Oregon Symphony News Releases
June 2010
June 29, 2010
Oregon Symphony President Elaine Calder Extends Tenure
for Four More Seasons
The Oregon Symphony Association and President Elaine Calder have agreed to a four-year extension of Calder’s contract, ensuring that Calder will remain at the helm of Portland’s largest performing-arts organization through at least the 2013/14 concert season.
May 2010
May 26, 2010
“Countdown To Carnegie” Gala Raises $175,000 For Oregon Symphony’s New York Debut
The Oregon Symphony’s year-long effort to raise money for its 2011 trip to New York – where the orchestra will make its long-awaited Carnegie Hall debut at the first Spring for Music Festival – got off to a rousing start May 20 as more than 350 Portlanders turned out at The Nines Hotel for a gala fundraiser that was a glittery affair from start to finish.
May 21, 2010
Rufus Wainwright — TBA:10 Festival Opening Night
Rufus Wainwright has established himself as one of the great male vocalists and songwriters of his generation. In this symphonic collaboration, Wainwright will take the stage with the Oregon Symphony to songs by Hector Berlioz, selections from his pop albums and excerpts from his opera Prima Donna, performed by soprano Janis Kelly.
April 2010
April 23, 2010
Oregon Symphony Announces Its First Sold-Out Concert – Of Next Season
In what is easily the earliest Oregon Symphony concert sellout in memory – perhaps ever – the orchestra announced today that all available seats have been sold for next season’s concert with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
April 22, 2010
Three More One-Night-Only Special Concerts Added to Oregon Symphony’s 2010/11 Calendar
The Oregon Symphony today announced three new additions to next season’s concert lineup, including reprise appearances by two of the orchestra’s best-selling guest artists in recent years – banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck and Portland’s own rock diva, Storm Large – as well as the Halloween event to end all Halloween events: a 50th anniversary screening of the Alfred Hitchcock 1960 thriller Psycho with the orchestra performing Bernard Herrmann’s spine-tingling score live.
April 15, 2010
Portland Youth Philharmonic Wins 'Excellence In Music Education' Award
The Portland Youth Philharmonic – the nation’s first established youth orchestra – is the 2010 recipient of the Oregon Symphony’s Patty Vemer Excellence in Music Education Award, the orchestra announced today.
April 14, 2010
The Oregon Symphony In May: The Season Ends With A Bang
(And Another, And Another)
Nine months after it began with an al fresco performance in front of a huge crowd on Portland’s waterfront, the Oregon Symphony’s 2009/10 concert season comes to an equally thrilling conclusion in May with Music Director Carlos Kalmar on the podium for three dramatic weekends of Classical music in a row at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. First up: a perennial audience favorite, Dvořák’s Cello Concerto. Then comes a three-night festival at which all five of Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano concertos, plus his Triple Concerto, will be performed at three completely different concerts on consecutive days. Finally – just as the audience may begin to wonder what Kalmar can do to top that – he brings down the curtain with Gustav Mahler’s monumental “Titan” Symphony.
February 2010
February 9, 2010
The Oregon Symphony In March: The Calendar
Glitters With Rare Gems,
Well-Done
One thing’s for certain about the Oregon Symphony’s Classical calendar for March: Audiences leaving the concert hall will legitimately be able to say, “Well, I’ve never heard that before!” The March line-up features only two programs -- five compositions in all – and four of the five are Oregon Symphony premieres. The fifth? That would be opera composer Gioachino Rossini’s theatrical Stabat Mater, which the orchestra has performed before, in fact … but only once – way back in 1925.
January 2010
January 31, 2010
Oregon Symphony Unveils Its 2010/11 Season:
Stellar Lineup
Features Music’s Brightest Stars
Highlights Include A-List Soloists, a Broad Range of Premieres
and – in its 115th Season -- the Orchestra’s Carnegie Hall Debut
Music Director Carlos Kalmar and the Oregon Symphony today announced the orchestra’s 2010/11 concert season. It’s a stellar lineup that begins with a one-night-only gala performance on Sept. 16 featuring violin superstar Joshua Bell and just builds from there, bringing many of the music world’s biggest names to Portland along the way before it wraps up May 21-23 with a weekend of concerts celebrating the orchestra’s own musicians upon their return from the orchestra’s Carnegie Hall debut in New York.
January 31, 2010
Oregon Symphony’s 2010/11 Season Includes
23 Premieres For The Orchestra
The Oregon Symphony’s 2010/11 concert season will include the premiere performances by the orchestra of 23 works never before performed in its 115-year history. Taken together, the premieres represent a third of all the music the Oregon Symphony will perform in its major concerts throughout the year.
Of the 16 concerts on the classical subscription series, 15 will feature works the Oregon Symphony has never before performed (the one-night-only gala concert Sept. 16 with violinist Joshua Bell also includes a premiere).
January 31, 2010
Inside The Oregon Symphony’s 2010/11 Season:
Living Composers … And Other Rarities
In addition to the masterworks from the core orchestral repertoire that make up about a third of all the music the Oregon Symphony will perform in its 2010/11 season, the concert lineup is generously studded with what might be considered rarities: seldom-performed gems, Oregon Symphony premieres and a significant number of pieces by living composers.
January 14, 2010
Violinist Chee-Yun Will Sub For Arabella Steinbacher With The Oregon Symphony Jan. 23-25
Korean-born violinist Chee-Yun will make her first Oregon Symphony appearance in a decade Jan. 23-25, performing Antonin Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in place of the previously announced soloist, Arabella Steinbacher, who has withdrawn because of illness. Complete concert details and a biography of violinist Chee-Yun follow.
January 14, 2010
The Oregon Symphony In February: It's Going To Be One Sizzling Month
In Portland
The skies may be dark and gray, the weather grim and Gothic, but the Oregon Symphony does its best to heat things up on the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall stage throughout February with seven different concerts that promise a little something for everybody: big-name headliners, major Classical masterworks, even one weird and wonderful evening amid the cabarets of Weimar Germany. Oh, yeah: and Storm Large, too, all glammed up for her symphony orchestra debut! How’s that for an eclectic lineup?
December 2009
December 10, 2009
The Oregon Symphony in January: A Return to the Classics – with a Bit of Homespun Humor
Following a month of nearly non-stop holiday music, the Oregon Symphony gets back to basics at the start of the new year with three Classical programs on its January concert calendar, all led by Music Director Carlos Kalmar. But it’s not all serious stuff – how could it be, with humorist Garrison Keillor making two appearances on the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall stage?
November 2009
November 6, 2009
The Oregon Symphony in December:
Classical Rarities -- and a
Big Helping of Holiday Delights
The Oregon Symphony welcomes the winter season with a December concert line-up that opens with a program of seldom-played Classical works, centered around what promises to be an unforgettable performance of Béla Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto by one of the world’s premier pianists, Yefim Bronfman. Then it’s a full-speed-ahead sprint to the holidays with four consecutive seasonal programs that are sure to include something to warm the heart of every listener as 2009 nears its big finish.
October 2009
October 21, 2009
Oregon Symphony Is Awarded $1.45 Million In Grant Support
From Four Foundations
The Oregon Symphony, Portland’s largest performing-arts organization, announced today that it has been awarded new grants totaling $1.45 million by four foundations in support of its ongoing activities.
October 8, 2009
The Oregon Symphony In November:
One Out-Of-The-Ordinary Concert Event After Another
The Oregon Symphony's concert calendar for the month of November showcases the breadth and depth of musical experiences to be found inside a modern concert hall in the 21st century, from a multimedia extravaganza of video game tunes, to a guest appearance by legendary Jethro Tull rocker Ian Anderson, to a Pops program highlighting great Hollywood film scores. Oh, there's an extraordinary program for fans of classical orchestral music too, but one thing's for certain: It's not all just classical music anymore!
September 2009
September 11, 2009
Oregon Symphony Association And Local 99 Of The American Federation Of Musicians Announces The Results Of Concessionary Bargaining
The Collective Bargaining Agreement between the parties which was to expire in June 2010 has been extended until June 2011.
September 1, 2009
The Oregon Symphony in October: The Classical, Pops and Kids Series
All Begin Anew
The Oregon Symphony’s 2009/10 concert season goes into high gear in October with the opening events of its Classical concert series – always one of the major highlights on Portland’s fall arts calendar – as well as the season’s first Pops and Kids series performances. Also this month: Portland’s first performance ever of American composer Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety,” and concerts featuring one of music’s most popular masterworks of all time, the Beethoven Fifth Symphony.
August 2009
August 14, 2009
Oregon Symphony Concert Tickets to Go On Sale Monday
with a New Way Of Buying Online
Single tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 17, for all of the Classical, Pops and Kids series concerts in the Oregon Symphony’s 2009/10 season, and when they do concertgoers will have a new way to buy – online, directly from the Oregon Symphony – for the first time ever.
August 3, 2009
The Oregon Symphony In September:
New Season Kicks Off With A Free Outdoor Concert
After its annual summer hiatus, the Oregon Symphony launches into its 2009/10 concert season in September with a bang – literally – as the orchestra returns to downtown Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park for its only absolutely free concert all year, a pull-out-all-the-stops extravaganza that culminates in a rousing performance of the Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture complete with military cannons and fireworks. The orchestra then moves a few blocks farther downtown to its usual home, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, for two more September concerts that promise to be no less thrilling.
August 3, 2009
The Oregon Symphony In September:
New Season Kicks Off With A Free Outdoor Concert
After its annual summer hiatus, the Oregon Symphony launches into its 2009/10 concert season in September with a bang – literally – as the orchestra returns to downtown Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park for its only absolutely free concert all year, a pull-out-all-the-stops extravaganza that culminates in a rousing performance of the Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture complete with military cannons and fireworks. The orchestra then moves a few blocks farther downtown to its usual home, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, for two more September concerts that promise to be no less thrilling.