About the Orchestra

MISSION STATEMENT

CHAMBER ORCHESTRA OF NEW YORK is an independent, premier ensemble founded to showcase a seasoned roster of our city’s most flourishing musicians. The orchestra is internationally distinguished for championing 20th century repertoire that bridges the classical and modern traditions, including iconic film music, with premieres and Naxos recordings of rediscovered masterworks such as its championing of the music of Ottorino Respighi. Through all-embracing approaches with its distinct programs – from its Carnegie Hall series to special events, and educational outreach – the orchestra aims to cultivate a broader audience across generations for the future of classical music. 

 

BIOGRAPHY

Chamber Orchestra of New York had its triumphant debut on October 11, 2007 at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. Following the Inaugural Season 2007/08 finale concert, Vivien Schweitzer of The New York Times wrote: “The musicians played producing a polished, rich sound…a stirring performance [of Mahler’s Adagietto and]…a voluptuous rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir….”

The orchestra’s founding Advisory Board included film composer Ennio Morricone, conductor Alan Gilbert, and soloists Lynn Harrell, Cho-Liang Lin and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. Honorary Board members have included Ottorino Respighi family descendants Elsa and Gloria Pizzoli, Respighi archive curator/cataloger Potito Pedarra, and musicologist Luigi Verdi.

The orchestra currently performs its Concert Series at Carnegie Hall (in Weill and Zankel halls). It has become the go-to ensemble in New York for major international brands and their lofty productions. The orchestra has been commissioned by Disney, Star Wars, Kith, Transformation Documentary Film, St. Petersburg Ballet, Flanders Government, United Nations, Orlebar Brown / 007 James Bond Collection, multiple exhibition productions with The Morgan Library & Museum, Dolce&Gabbana, Tory Burch, and Moncler, among other fine presenters. In 2020/2021 the orchestra was honored to perform at the 130th anniversary of the Village of Larchmont (Westchester).

In 2008, Ottorino Respighi’s great nieces Elsa and Gloria Pizzoli, and archive curator/cataloger Potito Pedarra, entrusted Music Director and Composer Salvatore Di Vittorio with the task of editing, orchestrating, and completing several of Respighi’s early orchestral works – such as the first Violin Concerto (in A) – in their first printed, published editions (now) distributed by Casa Ricordi in Italy.

The orchestra established The Respighi Prize music competition in 2010 in collaboration with Bologna, Italy (Respighi’s birthplace), and also received a prestigious annual Google Grant for online marketing. In 2017, the orchestra founded the New York Conducting Workshop and Competition, and the program now includes staff conductors Maestros John Farrer, Dirk Brossé and Toshiyuki Shimada. In 2018, the orchestra launched its Maestro Juniors Education Program for New York City schools. 

Since its first albums of the music of Respighi and Di Vittorio in 2011, the orchestra has been airing its Naxos Records albums internationally from BBC London, RAI throughout Italy, and WQXR NY, to much critical acclaim. Together with additional early Respighi editions by Di Vittorio, the ensemble became the first orchestra on Naxos Records with such Respighi masterworks as Trittico Botticelliano and The Birds. The orchestra has also championed restorations of works by Claudio Monteverdi and Alessandro Scarlatti, and recordings of the early orchestral works of Vaughan Williams.

For its 15th Anniversary Season in 2022/2023, Maestro Di Vittorio launched a new initiative titled “Bringing Film to Classical”, thereby merging iconic film scores with the classical orchestral repertoire. In shedding light on the influence of Respighi on John Williams, the featured program combined Respighi’s Fountains of Rome with Williams’ Star Wars Suite.

The 17th Season 2024/25 showcased the orchestra’s 7th Naxos album released October 11th featuring Respighi’s famous mezzo songs and a commission from the Egyptian Grand Museum of Cairo for its filming at the Statue of Liberty. Our 18th Season 2025/2026 brings the orchestra on tour to the Elbphilarmonie performing arts center in Hamburg, Germany.