Present inspiring chamber music in Portland OR

Chamber Music Northwest just concluded its 46^th Summer Festival (June 25-July 31, 2016).

The festival was our busiest ever, with 52 concert performances and nearly 40 education and outreach activities.  A major focus of this year’s festival was works by Beethoven, including all 16 of his string quartets, which were presented throughout the festival in context with works by other composers who either had an influence on Beethoven or were influenced by Beethoven’s work. 

Highlights of the festival included:

• Performances of all 16 string quartets by Beethoven, performed by five string quartet  ensembles: Zorá Quartet; Dover Quartet; Orion String Quartet; Emerson String Quartet and the Miró Quartet.
• World premieres of works by Bryan Johanson, Andrew Hsu, David Schiff (arrangement of work by Edvard Grieg), Richard Danielpour, Andy Akiho and the west coast premiere of a trio by Martin Bresnick.
• Collaboration with Tango for Musicians at Reed College (1 joint performance).
• Partnership with BodyVox, resulting in the “Death and Delight” program with BodyVox dance company.  The choreography of two works based on Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” (music by Prokofiev) and “Midsummer Night’s Dream” (music by Mendelssohn) incorporated the musicians as part of the dance performance.

Chamber Music Northwest received an important grant from the Oregon Community Foundation this spring that enabled the organization to hire its first year-round Education Coordinator, Hannah Hillebrand, who started at the beginning of the summer festival.  With increased programming year-round, Hannah will work to expand our impact on the Portland community by partnering with various organizations and schools and offering education and outreach programming throughout the school year, as well as during the summer.

Education activities included:

• Artists working with music camps, including Young Musicians & Artists in Salem, Chamber Music Camp of Portland, Oregon Suzuki Institute Chamber Camp (Newberg), BRAVO Youth Orchestras camp (N. Portland), Community Music Center (SE Portland) and East Winds Band Camp (Fairview).
• A Family Concert and Instrument Petting Zoo, which drew music lovers of all ages, from toddlers to grandparents. The featured work this year was the story of “Marita and her Heart’s Desire”, narrated by actress Michelle Mariana, with music composed by Bruce Adolphe. Families also tested making sounds on various musical instruments during the instrument petting zoo, and staying for a picnic following the concert.
• Master Classes for students who are proficient on their instrument: Piano with Gilles Vonsattel, Violin with Jennifer Frautschi, and French Horn with William Purvis.
• 3 Open rehearsals, in which the audience can observe the process of making music and polishing a concert program.
• Food for Thought: Composers à la Carte: informal discussions with composers whose work is being premiered or featured in a CMNW concert.
• Outreach concerts to assisted living centers and one rehab facility, including Terwilliger Plaza, Hillside Retirement Community (Newberg), the Pearl (Rehab facility) and p:EAR (program for homeless youth).
• Free Community concerts at venues throughout our community, including Clackamas Community College, Portland Art Museum and Mt. Hood Community College.
• Lecture on Creativity-Methods and Mysteries of the Musical Imagination given by composer Bruce Adolphe, whose work was featured in several performances during the Summer Festival.
• 28 “Musical Conversations”—pre-concert talks with musicians exploring the concert program, backgrounds on the composers and context of when works were written, and the musicians’ relationship with those pieces or composers, and how they prepared for the performance.
• Continuation of our very popular “New@Noon” concerts, which explore new music (many pieces represented world premieres) and its relationship with the performers. The composers were at most of the five New@Noon concerts and told the audience about their work and inspiration.  One program included multi-media presentations along with the music.
• 15 “Protégé Project” artists (the largest number ever, who are just beginning their professional careers. This year’s artists included: Akropolis Reed Quintet (Tim Gocklin, oboe; Kari Dion, clarinet; Matt Landry, saxophone; Ryan Reynolds, bassoon; and Andrew Koeppe, clarinet ); Brandon Garbot, violin; Benjamin Hoffman, violin; Hilda Huang, piano; Andrew Hsu, piano/composer; Yevgeny Yontov, piano; Angelo Xiang Yu, violin and the Zorá String Quartet (Dechopol Kowintaweewat, violin; Seula Lee, violin; Pablo Muñoz, viola and Zizai Ning, cello). The Protégé artists not only perform in ensembles with our professional Festival Artists, they also participate in many of our education and outreach programs and receive mentoring and coaching from Festival Artists.
• The Wednesday concerts at Alberta Rose Theatre (and one at Nordia House) were extremely popular this year, offering a more informal and intimate concert experience with outstanding musicians, including many Protégé Project artists.  

This year’s Summer Festival would not have been possible without the dedicated support of people like you!  Thank you so much for your investment in Chamber Music Northwest, and for bringing chamber music to life in our community.

We are already looking forward to our 2016-17 season, which will feature the Emerson String Quartet (Sept 30, Oct. 1, 2016 and April 19 and 20, 2017); Akropolis Reed Quintet (Oct. 8, 2016), Dover Quartet (with Edgar Meyer Oct. 28 and with Avi Avital Feb. 15, 2017); David Finckel & Wu Han (Jan. 26, 2017),Montrose Trio (Jan. 27 & 29, 2017); MiróQuartet (Jan. 27 & 28, 2017); and Black Violin, Apr. 3, 2017.  

Links:

• Chamber Music Northwest Facebook page
• CMNW Twitter
• Yu & Hsu performance blows away CMNW audience