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Kate Soper Triumphs in the World Premiere of Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus with Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic

May. 29, 2025

Kate Soper made her New York Philharmonic debut on May 22 in the world premiere of her captivating new work, Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus, performing alongside the New York Philharmonic, led by Gustavo Dudamel. 

Last month, in an interview with Playbill, Dudamel noted: "Kate Soper is a wonderful new voice to me, and I am grateful that the Philharmonic has chosen to honor her as one of the Kravis Emerging Composers." Soper was named the Kravis Emerging Composer as part of the The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music last December.

Heidi Waleson interviewed Soper for Symphony magazine in which the composer explains that her inspiration to create Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus began during the pandemic, recalling: "I was missing instruments, being around them,” she recalls. “At the same time, we were all going through a kind of reckoning about music, art, and cultural institutions—what they really mean, what their origins are, what’s problematic about them. And I started thinking about Orpheus. Monteverdi’s Orfeo is the first opera, so it’s connected to the beginning of institutionalized music.” 

Additionally, she notes: “There’s an element of ‘Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’ as Orpheus tries to explain how the orchestra evolved. There’s a big harp part—Orpheus’s lyre—and lots of strange Baroque and Renaissance tonality that becomes a little twisted... I’m trying to use the irreplaceable heft of the orchestra, the immensity of it.”

In a review for The New York Times, Zachary Woolfe praises Soper's "quirkily postmodern style," noting:  "Her eclectic, quick-shifting sounds, including touches of memorably ancient-feeling bass flute, are woven into a quilt of quotations from famous settings of the Orpheus myth by Monteverdi and Gluck, as well as lesser-heard ones by Sartorio, Landi, Campra and others. There are also flashes of Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Mozart and Grieg in the mix, and the text, mostly original, interpolates passages from Rilke’s “Sonnets to Orpheus.”"

He continues: "Philharmonic programs don’t tend to feature a lot of humor — certainly not of Soper’s winking mash-up variety — and her voice is a whimsical change of pace as the season draws to an end." 


Kate Soper with Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra / Photo: Chris Lee

To learn more about Kate Soper, visit schott-music.com and psnymusic.com.

Kate Soper
Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus (2025)
monodrama for amplified
speaking soprano and orchestra

Texts by Kate Soper, Rainer Maria Rilke, Alessandro Striggio, Joseph Addison, Jean-François Regnard, Ottavio Rinuccini, Aurelio Aureli, Pietro Pariati, and Ottavio Rinuccini

2(1.pic, 2.bfl).2.2.2(2.cbsn)-4.2.2.1btbn.1-3perc(I. vib, s.d, sus cym, b.d, crot, tri; II. wdbl, tam-t, glsp, sus cym, splash cym, sleigh bells, lg sus cym, cast, china cym, crot[shared with perc 1]; III. sus cym, tri, 3tom-t, chimes, finger cym, thai gong[G3], thundersheet, 5tempbl, crash cym, china cym).timp-pno(harpsichord).hp-str

Duration: 34'

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