We've got issues.
Conductor and cellist Eric Jacobsen, head of the popular New York chamber group The Knights, is the new third finalist for the artistic director position … Continue reading
Janelle McCoy, the controversial executive director of the Oregon Bach Festival at the University of Oregon, is to be laid off and her job eliminated … Continue reading
You can’t really assess what was at this season’s Oregon Bach Festival without acknowledging what wasn’t: erstwhile artistic director Matthew Halls, the multi-talented conductor whose … Continue reading
The Oregon Bach Festival has lost the newly appointed program director of its student academy in the complicated aftermath of last summer’s firing of artistic … Continue reading
When Linda Ackerman was fired by the Oregon Bach Festival in 2016, her story didn’t end up in The New York Times. Her departure from … Continue reading
An official document just obtained by Eugene Weekly from the University of Oregon shows that Oregon Bach Festival artistic director Matthew Halls was fired on … Continue reading
Berwick Hall, the new home of the Oregon Bach Festival, is an elegant building — small, modern, light-filled, with a performance hall that can seat … Continue reading
There’s less of the Oregon Bach Festival than there used to be. Some of that amounts to addition by subtraction. Gone are the bloated, historically … Continue reading
This summer, Oregon Bach Festival’s theme could have been “Generations.” The fest features a father-and-son team — Jeffrey and Gabriel Kahane; leaders of two generations of historically informed Baroque violin — Monica Huggett and Rachel Podger; old and new music — from Baroque and early Romantic masters to contemporary composers; veteran visitors conductor Anton Armstrong, pianist Robert Levin and organist Paul Jacobs; as well as today’s rising stars — the terrific singer Nicholas Phan and Artistic Director Matthew Halls; and tomorrow’s musical leaders — Youth Choral Academy, Berwick Acade Continue reading
What was the last puppet show you saw? An after-school special maybe? Or perhaps a storybook hour staged by librarians with their hands stuck up some glorified socks? Portland’s Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre wants you to throw out that imagery entirely. “There are so many puppet shows out there that I’ve seen that might be great for kids,” says Emily Alexander, Tears of Joy’s executive director, “but the parents are, how shall I put this — not enjoying it. For anyone whose idea of puppets is either Muppets or socks with googly eyes, we’re out to change that.” Continue reading