Lambert Orkis

Lambert Orkis (born 1946 in Philadelphia, PA) is a United States-based pianist of classical music. He excels - among other points - by a particular many-sidedness: on the one hand, he has acted since 1988 as accompanist of Anne-Sophie Mutter in her concerts of violin chamber music (mainly containing sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, and Schubert). For the interpretation of the complete collection of Beethoven's and Mozart's violin sonatas the artist duo was honoured by a German Grammy rsp.[clarification needed] by a French "choc de l’année".[clarification needed] On the other hand, for eleven years he accompanied the famous cellist (and conductor) Mstislav Rostropovich on all of his chamber music recitals. Rostropovich even created a fixed position for Orkis, appointing him as first piano instrumentalist member of the National Symphony Orchestra, during his time as a chief conductor of that orchestra at Washington, DC. A third speciality of Lambert Orkis are performances on instruments of the period considered in the concert program. On the other hand, he is a specialist in contemporary music. In this connection he cooperated with the cellists Lynn Harrell, Anner Bylsma and Daniel Müller-Schott, as well as with the violinists Julian Rachlin and Jaap Schroeder. The contemporary composers George Crumb, Richard Wernick and James Primrosch created piano compositions especially for him. Lambert Orkis is Professor of piano of the Ester Boyer College at the Temple University in Philadelphia.