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Canadian violinist, Jennifer Orchard, has traveled the world performing as a chamber musician, soloist, and currently as first violinist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 2001.
Still in high school, Ms. Orchard won a position to study at the Curtis Institute of Music with Szymon Goldberg. She continued her studies, obtaining a master’s degree from the Juilliard School with Robert Mann and participated at the Marlboro Music Festival.
Upon graduating from the Julliard School, Ms. Orchard was invited to be a member of the world renowned Lark Quartet. As a legacy from this time period with the quartet, Ms. Orchard recorded works of Robert Schumann, Alfred Schnittke, Peter Schickele, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Zemlinsky, Amy Beach, Alexander Borodin and the Pulitzer Prize winning quartet by Aaron Jay Kernis – one of several new works for string quartet commissioned by the Lark Quartet.
In 2002, Orchard started performing in the Pittsburgh Piano Trio. The group maintains busy touring and recording schedule. In recent seasons the Pittsburgh Trio performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, the St Petersburg Conservatory and the Moscow Conservatory Grand Hall where the Trio presented Russian premiere of the Triple Concerto of Paul Juon with the Tchaikovsky State Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Fedoseev.
As a member of the Trio, Ms. Orchard recorded 3 CDs on Minstrel label, including Phantasie, a disc dedicated to music of British composer Frank Bridge and includes the world premier recording of his violin sonata; Encore!...Encore!, a collection of short works for piano trio and the most recent, a CD of Russian music which includes Piano Trio by Gerogy Sviridov and Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok for soprano and piano trio.
A free copy of “Encore!...Encore!” can be obtained at www.FreeTrioCd.com.
Ms.Orchard is a faculty member of the annual Pittsburgh Advanced Chamber Music Seminar - www.ProChamberMusic.com.
She plays on an Andreas Guarnerius violin, dated circa 1676.
When not performing, Jennifer enjoys raising her three children with cellist Mikhail Istomin. |