Category: Headlines

In recent years, Portland, Oregon, has earned a reputation as one of the capitals of indie rock, boasting musicians such as The Decemberists, Sleater-Kinney, the Shins, M. Ward, the late Elliott Smith, Dandy Warhols, and Pink Martini. But the city also reverberates to a surprisingly robust “new music” / postclassical music undercurrent, and recently, the two streams seem to be converging.

Classical to Post-Classical

Third Angle violist Brian Quincey performs in triplicate (with video assistance) at the group’s Frozen Music concerts. Photo by Carolezoom

The most established new music groups grew out of the city’s classical music institutions. The most prominent ensemble, Third Angle, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary, has commissioned more than 20 new works (many by Northwest composers), sponsored residencies by composers such as Steve Reich, Chen Yi, and Zhou Long, collaborated with dancers and videographers, and performed works by many of the leading American new music composers, including Portlanders David Schiff and Tomas Svoboda. Though it regularly performs at Reed College and the downtown performing arts center, some of its most fascinating concerts have happened in such unlikely spaces as a glass factory and a bank lobby. Its first concert this season (Oct. 27-28) features a newly commissioned score by Vivek Madalla for the classic King Vidor film Wild Oranges.

Like Third Angle, Fear No Music draws its members from the Oregon Symphony and other classical orchestras, and also presents music by 20th- and 21st-century composers. This septet is a bit smaller than Third Angle, whose six-member core can expand to 15 or more members when necessary. It performs in downtown churches, at Portland State University, and, last year, in the performance space at the advertising firm of Wieden + Kennedy, which also hosts many events in the city’s annual Time Based Arts festival.

The major classical organizations play contemporary music only occasionally, although the Oregon Symphony is set to debut Oregon composer Robert Kyr’s Symphony No. 13 in the spring. Portland choral groups have been more adventurous: the Oregon Repertory Singers (for which Kyr served as composer-in-residence) have commissioned or debuted almost 20 new American works since 1980, and the David York Ensemble performs new music as well as old. The 60-year-old Portland Chamber Orchestra has scattered 20th century music throughout its recent programs, including this year’s debut concert featuring Viktor Ullmann’s 1944 one-act anti-fascist opera, The Emperor From Atlantis, and the world premiere of Ofer Ben-Amots’s Klezmer Concerto, featuring the dazzling David Krakauer on clarinet. PCO’s next show, in January, features two more world premieres.

Bandoneon virtuoso Coco Trivisonno joins Third Angle in music by Astor Piazzolla. Photo by Carolezoom

Local classically trained composers also find outlets in a couple of regular concert series. Seventh Species, a composers’ collective led by Gary Noland that migrated from Berkeley to Eugene and then to Portland, will often showcase a dozen composers’ works (usually performed by the composers themselves or a few local musicians) and frequently include “older masters” such as Debussy, Schönberg, Messiaen, etc. The New West Electro Acoustic Music Organization (NWEAMO) started in Portland, where its founder, Joseph Waters, once taught college. He’s moved on to San Diego, yet maintains the series in both cities, and this year expanded it to New York as well. NWEAMO’s definition of new music also includes laptop composers and music that brings in jazz, hip hop, and other contemporary influences; it happily blurs the line between classical- and pop-influenced avant garde music.

Some of the Seventh Species composers record for North Pacific Music, a Portland-based record label founded by composer Jack Gabel that’s one of the city’s most important new music institutions. Gabel himself is a fine electroacoustic composer who often writes for dance. One of North Pacific’s newest groups, the East West Ensemble led by flutist Tessa Brinckman, specializes in Pacific Rim music (it includes a koto player) and is one of the most appealing new music groups to emerge in the Northwest in years.

College bound

Many of these composers and musicians also frequently perform two hours south in the college town of Eugene, home of the University of Oregon. The UO music school hosts a strong composition program, headed by Kyr, that includes a biennial new music festival (this year featuring Veljo Tormis), a new music performance series, a performance series for composition students, Future Music Oregon (an electronic music program run by composer Jeffrey Stolet), and percussion ensembles led by Prof Charles Dowd that play almost exclusively contemporary music by composers such as Portland native Lou Harrison, Frank Zappa, and other 20th century composers. UO music students have also founded a number of new music ensembles over the years that play student works as well as 20th century classics at campus concert venues. The university also hosts the Oregon Bach Festival, which has sponsored performances (often U.S. premieres) of music by, among others, Osvaldo Golijov, Tan Dun, Arvo Pärt, and Krzysztof Penderecki, and a biennial composers symposium, directed by Kyr, that’s hosted teaching residencies by those composers and others, such as George Crumb and Lou Harrison.

Daryl Groetsch of Pulse Emitter and Don Haugen of Warning Broken Machine perform at DIVA in Eugene. Photo by Carolezoom

The Eugene Symphony under music director emerita Marin Alsop won a reputation as a haven for contemporary music and seemed poised to continue it during Giancarlo Guerrero’s tenure, when his second season featured music and appearances by John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Aaron Jay Kernis, and John Adams. Pickings have been slimmer of late, however, save for an all-Michael Daugherty concert last year. Touring new music types like the Kronos Quartet, Rachel’s, Invert, Laurie Anderson, and others have made infrequent appearances at local concert halls. But a new scene appears to be coalescing around Eugene’s three-year-old Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts (DIVA), an arts institute that has hosted a steady stream of increasingly prominent noise and improv musicians, multimedia productions, and local avant garde composers.

A couple hours west of Portland at the Oregon coast, the 15-year-old Ernest Bloch Composers Symposium, held annually in conjunction with the Ernest Bloch Music Festival in Newport, has presented the work of over 100 composers, led each summer by a different “master” composer, including among others: Chinary Ung, George Rochberg, David Del Tredici, and Chen Yi.

From Clubland

Back in Portland, a different new music scene appears to be emerging from various music clubs. The Creative Music Guild has for 15 years hosted out-there jazz and improvisatory music from around the country at jazz clubs and other venues. A number of bands play new music inflected by jazz, rock, or electronica, the most venerable—and fun—being the uncategorizable 3 Leg Torso, who bring their mix of violin, accordion, cello, and percussion to various venues around the region, including summer concerts in parks and neighborhoods. New, young groups like the cello-fueled trio Bright Red Paper are invigorating the indie club scene with music that’s still recognizably based in rock and pop yet appeals to new music types. For two years running, the leading local alternative newspaper, Willamette Week, has voted its best new band award to products of Portland’s long-burgeoning electonica/dance scene: the viola-and laptop/percussion duo Talkdemonic and solo artist Copy. Those performers, and others from the club electronica scene like the music/film ensemble Small Sails, play hip clubs like Holocene, Doug Fir lounge, and Mississippi Studios and are even beginning to tour.

Electronic musician Copy performs in September at Portland’s annual Time Based Arts Festival. Photo by Carolezoom

The easiest way to experience Portland rock-related new music is to attend the city’s Time Based Arts festival, which happens in early September. Although TBA is best known for bringing in avant-garde performance artists, dancers, and theatre groups from around the world, it also hosts quite a few local bands that tend to be on the weird side. This year, TBA included street and warehouse performances by the Music Population Orchestra, whose mission is to “bring music that sounds like our time to audiences in clubs, bars, concert halls, streets and every other space that can contain live music in order to help familiarize those who are new to chamber music with what it means and to help broaden the horizons of those who already think they know it.” Founded by 20-something Norwegian immigrant Brede Rørstad, who’s also worked with Third Angle, MPO plays his chamber/electronic hybrid music along with other contemporary sounds.

MPO, a kind of a mashup of chamber orchestra and rock/electronica band, may signal the future of Portland new music. Portland is famous for its many bridges, and the city is just now beginning to see connections tentatively forming between its two major new music streams—the club/electronica oriented acts and the older, classically informed types. At the moment, it’s mostly visible in overlapping venues like the Wonder Ballroom, in the occasional electronic touches in Third Angle performances, in the use of classical viola or cello in club acts like Talkdemonic. Like new music anywhere, Portland’s version struggles from lack of support by cultural elites, such as arts grantmakers. But the flood of young, hip, creative 20- and 30-somethings moving to this happening city has roiled the musical waters enough to make it likely that Portland will soon see some welcome cross fertilization as musicians from various points of origin—geographic and musical—draw on the city’s increasingly diverse musical streams.

South of the Poconos, west of Philly, and way east of the Iron City, Central PA (no one around here really says Pennsylvania) encapsulates Harrisburg, Lancaster, York, and, perhaps most famously, Hershey (the “sweetest place on earth”). To those more accustomed to large urban hubs, it might feel like the middle of nowhere, but music fans here have a wide range of options, especially when you consider the concert calendars assembled by the many liberal arts colleges dotting the landscape.

Presenters know that they have a responsibility to bring fresh, new performers and music to the area. Often an orchestra or chamber group scheduled to play on the east coast will fill in a few concert dates here first. After their big city premiere, many soloists will tour—which bodes well for Central PA. More often than not, you’ll hear a new work and meet a composer who is, or will soon be, making headlines in the national arts sections.

Of course, you can always slip away to Philadelphia for the likes of Orchestra 2001, get to Pittsburgh to catch the fabulous New Music Ensemble under Kevin Noe, or make a weekend of it in NYC, but there are plenty of events to keep active in Central PA. Here’s a closer look at a few of the movers and shakers in the midstate.

Dickinson College

Composer Robert Pound

About 20 miles west of Harrisburg is Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. The campus is near the heart of the charming town of 18,000 and has a lot to offer the community. Most notably, Dickinson College supports an ensemble in residence—and not just any old group, but performers with a new music slant. Previously the college hosted the Corigliano String Quartet (dedicated to the presentation of new American music and founded in 1996 with the blessing of the ensemble’s Pulitzer, Grammy, and Oscar-winning namesake); and currently, Alarm Will Sound is at the college through summer 2007. The 20-member band, committed to innovative performances and recordings of today’s music, have established a reputation for performing demanding music with energetic virtuosity. (Rumor has it that another cutting-edge ensemble will follow when Alarm Will Sound finishes.) This residency program is a great resource for the community and provides stellar study opportunities for the students.

Other great outreach efforts are the performances and masterclasses with visiting composers like Milton Babbitt and Samuel Adler, in addition to those offered regularly by the faculty. Composer Robert Pound is chair of the music department and sees that students and the community take full advantage of the new music opportunities. Voice instructor Lynn Helding is not just a singer but also a pioneer in the emerging field of voice science!

Concertante

The resident chamber ensemble at Harrisburg’s Whitaker Center for Science and Art, Concertante is committed to the presentation of new work. That, coupled with their “go-for-it,” spot-on playing, makes for some killer concerts. Comprised of a core of six virtuoso string players, the group performs in varied combinations of instrumentalists: sometimes a trio, or maybe a guest vocalist or pianist will join them. In addition to regular tours across the country, Concertante is truly global, spotted everywhere from New York’s Carnegie Hall to London’s Royal Festival Hall to Shanghai’s Grand Theatre.

This year, Concertante launches One Plus Five—a three-year, six-composer commissioning project designed to create six string sextets, each featuring just one of their core players. The group will premiere the first piece this weekend, Lowell Liebermann’s new work featuring violinist Xiao-Dong Wang, and later in the season they will present Tigran Mansurian’s take on the “soloist in a sextet” with violist Ara Gregorian. Future seasons will include new sextets by Gabriela Frank, Shulamit Ran, Richard Danielpour, and Kevin Puts.

Concertante also regularly finds itself doing a “preview” or “teaser” performance away from the Whitaker Center, perhaps at a tapas bar or at a library. They are young and hip players who have enough spunk to try something new and enough talent to breathe life into any chamber work of the past. If they make it to your neck of the woods, go see them, or plan a trip to Harrisburg and hear them in their natural habitat.

While in Harrisburg, you might stop off for a nightcap along Second Street—just a few blocks from the Whitaker Center, it’s the scene to be seen. There are clubs and restaurants to suit anyone’s style. Favorite places for a meal or post-concert drink include Café Fresco (215 North 2nd St.) and Mangia Qui (272 North Street). Both host live music.

Gretna Music

Another chamber music institution in Central PA is Gretna Music, about 30 miles east of Harrisburg. Combining the pleasantness of Pennsylvania’s outdoors and the freshness of new music, they held their 31st season of concerts this summer. They also have a winter season at Elizabethtown College.

Gretna Music strives to make the concert not just a listening experience but a complete entertainment package (and I mean that in the best sense.) “Concert Conversations” precede every performance and often a combined art or multimedia presentation is offered. For example, the nearby Annville Theater showed Jagged Harmonies, a film about J.S. Bach and Frederick the Great in conjunction with Tempesta di Mare’s concert program, which also included a pre-screening lecture and demonstration with Tempesta di Mare!

New music thrives on Gretna’s diverse series thanks to groups like Philadelphia’s Time For Three, an experimental country/jazz/bluegrass/classical string group, and the Audubon String Quartet, an ensemble which, when its members aren’t engaged in legal battles, can be heard playing new works by composers such as Donald Erb and Peter Schickele. Gretna Music also presents jazz in the summer with visiting performers such as Leon Redbone, Bill Charlap, and Patricia Barber. There is always something fresh: last year featured wonderful performances of works by Henri Dutilleux and Eric Ewazen; and Boston Brass will open this year’s winter season.

Next Generation Festival

Next Generation Festival

Each summer pianist Awadagin Pratt visits Central PA and presents the Next Generation Festival with his friends and students. Concerts take place across the region, from Gettysburg to Selinsgrove, based out of Millersville University. Last season audiences enjoyed music by Osvaldo Golijov and Dmitri Shostakovich; previously the festival included premieres of works by Thomas Kraines and Theodore Shapiro.

The artists making appearances at NGF are quite diverse, from the Cypress String Quartet and Rachel Barton Pine, to Juliette Kang and Zuill Bailey. If you go, be sure to stick around after the concerts for the “talkback”—I have it on good authority that whoever is the current “chip leader” in their nightly poker games has to answer some sort of dare. But hijinks aside, these talkbacks really do provide a chance for the performers to communicate with the audience at another level and help add another level of “personality” to the player.

The NGF takes place over two weeks each June and future commissions are afoot for upcoming seasons. It’s a real force in Central PA, getting out the word for music and really showing off new faces. Every concert has fresh listeners, and you can feel the electricity between the performers and audience.

If you’re in Annville for the Next Generation Festival or at a performance at Lebanon Valley College (another fine Liberal Arts school in the area) stop by MJ’s Coffee Shop inside the Annville Theater. Their jazz series runs October through June each year on the first Thursday of the month, though their calendar features all sorts of artists throughout the week.

But Wait, There’s More

I’ve listed the key presenters above, but it’s not exhaustive. Try one of the regional orchestras if you want some new orchestral sounds: The Harrisburg Symphony and energetic Music Director Stuart Malina often bring in guest composers.

Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College

There are lots of higher educational institutions to visit in this area of the state, and just 37 miles southwest of Harrisburg is Gettysburg College. They host the Sunderman Chamber Music concerts, a chamber music series that attracts world-class performers hosted in an intimate setting. Last season, eighth blackbird brought their Pierrot Lunaire with soprano Lucy Shelton to the newly refurbished Majestic Theater and this year So Percussion will drop by.

About 40 miles southwest of Harrisburg is Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster. F&M’s Barshinger Center hosts new works with the F&M Philharmonia, F&M Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and last semester they staged faculty composer John Carbon’s opera based on the life of Benjamin Franklin (in honor of the 300th anniversary of his birth).

While you’re in Lancaster, stop by the historic Fulton Opera House, widely considered to be the nation’s oldest continuously operating theatre. The Pennsylvania Academy of Music is also in Lancaster and is a great resource for students and locals in the area. Rounding out the scene in Lancaster, new works often are on the program of Allegro!, the area’s chamber orchestra, and the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra has given an annual composer award since 1959.

I’m sure you’re getting road weary so we’ll stop here, though we haven’t hit York, just 25 miles south of Harrisburg, or Allentown, which is a bit further down the road. You might have thought otherwise when we started this tour, but there’s really not enough space to cover all of the new music concerts that take place in Central PA in just one article—quite frankly, it’s an excellent problem to have.

John Nasukaluk Clare

John Nasukaluk Clare is a radio broadcast professional, violinist, and webmaster of ClassicallyHip.com. Winner of ASCAP’s Deems Taylor Award in 2005, he is a member of Phi Beta, the American Music Center, and an ordained minister of New Music of Universal Life Church. He moved from Las Vegas to Harrisburg, PA, in June of 2005.