An Estacada Holiday Concert

Last season, our Community Music Partner was the town of Estacada. Our previous partnerships had been with communities much farther from Portland, and this year we are starting a new project with community leaders in LaGrande and Cove in eastern Oregon. But despite Estacada’s relative proximity to Portland, our partners there made a compelling case for the value to their community of working with the musicians of the Oregon Symphony in an extended residency.

Last week we were delighted to confirm that the Symphony will return to Estacada on December 18 for a holiday concert. Our community music partners were so eager to have the musicians come back that they raised the money necessary to pay our expenses—primarily the cost of transporting musicians, music stands, music and instruments.

We are looking forward to our December 18 concert in Estacada. We think it will be a happy event—a chance for families to experience the magic of holiday music played by a large professional orchestra, and to sing some of their favorite songs and carols with lavish orchestral accompaniment.

We’d like to do more of this. We are the Oregon Symphony, after all, and despite our large and loyal audiences in Portland we know there are a lot of people—even in our metro area—who find it hard to attend our performances. Thanks to the farsighted generosity of Ken and Joan Austin, an endowment gift supports an annual performance in Newberg. We would welcome similar arrangements with philanthropists in other nearby communities.

And we’d be delighted to respond to invitations by community groups for a visit in December 2008. Wherever there’s a large church or synagogue, civic center, corporate meeting place or school auditorium within an easy drive of downtown Portland, we can provide a holiday concert by your Oregon Symphony Orchestra musicians.

Please don’t hesitate to contact our Director of Operations, Susan Nielsen, if you’d like to explore this opportunity. Susan can be reached at 503-416-6304 or snielsen@orsymphony.org.

Sincerely,

Elaine Calder
President