September 23, 2018
Welcome to insights and perspectives from those who make this service great. Contributors include, interns, on-air staff, management, and special CD reviews from our Music Director, John Pitman. As the music director, with over 30 years of broadcast experience, John auditions dozens of new releases every month, focusing on titles that stand out in terms of performance, repertoire or recording quality.
Notorious RBG in Song
Posted August 27, 2018 by John Pitman
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always loved classical music. Especially opera. More than once, people have captured her on their camera phones at Santa Fe Opera (you can find this on Facebook and You Tube). Now... More
Lara Downes celebrates Lenny’s 100th
Posted August 21, 2018 by John Pitman
In this anniversary year – the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth – many record labels are releasing new performances of his music, as well as his own discography. Many of them are of his music: West Side... More
Bell’s Scottish Fantasy
Posted August 2, 2018 by John Pitman
Back in 2011, American violinist Joshua Bell became the first music director of London’s Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, since its founding by Neville Marriner. Bell and the orchestra already had a longstanding relationship: Around the time of the... More
How Postmodern Are You?
Posted July 24, 2018 by Jemma Goddard
I recently returned from a semester abroad in London, where I intensely studied art and culture. While I was there I was required to take a few different arts courses. This included a music history course entitled, “Topics... More
Hopes and Dreams (The Lullaby Project)
Posted June 29, 2018 by John Pitman
In April, the Oregon Symphony presented a remarkable and powerful concert as part of its “Sounds of Home” series, where young mothers experiencing housing insecurity, had the opportunity to write lullabies for their children. These were performed by... More
Dinnerstein encircles Bach, Glass
Posted June 1, 2018 by John Pitman
American pianist Simone Dinnerstein’s newest CD pairs Bach’s Concerto in G minor with a newly-commissioned one by Philip Glass. Ms. Dinnerstein shares the story of how she asked Mr. Glass for a new concerto, Bach’s influence on both... More
Youth Roving Reporters 2017/2018
Posted by Arianna Avena
Youth Roving Reporters is All Classical Portland’s arts journalism mentorship program. Six young people have been selected as Youth Roving Reporters for All Classical Portland in order to learn key storytelling skills and emerge as arts ambassadors for... More
The Story of Minimalism – Part Two: From Minimal to Maximal
Posted May 22, 2018 by Megan Reich
(Special Note: If you are new to this blog, click here to first read Part One of this series.) New Horizons: Postminimalism In our last post, we left off with a broader conception of minimalism as a music... More
Ravel’s “Choreographic Symphony”
Posted May 17, 2018 by John Pitman
Kazem Abdullah is an American conductor (he hails from Indiana, studied at Tanglewood and Peabody), and was General-Musikdirektor of the Symphony Orchestra in Aachen, Germany from 2012 to 2017. Maestro Abdullah has also been to Oregon: About ten... More
The Story of Minimalism – Part One: A New Way of Listening
Posted May 15, 2018 by Megan Reich
“What you hear depends on how you focus your ear. We’re not talking about inventing a new language, but rather inventing new perceptions of existing languages.” – Philip Glass If you’ve tuned into All Classical Portland recently,... More
