Artist Profile: Pianist Edith Orloff

Edith Orloff and her husband, clarinetist David Peck, bounce back and forth between Houston-their main base of operations for their very busy musical lives-and Southern California, where they have a second home in San Diego. I wondered why they’d choose to live in two different places, and Edie explained:

“My professional life and married life are intertwined. We’re both from California. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and we met while he was a student at USC and I was a student at Cal Arts. For many years now, David has played in the Houston Symphony and now is its principal clarinetist. He was also playing in the San Diego Symphony for about six years, so we always left one foot in California. And even though we do a lot of wonderful concerts in Houston, we always have lots to do in Southern California, too.”

I know Edie as a chamber musician, primarily as a founding member of the Pacific Trio, and so I asked her what it was that made chamber music so central to her life. She said that, “of course, in school you study everything, and I wanted to be able to say that no one facet-playing chamber music, solo recitals, or concertos-was more important than the others. I felt that there should be no barriers in how you identify yourself. And I also learned through the years of doing all three that they all inform each other.

She feels extraordinarily fortunate to have had two really great teachers of chamber music, her piano teacher at Cal Arts, Earl Voorhies, and her chamber music teacher, cellist Cesare Pascarella, with whom she studied not only at Cal Arts but also while in high school. In fact, it was he who convinced her to go to Cal Arts. “I love what those two wonderful professors did for me. They really opened my eyes.” Pascarella was the one who recognized what a good sight-reader she was, and he would leave his studio door open while she was there and would “reel in” instrumentalists who were walking by to come in and read chamber music with her.

The Pacific Trio’s founding members, including, along with Edie, violinist Endre Balogh and cellist John Walz, began their collaboration by touring the Community Concerts circuit for seven or eight years, starting in 1979. “Not only was it an amazing way to get to the see the country, but it also built character. Playing the same concert over and over again is invaluable,” Edie told me, “and when you drive all day to get to a performance, you also learn the value of balancing the desire to practice right away with the need to rest.” Since those early days, they have made regular tours to Europe, as well as recording and continuing to perform throughout the United States. (And in 2002, when Balogh retired from the Trio, our own Roger Wilkie joined in his stead and has been a part of the group since).

Edie particularly loves the piano trio repertoire. “It is such great literature, and each instrument is soloistic. You have to balance each other, and you get the satisfaction of collaboration with the best of solo playing. Besides, with the trio as a core, you can add all sorts of other instruments and get to play the various quartet and quintet literatures, as well.”

“What a fantastic mission Pacific Serenades has! I totally support this idea and think it is important. Who wouldn’t have wanted to work with a Beethoven and to see the process of the creation of a new piece? Musicians who don’t compose owe it to themselves to get involved in playing new music. It’s so exciting to premiere a piece, to play a piece which no one has ever done. Having insight into the creative process keeps you learning, keeps you alive as a musician. And for me, it heightens the experience to get to play a standard repertoire piece and then, with the same people, play a new piece.

“You have to hear in a different way, and I think that the new piece even helps to clarify the traditional music on the program. It lets you hear it with fresh ears.”

Now playing her second set of concerts with Pacific Serenades, she reflected on her first, two seasons ago, when the theme of the year was Music Among Friends. “The first thing that comes to mind is that it was so much fun that I am thrilled to be asked back! It was truly a case of music among friends and, by extension, music for friends as well. After each concert, I was surprised and delighted to reconnect with old colleagues and even long-lost friends from high school days!! It was my impression that the audiences represented a great cross-section of people from varying backgrounds, interests, and professions–which seems to prove that there is interest out there in programs that present older and newer music in context, as Pacific Serenades does. I thoroughly enjoyed working with my colleagues–there was a great collaboration and shared energy in the rehearsals and concerts, and I learned a lot. What more could one ask!”