Concerts
BODY/LANGUAGE festival of multicultural music, art & dance
Enjoy a family-friendly festival celebrating multicultural art, music and dance!
A host of live performances will make this an afternoon to remember. Enjoy delicious bites from our food vendors, browse art, goods and jewelry made by Native artisans from NAYA’s Native Made Marketplace, and paint your own art feathers to take home!
Sunday, October 1, 2023 at Toast Studios
4232 NE Killingsworth St, Portland, OR 97218
Rain or shine!
Performance lineup:
1 pm: BAKSANA ENSEMBLE presents live music & dance inspired by Egyptian Raqs Sharqi, Turkish Oryental, and Balkan line-dance
1:45 pm: GABE COLHOFF of 1876 presents a solo set of sounds of the Blackfeet and Northern Cheyenne cultures mixed with contemporary punk rock
2:30 pm: JENNIFER WRIGHT brings an eclectic set of modern art mood music for Ukrainian hand pan drum, destroyed piano, and more, joined by modern dance wizard Conrad “Icon” Kaczor and vocalist Bevin Victoria
3:30 pm: BALLET PAPALOTL brings the talents of their vibrant Mexican folkloric youth dance troupe in full costume!
4:15 pm: TED CLIFFORD & PAUL SAFAR present a sweet set of classic jazz standards with signature style
Free admission to all performances!
Visit the Toast “Stairwell Gallery” to see what’s new: large-scale sculptures in wood and stone by James Florschutz; whimsical floating aluminum ‘clouds’ by Melita Westerlund; and two newly-installed pieces: the “Columbia River East” freeform art tapestry by Bonnie Meltzer and three vibrant paintings by Alex Hirsch. Both Bonnie and Alex will be on hand to talk about their work.
Presented in association with Cascadia Composers with support from an Arts Build Communities grant from the Oregon Arts Commission!
P.S. Please note, the performances are NOT at Leach Botanical Garden as was claimed down here previously. They’re at Toast Studios at the above address. We deeply apologize for any resulting confusion!
A TRIBUTE TO TOMÁŠ SVOBODA
The concert is free and open to the public.
School of Music & Theater faculty members Joel Bluestone, Sydney Carlson, Hamilton Cheifetz, Chuck Dillard, Bryan Johanson Julia Lee, Carol Sindell, and Stan Stanford join community musicians Mark Goodenburger, Susan Dewitt Smith, and Nancy Ives to honor the memory of their colleague Tomáš Svoboda with this concert of his chamber works.
Professor Emeritus Tomáš Svoboda (1939-2022) was a French-born Czech-American composer and pianist who taught music at Portland State University for 31 years before retiring in 2001. His catalog contains more than 200 compositions, and his music has been performed well over 1000 times worldwide. His compositions cover a wide range of emotional terrain, often contrasting consonance with dissonance, tenderness with intensity, and playfulness with gravity. His 2003 Marimba Concerto, performed by the Oregon Symphony and soloist Neil DePonte Duponte, received a 2003 Grammy Award nomination. He was a founding member of Cascadia Composers in 2008 and married to fellow artist Jana DeMartini. He suffered a major stroke in 2012, but continued to connect with musicians performing his music in the final decade of his life. Although he was a favorite composer in Oregon, he never quite received the widespread international recognition that his music deserved. A large community of musicians, former students, and family remember his humility, wit, and humor. His legacy lives on in his music.
For more information contact Bonnie Miksch bonnie@pdx.edu. See the original announcement on the PSU School of Music and Theater website.
Crossing Paths 2023
Cascadia Composers is excited to announce the FIRST concert of its 2023-24 SEASON!
Crossing Paths 2023: New Music with Friends
Sunday, September 10th, 2023 at 5:00 p.m.
Leach Botanical Garden
Upper Gardens, 6704 SE 122nd Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97236-5037
The concert will be held in the beautiful setting of Leach Botanical Gardens’ upper gardens in Portland. The gates open at 4pm, and the concert begins at 5pm. Guests are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs and may bring a picnic to enjoy on the garden grounds. (Please note: alcoholic beverages may not be brought onto the grounds.)
The program will include works by Cascadia composers David S. Bernstein, Ted Clifford, Daniel Gall, Kevin Bryant Lay, Jan Mittelstaedt, and Betty Wishart. Featured musicians include JáTtik Clark, Oregon Symphony principal tuba; Gabrielle Juliette Widman, soprano; Amelia Lukas, flute (fresh from her Chamber Music NW appearances); Lisa Lipton (of Opera Theater Oregon) and Ricky Smith, clarinets; Carson Lattimore and Kevin Bryant Lay, guitars.
Tickets are $25 for general admission, $15 for seniors and working artists, $10 for students over 12, $5 for children ages 6-12, and free for children age 5 and under. Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets by clicking on the button below, or at the entrance, and include admission to the garden.
We hope you can share in this exciting concert of new music from Cascadia Composers!
In Good Hands 2023
Cascadia Composers is proud to announce the ninth concert of its 2022-23 season:
In Good Hands
Teaching tomorrow’s musicians about today’s music
Saturday, July 15, 2023 @ 4:00pm
Lincoln Recital Hall, Room 75 @ Portland State University
FREE ADMISSION!
It was a bright day for Oregon composers when Dr. David Bernstein decided to move to Portland from Cleveland, Ohio. Not only was he instrumental in founding Cascadia Composers, a chapter of the National Association of Composers USA (NACUSA), but he also had a vision of a concert program for pre-college students. Today, that vision is a reality in Cascadia Composers’ In Good Hands, an annual concert series where composers work with young musicians to help them grow as artists.
This year’s concert will take place on Saturday, July 15, 2023, at 4:00pm in Lincoln Recital Hall, Room 75, at Portland State University. Students between the ages of seven and eighteen will perform pieces written by Cascadia Composers: some students will perform a piece written specifically for them, others will present works selected by their teachers from a score call to all 100+ Cascadia members. The composers and students collaborate to develop their performance and further their understanding of the piece and of contemporary music in general. Twenty-six students, eleven teachers, and fifteen Cascadia Composers will be represented. This is an all too rare development opportunity for these young artists. Admission is free to all!
Members of Cascadia Composers are proud of our In Good Hands project and concert series, and of our commitment to expanding the horizons of young musicians.
New Music Gathering 2023
New Music Gathering is happening in Portland and it’s live this time! Events listed below will take place at Lincoln Hall, Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave. except as noted. All events are COMPLETELY FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
Cascadia Composers is well represented, of course! Here we are in chronological order. If you’re a Cascadia member, you’re included and you’re not on this list, please send email with a short summary to info@cascadiacomposers.org:
Wednesday, Jun 21 @ 7PM: Fear No Music will perform Drew Swatosh‘s Kind Wildness on their segment of the “Welcome to Portland” concert.
Thursday, Jun 22 @ 11AM: Verdant Vibes will perform Kirsten Volness‘s murmurations, with video by Alexander Dupuis, featuring Jacob Richman on bass (your chance to hear a live performance of a piece that Cascadia presented online during the pandemic).
Friday, Jun 23 @ 10AM: President of the International Alliance for Women in Music Christina Rusnak will participate in a panel discussion IAWM – Equity and Inclusion through New Music.
Friday, Jun 23 @ 1PM: A climate artistry/activism show Songs of Post-Apocalyptic Instruments, featuring Jennifer Wright on her Skeleton Piano and three other large-scale playable/wearable sound sculptures she crafted entirely from trash, plus some made by her private piano students.
Friday, Jun 23 @ 2PM: Opera Elect will perform Lisa Neher‘s short opera, Sense of Self, with a libretto by Kendra Preston Leonard. The opera, for soprano, mezzo, and piano, is about an athlete facing a breast cancer diagnosis.
Friday, Jun 23 @ 10PM: A condensed version of Fierce, Fabulous, and Fully Coiffed: Classical Drag! presented by Jennifer Wright, Timothy Arliss O’Brien, Nicholas Yandell and guests, showcasing their works from the Portland and Eugene shows plus a good amount of gender-bending banter… and of course they’ll all be in full drag regalia.
Saturday, Jun 24 @ 9AM: Dawn Sonntag will present Opera as Advocacy, on her operas including video excerpts and a sample of the libretto of a future opera.
Saturday, Jun 24 @ 6PM: ChamberQUEER will perform Bonnie Miksch‘s “Five eccentric optimists” from her gestating opera, Utopia House, on their concert segment.
On Sunday starting @ 3PM, Jennifer will also be participating in Kathleen Supové’s soundwalk “The Walk North: Nomadic Keyboard” through inner NW and NE Portland. The extensive “program” includes two piano duet works by Jennifer that the two will perform together, Firebrand and This Is My Matrix Sweater.
Three years after Portland’s scheduled 2020 NMG got pushed entirely online by the pandemic, we are ecstatic to welcome NMG to Portland, live and in person finally!
For all the latest latest, click to go to the source, the New Music Gathering 2023 webpage.
A Ligeti Odyssey: The First 100 years
Cascadia Composers is excited to announce the eighth concert of its 2022-23 season:
A Ligeti Odyssey: The First 100 Years
Music by and about pathbreaking composer Gyὂrgy Ligeti
Sunday, June 4th, 2023 @ 7:30 pm, doors open at 7:00 pm
The Old Madeleine Church
3123 NE 24th Ave, Portland, OR
Click logo for lots of Schott’s Ligeti centennial info!
Cascadia Composers is celebrating the centennial of the birth of Gyὂrgy Ligeti, the composer whose music captured the ear of the public when film directors, including Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, used his stunning sounds in films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, Shutter Island, and Eyes Wide Shut. The concert will feature works from throughout Ligeti’s career, including Six Bagatelles for wind quintet, selections from his Etudes for Piano (which inspired the biggest epidemic of etude-writing since the days of Chopin), and his surrealistic fantasy for soprano and piano, Mysteries of the Macabre.
The concert will also include premieres by members of Cascadia Composers whose music reflects Ligeti’s continuing, inspiring influence today: Portland composer and Lewis & Clark professor Michael Johanson; Portland composer, pianist, and educator Gary Lloyd Noland; Eugene-based composer and pianist Paul Safar; Bay Area composers John Bilotta and Antonio Celaya; European-trained composer Alex Shapira, and Italian composer, pianist and sound designer Daria Baiocchi.
Performers are wind ensemble Arcturus Quintet, coloratura soprano Madeline Ross, violinist Emily Cole and flutist Zachariah Galatis, and pianists Myrna Setiawan, Rebecca Stager, Colleen Adent, Ben Gimm and Alexander Schwarzkopf. The Arcturus Quintet features Joe Berger, horn; Zachariah Galatis, flute; James Shields, clarinet; Steve Vacchi, bassoon; and Karen Wagner, oboe.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE COMPLETE PROGRAM.
Catch this great preview! Portland music blogger/writer James Bash has a fascinating article in The Oregonian, click the link and check it out!
If you missed our preview on All Classical’s Thursdays @ Three, just follow the link to find the archive (in the On Demand section just below their next show info), viewable through June 8. The Ligeti Odyssey segment starts just after 28:40 (although you should also check out the first segment featuring Oregon Symphony principal Nancy Ives, not only as cellist but as vocalist and composer).
If you missed Monday evening’s three-hour preview exploring Ligeti’s works on KBOO’s A Different Nature, with cellist Diane Chaplin (of Portland Cello Project and more) performing Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Cello live in the studio, stay tuned for a link to their archived stream.
Tickets are $25 for general admission, $15 for seniors and working artists, $10 for students, free for children 12 and under. Tickets are also available at the door.
Ligeti grew up a Hungarian-speaking Jew in a part of Romanian Transylvania that had been part of Hungary before WWI. He survived perilous internment in a WWII slave labor camp and lost most of his immediate family in the Holocaust. He lived most of his life a cosmopolitan exile. Yet Ligeti retained an inexhaustible curiosity that led him to explore Romanian folk music, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, jazz, and Banda polyphony from sub-Saharan Africa; fractals, visual illusions and the art of M.C. Escher; the player piano music of Conlon Nancarrow; the minimalism of Steve Reich; drum machines, auditory illusions, Lewis Carroll’s “Alice” books… even the Marx Brothers! Ligeti’s music evokes compelling images, otherworldly landscapes and powerful emotions. Today, 17 years after his death, he remains a vital force in music, as will be heard in every work, both new and old.
If you’re really excited about this concert and you’re feeling generous, please consider making an additional donation, via clicking “Donate” in the upper RH corner (earmarking Ligeti in the PayPal form that comes up), or if you’d like a premium or two in the bargain, check out the independent curators’ GoFundMe campaign (click highlighted text to open).
PROGRAM…
Musica Ricercata VII: Cantabile, molto legato
Musica Ricercata II: Mesto, rigido e cerimoniale
we could rise up rooted, like trees
Alos
Fanfares (Etude no. 4)
A … Kaleidoscopic Phantasmagory on … Ligeti’s Fanfares Etude…
Go Ask Alice
Six Bagatelles: I-III
INTERMISSION
Soledad
Red-Tailed Hawk
Fibo-nata
L’escalier du diable (Devil’s Staircase – Etude no. 13)
Six Bagatelles: IV-VI
Der Sommer (Summer)
Mysteries of the Macabre
Ligeti
Ligeti
Michael Johanson
Daria Baiocchi
Ligeti
Gary Lloyd Noland
Antonio Celaya
Ligeti
John G. Bilotta
Paul Safar
Alex Shapira
Ligeti
Ligeti
Ligeti
Ligeti
Fierce, Fabulous, and Fully Coiffed (Eugene edition)
One night only!
FIERCE, FABULOUS AND FULLY COIFFED
Saturday, May 20, 2023 * Live show at 7PM (PDT)
at the First Christian Church, 1166 Oak Street, Eugene, OR 97401
Drag queens! Rants! Jazz! Tragedy! Comedy! Confetti! Double entendres!
More wigs and sequins than you’d ever thought could be gathered into one place!
Join us for a fantabulous romp celebrating the multifaceted contributions that the LGBTQ+ community has made to world culture since the dawn of entertainment!
Co-produced by the composer-performer trio of Jennifer Wright, Nicholas Yandell, and Timothy Arliss O’Brien in partnership with Cascadia Composers, Fierce combines new music and drag in a glorious extravaganza for all to take pride in!
“Fierce” features a glittering group of local drag icons, classical musicians, and performance artists in a show bubbling over with fabulousness and fresh interpretations of Queer art forms. Exploring themes of gender and identity in a variety of styles, this rainbow-drenched explosion of expression honors the struggles of the local and global LGBTQ+ communities and celebrates them in style.
It’s super fun for straights too! Fans of art music, drag, dance, song, comedy, fashion, spectacle, pixelated 80s videos, witty storytelling, and audience participation will all find lots to love. LGBTQ+ listeners can enjoy a safe and joyful space to enjoy the arts and take pride in their cultural heritage. Suitable for audiences ages 13 and older.
What’s on the roster:
Special guest appearance by Eugene’s own Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble (EDME)!! They’re up for anything, but we all wanna know: *How* difficult will they find it to play music in fabulous dresses?! Let’s find out!!
Saint Syndrome
Portland drag pianist/icon Saint Syndrome (a.k.a Marshall Cuffe) emcees, tickles the ivories, and impresses as “The Lowest Bass With the Smallest Waist”on several pieces, including the luscious, lounge-y “What Makes a Man a Man?”
Composer Daniel Vega (who has starred as Dr. Frank-n-Furter in the live Rocky Horror Picture Show at Portland’s historic Clinton Street Theater!) considers what might happen when a saxophone, live computer processing, and a whole load of banned queer books walk into a bar together.
Daniel Vega
Guest composer Lucas Marshall Smith from Ohio contributes “Always Meeting Ourselves”, which presents a deliciously ambiguous original text that can lean in any number of ways while performers consider their reflections in a multitude of mirrors.
Tartie FaLouze (Jennifer Wright)
Happily recognizing that anyone can be a woman these days, Jennifer Wright (appearing as drag personality Tartie FaLouze) has a few choice words about constructs of femininity to share in her bluesy, no-holds-barred “Rant” (the title says it all, really). She has added a new number to the “Fierce” roster in light of recent anti-gay and anti-trans events: a cheeky little opening number called “Let’s Say Gay!”
Timothy Arliss O’Brien, appearing as drag personality Tabitha Acidz, tackles some heavy stuff head-on with solo piano and spoken (and sometimes shouted!) poetic word in “Elegy for the Left Hand”.
The tongue-in-cheek “A Musical Lecture” by Nicholas Alan Yandell (appearing as drag personality The Midnight Maestro) uses everything from a theramin to a keytar to demonstrate how music can help you find yourself! And as if that wasn’t enough, he also wrote a new song for this special Eugene Edition of “Fierce”: “Ode to a Flamer”!
The grand finale is Jennifer Wright’s hilarious memoir of her cringe-worthy youthful attempts to form a coherent understanding of gender and identity growing up in the 1980s whilst surrounded by a barrage of confusing and colorful pop culture influences, entitled “(Do Ya Like My) Unicorn Trapper Keeper (Extra-Extra Extended Dance Remix).”
There will be line dancing, multiple keytars, retro pixelated video and, of course, Trapper Keepers galore!
Yandell, O’Brien and Saint Syndrome present a draggy musical “lecture”
And more more more more more, but we won’t tell you EVERYTHING now –
you’ll just have to show up and be wowed!
(Do Ya Like My) Unicorn Trapper Keeper (Extra-Extra Extended Dance Remix)
“Fierce” is a night you won’t soon forget!
Tickets: $25 general admission; $10 students.
Anyone wearing a costume gets a FREE PRIDE FLAG!
Generously supported in part by a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC) and Cascadia Composers.
Composer-performer chameleon Jennifer Wright
About the lead artists
Jennifer Wright has been described as “a real force of nature” (FearNoMusic artistic director Kenji Bunch) and “[One] of [Cascadia Composers’] most creative producer/composers” (Brett Campbell, Oregon Arts Watch). She is a performer, composer, educator, multidisciplinary artist, event producer, and culture-maker. She holds two degrees in piano performance (M.M., Trinity College of Music, London, England; B.M., Hartt School of Music, Connecticut) and studied for two years at the Music Conservatory in Stuttgart, Germany. She teaches piano at Reed College and in her private piano studio in Portland, Oregon.
Jennifer’s eclectic compositions include acoustic, electroacoustic, fixed media, and found-sound works for solo instruments, voice, mixed ensembles, choir, dance, experimental instruments, and film. Much of her work features alternative keyed instruments like typewriters, toy pianos, prepared piano, amplified harpsichords, and her various deconstructed “Post-Apocalyptic Instruments”, including “The Skeleton Piano”, “The Egg” and “Chimaera”.
Jennifer’s compositions have been performed across the U.S., England, Finland and Cuba and on KGW TV and Cuban National TV by herself, FearNoMusic, Resonance Ensemble, Delgani Quartet, The Venerable Showers of Beauty Gamelan Orchestra, Ensemble Interactivo de la Habana, CORVUS, and many more. jenniferwrightpianostudio.com & skeletonpiano.com
Nicholas Yandell is a Portland, Oregon based composer, musician, writer, & visual artist. Musically, he specializes in composing contemporary classical concert works, film scores, post-rock, and electronic music. He has composed or collaborated on a number of scores for short films and film projects and has had works performed by the Delgani String Quartet, cellist Marilyn De Olivera, the Iridescence Piano Flute Duo, the Madrona Viola Duo, and pianist Dianne Davies, as well as numerous performances through Cascadia Composers. In 2019, he had the honor of being one of the four composers commissioned by 45th Parallel to set the poetry of Micah Fletcher to music and performed with the Pyxis Quartet and percussionist Sergio Carreno at their “I Spat in the Eye of Hate and Lived” concert. He holds a Masters of Music Composition and a Bachelor of Music from Five Towns College in Dix Hills, NY, and was named the 2020 Composer of the Year by the Oregon Music Teachers Association. In all his creative works, Nicholas delves deeply into subjects such as mental health, psychology, spirituality and perseverance, with an ultimately hopeful outlook, woven into strongly comprehensible narratives. As a queer person, he also uses creativity to express his struggles with identity and sexuality as well as his own personal journey to acceptance.
Married composers couple Nicholas Yandell and Timothy Arliss O’Brien
Timothy Arliss O’Brien is an interdisciplinary artist in music composition, writing, and visual arts. His goal is to connect people to accessible new music that showcases virtuosic abilities without losing touch of authentic emotions. He has premiered music with The Astoria Music Festival, Cascadia Composers, Sound of Late’s 48 hour Composition Competition and ENAensemble’s Serial Opera Project. Timothy also wants to produce writing that connects the reader to themselves in a way that promotes wonder and self realization. He has self published several novels (Dear God I’m a Faggot, They), and has written for Look Up Records (Seattle), Our Bible App, and Deep Overstock: The Bookseller’s Journal. His full discography, Where Are WE?, Piano Memories, Fear Sides and Soundbath, on all streaming platforms. Website: timothyarlissobrien.com Instagram: @adorableinpdx @tabithaacidz @thepoetheroic
Visions and Voyages
Cascadia Composers is excited to announce the sixth concert of its 2022-23 season: Visions & Voyages. Transits and transformations through songs with and without words. Saturday, May 6th, 2023 @ 7:30 pm, doors open at 7:00 pm. Lincoln Hall Room 75 | 1620 SW Park Ave Portland OR…
Songs and Sonatas
Cascadia Composers is excited to announce the Portland debut performance of dynamic composer, French hornist, and singer David A. Jones, joined by pianist Rebecca Stager. Songs and Sonatas: A Recital of New Music for Voice, Horn, and Piano Saturday, March 25th, 2023,...
Melodious Late Autumn After…
Dear Friends of Piano & Song: Cascadia Composers presents a Melodious Late Autumn After of Musicosyncratic Quirks, Crotchets, Maggots & Mood Slides from the Inextricable ’New Perplexity': a recital of art songs and piano works by Gary Lloyd Noland featuring...
The Concert
Cascadia Composers is excited to bring you an event celebrating the multifarious creations of Kevin Bryant Lay and friends: The Concert — a video release and live concert... and more! Friday, November 4th, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. The Hallowed Halls 4420 SE 64th Ave,...
Last Tango in Portland!
Cascadia Composers is honored to present a concert devoted to the music of two of its founders, including four world premieres: Last Tango in Portland! — an 80th birthday year new music celebration Saturday, October 1st, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. Lincoln Recital Hall (Room...
Crossing Paths 2022
Cascadia Composers is excited to announce the first concert of its 2022-23 season: Crossing Paths 2022: A Summer Celebration of New Music in the Garden Sunday, August 28th, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. Leach Botanical Garden 6704 SE 122nd Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97236-5037The...
In Good Hands 2022
Cascadia Composers Presents: The annual In Good Hands Concert featuring student performers playing Cascadia Composers works!
Mark your calendars for Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 2:30 and 4:00 p.m. for one of Cascadia Composers favorite yearly traditions, the In Good Hands recital. Talented student performers from the Portland area will play new music written by Cascadia Composers members…
Collaborations 2022: Re/emergence
Cascadia Composers proudly presents Collaborations 2022: Re/emergence. Strive… dream… wake… flourish! Our present moment in music, poetry, image & dance. Cascadia Composers Spring Concert showcases the variety and depth we are known for as we continue to artistically process the times we live in and reemerge, revitalized and reenergized!
Please join us on Saturday, May 14th, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. at Lincoln Hall, Room 75 on the Portland State University Campus…
Crossing Paths
Video now available! Cascadia Composers is excited to announce the opening concert of its 2021-2022 season: Crossing Paths—New Music of Healing and Renewal. This unique concert experience was our first live event in many months and took place at the Leach Botanical Garden (6704 SE 122nd Ave, Portland, OR 97236-5037) on Sunday, September 26th.
Fierce Fabulous and Fully Coiffed
Cascadia Composers present Fierce, Fabulous and Fully Coiffed on Friday, December 10, 2021 with a Live show at 7 pm (PST) at the historic Clinton Street Theater. Drag queens! Rants! Jazz! Tragedy! Comedy! Confetti! Double entendres! More wigs and sequins than you’d ever thought could be gathered into one place! Join us for a fantabulous romp celebrating the undeniable gloriousness of the multifaceted contributions that the LGBTQ+ community has made to world culture since the dawn of entertainment!