Cultural Calendar

On Wednesday January 20th from 3 pm to 4 pm, we invite you to join a virtual conversation between Kenneth Helphand and Bonnie Clark – two renowned researchers focused on the essential role of a garden as means of human expression and communal identity. During this virtual panel presentation, Helphand and Clark will unfold the purpose of a garden, and how and why they are necessary for humanity. This conversation will be moderated by Portland Japanese Garden’s Sadafumi Uchiyama and Aki Nakanishi.

In connection with the exhibition, Healing Nature: Gardens and Art of Manzanar, Portland Japanese Garden offers a series of virtual panel discussions that explore the significance and impact of gardens. With a special focus on gardens created by Japanese American internees at Manzanar and other camps during World War II, these discussions question and dive into why and how humanity seeks connection to nature through gardens, particularly during a time of civil injustice.

The bundled ticket price includes access to 2 live Zoom virtual events and videos of the recorded footage. If you cannot attend the live virtual event during the scheduled date/time, you will receive the video recordings for the price of the ticket. Video recordings of the two events will be sent via email by January 31. Virtual events should be attended by the ticket holder only and not shared with or forwarded to anyone else.

Gesture and Journey is a concert of extremes. Delgani begins with three gestural works from the 20th Century: Four Bagatelles by American composer Alan Hohvaness whose lyricism is often reminiscent of east-Asian and eastern-European folk melodies, Stravinsky’s Three Pieces, a trio of stylistically eclectic miniatures, which features minimalist, ecclesiastical, and folk-like melodies, and Webern’s economical Five Pieces, written with diverse techniques including pizzicato, col legno (using the wood of the bow), and ponticello (playing on the bridge).

After intermission, sink your ears into Schubert’s expansive cello quintet. Written just two months before his early death, this piece features conversational themes between the two violins and the two cellos, as well as a reflective second movement. This piece will transport the listeners on a journey, offering the time and space to reflect upon the events of the year.

Ticket holders will be able to watch the program live on either Sunday or Tuesday. In addition, four pre-concert lecture videos and two guest artist interviews will drop in the two weeks leading up to the livestreamed performances.

Sunday January 24 @ 3 pm PST
Tuesday January 26 @ 7:30 pm PST
Available to all ticket holders at www.delgani.org/live/

Through her powerful music and mentorship of students, Joan Tower has been among the most influential American composers for the last 50 years. In addition to her many orchestral and chamber works, she has written an unusual number of pieces for solo single-voice instruments such as the violin, viola, flute, and clarinet. In this Musical Conversation, Chamber Music Northwest Co-Artistic Director Soovin Kim speaks with Joan Tower about the potent expression inherent in a solitary voice.

Online Virtual Musical Conversation
Premieres Tuesday, 1/26/21 • 6:00 pm PT • Tune in LIVE HERE or watch the recording!

Gesture and Journey is a concert of extremes. Delgani begins with three gestural works from the 20th Century: Four Bagatelles by American composer Alan Hohvaness whose lyricism is often reminiscent of east-Asian and eastern-European folk melodies, Stravinsky’s Three Pieces, a trio of stylistically eclectic miniatures, which features minimalist, ecclesiastical, and folk-like melodies, and Webern’s economical Five Pieces, written with diverse techniques including pizzicato, col legno (using the wood of the bow), and ponticello (playing on the bridge).

After intermission, sink your ears into Schubert’s expansive cello quintet. Written just two months before his early death, this piece features conversational themes between the two violins and the two cellos, as well as a reflective second movement. This piece will transport the listeners on a journey, offering the time and space to reflect upon the events of the year.

Ticket holders will be able to watch the program live on either Sunday or Tuesday. In addition, four pre-concert lecture videos and two guest artist interviews will drop in the two weeks leading up to the livestreamed performances.

Sunday January 24 @ 3 pm PST
Tuesday January 26 @ 7:30 pm PST
Available to all ticket holders at www.delgani.org/live/

This series of videos celebrates Resonance’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, and the space it provides for Resonance artists to continue to create. Starting in the summer of 2020, singers and spoken word artists met in acoustic spaces around the city – six feet apart, masked, and yet together. Viewers will experience music performed in these gritty, hauntingly beautiful spaces.

Available to view for free starting at 3 PM on Wednesday January 27th our website, as well as YouTube and Facebook

Performed by Resonance artists, and in collaboration with Oh! Creative and Portland filmmaker Kenton Waltz, the series celebrates the city of Portland with featured local artists, musicians, and famous Portland Bridges.

Derrick McDuffy & Kingdom Sound are a group of skilled singers, soloists, and minstrels that bring a refreshing sound to the Portland, Oregon area and around the world.
The mission of Kingdom Sound is to release a sound that reflects the sound of heaven, that leaves their audience with hands raised; worshipping, and dancing.

This anointed group has shared stages with Josh Groban, JJ Hairston, Judith McAllister, Steven Lawrence, and many other gospel artists. Their music is sure to bless your life.

On Wednesday January 27th from 3 pm to 4 pm, join Jeff Burton, Pat Alvarado, and Kenneth Helphand in a discussion exploring the purpose and impact of cultural landscapes and objects created in the War Relocation Authority’s internment camps. Japanese gardens created in these camps served a need beyond just a beautiful landscape in desolate grounds – they helped internees preserve their dignity, forge community bonds, and strengthened their will to survive. This conversation will be moderated by Portland Japanese Garden’s Sadafumi Uchiyama and Aki Nakanishi.

In connection with the exhibition, Healing Nature: Gardens and Art of Manzanar, Portland Japanese Garden offers a series of virtual panel discussions that explore the significance and impact of gardens. With a special focus on gardens created by Japanese American internees at Manzanar and other camps during World War II, these discussions question and dive into why and how humanity seeks connection to nature through gardens, particularly during a time of civil injustice.

The bundled ticket price includes access to 2 live Zoom virtual events and videos of the recorded footage. If you cannot attend the live virtual event during the scheduled date/time, you will receive the video recordings for the price of the ticket. Video recordings of the two events will be sent via email by January 31. Virtual events should be attended by the ticket holder only and not shared with or forwarded to anyone else.

Language Matters: There is no universal agreement on what we call the camps or the process that created them — ‘incarceration,’ ‘internment,’ and ‘concentration’ are a few of the terms that were interchangeably used. While some might find ‘concentration’ misleading because these were not extermination camps, the term predates the Holocaust and is by definition a place where large numbers of people are detained or confined under armed guard. We believe that awareness of the historical import of these words, as well as care in using them, is an important way to respect the collective memory of the victims and grants us greater power to confront injustice and cultivate peace.

“A concentration camp is a place where people are imprisoned, not because of the crimes they committed, but simply because of who they are. During World War II, America’s concentration camps were clearly distinguishable from Nazi Germany’s. Despite the difference, all had one thing in common: that people in power removed a minority group from the general population and the rest of society let it happen.” – Joint Statement by Japanese-American National Museum and the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors at the 1994 exhibition, America’s Concentration Camps: Remembering the Japanese American Experience

Portland Opera is thrilled to continue the resident artist program this year, including recitals featuring the 20/21 Portland Opera Resident Artists. Traditionally held at Portland Art Museum, the series this year will be broadcast live from the Hampton Opera Center. Each performance will feature two or more Portland Opera Resident Artists, sharing solo pieces, duets, and ensembles, along with new Resident Artist Coach and collaborative pianist Joseph Williams.

ACCESSING THE SERIES
This series will be available for free on our Portland Opera Vimeo and YouTube channels. It is only available online, and there is no need to RSVP or register.

Approximately 60 minutes, without an intermission.

Thursday, January 28 | 7 PM
Soprano Lynnesha Crump
Tenor David Morgans Sanchez
Pianist Joseph Williams

Thursday, February 11 | 7 PM
Bass Edwin Jhamal Davis
Ensemble including all Portland Opera Resident Artists
Pianist Joseph Williams

Thursday, February 25 | 7 PM
Bass Edwin Jhamal Davis
Ensemble including all Portland Opera Resident Artists
Pianist Joseph Williams

Portland Opera is delighted to announce the five artists joining the company’s Resident Artist program for the 2020/21 season: soprano Lynnesha Crump, mezzo-soprano Jasmine Johnson, tenor David Morgans Sanchez, baritone Michael Parham, and bass Edwin Jhamal Davis. Portland Opera established the Resident Artist Program in 2005 and each year, 4-6 singers join the company for a rigorous residency and training program. Since its inception, more than 35 artists have participated in the program. More than 50% of the artists who have completed the program in the last 10 years are now singing professionally, and program alumni work with opera companies nationally and internationally.

The 2020/21 Portland Opera Resident Artists (PORA) will work with numerous faculty members in voice lessons, musical coaching, language classes, drama and role study, and movement instruction. These faculty members include Chorus Master & Assistant Conductor Nicholas Fox, PORA Coach Joseph William,  Teaching Artist in Residence and voice teacher Daniel Mobbs, Italian teacher Angela Zagarella, and yoga teacher Alison Wesley. The artists will also work with additional guest faculty throughout the season, including Portland Opera Artistic Advisors Damien Geter and Karen Slack, and will be featured in various performance activities.

Portland Opera takes the health and wellbeing of the resident artists and their collaborators seriously. Testing and protocols are in place to launch and sustain the adapted 20/21 resident artist program. As part of the company’s commitment to the health and wellbeing of the staff, artists, company, and audience members, Portland Opera has engaged a team of medical advisors to work with staff members to review all safety procedures and protocols on an ongoing basis during the pandemic.

“Technically flawless and deeply expressive” (The New York Times), Alisa Weilerstein makes the cello sing as if it were her own voice. A 2011 MacArthur “genius grant” winner, Weilerstein is known for her commanding performances of the classics of the cello repertoire as well as new music. This intimate solo performance will feature the first of Bach’s celebrated Cello Suites as well as modern and contemporary works by Kodály, Britten, and living composer Osvaldo Golijov.

Online Virtual Concert
Premieres Saturday, 1/30 • 7:00 pm PT
Available through Saturday, 2/6 • 11:59 pm PT

Watch all of our 2020-21 Season concerts!
Get your $99 All-Access Pass for all our winter and spring events today
Single Concert Passes ($20) available 30 days prior to the concert.

Lisa Neher Music presents Of Wind and Waves, a virtual concert of vocal and instrumental solos exploring the currents of air, water, and emotions that define our natural and psychological world. The concert serves as a release party for Neher’s EP featuring selections from the concert.

The music, composed by Neher, conjures crashing waves on the ocean shore, soaring winds across grassy plains, the erratic flitting of moths in the moonlight, the eerie luminescing of deep water fish, and the longing of loved ones separated from one another. The concert holds space to sit with your deepest feelings, to take joy in the daily beauties around you, and to discover the strange and quirky creatures of the animal kingdom.

Of Wind and Waves is a collaboration with performers from across North America: Rose Bishop (flute, piccolo) of Iowa City, IA; Christine Hoerning (clarinet) of Montreal, Québec; Danielle Kuntz (harp) of Anne Arbor, MI; Catherine Rinderknecht Moritz (violin) of Atkins, IA; and Lisa Neher (mezzo-soprano) of Portland, OR. The concert includes the world premiere of Night Song for Moths, a piccolo solo commissioned by Rose Bishop, and a performance of Reach Out for flute, which was premiered in the spring of 2020 as part of the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music’s #GLFCAMGigThruCOVID initiative.

Date and Time: 01/31/2021 2:00 PM
Cost: $10
Click here to purchase tickets
Learn more at www.lisanehermusic.com

Takeshi Nagayasu
Sunday, January 31, 2021 at 4 PM

Scriabin and Hindemith, plus a world premiere by Jake Safirstein

BRITTEN Twelve Variations on a Theme for Solo Piano (1931)
HINDEMITH Sonata No. 3 (1936)
TAKESHI NAGAYASU Prelude and Variation
JAKE SAFIRSTEIN Springtime in Portland (world premiere)
SCRIABIN Sonata No. 4, Op. 30
SCRIABIN Sonata No. 5, Op. 53

About Soundboard:
The soundboard of a piano is that all-important element that amplifies, mellows, and projects the music we all love. It’s the soul of the piano. From sonata to invention to concerti – even boogie-woogie – the soundboard gives us the music and the life we all crave right now.

So, we’ve given the name THE SOUNDBOARD to our project to bring you special programming in this curious time when we can’t be together for live concerts. We plan to…

• Amplify – by expanding your acquaintance with the rising generation of exceptional young pianists through our ongoing Rising Stars series, now all-digital

• Mellow – by giving you all our programs live in initial broadcast, but then available for weeks after, so you can listen in your own mellow time

• Project – by offering you a whole bundled set of recitals, piano history classes, piano news from around the world, and even a concerto competition all for just $100!

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