February, 2024 | Oregon ArtsWatch

Cappella Romana and Kingdom Sound performed together in 2024. Screenshot of concert video courtesy of Cappella Romana.

A resonant electrifying current: Reflecting on Cappella Romana and Kingdom Sound’s recent concert and albums by Cappella Romana, Resonance Ensemble, Eugene Concert Choir, Oregon Repertory Singers

Daryl Browne February 29, 2024

The Orthodox choral ensemble and Gospel choir joined their voices for February’s “Black Voices in Orthodox Music: How Sweet the Sound.” Recent albums released by Oregon choirs feature music by Melissa Dunphy, Renée Favand-See, Naomi LaViolette, Morten Lauridsen, Stacey Philipps, Undine Smith Moore, Joel Thompson, and more.

FilmWatch Weekly: ‘Dune: Part Two’ triumphs, plus ‘Navalny,’ ‘Occupied City,’ and Tenacious D on Blu-ray

Marc Mohan February 28, 2024

Timothée Chalamet rides a sandworm in the sequel to 2021’s “Dune,” and a 2022 documentary portrait of Alexei Navalny gets a theatrical release after his death.

All Rise: A new playwright steps onstage

Bobby Bermea February 28, 2024

Bobby Bermea: Promising writer and recent high school grad Evan McCreary gets a weekend of readings at IFCC with talent and a little help from his older friends.

"Border Crossers" by Jess X. Snow (hand-cut paper, 2016) was originally exhibited as an installation “Belonging: Before and After the Immigration Act of 1965” at the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle’s Chinatown. Photo by: David Bates

Jess X. Snow and Kill Joy tackle Palestine, capitalism, ecological destruction, immigration in multi-media show at Linfield

David Bates February 28, 2024

Students had a say in picking the artists whose work is featured in the artistically complex and politically engaged exhibition, which runs through March 16 at the McMinnville university.

A monumental snore (with a wink)

David Slader February 28, 2024

What would happen if we turned grandiosity into a joke? Building big, artist Erik Geschke sculpts himself into the possibilities.

Octavio Solis’s ‘Quixote Nuevo’ quest

Misha Berson February 28, 2024

The Oregon playwright’s contemporary twist on Cervantes’ classic tale has tilted at a few shifting windmills of its own on its long journey to Portland Center Stage.

March DanceWatch: Alvin Ailey, ‘Secret Stories,’ Kalakendra and more

Jamuna Chiarini February 27, 2024

As the Oregon dance card fills up for a busy month of movement, a performance space goes away and another springs to life.

North Lincoln County Historical Museum contains multitudes, from pioneers to Pixieland

Lori Tobias February 26, 2024

The quirky museum includes what may be the largest glass fishing float collection in the Northwest and an exhibit about a 1930s celebration of redheads.

News & Notes: Libraries turn the page

Bob Hicks February 25, 2024

As Central Library reopens in downtown Portland, The Library Foundation takes on new leadership. Plus: A new leader for the Parks Foundation; talking Nevelson and Neel at PNCA.

Ringdown: Danni Lee and Caroline Shaw. Photo by Anja Schutz.

MusicWatch: Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee at Alberta Abbey, Nancy Ives and Charlie Martin with Metropolitan Youth Symphony

Matthew Neil Andrews February 24, 2024

The Pulitzer-winning composer and Portland singer-songwriter’s new “electronic cinematic pop duo” Ringdown prepares for festival season with a concert in Northeast Portland; MYS performs two more Oregon composers and also Beethoven.

An artist’s rendering from the 2019 Master Plan for the new Grants Pass library shows an airy, light-filled main lobby. Illustration by: HACKER, courtesy of Josephine Community Library District

Josephine Community Library receives financial support for new building, even as it faces controversy

Amanda Waldroupe February 23, 2024

The 65-year-old Grants Pass library has not kept pace with the city’s growth; funds from the Cow Creek Band and a bill before the Legislature would help pay to replace it.

Michael Galen and Oluyinka Akinjiola in "Welcome to Your 30s," which combined both of their recent rites of passage and explored how their friendship provided through those times. Photo: Cameron Ousley

Dance Review: Rejoice! Diaspora Dance Theater’s ‘Rites of Passage’

Elizabeth Whelan February 23, 2024

Exploring life’s transitions and one’s quest for self-actualization through an Afrocentric lens, new and re-staged works by Oluyinka Akinjiola, Derrel Sekou Walker and others find fellowship along the way.

ProLab Dance performs "when we were Ocean," interweaving layers of dance, music, and video to tell stories of longing and belonging in the modern world. Photo: Rowdy Webb.

Dance Review: ProLab’s ‘when we were Ocean’

Hannah Krafcik February 22, 2024

Melding dance, videography, music, poetry, and even virtual reality, ProLab Dance world-builds with ocean.

Margaret Qualley as Jamie and Geraldine Viswanathan as Maria" in director Ethan Coen's "Drive-Away Dolls"

FilmWatch Weekly: Disappointing ‘Drive-Away Dolls,’ hilarious ‘Hundreds of Beavers,’ Oscar nominee ‘Io Capitano,’ plus much more

Marc Mohan February 21, 2024

Also this week: “Barbarella” remastered in 4K, and documentaries about the rise of Christian nationalism and the history of the Seattle Black Panther Party.

Feeling the magic: Sing of March Madness with touring choirs, Masses by Rutter and Beethoven, Music In Our Schools Month, and more

Daryl Browne February 21, 2024

Choral music in February and March, from Ashland to Tacoma.

Review: OBT’s ‘fantabulous’ ‘Peter Pan’

Martha Ullman West February 21, 2024

Trey McIntyre’s lush and lavish version for Oregon Ballet Theatre of J.M. Barrie’s classic fantasy is a treat for the forever young and those who grow up, too.

Lisa Lipton. Photo courtesy of the artist.

‘Art is a messy process’: Catching up with 45th Parallel Universe Executive Director Lisa Lipton

Matthew Neil Andrews February 20, 2024

In which we discuss the virtues of imperfection and risk-taking with the clarinetist, bar-owner, and Opera Theater Oregon executive director.

Making films on Portland’s Desert Island

Bobby Bermea February 20, 2024

A bustling studio in close-in Southeast Portland is a magnet for makers of short films, music videos, commercials, and maybe even movies.

Liz Cardenas poses on set with 6-year-old Amaya Juan, the star of 2022's "Burros," produced by Cardenas.

Q&A: Liz Cardenas, McMinnville Short Film Festival keynote speaker, on loving movies, the effects of streaming, and staying busy

David Bates February 19, 2024

The 13th annual festival runs Feb. 23-25 with something for everyone — more than 100 films will be screened in 90-minute blocks.

News & notes: Fertile Ground returns, a museum in peril, Eugene Weekly revives

Bob Hicks February 19, 2024

Portland’s festival of new works is back after taking a year off; the Bellevue Arts Museum faces a “dire financial crisis”; the Eugene paper is back in print following an embezzlement.

Portrait of George Frederic Handel by Balthasar Denner, c. 1726.

Capturing the musical and historical imagination: Portland Baroque Orchestra serves up a delicious musical pie in Dinner with Handel

James Bash February 17, 2024

A new “pasticcio” created by PBO director Julian Perkins and librettist Stephen Pettitt combined arias by Handel and other Baroque composers with newly-written recitatives for an evening of operatic entertainment.

John Cameron Mitchell performing David Bowie's "Blackstar." Photo courtesy of Oregon Symphony.

Moments of companionship: Saxophonist Donny McCaslin and the Blackstar Symphony perform David Bowie’s final album with Oregon Symphony

Angela Allen February 16, 2024

McCaslin, also the touring show’s artistic director, discusses his time recording with the singer and working to bring “Blackstar” to the symphony.

Solidarity for Music: PDX Jazz Festival’s concert with Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble and Musicians Union Local 99

Brett Campbell February 15, 2024

PJCE’s concert February 19 at Hallowed Halls will spotlight the efforts of musicians and other workers for fair pay and working conditions.

FilmWatch Weekly: Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days,’ plus ‘Bob Marley: One Love,’ Oscar-nominated shorts, ‘A Taste of Things,’ and more

Marc Mohan February 14, 2024

Wim Wenders’ latest film, an Oscar-nominated fictional feature set in Tokyo, follows the day-to-day existence of an eccentric toilet cleaner.

At the American Choral Directors Association conference in Spokane. L to R: Aubrey Patterson, Oregon Repertory Singers Youth Choir Artistic Director, and Stacey Philipps, ORSYC composer-in-residence. Photo courtesy of Oregon Repertory Singers.

The fascinating puzzle: At the American Choral Directors Association conference with Oregon Repertory Singers Youth Choir composer-in-residence Stacey Philipps

Daryl Browne February 14, 2024

Philipps traveled with ORSYC to this year’s conference, where the choir performed music from her “Gathering Rounds” collection.

Katherine FitzGibbon. Photo by Rachel Hadiashar.

Resonance Ensemble announces Linfield residency; jazz oasis the 1905 aims to reopen

Matthew Neil Andrews February 14, 2024

The choral ensemble starts their semester-long residency at Linfield University in McMinnville. The recently shuttered jazz club has changed management and is making plans to reopen.

Songs from the Congo

Friderike Heuer February 13, 2024

Looking at “Black Artists of Oregon” and “Africa Fashion” at the Portland Art Museum.

Alex Ross at The Reser with 45th Parallel Universe. Photo by Bora Yoon.

Ultimately it’s all music: Alex Ross with 45th Parallel Universe

Charles Rose February 12, 2024

The popular music critic joined up with the classical chamber collective for an evening of readings and live musical examples.

Detail of "Joining Hands" by Marvin Eans (mixed media, 20 by 20 inches, 2003) in the "A Call to Consciences" show at the Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg through February.

Mixed-media artist Marvin Eans reflects on the life of Martin Luther King Jr. in show at Newberg’s Chehalem Cultural Center

David Bates February 12, 2024

The exhibit, which runs through February, includes both aesthetic and pedagogical components, and has a high “wow” factor. An artists’ reception will be Feb. 16.

Bobby Bermea: A ‘Spear’ in the heart of racial reckoning

Bobby Bermea February 12, 2024

An Irish playwright and a Dublin director bring a contemporary play to Corrib Theatre about racial attitudes and the steps that white people “must take to clean up the mess they have made.”

PuzzleWatch: “Odi et Amo” – I Hate and I Love

Daryl Browne February 11, 2024

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with a crossword puzzle that aims to please both the besotted and the bitterly single.

Music ninja: Oregon Symphony Principal Librarian Joy Fabos describes how the orchestra’s library is a huge funnel

James Bash February 9, 2024

Discussing the finer details of orchestra library maintenance, from the legalities of part rentals to the need for librarians to be musically well-educated.

Portland arts funding: Open forum at PSU provides data, but not an arts plan

Ned Hayes February 8, 2024

As greater Portland’s arts and cultural system continues a slow structural evolution, a gathering at PSU hears information but not yet the shape of a completed plan.

Goldmund Quaret at The Old Church for Chamber Music Northwest. Photo by Nicole Lane.

Goldmund Quartet takes Oregon by storm

Alice Hardesty February 8, 2024

The young German quartet performed Haydn, Borodin, and Beethoven on a mid-winter Chamber Music Northwest concert at The Old Church.

Jon Franklin, who died last month at 82, taught a generation of journalists – including ArtsWatch’s Brett Campbell -- to apply the power of storytelling to news reporting. Franklin is pictured in 1985 in his University of Maryland office. Photo by: Edwin Remsberg/The Diamondback/University of Maryland University Archives

Jon Franklin and the art of nonfiction

Brett Campbell February 8, 2024

A former student recalls how the one-time University of Oregon and Oregon State professor taught generations of writers to use the techniques of drama to tell true stories.

‘Bad Mexicans’ and the 1910 revolution

William C. Stack February 8, 2024

Historian Kelly Lytle Hernández talks in a Hatfield Lecture Series program about the “magonistas” dissidents who paved the path for the ouster of the iron-fisted President Porfirio Díaz.

Leonie Benesch in "The Teachers' Lounge"

FilmWatch Weekly: ‘The Teacher’s Lounge,’ plus Paleolithic horror, Greek beach parties, Bhutanese democracy, Coffin Joe and more

Marc Mohan February 7, 2024

Also screening this week: “Lisa Frankenstein,” “The Sweet East,” and the latest 3D documentary from Wim Wenders.

Composer Timo Andres. Photo courtesy of Oregon Symphony.

A guiding hand in the darkness: Timo Andres discusses his ‘The Blind Banister’ and his performance this weekend with Oregon Symphony

James Bash February 7, 2024

The Brooklyn composer will perform his Puliter-nominated concerto Feb. 9-12 alongside Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony” and Carlos Simon’s “Fate Now Conquers.”

‘Your mortality is important. It’s to be celebrated’: Remembering Mark Gustafson

S.W. Conser February 7, 2024

The remarkable and well-loved animator, who died Feb. 1 at 63, worked around the world and won an Oscar for “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” but was a Portlander through and through.

three curved screens with projections of the surface of the sun

Soak up the sun: Georgie Friedman

Hannah Krafcik February 6, 2024

“BREATHING-LIGHT,” on view at Oregon Contemporary, offers viewers the chance to surround themselves with the surface of the sun. Hannah Krafcik contemplates this perspectival flip.

Toni Pimble researched 1920s styles and designed and built over half of the women's costumes, especially those for the main characters, including Jade McAnally as Jordan Baker, and for the ladies' dresses at the Gatsbys’ party. Photo: Ari Denison.

Dance Preview: Eugene Ballet’s ‘Portrait in Glass’ and ‘Gatsby’

Jean Zondervan February 6, 2024

This weekend two classic works of 20th century American literature come to life in the form of 21st century ballet.

Dianne Davies and Lisa Neher rehearsing their "Cycles of Life" program. Photo by Mike Newman.

Catching up with: Cascadia composers Dianne Davies and Lisa Neher

Matthew Neil Andrews February 6, 2024

An in-depth conversation with the pianist and singer, pairing up for their ‘Cycles of Life’ concerts Feb. 10 & 11 in West Linn.

Everybody comes to Mekong Bistro

Elizabeth Mehren February 6, 2024

With music and dancing and dining and a welcoming vibe, a refugee from Pol Pot’s Cambodia has created a gathering place for Southeast Asians and others in greater Portland.

In the Legislature, another shot at spreading the money around

Bob Hicks February 5, 2024

Shut out in the 2023 legislative session after a Senate walkout stalled action, Oregon arts advocates and legislators are pushing in ’24 for some major state funding.

Dr. Alissa Deeter, artistic director of the Portland Symphonic Choir, and Samuel Hobbs, artistic director and choreographer, push/FOLD Dance Company. Photo: Holly Shaw.

Still gestures: Portland Symphonic Choir and push/FOLD Dance Company harmonized distinct disciplines for Rachmaninoff’s ‘Vespers’

Daryl Browne February 4, 2024

Differing senses of time, space, movement, image and meaning were coordinated by artistic leaders Alissa Deeter and Samuel Hobbs in their dazzling recent performances at The Reser.

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