Bradley assistant music professor, composer, and piano soloist, Dr. John Orfe, was hailed as "magnificent" by the NYTimes for his recent performance in Carnegie Hall. Orfe, along with 11 others from the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, presented a concert-podcast on March 16 devoted to the music of avant-garde master György Ligeti* (1923-2006.) The concert was titled "This Music Should Not Exist."
At Bradley, Dr. Orfe shares his expertise and talents with students by teaching Music Theory/ Ear Training/ Composition/ Piano. As a pianist, Dr. Orfe has performed across the US and in Central and South America. His compositions have been performed in Thailand, Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Central and South America, and throughout the US. He has also received numerous awards including a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, a Tanglewood Fellowship, a Morton Gould Award and nine Standard Awards from ASCAP, the William Schuman and Boudleaux Bryant prizes from BMI, and a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Orfe and the entire Alarm Will Sound ensemble received multiple rave reviews for their recent performance.
• From Concerto.net: "The Piano Concerto was John Orfe's great moment, though he was very much part of the ensemble...here it seemed five movements of fractals, simultaneous rhythmic divisions clashing seamlessly, sometimes with Stravinskyan percussiveness, and always with the presto prestissimo virtuosity. As a member of Alarm Will Sound, Mr. Orfe was part of that tradition of pinpoint accuracy. And [conductor] Mr. Pierson directed both the soloist and ensemble with what can only be described as subatomic alacrity."
• From the New York Classical Review: "...nearly supernatural ease [of] John Orfe's pianism in the Piano Concerto. It wasn't just that Orfe could handle this demanding part, but he played it with determination and weight. The music meant something to him and an expressive force flowed through him. The ensemble playing behind Orfe and in the Chamber Concerto was finer than one has heard in this music, live or on recording, by a considerable margin."
• From the New York Times: "This performance [of György Ligeti's Piano Concerto] was a marvel...players articulated each madcap twist of rhythm not just with precision, but with a sense of glee...The soloist, John Orfe, sounded magnificent throughout, whether pummeling or delicately shaping Ligeti's emotionally varied piano motifs. All told, this made for approximately 25 minutes of the best live music I've heard so far this year."
