For stories published before 2019, visit our archive site.
Music Subcategories
Black Music Matters
Choral
MusicWatch
Now Hear This
The family-friendly opera by composer Joel Thompson and librettist Andrea Davis Pinkney was premiered in 2021 Houston and runs in Portland through March 24.
The duo discusses how they met, where the name comes from, their recent deal with Nonesuch Records, the “Voice Memo Roulette” game, and a method for using Brahms chords.
Test your knowledge of the great composer with a new crossword puzzle by Daryl Browne.
Jazz, string quartet, rock violin and more set the rhythm for the new festival in a music-happy town. Next up, March 20: Peter Eldridge of New York Voices.
This year’s festival of “Black American Music” featured hot touring artists and returning Oregonians alongside up-and-coming new locals.
MYS performed world premieres of music by Nancy Ives and Charles Martin alongside Beethoven and Lalo.
PYP geared up for their upcoming East Coast tour with a thrilling concert featuring music by Amy Beach, Jessie Montgomery, and Jeff Scott.
The famed jazz pianist partnered with the choral ensemble and Portland poet/activist A. Mimi Sei to create “From the Book of Sankofa”; the former Linfield Music Department Chair returns to Oregon for the live premiere of her “Cycles of Eternity,” recorded in 2019.
SO co-produced the revival of the 1986 Anthony Davis opera, revised and re-premiered in 2022 by Detroit Opera.
The recently-released album captures the quartet playing standards and film songs in Portland and Vancouver just before the recording of their ground-shaking classic “Time Out.”
In its enrapturing show, ‘I Didn’t Come to Stay,’ this acclaimed tap and live music company celebrated the depth and virtuosity of tap’s Afro-diasporic roots.
Percussion concerts with 45th Parallel and Third Angle; goth and punk and whathaveyou at Mississippi Studios; CMNW’s mini-festival of piano trios; neurologist Larry Sherman with Portland Chamber Orchestra; Christopher Brown Quartet plays “Blackstar.”
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.
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.
Choral music in February and March, from Ashland to Tacoma.
In which we discuss the virtues of imperfection and risk-taking with the clarinetist, bar-owner, and Opera Theater Oregon executive director.
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.
McCaslin, also the touring show’s artistic director, discusses his time recording with the singer and working to bring “Blackstar” to the symphony.
PJCE’s concert February 19 at Hallowed Halls will spotlight the efforts of musicians and other workers for fair pay and working conditions.
Philipps traveled with ORSYC to this year’s conference, where the choir performed music from her “Gathering Rounds” collection.
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.
The popular music critic joined up with the classical chamber collective for an evening of readings and live musical examples.
Discussing the finer details of orchestra library maintenance, from the legalities of part rentals to the need for librarians to be musically well-educated.
The young German quartet performed Haydn, Borodin, and Beethoven on a mid-winter Chamber Music Northwest concert at The Old Church.
The Brooklyn composer will perform his Puliter-nominated concerto Feb. 9-12 alongside Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony” and Carlos Simon’s “Fate Now Conquers.”
An in-depth conversation with the pianist and singer, pairing up for their ‘Cycles of Life’ concerts Feb. 10 & 11 in West Linn.
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.
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.
The 3A artistic director’s solo flute show featured new music–including commissioned works by two Oregon composers–and a multimedia aura of spiritual mystery.
The mobile venue is a South By Southwest finalist; the former Oregon Symphony conductor’s CIM saga continues.
The pronk quartet returns to live music, Oregon Symphony celebrates the “Rhapsody” centennial, Grammy-winner Cann performans a recital of Black women composers for PPI, Eugene Concert Choir releases their “Black is Beautiful” CD, and the Albina Community Archive goes live.
A collaboration showcasing Black composers working in the Orthodox tradition, ECC’s concert of choral music from Canada and Ecuador, and Bach Cantata Choir’s annual Super Bowl Sunday concert.
Choreographer Samuel Hobbs partners with PSC artistic director Dr. Alissa Deeter to create a powerful meditation of voice and movement drawn from ‘All-Night Vigil,’ Sergei Rachmaninoff’s choral masterpiece.
The Albina Music Trust celebrates its trove of recordings, photos, memorabilia, articles, and oral histories with a searchable archive and a Feb. 3 release party at Oregon Historical Society.
Last Monday’s concert at The Old Church featured ebows and superball mallets in music by Skye Neal, Kirsten Volness, Rachel Modlin, Bora Yoon, and Kimberly Osberg.
The vibrant musician, born in Mexico and bringing its sounds and traditions to the Northwest, has died. Dmae Lo Roberts brings back this podcast conversation with him.
The iconic conductor, composer, and music educator, back in the limelight after getting the biopic treatment, now receives the greatest honor of them all: his own ArtsWatch crossword puzzle.
OBF has announced Jos van Veldhoven and Craig Hella Johnson as the festival’s new artistic partners.
Chanticleer goes with the flow and reschedules Friday’s Reed performance for Saturday at PSU’s Lincoln Hall; performances of Rachmaninoff’s ‘Vespers’ with push/FOLD and Portland Symphonic Choir will proceed as planned at The Reser.
Portland Youth Philharmonic’s chamber orchestra strutted their stuff with a challenging program that included four world premieres.
The program of music for solo flute and electronics features music by Keiko Devaux, Alison Loggins-Hull, Nicholas Denton Protsack, Chloe Upshaw, and Oregonians Elaina Rae Stuppler and Daniel Vega.
The opera will sell the Hampton Center and look for a new home; the symphony and its musicians agree on a new three-year contract.
A new take on the liturgical work, from choral director Alissa Deeter and choreographer Samuel Hobbs; also, Chanticleer returns to Oregon.
45||’s four-venue evening sprawled across Mississippi Avenue in North Portland, featuring: singer-songwriters Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk; clarinetists James Shields, Mark Dubac, and new executive director Lisa Lipton, plus violinist and outgoing ED Ron Blessinger; the all-star jazz trio of John Nastos, Clay Giberson, and Christopher Brown; the North Pole Cello Sextet; and some fancy footwork.
The Louisiana-born, Texas-raised singer and educator, recently named Hinckley Assistant Professor of Music Education and Social Justice at Portland State University, is one of ten finalists for this year’s Grammy Music Educator Award.
Two February performances of “My Words Are My Sword” will celebrate Black History Month and the memory of the long-time festival conductor, who died in September.
During the day, a family fun event featuring crayons, dance, music, and a noon ball drop. The evening before, PCO and Ortiz performed music from 19th-century Vienna.
The new year takes flight with a festival of Portland bands, a local pop star, and a bevy of chittering contemporary classical music.
PYP and its various subgroups, including the alumni orchestra, performed at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert in Downtown Portland the day after Christmas.
A longitudinal study of everything we loved (and a few things we didn’t) in Oregon music this year, and last year, world without end, amen.
Give to our GROW FUND.
