This Ambitious Orchestra profile picture

This Ambitious Orchestra

Bringing virtuosity back to rock and roll

About Me

These Modest Links:
Digital:
Physical:
This Ambitious Orchestra's debut CD
(back when we were called "The Ambitious Orchestra")
$5.00 + $1.95 s/h
Featuring:
1. Come & Get It
2. Seven Deadly Sins
3. Afraid of the Dark
4. Maybe Tonight (w/Corn Mo)
5. The New Age of Man
..
Your first bidet experience
"That's not what it's for, Benjamin."
January, 2007ADD POLICY: The orchestra values true friendship. Everyone is welcome to enjoy the music we work so hard to make. But if you are a band or have a music profile and want to be our friend, please message us first. Otherwise we have to assume we're being collected for myspam purposes. Thank you and god bless.
This Ambitious Orchestra (20 members!) is New York's only ensemble dedicated to bringing punk rock spunk back to classical music, and virtuosity back to rock and roll. Our mission is to be the first orchestra to play rock music AS rock music.
TAO is a rock band with the instrumentation of a symphonic orchestra. Besides our own original songs, we've provided orchestral backing for other great artists we really like.
We recently released our debut recording, a 5-track EP of our favorite AO songs. Buying it helps fund our upcoming full-length epic album, Shout! For the LORD Has Given You the City!. We play regularly in New York City and Brooklyn, and are beginning to play regionally as well. Benjamin Ickies and Steve La Rosa are also laying the groundwork for a 3-act opera about Dungeons & Dragons, called Opera +1.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 5/7/2005
Band Website: ambitiousorchestra.com
Band Members: Benjamin Ickies : Conductor, vocals, accordion
Allison Loggins: Flute
Sarah Loveland : Oboe
Mario Maggio: Clarinet
Jennifer Speck : Bassoon
Dan Hoffman: French Horn
Geoffrey Hull : Trumpet
Greg Briggler: Trombone
Joe Exley : Tuba
Various: Timpani/Percussion
Jesse Wallace : Drums
Sugar Vendil: Piano
Brandee Younger : Harp
Mazz Swift, ChernHwei Fung: Violins
Megan Leach : Viola
Pablo Cubarle: Cello
Dayyan Armstrong : Contrabass
Various: Additional strings
Various: Female Vocals
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Its 2 am, and true to my word...

So the other day we put up a track in progress from our upcoming full-length album, after many many months of radio silence. We are very proud of Not My Town so far, but lest you think we've pussied o...
Posted by This Ambitious Orchestra on Mon, 12 Nov 2007 10:59:00 PST

So what are we doing?

People often ask me what the orchestra is up to and I simply direct them to our Myspace profile, where it shows all the fabulous cities and venues at which we are scheduled to perform. However, there ...
Posted by This Ambitious Orchestra on Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:16:00 PST

hear it, buy it

You can now buy our EP straight from our Myspace profile. We're so young and techno-savvy, I love it! You and your friends can hop over to myspace.com/thisambitiousorchestra and listen to the songs.I...
Posted by This Ambitious Orchestra on Wed, 03 May 2006 12:50:00 PST

The Name Change

So maybe you've noticed, but we changed our name from The Ambitious Orchestra to This Ambitious Orchestra. There are many reasons for the change, some philosophical and some more practical. It star...
Posted by This Ambitious Orchestra on Thu, 19 Apr 2007 09:21:00 PST

Free and accepted carnies

So I've been up in Roxbury, NY with the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus over the weekend, playing a couple shows up there for the townsfolk. They had a beautiful Steinway piano at the theater, which is alw...
Posted by This Ambitious Orchestra on Sun, 22 Apr 2007 02:50:00 PST

The ball wasn't enough

I saw this [petco.com] in a pet shop window this morning, easily the most cheerfully poignant pet accessory ever.Nevertheless, at the next band meeting we'll discuss changing our logo f...
Posted by This Ambitious Orchestra on Fri, 09 Mar 2007 09:40:00 PST

Return to New York

It's been two long, sweaty years that The Ambitious Orchestra has been together. That means it's time for a birthday party. We're about to enter our terrible two's, so expect a lot more temper tantru...
Posted by This Ambitious Orchestra on Thu, 26 Oct 2006 10:45:00 PST

Christian Science Monitor - not a religious paper!

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0922/p11s02-almp.htmlThe Christian Science Monitor likes to write about us - how about you?In the second picture, that's Pablo Cubarle's silhouette rocking the Lilypad i...
Posted by This Ambitious Orchestra on Wed, 27 Sep 2006 08:30:00 PST

Our Nation's Capital

So in a week and a half the orchestra is once again piling into a bunch of cars and leaving the warm, coddling bosom of Brooklyn to make nice with the DC rock scene. So if you know anyone in the DC a...
Posted by This Ambitious Orchestra on Tue, 08 Aug 2006 10:41:00 PST

Action!

Sarah bought a canvas folding chair and beret and dubbed herself Ambitious Videographer, producing a video diary of the AO. The first installment is up at YouTube.com and on our MySpace profile right ...
Posted by This Ambitious Orchestra on Tue, 06 Jun 2006 10:59:00 PST