"Eos has created a vibrant community through cultural experiences that made people pay attention, cheer and jeer, and, most importantly, have an opinion," the statement read.

Founded by conductor Jonathan Sheffer in 1985, Eos has commissioned new works by Ned Rorem, David Lang, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Jake Heggie, John Zorn, and others, as well as new arrangements of many works. In recent years, it has performed the first two parts of a scaled-down version of Wagner's Ring to enthusiastic reviews.

The statement said that Eos would not be performing in 2005, when it is scheduled to play music by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim on tour and at Carnegie Hall; to appear with the string quartet Ethel, also at Carnegie Hall; and to serve as pit orchestra at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for an operatic one-woman show called Three Classical Heroines.

A spokesperson for BAM said that it had not yet been determined what orchestra would accompany Three Classical Heroines, but that the performance, directed by Francesca Zambello and starring mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, would go forward with Sheffer as the conductor.

In 2002, Sheffer helped to launch Red {an orchestra}, a Cleveland-based group with a mission similar to that of Eos.