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Weekend MusicWatch: Carols and other choral confections

By Brett Campbell
December 8, 2012
Featured, Music

Oregon Repertory Singers perform this Sunday and next weekend.

Choral and Vocal Convocations

Oregon Symphony and the Northwest Community Gospel Choir, Friday-Sunday, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland: Charles Floyd again leads the combined forces in the popular annual gospel show.

Oregon Repertory Singers, Sunday, First United Methodist Church, Portland: Works by one of the greatest composers to come out of Portland — Morten Lauridsen’s “Chansons des Roses,” dedicated to the City of Roses — and one of the finest composers working here today, PSU professor Bonnie Miksch, bookend various seasonal favorites.

Cantores in Ecclesia, Sunday, St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, Portland: some of Oregon’s finest singers celebrate Jesus’s mom with music from the Renaissance to the present.

Cántico Singers, Saturday, First Congregational Church, Portland: While other mid-sized community choirs stick to the familiar, Cantico supplements the Christmas classics with jazz, folk, pop and early music.

Eugene Concert Choir, Saturday and Sunday, Hult Center, Eugene: Accompanied by the Oregon Mozart Players, the city’s pre-eminent chorus sings J.S. Bach’s ever-popular Magnificat, some of Duke Ellington’s delightful Nutcracker arrangements, and the premiere of something called A Werewolf Christmas. The concert features guest appearances by gospel singer Darline Jackson and (in a pre-show blow), the Oregon Tuba Ensemble.

Austin’s Miro Quartet performs Sunday in Eugene.

Orchestral and Instrumental performances

Oregon Mozart Players, Sunday and Monday, First Christian Church, Eugene: Speaking of the OMP, they’re performing their annual intimate Candlelight Baroque concert, featuring Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons,” J.S. Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto #5,” and “Three Pieces in Old Style” by Henryk Gorecki (composer of the popular late 20th century classic, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)

Metropolitan Youth Symphony, Saturday and Sunday, Marylhurst University and Tigard High School: The young musicians play Mozart, Mussorgsky, Mascagni and more.

Miro Quartet, Sunday, Beall Concert Hall, University of Oregon: The Austin-based foursome, one of the nation’s top string quartets, performs two of Schubert’s latest and greatest works, including his famous “Death and the Maiden” quartet.

Wanderlust Circus, 3 Leg Torso, Friday & Saturday, Alberta Rose Theater, Portland: This new version of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol features the city’s beloved fiddle-accordion-percussion ensemble, circus performers, Vagabond Opera singer Eric Stern, and more craziness.

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