By Sarah Taylor | Development Director
Chamber Music Northwest’s (CMNW) fiscal year ends September 30, 2024, wrapping up our 54th season of sharing intimate, exceptional chamber concerts with our community. We also anticipate being able to report our 44th consecutive year operating with a balanced budget thanks to our highly engaged Board of Directors, responsible management, and our generous and supportive community - thank you! Despite increasing production costs due to inflation, CMNW continues to innovate, expand our programming, and serve our community’s need for beauty and connection in the concert hall and at dozens of free community concerts and engagement events.
2023/24 Season By the Numbers:
Since our last update, CMNW held the 2024 Summer Festival: five weeks of dynamic programs featuring world-renowned musicians and rising stars. We performed concerts at five different venues throughout the greater Portland metro area, increasing accessibility and dispersing the positive economic impact our live performances have on the region.
2024 Summer Festival: June 27-July 28
Our 54th annual Summer Festival celebrated the musical legacy of Ludwig von Beethoven, exploring his profound influence and revolutionary impact on sound, music’s emotional impact, the power of the piano, and the soaring virtuosity he demands of musicians. We enjoyed some of Beethoven's best, from a new chamber arrangement of his complete Second Symphony and still-modern Grosse Fuge to his passionate Kreutzer Sonata and gorgeous Piano Quintet and Septet for Winds and Strings. At the same time, we explored how his innovations influenced every composer afterward, including Ravel, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Bernstein, Bartók, Grieg, Ligeti, and more – including today’s composers. For the summer festival, we welcomed back longtime favorite artists, such as David Shifrin, clarinet, Paul Neubauer, viola, Paul Watkins, cello, and Sandbox Percussion. We also introduced our summer audiences to sensational international artists, including oboist Frank Rosenwein, horn master Radovan Vlatkovic, the phenomenal German composer/clarinetist/conductor Jörg Widmann, as well as our talented Protégé Project artists.
Highlights:
FIVE World Premieres of CMNW commissions from luminary composers John Luther Adams, Marc Neikrug, Joan Tower, Jörg Widmann, and revolutionary young composer Kyle Rivera.
FOUR New@Night concerts of contemporary music in an informal setting, featuring pre-concert conversation and post-concert hang-outs with musicians, encouraging interaction between audience, artists, and composers.
THREE Spotlight Recitals featuring our astounding Protégé Artists: bassist Nina Bernat, pianist Chloe Mun, violinist Claire Wells, and the Opus13 Quartet. The Protégé Project will be celebrating 15 years next season, residencies for early-career chamber musicians that provide meaningful professional experience at a critical time in their career trajectory.
THREE Young Artist Institute Free Concerts, featuring 15 of the most exciting youth string players from across the nation and the globe, who were with us for the third year of this intensive three-week mentorship and performance program.
By the Numbers: Summer Festival
Education and Community Engagement
This year, CMNW served more than 2,200 young people with educational programs that reach every corner of our region, from Newberg to North Portland and Hillsboro to East County. Events included many school and community organization visits by the Catalyst Quartet, Imani Winds, WindSync, Lyon/Sasaki Duo, and Protégé Alumna Anna Lee.
This year, we offered seven masterclasses taught by world-class artists: Anna Lee and Jennifer Frautschi (violin), Paul Neubauer (viola), Catalyst Quartet, Sandbox Percussion, Radovan Vlatkovic (horn), and Kyle Rivera (composition). Masterclasses are recorded and added to our growing online resource library and have been enjoyed by more than 56,000 viewers in the past year.
In its third year, the Young Artist Institute (YA) brought 15 of the world’s most promising string players and two collaborative pianists to Portland for three weeks of private lessons with a unique focus on solo and chamber ensemble playing. YAI is unique among summer music programs, offering extraordinary one-on-one coaching time, many opportunities for public performance, masterclasses with world-class musicians, and access to festival concerts and events that provide a first-hand experience of the life of a professional musician, including audience and donor interaction. Thanks to donor contributions, YAI is also free for participating students.
Prelude performances featured the students of our Young Artist Institute, PSU’s Allida Jazz Duo, Portland Saxophone Ensemble, Pacific Rose Ensemble, and student musicians from throughout the region, including the University of Oregon and Cognizart.
By the Numbers: Education & Community Engagement
Broadcasts
CMNW performances were featured 57 times on American Public Media’s “Performance Today” and on programs produced by All Classical Radio. Our music was enjoyed by listeners across the nation and around the world virtually every week of the year! Over the past twelve months, our total broadcast audience was a mind-boggling more than 51.7 MILLION people!
Up Next
2024/25 YEAR-ROUND SEASON October 2024 to May 2025
Seven concerts presented at Portland’s Historic Old Church: The Chien/Kim/Watkins Trio (Oct 5), Roderick Williams, baritone & Myra Huang, piano (Oct 29 - First Presbyterian Church), the Dover Quartet (Nov 23), David Finckel & Wu Han (Feb 6), The Hagen Quartet (Feb 27), violinist Soovin Kim performing Bach’s complete solo Sonatas and Partitas (Apr 4 & 5), and an educational residency by the Catalyst Quartet.
In May, as part of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we will present a co-production with the Portland Japanese Garden, “Lost Freedom: A Memory.” The piece was developed in 2021 with music by Oregon composer Kenji Bunch and story and narration by actor, author, and activist George Takei recounting his experience being relocated to Japanese internment camps during World War II. The program will also feature work by Oregon composer/percussionist Andy Akiho.
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