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In this month’s Symphony magazine cover story detailing the resurgence of new music in American orchestras, three of the dozen or so featured orchestras — in Baltimore, Nashville and Eugene (the only Oregon orchestra listed) — are led by current or former Eugene Symphony music directors. Continue reading
The Pacific Northwest has left its mark on Wayne Horvitz’s music. Like his colleague, guitarist Bill Frisell, the jazz pianist and composer’s move from New York’s 1980s downtown music scene to Seattle sparked music of considerably broader appeal than the more avant-garde styles he was known for on the East Coast. Continue reading
The Eugene Symphony kicks off its 50th season 8 pm Thursday, Sept. 24, in style with a 20th-century American classic and a brand-new 21st-century composition by the West Coast composer who many hope represents part of the future of American music. In 2003, Mason Bates (still in graduate school) received a commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and decided to include beats and other electronica elements. Continue reading
Once upon a time, they made movies out of musicals. From the 1940s through the ’70s, once a show had proved its worth on Broadway, Hollywood came calling. In the past generation or so, however, as the big-budget blockbuster mentality infested theater, the process reversed. Continue reading
The Eugene Symphony has long-enjoyed a reputation as Oregon’s most forward-looking orchestra. Particularly after visionary music director Marin Alsop ascended the podium in 1989, the Eugene Symphony Orchestra’s programming of contemporary and especially American music put it — and Alsop — on the national map. While the usual 19th-century classics have always dominated the repertoire, Alsop’s successors Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Giancarlo Guerrero continued to feature more 20th- and 21st-century music than typical American orchestras. Continue reading
Jazz sometimes gets slagged as mainly grooves for dudes, but women have always contributed enormously to the genre, even if they’ve not received attention proportionate to their contributions. This Thursday, Aug. 13 at The Shedd, the Oregon Festival of American Music (OFAM) showcases three of the most popular female jazz singers of the 1920s. Continue reading
Roll Jimmy Kimmel, Elvis Presley and Jim Carrey into a single explosive entity and you might come close to Eddie Cantor’s impact on American entertainment. Rising from an impoverished Russian Jewish immigrant New York family, the little, bug-eyed and singing waiter parlayed his broad talents and irrepressible personality to Vaudeville before doing a decade on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Follies, eventually becoming one of the dominant figures on American radio in the 1930s and ’40s. Continue reading
One of the city’s most valuable music institutions, The Jazz Station, is entering its second decade of giving Eugene a real center for jazz and other improvised sounds. The three-day 10-year anniversary celebration begins Thursday, July 23, with New Orleans singer Cindy Scott and guitarist Brian Seeger joining Portland piano star Randy Porter in a highly recommended vocal jazz show. Continue reading
Signing up Portland singer Storm Large as the star of The Seven Deadly Sins might seem like typecasting. After all, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s scorching 1933 satire tells the story of two sisters, Anna I and Anna II, who venture to a septet of cities, each representing one of the biblical mortal transgressions. Continue reading
It’s no easy task picking the top events of OBF, but here’s a working list. For a full lineup of events, times, locations and tickets, visit oregonbachfestival.com The Seven Deadly Sins, June 26, Hult Center Continue reading