LONGTIME PJS FAMILY RECALLS EARLY DAYS

Posted on November 22, 2019

Linda Neale (PJS 1967) and Georgia Marshall

Linda Neale and her mother, Georgia Leupold Marshall, came to the PYP office recently to share some stories of the early days of the Portland Junior Symphony.

Georgia’s mother (and Linda’s grandmother) Ruth Saunders was a violin student of PYP Founder Mary Dodge, first in Burns, and later when they both moved to Portland. Ruth played in... Read More ›

ALUMNA ELIZABETH ZWERENZ BELL GIVES LARGE GIFT TO PYP IN HER ESTATE

Posted on November 21, 2019

Elizabeth Zwerenz (pictured on the right) and Phyllis Falkoff, who together played JS Bach’s Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins on April 6, 1940.

Alumna Elizabeth Zwerenz (December 12, 1920 - March 12, 2019) has left approximately $300,000 to Portland Youth Philharmonic to benefit young musicians for generations to come.

Elizabeth was part of the Portland Junior Symphony for seven years. She... Read More ›

THE GLORY DAYS BY SHARI TYLE HOUSE (PJS 1965)

Posted on November 20, 2019

This photo shows Shari with visiting Brazilian violist Fabiola, who is from Joao Pessoa, the city in Brazil where Shari and her husband played for 3 years. Fabiola now lives in Edmonton and came to perform recently with the Okanogan Symphony.

Once you have learned the myriad skills of an orchestral player, and have mastered the unrelated art of the audition,... Read More ›

A Trumpeting Holiday

Posted on May 29, 2019

By Bill Spady, PJS alumni 1957

December 28, 2018

My trumpeting career has been going on, in one way or another, since I was 8 years old.

My recent trumpet adventure actually began 13 months ago when I received an email from the Portland Youth Philharmonic announcing its Christmas concert and inviting all PYP alumni (who were willing and able) to join... Read More ›

Then & Now: Shannon Lannigan Thompson, PYP Alumni (1981-83)

Posted on May 27, 2019

I played second clarinet in the Portland Youth Philharmonic from 1981 to 1983 during my senior year at David Douglas High School and freshman year at Reed College. College students dominated the wind and brass sections back then (with the exception of wunderkind clarinetist Theresa Schumacher), and I felt completely out of my league. My first concert with the orchestra... Read More ›

PROGRAM NOTES: BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ‘s Concerto for Oboe

Posted on April 10, 2019

Photo from the BBC

PYP alumnus (2008) Max Blair, now Associate Principal Oboe with the Pittsburgh Symphony, returns to Portland to perform Martinů’s beautiful Oboe Concerto with PYP on Sunday, May 5, 2019, in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

Bohuslav Martinů wrote his Oboe Concerto in 1955 at the request of Czech oboist Jiri Tancibudek. Like other composers, most notably Richard Strauss, Martinů... Read More ›