The blues festival, a downtown summer highlight since 1988, lays down its groove through July Fourth. Photographer Joe Cantrell captures Saturday’s opening-day action.
Portland Opera’s artistic leader talks with Dmae Lo Roberts in this podcast about assembling a 21st century Pakistani tale of justice and courage with an all-South Asian cast.
Vietnamese American Portland musician Julian Saporiti’s expansive multimedia project combines historical research and interviews with personal stories, original music, and evocative images
Dmae Lo Roberts reprises a 2017 podcast interview with the jazz composer, her friend and collaborator, who has died at 64.
The married couple talk about making music together and their upcoming concerts with Third Angle at the OMSI Planetarium.
Fresh octogenarians David Bernstein and Greg Steinke celebrate with “Last Tango in Portland,” a concert of lively music and world premieres.
Classical mainstays move into their seasons, a choir dissents, new music sounds out, electronica and rock get experimental, plus jazz and post-punk.
The Oregon Symphony’s Zach Galatis and friends raise the roof in the kickoff show of this summer’s Concerts in the Barn.
On Sunday at the Waterfront Blues Festival, Mysti Krewe’s bones rattle, Taj Mahal headlines, LaRhonda Steele soars, and much more. Photographer Joe Cantrell captures the spirit of it all.
As the music plays on the second day of Portland’s big blues bash on the waterfront, the feet start moving to the beat – and photographer Joe Cantrell captures the action.
Stage & Studio: Musician Kye talks (and plays, and sings) in Dmae Lo Roberts’ podcast. Kids, anti-AAPI violence, his new band Joe Kye & The Givers, and a big bash in the park are on his mind.
Portland Chamber Orchestra premieres the dynamic spoken-word and music collaboration “My Words Are My Sword.”
Five women singer-songwriters sing out Sunday in a benefit concert for Ukraine, and 10 pianists put on a show to aid a children’s music program.
More music than you can jingle a bell at. Sex farce at the movies, ghosts onstage, democracy in the galleries, dancing cupcakes & nutcrackers.
The jazz pianist and writer of such wry and well-loved songs as “My Attorney Bernie” and “I’m Hip” had lived in Portland since 1986.
Theatrical barbecue, skeleton piano, down on the sheep farm, Troubles in Belfast, schools & Congress, bustle of books, a galaxy far far away.
The singing’s terrific and the crowd shouted “Bravo!” But the story in Puccini’s 1900 hit can’t keep up with 21st century times.
Renegade Opera’s “Orfeo in Underland” chronicles a tragic and transcendent journey to the afterlife.
The chamber music festival’s brilliant version of “Appalachian Spring” will also be available to view from home.
Portland Opera’s summer show is fresh and flashy, with sex, angst & art propelling it into contemporary times.
From the symphony to baroque to jazz to Celtic to opera to a legendary luthier, an Oregon all-star team.
Since the pandemic shutdown, the classical ensemble’s hit the ground running with 50-plus streamed shows.
The series of free outdoor concerts spotlights Black and contemporary woman composers, and tango, too.
In a free outdoor show, classical bassist Colin Corner and friends have young fans dancing in a parking lot.
As the world opens up, a group of elite Oregon musicians kicks off a series of intimate outdoor concerts.
Joe Kye’s new single “The Way Out” brings dance, Zoom, and social justice together to address the border crisis.
Old Portland, new Portland, any way you like Portland: Charles Rose lends an ear to the music of March.
Fertile Ground 2021: In “Livin’ in the Light,” opera singer Onry seeks a space for a Black man to breathe.
Portland Opera’s virtual recitals from Martin Bakari and Vanessa Isiguen dig into the heart and soul of the music.
After 40 years, the clarinetist supreme retires from 40 years as artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest.
Concert hall? Who needs a concert hall? A classical combo rocks out in a Portland neighborhood.
“Aberdeen,” Matt Sheehy’s musical memoir of grief and rebirth, is livestreaming this weekend.
Minus the big crowds and the riverside, the Blues Festival rethinks itself – and the beat goes on.
As the Oregon Symphony faces a stark financial crisis, musicians create mini-concerts from their homes.
Photo First: A Little Street Music (or, remembering Portland as it so recently was).
The internationally prominent violinist, who’s led Portland Baroque Orchestra for 26 years, will retire in 2021.
At a North Portland school, a music lover and BRAVO music students meet and learn in the circle of life.
Metropolitan Youth Symphony leader: In a troubled world, schools need to teach the empathy of the arts.
The Oregon percussionist, composer, and conductor for more than 40 years thinks about thorny issues ahead.
Portland Tuba Christmas makes a mighty sound in Pioneer Courthouse Square, renewing a pleasure we’ve been missing.
The Art of Space: Shop La Familia was started by Swiggle Mandela as an outpost for hip hop in a hostile city.
With a storm of Shakespeare’s words and Sibelius’s music, The Oregon Symphony pairs two twilight artists for a last hurrah.
Portland Book Fest turns the page, downtown gets a new museum, and it’s beginning to feel a lot like … already?
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOE CANTRELL When the extraordinary young guitarist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram waded into the crowd at the Waterfront Blues Festival on Sunday and started picking the strings with his teeth, you knew the whole darned party was gettin’ down. Musicians, fans,
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOE CANTRELL Day Two of the Waterfront Blues Festival dug deep into the spirit of music and life with an extraordinary set by the Spiritual Brothers and their sounds of Northern Ghana and Burkina Faso. Unlike the four-day festival’s first
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOE CANTRELL It was a bang-up day on the Fourth of July in Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park, where this year’s Waterfront Blues Festival got off to a high-flying start and, come night time, a rainbow of fireworks lit up
Photographs by JOE CANTRELL Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was 18 years old when his opera La Finta Giardiniera (The Pretend, or Fake, Gardener) debuted at the Salvatortheater in Munich in 1775. When it opens Friday evening at Lincoln Performance Hall in Portland it’ll
Portlanders will have the chance to say goodbye on Sunday to one of the towering talents of the local blues scene, guitarist Jim Mesi, who died on March 4 from complications of emphysema. He was 69. He was also stone brilliant, an
Story and photographs by FRIDERIKE HEUER Cappella Romana opened its 2018/19 season announcement with the words, “Prepare to be engaged, moved, and inspired.” Consider it done. You could add “an occasional “made breathless” by the sheer beauty of the singing. One of the main
Story and photographs by Friderike Heuer There are limits, but also advantages, to being a moderately educated music lover – like yours truly – rather than a professionally trained music critic. Good music critics bring an ear, lots of analytic skill, attention
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