Don your flat caps and French hoods for two more Rose City Renaissance workshops this Fall. On October 25, John Cox and company invite you to dive into the music of one of the famed Flemish Renaissance composers in Italy, oltremontani Adriano Willaert. Yes, I had to look it up, too. And that’s why these workshops are so popular. You will not only learn who the oltremontani were but you can “be one” for a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon. Then on Sunday, November 23 it’s off to Great Britain to meet Henry Purcell, perhaps a composer with whom you are more familiar. But, teases Cox, “if you think you know Purcell, we guarantee there are gems you’ve never heard” (RCR website).

Immerse in the music of Willaert on Saturday, October 25, 1-4 pm, at St. James Lutheran Church (a change from the usual locale). Details and tickets are here. And enjoy singing the music of Purcell on November 23, 1-4 pm, at Grace Episcopal Memorial Church (the usual locale). Details and tickets are here.

Remembrance

In Medio Choir opens their fifth season on November 1 and 2 with “a moving reflection on death, transcendence, and the mystery of what lies beyond” (website). Triptych, by London-born, San Francisco based composer Tarik O’Regan, is a work that fully illuminates those themes. 

The first movement, “Threnody”, commissioned in 2005 as an independent work, is based on the texts of William Penn, William Blake, Egyptian poet Muhammad Rajab Al-Bayoumi and the Psalms of David. About Movements II and III the composer states “Musical works connected with commemoration or memorials are often suitably pensive and slow; I wanted to start with that concept, but to bring in some of the relentless urban rhythms. The result is that the second movement is quiet and gentle, while the final movement is much faster and vibrant, returning to a more openly elated rendering of [the beginning] of Triptych” (Wise Music Group website).

A Passage Memorial is offered at the concert where you may share your personal reflections and memories. Offer a name, a note or a photo of a loved one who lives in memory “in the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn” (text of Movement II, “As We Remember Them”, adapted from poetry by Rabbi Roland Gittelsohn). Listen here to Triptych, Movement II, in this recording by Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare.

Concert repertoire also includes Eric Whitacre’s When David Heard, Amihan by Ily Matthew Maniano and other works; view In Medio’s complete program repertoire here.

In Medio is on KQAC’s Thursdays @ 3 on October 23. Listen to that broadcast, live or archived, here: https://www.allclassical.org/programs/thursdays-at-three/.

Share “Passage” with In Medio on Saturday, November 1, 7 pm at Augustana Lutheran Church and Sunday, November 2, 3 pm at St. Philip Neri. Tickets, program and more information about In Medio can be found here.

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On November 14 (in Seattle) and 15 (in Portland), Cappella Romana will present the American premiere of The Last Anthem by Greek composer Dimitris Skyllas. This work was commissioned by Cappella Romana, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, and the Ernst von Siemens Foundation as a remembrance of the “traumatic exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey in 1923-24” (Cappella Romana media).

Cappella Romana Music Director Alexander Lingas attended the 2024 premiere at the Istanbul Festival. “Set for mixed choir and instruments,” wrote Lingas in recent email to OAW, “Skyllas’s poignant 30-minute work features Greek and Turkish poetry, most of it rendered in English, and excerpts of the Byzantine rite’s Memorial Service.” 

Listen here to the composer talk about the Istanbul premiere of The Last Anthem:

“Historical memory and reconciliation with minorities,” continued Lingas, “are politically very sensitive subjects in Turkey, where the national government has once again turned toward nationalism and the political expression is a fraught issue.” Worth mention therefore is the significance of the Istanbul Festival’s support of the performance of Skyllas’s work. For further information around the events raised in remembrance in The Last Anthem Lingas recommends “Remembering Smyrna and the Great Catastrophy” and “Istanbul pogrom.”

Selections from Requiem by prolific Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis (Zorba the Greek, 1964), the music of John Taverner and a world premiere of Mystical Versicles by Christos Hatzis are also on the program. Members of Cappella Romana participated in a 2019 album which features Hatzis’s Troparion of Kassiani. Listen to this sampling of Hatzis work here.

Dimitris Skyllas will be attending the Seattle and Portland premieres. 45th Parallel Universe performs with Cappella Romana in these concerts.

Cappella Romana presents “Living Memories” in Seattle on Friday, November 14, 7:30 at St. James Cathedral and in Portland on Saturday, November 15, 2 pm at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Tickets and more information are here. 

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If it is Veterans Day, Salem-based choir Willamette Master Chorus will be singing. The very popular annual event began in 2004 with a startling awareness that men and women in the community who had served their country were not being recognized on “their” day. In the absence of parades and State recognition WMC Artistic Director Paul Klemme said let’s gather in song. The concert has also honored fire fighters, emergency care personnel, police and others who keep our communities safe and healthy.

This year you will reminisce with iconic wartime tunes from Broadway. Right off the top, can you think of a couple pieces that might be on this concert? How about George M. Cohen’s “Over There”? Or “I’ll Be Seeing You”? Appearing with the WMC adult singers will be the high school students in the WMC Honor Choir. Appearing in the audience will be families, friends, grateful citizens and veterans. 

WMC’s 25-26 season theme is “Tried and True.” In addition to the Veteran’s concert you can hear audience favorite, The Trail Sextet, on their Christmas concert along with South Salem High School Symphonic Choir. WMC’s choral-orchestral offering? That will be Orff’s Carmina Burana in February and will feature two special guests: the WMC Elementary School Honor Choir and members of the Portland Symphonic Choir. Then WMC returns to one of their favorite venues for their season-ending offering of sacred music at Mt. Angel Abbey. 

Willamette Master Chorus’s annual Veteran’s Concert is Saturday, Nov. 8 and Sunday, November 9, both concerts at 3 pm at Smith Auditorium on Willamette University Campus. Tickets and more information on this concert and WMC’s entire season are here. 

Strong voices in higher ed

Our local colleges and universities bring wonderful music to our communities – wonderful arts of all kinds. Lewis and Clark College, Portland State University, George Fox University and Clark College, Vancouver have posted their upcoming choral concerts on their event calendars. You will also find mixed-ensemble (band, orchestra, choir) concerts popping up around the holidays. And many of these are free to the public. 

Notably, Portland State University’s “Making Our Garden Grow” 25-26 season will dig deep into PSU’s choral legacy in the Rose City. In their first concert of the year, “Breaking Ground” on November 14 and 15, PSU Chamber Choir’s will kick off their 50^th anniversary alongside new vocal group Fourth Wall Ensemble. “Innovative,” “otherworldly” and “bold” are words being used to these New York based singers who are rounding out their West Coast Tour with this Portland appearance. Their singing? Check out this Fourth Wall Ensemble teaser clip.

Learn even more about this concert and about music at PSU when Chamber Choir appears on KQAC’s “Thursdays @ 3 on November 13 as part of the Roger O. Doyle Choral Series. Tickets for that live broadcast are available here. And Portland State’s “Music @ Midday” is an opportunity to drop in to Lincoln Hall or watch a free concert on live feed. Chamber Choir sings on M@M on Friday, November 7. Folks from “back in the day”, this is PSU’s Brown Bag series, 21^st century version. 

Join the Portland State University Chamber Choir and Fourth Wall Ensemble in “Breaking Ground” on Friday, November 14 and Saturday, November 15, both concerts are at 7:30 at St. Philip Neri. Tickets and more information are here. Portland State’s first community sing of the year will take place on December 5 and more PSU choral music will blossom throughout the year. The entire PSU choral season can be viewed right here.

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Portland State Choirs will also be on the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall stage when the Oregon Symphony present Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana on November 20, 22 and 23. The cry to “Fortuna” will blast forth, the “lusty taberna” doors will be opened and the voices of the children, offered by Pacific Youth Choir, will bring the world back around to where it ought to be. Jun Märkl conducts the concert which also includes Richard Strauss’s Til Eulenspiegel. Doesn’t that seem like a marvelous pairing? 

Carmina Burana unites the Oregon Symphony, Portland State University Choirs, Pacific Youth Choir and soloists on Thursday, November 20, 7:30; Saturday, November 22, 7:30 and Sunday, November 23, 2 pm at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets and details are here.

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Join the Multnomah Women’s Chorus for Songs & Community on November 24. It is “a program of choral works about music and the joy of singing together,” wrote MWC conductor Jessica Israels in recent email to OAW. You will hear the music of Puccini, Pinkzebra, Sarah Quartel, Josef Rheinberger, Caroline Shaw and Harry Warren. You might not recognize that last name but you might well know Henry Warren’s songs. “Lullaby on Broadway” and “That’s Amore” are two of his Academy Award hits. How about “Jeepers Creepers” and “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” and the timeless ballad “You’ll Never Know”?

Multnomah Women’s Chorus offers the classic and the contemporary. Songs for the whole community. On stage with the choir will be Clay Giberson and Kelly Bard (piano), Chuck Israels (bass), and Michael Rodenkirch (drums).

“Songs and Community” is presented on Monday, November 24, 7:00 p.m. at The Episcopal Parish of St. John the Baptist, Portland.. Admission is free; donations are appreciated. Join the choir at a reception after the concert. Learn more at jessicaisraels.com/multnomah-womens-chorus.

A place like home

Time for celebration: It’s Portland Lesbian Choir’s 40^th Anniversary of beautiful singing and valuable community. Click those Ruby heels ‘cause on November 15 “There’s No Place Like PLC.”

In choral season 24-25 Portland Lesbian Choir participated in Portland Gay Men’s Chorus’s 45^thAnniversary celebration. The event brought 400 performers to the stage and sold out the seats in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. OAW interviewed several PLC choir members in advance of that PGMC Gala concert. Veteran PLC singers shared their choir history, and new members shared how PLC quickly became their home community. Read that full story here. 

PLC was already experiencing an influx of new members at that time but in the last eight months they have welcomed approximately 50 more musicians; they are now 170 singers strong. In recent phone conversation with OAW, new PLC Executive Director Hayley Andrews said this 40^th season would be a tremendous boost to the choir’s outreach. But it is also a time to reflect on the history of the choir. Members and friends are amassing photos and memorabilia to be displayed at the concert. “It’s almost a reunion,” said Andrews.

All who attend will be welcomed as part of the PLC family. PLC soloists and small ensembles will perform but expect to be invited to sing-a-long to some of the beautiful music from the choir’s 40 years. 

Join Artistic Director Mary McCarty and Portland Lesbian Choir for “There’s No Place Like PLC” on Saturday, November 15, 1 pm, at Alberta Abbey. More information about tickets and a special raffle drawing can be found right here. And mark your calendar for PLC’s Winter concert. It is “The Place Where We Belong”, January 31 and February 1 at the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts in Beaverton.

Brew it up

Whether you favor a beany brew or a hoppy brew, you can raise a mug to two Baroque composers while enjoying the company of two choirs. 

You can probably guess that the Bach Cantata Choir is behind a unique November 16 “Coffee Cantata” performance experience. BCC has named this caffeinated conclave “Zimmermann’s Café” in honor of Leipzig’s legendary coffee house where J. S. Bach offered performances by his Collegium Musicum. 

Zimmermann’s is where Bach’s 1735 Coffee Cantata (Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht/Be still, stop chattering, BWV 211) was premiered. All were welcome to these public concerts. Even women – gasp! – who were then not allowed to frequent coffee houses were allowed to attend the Collegium Musicum. Read more about that here and sign up soon for the limited seating at this unique “brewhouse” event.

This part concert, part auction, mostly just for fun event will be held on Sunday, November 16, 2-4 pm at The German American Society of Portland. For more information and tickets visit the BCC website here. 

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Forty-one years later and an ocean away G. F. Handel’s Messiah received its American premiere in Mr. Burns’ Rooms, a New York City Tavern (and coffee house). The concert was sponsored by a former employee of NYC’s Trinity Church. Read more about that historic event here. On November 30 Portland Symphonic Choir invites you to help them recreate that setting, sing-a-long style. BYO Messiah (some will be available) or just jump in when the brew moves you at this spirited and joyous event.

Portland Symphonic Choir’s SYO Messiah event on Sunday, November 30 will take place at the Award-winning Migration Brewery’s North Williams location. More details will be available soon right here.

It’s a comin’

Festival Chorale Oregon ushers in the Holiday season on November 23 with Christmas Story (Historia der Geburt Jesu Christi) by Heinrich Schütz. This 35-ish minute cantata – written when Schütz was in his mid-seventies – is a pure, uncomplicated work with the story guided by tenor evangelist, portrayed in this concert by Les Green. You will also hear soprano Nicole Peldyak in the role of the Angel and bass Brian Peldyak as Herod. For a taste of Schütz Christmas Story, listen here.

FCO’s concert repertoire also includes a work by a British composer and scholar Gordon Jacob. Jacob’s music has not been widely performed in the US. Jacob was very popular in Britain in the early 1940s and ‘50s, and for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II added a fanfare to the National Anthem (God Save the Queen), a version which has become a ceremonial favorite in Britain. 

But this is your opportunity to enjoy perhaps your first hearing of Jacob’s Christmas offering The New-born King premiered in 1960, a work FCO’s website calls “a radiant treasure.” 

Festival Chorale Oregon performs Heinrich Schütz Christmas Story and more on Sunday, November 23, 4 pm, at Salem’s Elsinore Theatre. Tickets and details are here.

Connections

Portland’s Trinity Episcopal Cathedral is going for the goosebumps again for Halloween. On Saturday, October 25, at 6 pm, come in costume and enjoy the BYO pumpkin carving station, snacks and, of course, the magnificent and extra spooky music performed on Trinity’s Rosales Organ. A suggested donation of $15 will be appreciated at Trinity’s safe and completely irreverent “Pipe Screams” Organ Spectacular. More information is here.