Heralded by The New York Times as a violinist of “tireless energy and bright tone,” Courtney Orlando specializes in the performance of contemporary and crossover music.  She is a founding member of the acclaimed new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, which has premiered works by and collaborated with some of the foremost composers of our time, including John Adams, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, Michael Gordon, and David Lang. Performances with AWS include those at Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center Festival, Amsterdam’s Holland Festival, and a tour of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Orlando is also a founding member of the Deviant Septet and LotUS new music ensemble and a member of Signal new music ensemble.  She has performed with the Zankel Band, the Washington (D.C.) Contemporary Music Forum, and the Rochester Publick Musick and has performed at Alice Tully Hall, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Kimmel Center, Disney Hall, Merkin Hall, Miller Theatre, Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, the Library of Congress, St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, London’s Barbican Theatre, Boston’s Gardner Museum, the Banff Centre, June in Buffalo, Joe’s Pub, and on the Letterman show.

Orlando’s Peabody premieres include those by Bruno Amato, Oscar Bettison, Greg Boyle, Vid Smooke, Mark Lackey, John Crouch, Jenny Beck, and Amy Beth Kirsten. Her notable collaborations include those with Theo Bleckmann, Gavin Bryars, Uri Caine, Michael Gordon and Ridge Theatre, Meredith Monk, Oliver Knussen, Hahn Rowe, Kenny Werner, Grizzly Bear, and Dirty Projectors. Orlando has been recorded on Nonesuch, ECM, Chandos, Bridge, Cantaloupe, Tzadik, Suigeneris, and Winter & Winter.

Orlando earned her Bachelor of Music degree in violin from Temple University, graduating summa cum laude. She received her master’s in theory pedagogy and her doctorate in violin from the Eastman School of Music, where she later taught. Her violin studies were with Oleh Krysa, Jonathan Beiler, Mary Ogletree, and Rebecca Brown.