Carmina for All

Carmina Burana straight ahead. You might have seen, in recent season announcements, that the Goddess of fortune, luck and fate will be uplifted in the fall by both the Oregon Symphony, with Portland State Chamber Choir and the Vancouver Symphony, with Portland Symphonic Choir. In July the Oregon Bach Festival will close their 2025 season by returning to Orff’s original “danced” Carmina. And the choral grapevine is vibrating with news that Carmina is being staged in Salem in early 2026 by Willamette Master Chorus. 

But on June 7 and 8 the Oregon Chorale is gracing us with the powerful, two piano arrangement of the cantata authorized by Carl Orff himself. After the 1937 premiere of the full orchestral version, Carmina became so popular that in 1956 an Orff follower, Wilhelm Killmayer, reduced the instrumental forces to two pianos and six percussion thus making Carmina accessible to smaller choirs around the world. Listen to an excerpt of the powerful reduction here:

Your favorite choral and solo moments will all be there, sung by tenor Steven Evans-Renteria, baritone Erik Hundtoft, and soprano Madeline Ross. The two pianists are Oregon Chorale’s regular pianist Ryan DeHaven and guest Colin Alexsei Shepard. The guest children’s choir is Cascadia, the middle-school ensemble of Pacific Youth Choir. And the energetic percussion role will be performed by Portland State University Percussion Ensemble. What an rousing conclusion to the Chorale’s 40^th year of community singing. 

Carmina Burana is on stage in Hillsboro on June 7 and June 8, both performances at 4 pm, at Liberty High School Auditorium. More information and tickets are here.

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On that same weekend you can enjoy another Pacific Youth Choir event, one performed for and by PYC alumni. “We remain dedicated to fostering our vibrant alumni community; the bonds forged through music should last a lifetime” (PYC website). Join legacy singers, some now working in the musical arts, from PYC’s past 21 years as they connect with current Artistic Director Chris Maunu and reconnect with former Founding Artistic Director Mia Hall Miller. Alumni “audiences”–you are part of the family, too!

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It’s a PYC full-length Alumni Concert on June 8, 5 pm at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. Tickets are here.  

Hear it here

Ever hear someone talking about an awesome event they attended and you’re like “doggone it, why didn’t you tell me?” Okay, consider yourself told. Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music is being performed by The Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra in a “profound and joyous experience of music and worship” (media post) on Sunday, June 8 in St. Gabriels Church in Beaverton’s Bethany area. St. Gabriel’s choir director soprano Jessica Israels and her composer/bandleader father have curated and arranged the music for choir, an outstanding group of vocal soloists, and – let’s say it again – the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra. Here’s a phenomenal 1965 video of Israels with the Bill Evans Trio:

Joining the voices of St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church Choir are vocalists Margot Hanson, Erik Hundtoft, Jessica Israels, Brandon Michael and Orchestra: Paul Mazzio, Trumpet; John Moak, Trombone; Tim Willcox, Alto Sax; David Evans, Tenor Sax & Clarinet; Joe Manis, Baritone Sax; Darrell Grant, Piano; Chuck Israels, Bass; Michael Rodenkirch, Drums. 

St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church, with the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, offers a “Duke Ellington” Pentecost service on Sunday, June 8, 10 am. Come and enjoy.

Choirs finding themselves in song

“This is the close of my third grateful season with Aurora,” wrote Aurora Chorus’s Artistic Director Rebecca Parsons in recent email to OAW. For their upcoming June 7 concert Parsons has selected music for when we “find ourselves at sea” like Spring Shall Bloom by Susan LaBarr and Song In My Heart by Jocelyn Hagen which express deep hope and gratitude in times of change. “We have a few pieces I love,” said Parsons, “about the intense renewal of storms, like Aia lā ’o Pele i Hawai’i by Jace Kaholokula Saplan, and We are the Storm by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate.” Listen to that piece here:

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Share music from “Sky to Sea” when Aurora Chorus performs on Saturday, June 7, 7 pm at First United Methodist Church. Tickets and more information here.

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Westside Singers has a couple of concerts coming up in the Beaverton area in honor of their 80 years of singing. The group, which specializes in jazz, big band and broadway, began as Forest Grove Gleemen in 1945 and after several reincarnations settled on their current name in 2000.

Their “Sentimental Journey” will be offered on Friday, June 20, 7:30 and Saturday, June 21, 2 pm at Southminster Presbyterian Church. Tickets and more information are here.

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Salem’s Confluence Willamette Valley LGBT Chorus is also concluding a noteworthy season – 25 years of singing with founding conductor Raymond Elliott on the podium. On June 6, 7, and 8 this 50-ish voice community choir is spreading choral joy with “songs from our yesterdays for brighter tomorrow” (choir website) in three Willamette-valley locations. 

Join Elliott, accompanist Ingrid Unterseher and the singers of Confluence in Salem on Friday, June 6, 7:30 at First Congregational UCC; Portland on Saturday, June 7, 7:30 at Cedar Hills UCC; and in Corvallis on Sunday, June 8, 4:30 at First Congregational UCC.  Tickets and more info are here.  

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Tune in on June 14 and 15 with Portland Lesbian Choir who wants you to sit back comfortably as the music that is near and dear to them wafts over you. The choir members have selected choral arrangements that resonate with their community and with us all. It’s a throwback to the meaningful texts and tunes set in a current world where singing out loud and proud is so important. You’ll want to be singing along to “People Like Us” by Kelly Clarkson and swaying with the rhythm of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.” Love Yourself, a work commissioned for the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus, is a good place to start and “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor is a fervent hope. This choir is heading into their 40^th year of singing and are turning up the volume.

Ride the airwaves with the Portland Lesbian Choir on Saturday, June 14, 7 pm and Sunday, June 15, 3 pm at Parkrose Performing Arts Center. Tickets and information are here.

Mahler through the generations

Pacific Youth Choir is on the choral calendar in one more concert this month. You will see them in Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, in one of the most heart-melting children’s choir roles in the Romantic choral/orchestral oeuvre. Our Oregon Symphony, conducted by Music Director David Danzmayr, is performing the six-movement, 90ish-minute work on June 14, 15, and 16. But the piece calls for even more treble voices so you’ll also enjoy the soprano and altos of Portland State University and Oregon Repertory Singers. The solo role will be sung by contralto Jasmine White. 

If you are excited about the choral forces, just get a load of the expanded instrumentation: 4 each from the families of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons; 4 French horns, trumpets, trombones, one tuba and one off-stage flugelhorn “wie die Weise eines Posthorns” (in the manner of a post horn). Of course there are extras of all strings, including two harps, and enough percussion to portray every sound in the natural world.

After the lengthy first movement in which every instrument is allowed to contribute its voice to a wide range of emotion, the dignified minuet of Movement Two puts your feet back on the ground. It’s a full therapy session. But the third movement is so perfectly prankish, almost as if “Til” himself has leapt from Richard Strauss’s contemporaneous score to gleefully confound the listener, only to be recalled by the post horn: time to come in – to come home. In movement four the mezzo, singing text from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra, advises “Oh Man, take heed.”

And then enter the voices of hope; the children imitate bells and the soloist and trebles sing text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn–of which Mahler was, like so many of his fellow countrymen, enamored. The final 24-ish minutes of music rise and fall several times over in the endless quest for redemption and salvation – a la Mahler.

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Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 fills the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall stage on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, June 14 (7:30), 15 (2 pm) and 16 (7:30). Tickets and more information are here.

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Singing in service is the goal of Portland choir A Notion, A Scream in their upcoming concert on June 17. “Join us in a benefit concert for The Marie Equi Center (enriching the health of the trans, queer, gender diverse, and intersex community) and Rahab’s Sisters (a community for women, trans, and nonbinary folks experiencing poverty, houselessness, and isolation).”

Join A Notion, A Scream on Tuesday, June 17, 7:30 at Taborspace in Portland.  More information is here.

Elvish is in the House

Salem Symphonic Winds is a vibrant community of 50-60 adult musicians who have shared a passion for performing great music for 50 years. And, of course you know Salem’s Festival Chorale Oregon shares that passion. Now the two organizations unite to present Return to Middle Earth: Symphony No. 5, of Dutch composer Johan De Meij.

Return to Middle Earth, premiered in 2018, is a six movement, 45-ish minute work for choir and voices based on the mythological world created by J. R. R. Tolkein. Soprano Kurleen George will soar in the soprano solo role alongside some expressive choral moments. Conducting the performance will be SSW Artistic Director John F. Skelton, whom regional music educators might know from his long service to music education in the state of Oregon. He spoke recently to OAW about one challenge for the choir. “The singers have to sing in Elvish, the language of Middle Earth and,” he said with a chuckle “pronunciation guides are a bit scarce.” Indeed. But the music speaks for itself. Listen to it here.

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Tolkeinists, you are in for a treat. Cinematic and media music fans, the “scenes” in this choral symphony will take you on a vivid musical journey. A complete analysis of Return to Middle Earth is available on Meij’s website here. And, since we love music trivia: what’s the reason for “Return” in the title? Meij’s first symphony is titled…you guessed it…Lord of the Rings.

Salem Symphonic Winds and Festival Chorale Oregon perform Return to Middle Earth on Sunday, June 15, 3 pm, Rose Auditorium in Salem. Purchase tickets here.

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Multnomah Women’s Chorus members must be excited about this upcoming “Opera Masterworks” performance. Opera choruses are good music but when sung out of context, without the stage drama swirling about them, their luster can be lost. That’s why this June 16 concert looks so special. The drama is invited to the concert stage.

Chorus selections like “O Pastorelle Addio”from Giordano’s Andrea Chénier and trios like “Spogliati Bambolino” from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi will be interspersed with solos and duets by choristers and special guests. Erik Hundtoft will perform “Pierrot’s Tanzlied” from Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt with MWC wafting above. There’s Purcell, Humperdinck, Mozart and Bizet – much more opera music for you to enjoy. Kelly Bard and Rebecca Stager share the enormous accompaniment duties and Chuck Israels joins in on double bass. 

“Opera Masterworks” are performed by MWC on Monday, June 16, 7 pm, at St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church. The concert is free. More information is here.

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“Pride Goes Pop”! On June 21 downtown Portland is all about Pride. After the parade winds down Portland Gay Men’s Chorus will be ready to lift their voices in celebration and unity. With genre-busting front runners to today’s very best Queer icons, “watch us turn the Arlene Schnitzer into Portland’s hottest club as we celebrate Pride with a show about love, authenticity, power, and the right to exist just as we are” (PGMC website).

PGMC’s 45^th Anniversary season-closing concert, ICONS: Pride Goes Pop, is Saturday, June 21, 7 pm at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets and details are here.

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For twenty years Portland Symphonic Choir’s “Summer Sings” have been favorite community events. Congrats! For the past several years one Summer Sing event each season has been dedicated to PSC’s “Call for Scores” project. Dozens of numerous new choral scores have received their first public readings in these sessions. In PSC’s upcoming “Rising Together” concert on June 22 the choir takes some of those locally-created winning scores to the concert stage. Hear the premiere of Peace by Jesse Preis and enjoy Finding the Light by Drew Swatosh. You’ll also get a sneak peek at a work in progress by Aaron Nigel Smith. 

But this is a chance to hear the works of another Portland composer, and longtime local music educator, Judy A. Rose. Rose’s compositions have been getting more performances in festivals and concerts in the greater choral world; her works are some of Portland Symphonic Choir’s favorites. Hear why in this preview from a recent Chemeketa Community College performance:

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Four compositions by Rose will be performed: I Feel Tired Sometimes; I Found Me a River; Soon Ah Will be Done; and “Rise up Singing and Dancing” from Walk In Beauty, Walk in Light premiered this past October by commissioning ensemble In Medio Choir and reviewed in OAW here.

It isn’t a long “concert,” but that’s because there’s more than singing. Participate in the “Composer Talkback,” not an add on but part of the event “that is meant to invite audiences into dialogue through relevant choral music” (PSC media). 

Portland Symphonic Choir invites us to “Rise Together”  for this special nod to local creativity and new choral art on Sunday, June 22, 3 pm at Christ United Methodist Church, Portland. Tickets and info are here.

Lifelong Singing

Portland Sage Singers are making their debut! Join Artistic Director Tim Seelig and the brand new Portland choir on June 26 as they celebrate “the power, humor, and heart of elderhood” (Sage website). In “It’s Our Time” they will perform, in addition to some Sondheim, Bach and Houston, two world premieres about which they have posted:

“If laughter is the best medicine, there will be lots of medicine including a new commissioned piece from Los Angeles composer Dave Volpe. The piece titled “Organ Recital,” shares the maladies reserved for folks of a certain age. “Senior Psalm” by composer Daniel Gawthrop will also have its world premiere.”

(Reser promo)

It’s their time! See beyond the surface of Portland Sage Singers in their debut concert on Thursday, June 26, 7:30 at Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, Beaverton. Tickets and more info on the concert are here.  Information about PSS is here.

Out of the Ashes

On July 5, Portland Phoenix Chamber Choir wants to take you on a tour of sacred polyphony, and more. Join them for “O May Our Day Begin,” which includes the music of Peter Phillips, Jacopo Corsi, Messian, Bruckner, Aleotti and Portland composer Carolyn Quick. But why is the choir waiting until July to offer us this special concert? So we can be their “bon voyage” audience! Just days later Artistic Director Justin Smith and the singers head off to the 62^nd Seghizzi International Choral Festival in Gorizia, Italy.

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Show up to give them a hearty send off and to hear some great music on Saturday, July 5, 7:30 pm at Lake Oswego United Methodist Church. Tickets are available at the door for a donation. 

Any more choral music going on in June and early July? Ha! Just kidding. The Oregon Bach Festival gets underway on June 28^th. And of course, the abundance of choral music in this year’s Festival deserves its own preview. Grab your calendars and watch for the OBF Choral Music Preview coming up right here real soon.