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THE IRIS ORCHESTRA Orchestra Note: Choreographer Jennifer Hardy received Green Street Studios Emerging Artist Grant. She is currently working on a new piece using original music composed by Adam Schoenberg and recorded by The IRIS Orchestra. Please read below to learn more about this wonderful collaboration.
IRIS was founded in September of 2000 by conductor Michael Stern at the invitation of Albert Pertalion, former executive director of the Germantown Performing Arts Centre (GPAC) in Tennessee. Its inception was a bold initiative by the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen of the City of Germantown, the only such municipally funded musical group in the country. Still the resident orchestra at GPAC, IRIS now enters its second decade with Michael Stern at the helm as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor. In 2007, the IRIS Foundation was launched to support the orchestra’s transition to an independent non-profit entity. Over the past ten years IRIS has partnered with a remarkable array of soloists including violinists Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham, and Midori; pianists Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman and Garrick Ohlsson; soprano Dawn Upshaw; and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The list of commissioned composers is equally distinguished, including Stephen Hartke, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, William Bolcom and Ned Rorem, as well as younger talents such as Jonathan Leshnoff, Huang Ruo and Adam Schoenberg. IRIS has also earned critical praise for its six recordings: the first disc ever recorded by the orchestra, the music of Stephen Hartke, earned a place on the “Year’s Ten Best” in 2002 by The New York Times; IRIS’s recording of Ned Rorem’s “After Reading Shakespeare,” was named to the “Ten Best of 2007” list of the Chicago Tribune. IRIS has recorded for Naxos International, as part of that label’s American Classics Series, as well as for the Arabesque label. Visit IRIS Orchestra's website at www.IRISOrchestra.org. |
