Chamber music inspiring 30,000 people in Portland

Chamber Music Northwest opens its 2018-19 “wet season” of concerts on October 5 with the return of the popular Dover Quartet, our 2018-19 Artists-in-Residence. The Dovers began their residency activities with CMNW during the 2018 Summer Festival—in addition to their October concert, they will return in February and again in July. Each visit to Portland keeps them extremely busy in our community—outreach activities include school visits, coaching local student music ensembles, and playing for those who can’t easily come to the concert hall—senior care facilities, children’s hospitals, drop-in centers for homeless teens, and other venues throughout the Portland metropolitan region.

Our 2018-19 season concerts include:

Dover Quartet: The Ripple of Time—October 5, 7:30pm, PSU Lincoln Performance Hall

Andrew Hsu and Daniel Hsu, Piano Four Hands: November 4, 7:30pm, PSU Lincoln Recital Hall

Canadian Brass: November 19, 7:30pm, Newmark Theatre

Gabriel Kahane 8980: Book of Travelers: January 30, 8:00pm, The Old Church Concert Hall

Dover Quartet: Made in America:  February 13, 7:30pm, The Old Church Concert Hall

Shai Wosner and Orion Weiss, Piano Four Hands: February 24, 7:30pm, Congregation Beth Israel

Shifrin/Polonsky/Wiley Trio: March 30, 7:30pm, The Old Church Concert Hall

Shifrin and Friends Play Schiff: April 25, 7:30pm, Reed College, Kaul Auditorium

In our education programming, our “Adopted School” for the 2018-19 school year is Ventura Park Elementary School in the David Douglas School District (outer East Portland). The school will receive multiple visits from our CMNW artists, beginning with the Dover Quartet in October.

In addition to the concerts and education activities, CMNW will present a number of Chamber Parties, held in private homes, for a chance to meet the artists up-close-and-personal. Chamber Party experiences this fall/winter include:

• Dover Quartet Returns – October 6, 4:30pm  SOLD OUT
• The Brothers Hsu (piano 4 hands) – November 3, 4:3pm
• Others to be announced!

Your support, through GlobalGiving, helps bring these outstanding artists to Oregon, and spend time with music-lovers of all ages in our community.  Thank you for your gifts, which are making great music accessible to all! 

Links:

• Aug. 30 Chamber Music Northwest Risk Taking Redeemed
• CMNW's first fully staged chamber opera: Silver River
• Innovative Programming at Chamber Music Northwest

The 2018 Summer Festival opens on June 25^th—just 2½ weeks away!  This year’s festival is a celebration of the diversity of chamber music, exploring the wide variety of instruments (including saxophone, Chinese pipa, steel drums and more), periods ranging from medieval to 21^st Century, and cultural influences from across the world, including Asia, Latin America, American jazz, and folk music from several countries.

 

The festival will include a special focus on music by contemporary Chinese music, “Beyond the Cultural Revolution.” The highlight of those programs will be the Oregon premiere of Bright Sheng’s opera, “The Silver River”—originally commissioned by CMNW two decades ago but never performed in the Pacific Northwest. Other interesting elements of the celebration include a demonstration of Chinese instruments, two world premieres of works commissioned by CMNW from composers Vivian Fung and Xiaogang Ye, and a special concert in Portland’s Lan Su Chinese Garden, and an opportunity to meet artists currently living in China, those who have emigrated to the US, and those who now identify as “world citizens.”

 

CMNW has commissioned eight composers, whose works will be premiered this summer:

• Mark Abel’s “Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano,”
• John Luther Adams’ “there is no one, not even the wind,”
• Valerie Coleman’s “Shotgun Houses”, which chronicles the life of Mohammed Ali,  
• Vivian Fung’s “Frenetic Memories for Clarinet Quintet,”
• Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s “Primal Message for Viola Quintet,”
• J.P. Redmond’s “Nonet for Wind Clarinet,”
• Jeff Scott’s “Fantasy on 1967” and
• Xiaogang Ye’s “Gardenia for Pipa and String Quartet.”

Note that three of these commissions are from women composers, carrying on the commitment of last year’s festival to recognize and promote works by women composers.

We expect this summer’s festival to reach 25,000 audience members, including 5,000 young people and adults through our education and outreach events. We hope to inspire our audiences to expand their definition of chamber music, and experience chamber music in different settings, including the Chinese Garden, private homes, as well as the concert hall.

 We invite you to experience Chamber Music Northwest this summer (June 25-July 29, 2018)—with concerts and education activities happening every day, there is truly something for everyone. If coming to Portland is not a possibility for you, check out cmnw.org, Facebook or YouTube to view video interviews, read the program notes, and learn about our outreach activities. During June and July, many of our artists will be featured in live performances on “Thursdays @ 3” (3pm Pacific Standard Time) on All Classical 89.9 FM or streamed online at allclassical.org.

 You make these incredible programs possible. Thank you so much for your partnership and investment in Chamber Music Northwest!

Links:

• Imani Winds (CMNW Artists-in-Residence) Expanding Boundaries
• CMNW is resilient, despite a devastating fire

• 2018 Summer Festival Concert Guide (PDF)
  
• 2018 Education and Outreach (PDF)
  
• 2018 Chamber Parties (PDF)
  
• Beyond the Cultural Revolution (PDF)