Classical Currents Podcast

Welcome to the Classical Currents podcast, I’m Charles Noble. Today I’m talking with the members of a fantastic and exciting new violin duo called Fifth Mirror. Those two violinists are Portland natives Hannah Tate and Lucia Atkinson. Between the two of them, they play with just about every premiere orchestral ensemble in the Portland area, including the Oregon Ballet Theatre orchestra, the Portland Opera Orchestra, and the Oregon Symphony. They’re also fantastic chamber musicians, and that love of playing in smaller ensembles, along with their curiosity and passion for finding hidden gems of the violin duo repertoire led them to found Fifth Mirror together. Fifth Mirror makes their debut in a virtual concert produced by Great Arts Period which will air on Friday, September 17th at 7:30 PM Pacific time. You can find the link and more information at www.classicalcurrents.com/shownotes.

Today we’re talking with Travis Hatton, the music director of the Beaverton Symphony, about that ensemble’s upcoming live stream concert that will close out their 2020-2021 season, entitled “Almost Summer”. The concert will stream on Friday, June 11th at 7:30PM Pacific, with a pre-concert talk by Travis Hatton at 7:00PM. The concert features works by Gustav Holst, George Friedrich Handel, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As always, check out the show notes at www.classicalcurrents.com/shownotes for links to things we’ve discussed in this and all the other episodes of this podcast. Out theme music was written and performed by Oregon’s own Kenji Bunch - please check out his music and more at www.kenjibunch.net.

We talk with two of Classical Up Close's founders - Oregon Symphony Concertmaster Sarah Kwak, and Principal cellist Nancy Ives about the beginnings of the festival and what's on tap for this year's festival, which begins on June 1st, 2021. Show notes at www.classicalcurrents.com/shownotes

Today we’re talking with two very important members of the Portland-based musical collective 45th Parallel Universe. We’re joined by the group’s founder, violinist Greg Ewer; and the group’s current Executive Director, violinist Ron Blessinger.

This episode, we’re talking with beloved classical radio host Christa Wessel. She’s been part of the on-air staff at AllClassical in Portland since 2007, has created the On Deck With Young Musicians Series, and been host and producer of AllClassical’s live performance program, Thursdays @ Three.

We're joined by composers Linda Woody and Jeff Winslow, both members of Cascadia Composers, a chapter of the National Association of Composers USA (NACUSA), and organizers of the 2021 Festival, hosted virtually from Portland, Oregon. We talk about how the pandemic has affected composers and performers, and what it was like to take an in-person festival and change it to a completely virtual festival. We also talk about highlights of the festival - and there are many! Show Notes: https://www.classicalcurrents.com/shownotes

This week we talk with Portland Youth Philharmonic musical director David Hattner, and two young composers who have been commissioned by PYP for their PYPFEST, Vol. 2 concert: Tatev Armiryan, and Jonathan Bingham. @jonathanbinghammusic @tatev-amiryan

Pianist and co-founder of Portland ensemble Fear No Music joins us to talk about his mini-recital of works by Courtney Bryan, Margaret Bonds, and Quinn Mason. https://soundcloud.com/courtneybryanmusic https://soundcloud.com/quinnmasoncomposer Show notes at www.classicalcurrents.com/shownotes

Resonance Ensemble Artistic Director Katherine FitzGibbon and Third Angle New Music Artistic Director Sarah Tiedemann join me with singer/composer Damien Geter and pianist/composer Darrell Grant to discuss the intersection of arts organizations and racial issues. Show Notes: https://www.classicalcurrents.com/episode003

We talk with composer/singer Lisa Neher and librettist Kendra Leonard about their Micro Opera Festival, which premieres a new five-minute opera each day starting March 22, 2021. Find the show notes for this episode here: https://www.classicalcurrents.com/episode002