Oregon ArtsWatch

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Weekend MusicWatch

By Brett Campbell
October 28, 2015
Music

It’s looking pretty spooky out there this weekend, and much of the music on Oregon stages catches that, uh, spirit. Please let ArtsWatch readers know about other sounds worth braving the ghouls for in our comments section below.

Jessica Lurie Instant Light Ensemble
October 28
Analog Cafe, 720 SE Hawthorne, Portland.
The Seattle composer/saxophonist/flutist/improviser/accordionist/singer blends jazz with Eastern European folk music, rock, and more avant garde inclinations. This quartet featuring guitarist Bill Horist, bassist Rene Hart and drummer Tarik Abouzied (one of several ensembles she’s brought to Oregon in recent years) is inspired by the imagery of the great Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky.

 “Do you hear what I hear?” (lecture)
October 29
Andrew Durkin, Smith Memorial Student Union 338, Portland State University.
The composer and author of Decomposition: A Music Manifesto talks about contemporary music.

Beaverton Symphony plays Brotons, Brahms, and Wagner this weekend.

Beaverton Symphony plays Brotons, Brahms, and Wagner this weekend.

Beaverton Symphony Orchestra
October 30 & November 1
Village Baptist Church, 330 SW Murray Blvd, Beaverton.
The orchestra plays a contemporary Catalan Rhapsody by a figure very familiar to Oregon audiences: longtime Vancouver Symphony music director and Spanish composer Salvador Brotons, plus Brahms’s first symphony and a Wagner opera overture.

Antonio Sánchez Migration
October 30
Jimmy Mak’s, 221 NW 10th Ave. Portland.
The great Mexican jazz drummer has contributed his percussive prowess to more than 100 albums, including recordings by Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, and more, and he also composed the score for the film Birdman.

Oregon Symphony
October 30
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland.
In this family friendly show, while the movie plays onscreen, the orchestra plays Danny Elfman’s marvelous score to Tim Burton’s off-center holiday film The Nightmare before Christmas, which works as well for Halloween.

Eugene Opera
October 30 & November 1
Soreng Theater, Hult Center, Eugene.
Read Gary Ferrington’s ArtsWatch preview of the company’s one weekend run of Benjamin Britten’s haunting The Turn of the Screw.

Natasha Semenoff
October 30
The Old Church, 1422 S.W. 11th Avenue, Portland.
The Russian soprano sings songs by composers from her homeland, including Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff.

Pianist Beth Karp plays her original score to 'The Golem' in Hillsboro.

The Portland composer and pianist plays her original score to ‘The Golem’ in Hillsboro.

“The Golem”
October 31
Beth Karp, HART (Hillsboro Artists Regional Theatre), 185 SE Washington St. Hillsboro.
Just in time for the weekend of masks and eeriness, Portland composer Beth Karp brings her original piano score to this screening of the 1920 German expressionist masterpiece.

fEARnoMUSIC
October 31
Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. Portland.
On a day devoted to fear, the new music ensemble dedicated to fearlessness offers a family- and costume-friendly afternoon concert. Read my Willamette Week preview for the gory details.

Resonance Ensemble
October 31
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 147 NW 19th Ave, Portland.
Read my Willamette Week preview of this ideal Halloween choral (and more) music concert.

Resonance Ensemble gets doomy on Saturday in Portland.

Resonance Ensemble gets doomy on Saturday in Portland.

“Healing at the Speed of Sound”
November 1
Raphael Spiro String Quartet, Community Music Center, 3350 SE Francis Street, Portland.
In this family friendly afternoon concert, the foursome plays music written by local Cascadia Composers and performed to entertain hospitalized Portland kids over the past year, along with poetry, folk tunes, visuals, dances, and more, all tied together through a framing narrative.

Delgani String Quartet
November 1
Silverton Concert House, 405 N. Water Street, Silverton.
The Eugene-based foursome plays a wide ranging program of music by Oregon’s greatest composer, Lou Harrison, plus works by Piazzolla, Holst, and Haydn.

OneBeat
November 1
Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. Portland.
Read my Willamette Week preview of this touring world music performance and community interaction program. Note: the Cuban musician described in the preview was forced to cancel at the last minute.

Chancel Choir of First Presbyterian Church
November 1
First Presbyterian Church, 1200 S.W. Alder Street, Portland.
There’s been plenty to heal from in Oregon lately, the church choir offers a free program of the most consoling music for those who’ve lost loved ones: Faure’s ever popular Requiem and Oregon native Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna. 

Blue Cranes, Jenny Conlee & Steve Drizos
November 1
Doug Fir, 830 E. Burnside, Portland.
One of Oregon’s most accessibly inventive jazz ensembles opens for and abets the duo of drummer and Decemberists’ keyboard player in their release concert for a new instrumental album of French kayaking music. C’est wha? It’s actually a film score to a movie made by Portland filmmaker Ian McCluskey.

Tatsuya Nakatani & Michel Doneda
November 1
Xurch, 4550 NE 20th Ave. Portland.
The Japanese-French duo improvises music using manufactured and homemade percussion instruments and saxophone.

Peter Gach
November 2
Beall Concert Hall, Frohnmayer Music Building, University of Oregon, Eugene.
The accomplished pianist performs three works composed for him by UO alum Benjamin Krause and more.

Janet Guggenheim and Hamilton Cheifetz
November 2
The Old Church, 1422 S.W. 11th Ave. Portland.
The veteran cellist and PSU music prof joins his Florestan Trio partner in a recital featuring some of Beethoven’s finest chamber music: three of his sonatas for cello and piano.

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