For all the talk about classical music being your grandparents’ music, there sure seem to be plenty of young musicians heading in that direction.
At 8 pm Thursday, Jan. 29, at the UO’s Beall Hall, the school’s sonos domum Ensemble plays new music by emerging student composers in a free, fascinating concert that includes improvisations with help from the audience. In another event in the UO’s Music Today Festival, Oregon Composers Forum Chamber Orchestra plays more new music by UO composers 8 pm Saturday, Jan. 31, at Aasen-Hull Hall. On the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 30, at Beall, pianist Naomi Kudo, the 23-year-old winner of the prestigious 2008 Gilmore Young Artist Award, plays a free recital of music by Beethoven, Chopin and American composer Samuel Barber. Following on Sunday afternoon, Beall hosts the Oregon Wind Ensemble’s performance of music by 20th- and 21st-century composers like Morton Gould and Don Grantham.
Piano prodigy Franz Liszt was only 11 when he played his Vienna debut recital in 1822, and at 7:30 pm Tuesday, Feb. 3, at Beall, renowned pianist Paul Barnes will play the mighty “Sonata in B Minor” of this great composer. Violist Patricia McCarty was also a prodigy, capturing major international awards while still in her teens. Since then she’s become an accomplished orchestral, chamber and solo player and teacher in New England; at 7:30 pm Monday, Feb. 2, McCarty joins the busy Portland pianist Cary Lewis at Beall in music by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and David Avshalomov.
More musical youth brightens the Beall stage 7:30 pm Saturday, Jan. 31, at the Oregon Mozart Players concert featuring the winners (violinists John Fawcett of Bend and Claire Wells of Springfield) of OMP’s first annual Young Soloist Competition in, respectively, Dvořák’s “Violin Concerto” and a dazzling, folk music-inspired, neb-romantic contemporary concerto by Armenian composer Alexander Arutiunian. The band also plays Mozart’s sparkling Paris Symphony and the lovely pastoral “Ballade for Clarinet, Harp and String Orchestra” by contemporary composer Eric Ewazen.
At 7:30 pm Thursday, Feb. 5, at Beall, the University Symphony’s young orchestra players deliver a pair of popular Russian gems — “The Polovtsian Dances” from Borodin’s opera Prince Igor and Rimsky-Korsakov’s glorious Scheherazade.
At 7:30 pm Saturday, Feb. 7, at Central Lutheran Church, medieval flute specialist and musico-historical detective Norbert Rodenkirchen plays a free concert featuring his reconstruction of some of the mesmerizing music of the Pied Piper from the late 13th century. In another concert featuring historical instruments, James Edwards and David Rogers play 19th-century guitar duets by Mozart, Carulli, Sor and more on 3 pm Sunday, Feb. 8, at United Lutheran Church.
Speaking of guitarists, Nuevo Flamenco master Jesse Cook, whose music mixes flamenco, rumba and jazz elements, plays 8 pm Wednesday, Feb. 3, at McDonald Theatre.
There’s plenty more jazz this week and next, starting with “Save Your Love For Me” — the performance at 8 pm Thursday, Jan. 29, at The Shedd by superb saxophonist Joe Manis and singer Siri Vik, with music from the classic 1961 album Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley. From 7:30 to 9:30 pm Friday, Feb. 6, The Shedd hosts the great Austin-based pianist and singer Marcia Ball, whose jazzy R&B shows are always upbeat. Finally, at 7:30 pm Saturday, Feb. 7, UO prof Brian McWhorter leads some of the UO’s top young jazzers and his Beta Collide partner, contemporary classical flutist Molly Barth, in a concert featuring original interpretations of 2015 Grammy-nominated songs at the intimate Broadway House, 911 W. Broadway (686-9270).