Uploaded November 2023 | Updated September 2026, 11 hours ago
Orinoco Sketches
Gabriel Kahane, soloist and director
Recorded May 12-13, 2017 at the Ordway Concert Hall
Watch the full version in our free Concert Library: content.thespco.org/music/concert-library/composition/orinoco-sketches-for-string-orchestra-gabriel-kahane
About the Music:
Orinoco Sketches was written in 2011 for the LA Phil as a memorial for my grandmother, Hannelore Kahane (née Schaefer), who died in May of 2010 at the age of 89. Lore, as she was known to my family, fled Germany in January of 1939 on the SS Orinoco, the last ship to cross the Atlantic before the ill-fated St. Louis, which was famously turned away from all ports. Some nine months later—her family having been denied entry into the U.S. while they waited in Havana for their lottery number to be called— she settled in LA, where both my father and I were born. In her final years, amidst a courageous battle against multiple cancers, my grandmother translated the diaries she'd kept as a teenager from German to English. The last time that I saw her, I asked for permission to email myself those diaries, which became the initial impulse for this piece. In today's political climate, little else need be said about this brief song cycle, suffice it to say that I would not be here to perform it had my grandmother not been allowed into this country. This week's performances mark the world premiere of a newly orchestrated version of the piece, commissioned by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
© Gabriel Kahane
Orinoco Sketches
Gabriel Kahane, soloist and director
Recorded May 12-13, 2017 at the Ordway Concert Hall
Watch the full version in our free Concert Library: content.thespco.org/music/concert-library/composition/orinoco-sketches-for-string-orchestra-gabriel-kahane
About the Music:
Orinoco Sketches was written in 2011 for the LA Phil as a memorial for my grandmother, Hannelore Kahane (née Schaefer), who died in May of 2010 at the age of 89. Lore, as she was known to my family, fled Germany in January of 1939 on the SS Orinoco, the last ship to cross the Atlantic before the ill-fated St. Louis, which was famously turned away from all ports. Some nine months later—her family having been denied entry into the U.S. while they waited in Havana for their lottery number to be called— she settled in LA, where both my father and I were born. In her final years, amidst a courageous battle against multiple cancers, my grandmother translated the diaries she'd kept as a teenager from German to English. The last time that I saw her, I asked for permission to email myself those diaries, which became the initial impulse for this piece. In today's political climate, little else need be said about this brief song cycle, suffice it to say that I would not be here to perform it had my grandmother not been allowed into this country. This week's performances mark the world premiere of a newly orchestrated version of the piece, commissioned by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
© Gabriel Kahane
