“A lot of his writing has song quality. It’s like a beautiful song with an introduction, a refrain and a recap,” said Ramniceanu, who first met Berkey years ago while performing and recording with Mannheim Steamroller. “This new piece is sort of like that. It’s like a beautiful impressionistic-like song. And the melody, the voices are the violin and clarinet.”
Audiences will actually get to hear another work by Berkey, the four-movement “Earth Voices,” which he wrote for Orion in 2000.
“It’s an incredible piece that makes you feel like you are in the middle of nature,” Pirtle said. “Every time we play it I get tears in my eyes and I get chills. It’s just one of those powerful pieces that moves you.”
The ensemble took great care in scheduling this season’s concerts, she said.
“I think every program this season is very meaningful to us. We took a lot of time in deciding what we wanted to play and I think that people will be very moved for all of the programs this season,” said Pirtle, who lives in Addison. “We definitely feel that in these times that music like this is one of the best ways to connect heart to heart and make a positive difference in the world.”
Also on the program for the fall concert is Johann Andreas Amon’s “Quartet in E-flat Major” for clarinet, violin, viola and cello.
“It was written back when the clarinet was a new instrument,” Pirtle said. “It’s really a beautiful piece. Very demanding.”
Ramniceanu, who lives in Chicago, said Amon’s quartet has a “very beautiful, romantic. Sort of like an early Beethoven feel.”
The program also includes a piano quartet by Johannes Brahms that is sometimes called “Werther Quartet,” named after Johann Wolfgang van Goethe’s “The Sorrows of Young Werther.”
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“It’s a very deep and complex piece, full of romance and emotions,” Ramniceanu said. “It’s one of those pieces that will melt you from beginning to end.”
The award-winning Orion Ensemble started in 1992 with a trio of musicians — clarinetist Pirtle, violinist Ramniceanu and pianist Schmück. At the time it was considered an unusual instrument combination for a chamber group. A short time later, cello and viola were added.
Over the years Orion would receive critical acclaim, record albums and perform for audiences live in person and via radio on WFMT. The ensemble also partners with several local schools and organizations including Elgin Youth Orchestra and the Naperville-based OPUS Chamber Music Camp to coach young musicians. Students from OPUS will perform a piano trio during the fall concerts.
Throughout its three decades, Orion premiered dozens of works written specifically for the ensemble, helping to expand the number of works available for the instrumentation.
“Over the years we’ve had several composers gift us music. Wonderful music. We’ve expanded the repertoire hugely. The clarinet and strings and piano repertoire. We’ve expanded it a lot,” Ramniceanu said. “As we get to be 30 years together, I realize this music will stay. We won’t be around but the music will, for generations to come.”
The Orion Ensemble
When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 27
Where: Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston
When: 7 p.m. Dec. 4
Where: New England Congregational Church, 406 W. Galena Blvd., Aurora
Tickets: $30, $25 seniors (65+); $15 students (13+). Children 12 and younger are free
Information: 630-628-9591; orionensemble.org
Kathy Cichon is a freelance reporter for the Beacon-News.