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.
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
Harry Rabinowitz
Posted May 3, 2018 by Megan Reich
On Tuesday, May 8, All Classical Portland will be naming its Music Library in honor of Harry Rabinowitz (1916-2016), a British conductor and composer known for his television and film music. Rabinowitz is best known for having conducted... More
Tomas Cotik explores Mozart
Posted April 30, 2018 by John Pitman
Violinist Tomas Cotik, Assistant Violin Professor at Portland State University, is also an internationally-renowned concert and recording artist. He has done extensive study of fellow Argentine Astor Piazzolla, in several acclaimed recordings (Naxos); a complete series of Schubert’s... More
Special Broadcast: 24th Annual Young Artists Debut!
Posted April 25, 2018 by Megan Reich
On Friday, May 4th at 7:30 pm, the winners of MetroArt’s 24th Van Buren Young Artists Debut! Competition will be performing in concert at Trinity Episcopal Church. Eight musicians, ages 11-21, will be performing with an orchestra made up of members of the Oregon Symphony... More
Debussy and the Poetic Image
Posted March 29, 2018 by Megan Reich
The 100th anniversary of Debussy’s death was this past March 25th. Debussy’s adventurous uses of harmony and orchestration would come to impact nearly every distinguished composer of the early and middle twentieth century. His music leaves behind classical... More
Women’s History Month: Florence Price
Posted March 7, 2018 by Megan Reich
As we wrap up Black History Month and open March with National Women’s History Month, we celebrate the life of Florence Beatrice Price (1887-1953), the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer and to have a composition played by a... More