Nancy Ives: The Spirit of the Columbia

Posted on April 26, 2024

Guest performers: Four Directions Drum Group Harold Paul (Nez Perce), lead singer

N’Chewana. Wimal. Swah’netk’qhu. These are some of the names for the great river known as the Columbia in the languages of Pacific Northwest tribal nations whose ancestors first fished, gathered together and celebrated along its banks beginning more than 11,000 years ago. In honor of these people and their deep history on... Read More ›

Jessie Montgomery: “Strum” Program Note

Posted on February 14, 2024

Strum is the culminating result of several versions of a string quintet I wrote in 2006. It was originally written for the Providence String Quartet and guests of Community MusicWorks Players, then arranged for string quartet in 2008 with several small revisions. In 2012 the piece underwent its final revisions with a rewrite of both the introduction and the ending... Read More ›

Bruce Stark: “Serenade for Strings” Program Note

Posted on January 5, 2024

Serenade for Strings was composed in June of 2023. The sound of string orchestra is one of my favorites in the western classical palette, with its capacity for rich, blended timbre as well as a broad range of possible sounds. True to its title, I wanted to create an attractive piece that sings and dances with beauty, lyricism, and vibrant... Read More ›

Frank Proto: A Carmen Fantasy Program Note

Posted on May 9, 2023

FRANK PROTO: A CARMEN FANTASY (1992) Frank Proto’s A Carmen Fantasy for Double Bass and Orchestra draws its thematic material from Georges Bizet’s wildly successful opera Carmen (1875).

A Carmen Fantasy was composed in 1991 and then premiered in the same year by the legendary SyrianFrench double bassist François Rabbath, a virtuoso who helped shift perception of the bass and its solo capabilities through his... Read More ›

Jessica Meyer: Because I Will Not Despair Program Note

Posted on May 9, 2023

It was on a plane ride home from Portland in 2013 when I wrote my 3rd looper piece, and after that the flood gates swung open and I knew I was supposed to be a composer. On that very trip I met Alicia Jo Rabins, a cool violinist/poet/ singer/songwriter that I somehow knew would be part of my life down... Read More ›

Kareem Roustom: Hurry to the Light Program Note

Posted on May 9, 2023

Homer’s The Odyssey is a tale that I’ve read some half a dozen times over the years. Recently it provided half the inspiration to my Clarinet Concerto: Adrift on the Wine-dark Sea (the other half was from Melissa Fleming’s book A Hope More Powerful Than The Sea which tells the harrowing true story of another Mediterranean odyssey made by Syrian refugee Doaa... Read More ›