Njioma Grevious and Caeli Smith Join Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

June 3, 2024, 2:18 PM · The New York-based Orpheus Chamber Orchestra has announced the appointments of violinist Njioma Grevious, who will join the ensemble as a full member, and violist Caeli Smith, who will join as an associate member, effective immediately.

Violinist Njioma Grevious and violist Caeli Smith.

Orpheus hires its new core members through a democratic process, and so both musicians were longtime substitutes who were selected by the Artistic Directors and fellow principal musicians to continue as permanent members.

"Both of these musicians have been playing with Orpheus for some years, and we all have had the joy to see, hear, and interact with them," said Executive Director Alexander Scheirle. "It is truly a wonderful moment to welcome Njioma Grievous and Caeli Smith to our orchestra."

Njioma is a 2024 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the 2023 Sphinx Competition. She is a founding member of the Abeo Quartet and for many years was a scholarship recipient of Boston’s Project STEP string training program for Black and Latino youth. She has performed regularly as a Juilliard Gluck Fellow and is now a teaching artist with Opportunity Music Project.

Caeli has performed across the United States, Europe, and Asia with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, The Knights, Sejong Soloists, the Verbier Chamber Orchestra, and as the violist of Sybarite5. She teaches on the faculty of the Heifetz International Music Institute and Kinhaven Music School and is a teaching assistant/adjunct professor for several viola studios at The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music. She holds a BM in violin performance and MM in viola performance from Juilliard. She also has a Masters in Education, Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Caeli also is a longtime member of Violinist.com who wrote numerous stories for us when she was a teenager. Her subsequent journalistic activities have included being a reporter and regular cast member of NPR's "From the Top" and writing articles for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Teen Strings and Symphony magazines.

Founded in 1972 by cellist Julian Fifer, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a conductor-less collective - "a radical experiment in musical democracy" in which "everything is created and managed collaboratively." The group regularly plays in Carnegie Hall and has recorded more than 70 albums.

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Njioma Grevious and Caeli Smith Join Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

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