Les Orpheistes

One ensemble, several names. The chamber orchestra that has appeared in different seasons as the Academic Orchestra Orpheus, as Camerata Orphica NBU and, on tour, as the Orpheus Orchestra is a single Sofia formation gathered around the New Bulgarian University, taking its patron from the Thracian singer whom Bulgaria has long claimed as its own. Its players teach and study at the university, and its work moves between the academic calendar — anniversary evenings for NBU among them — and the capital's public concert life, where it appears among the guest ensembles presented by the Sofia Philharmonic; it has shared programmes with the violinist Mario Hossen and performed sacred repertoire, including music of the synagogue. In Vienna it has played in the Mariahilfer Kirche. Under whichever name the poster carries, the group is the same: a small, flexible Bulgarian chamber orchestra with Orpheus over the door.