Music from Broadway stages, film, opera, performance art, and video games top the bill in Oregon music this week, along with a pair of excellent — and very different — piano virtuosos, Renaissance and Baroque tunes, and more. And there’s some excellent, old fashioned monomedia music concerts available too. If you have recommendations for other musical performances for ArtsWatch readers, please leave them in the comments section below.
Patrick McCulley & Friends
September 15
St. Paul Lutheran Church, Portland.
Read my Willamette Week preview of the Portland saxophone colossus’s showcase.
David Saffert channels Liberace at Celebration Works. Photo: Gary Norman.
David Saffert & Friends
September 16
First Presbyterian Church, 1200 SW Alder Street, Portland.
The opening of the redoubtable and rebooted (shorter, no intermission concerts that start at 7 pm, four hours of validated free parking, post show reception with the performers — and free of charge) Celebration Works series stars the entertaining Portland Opera pianist and Liberace epigone, plus his collaborator, the besequined original’s longtime music director Bo Ayars, with Jillian Snow Harris as Liza Minelli, and Jason Miranda on drums.
“Anne Boleyn’s Motet Book”
The Ensemble
September 16, St Luke’s ~ San Lucas Episcopal Church, 426 E 4th Plain Boulevard, Vancouver, WA; September 17, Central Lutheran Church, 1857 Potter Street, Eugene; September 18, The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave. Portland.
Read my Willamette Week preview of the all-star vocal group’s program of Renaissance music.
Stanley Cowell Trio
September 16
The Old Church, 1422 S.W. 11th Avenue, Portland.
In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, young Stanley Cowell was one of the next big things in jazz piano, a distinctive postbop stylist whose exquisite taste led him to use his prodigious virtuosity only when it really counted. For someone who played with legends like Roland Kirk, Miles Davis, Max Roach, Bobby Hutcherson, Clifford Jordan, Sonny Rollins, Art Pepper, Stan Getz and many more, he’s too little known today, probably because he devoted so much of his career to jazz education (Rutgers University), so this rare opportunity to see one of the great jazz pianists, now an elder statesman, shouldn’t be missed by anyone who loves the music, from straightahead mainstream to beyond.
PDXJazz brings the elegant pianist Stanley Cowell to Portland’s Old Church.
Fêtes Galantes
September 16
First Christian Church, 1314 SW Park Avenue, Portland.
Read my Willamette Week preview of the touring early music ensemble’s performance of early Baroque French and Italian music.
“Oliver!”
September 16-October 2
John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts, 868 High Street, Eugene.
Read my Eugene Weekly preview of the Shedd’s production of Lionel Bart’s ever-popular 1960 musical.
“Stairway To Paradise”
September 16-25
New Century Players, Rose Villa Performing Arts Center, 13505 SE River Road, Milwaukie.
A septet of singers and players celebrate the birth of Broadway with a revue of standards by the Gershwins, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin.
Legend of Zelda returns to the Oregon Symphony. Photo: Jose Lim.
“The Legend Of Zelda: Symphony Of The Goddesses – Master Quest”
September 17
Oregon Symphony, Pacific Youth Choir, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland.
The latest installment in the multimedia video-game inspired orchestral program features live orchestral music from throughout its three decade history including new tunes and imagery from the latest release. Read Maria Choban’s ArtsWatch story about Zelda and other video game music.
Rinde Eckert
September 17
Winningstad Theater, 1111 SW Broadway, Portland.
Like most other Time Based Art Festival shows — and Eckert’s own oeuvre — any performance by the New York based vocalist/composer/writer/performance artist/multi-instrumentalist is likely to be more theater than just music. Yet any fan of the artist’s fascinating shows (several of which have been performed at TBA festivals over the years) will be interested in this autobiographical overview of “greatest” hits from Eckert’s long career, and they’ll doubtless include some fine music, and that inimitable voice.
Rinde Eckert performs at Portland’s TBA Festival. Photo: Doug Gifford
“OPERApalooza”
September 18
Hampton Opera Center, 211 SE Caruthers Street, Portland.
Beginning at 1230 pm, Portland Opera’s annual free, family friendly open house at its riverfront HQ includes Opera a la Cart performances of music from the company’s upcoming season (La Boheme, Man of la Mancha, Cosi fan tutti, The little Match Girl Passion, and Monteverdi’s magnificent book of songs of love and war), a Portland Opera To Go Hansel and Gretel open rehearsal, an open house with costume shop tours, and opera chorus open rehearsal.
“The Kid”
September 18
Kiggins Theatre, 1011 Main Street, Vancouver, WA.
A quintet of Vancouver Symphony musicians accompany the Charlie Chaplin/Jackie Coogan silent classic.
“Turandot” (film)
September 18
Living Room Theaters, 341 SW Tenth Avenue, Portland.
Puccini’s perennial gets a film treatment of a 2015 production at Austria’s Bergenz Festival.
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