the meat in the orchestral sandwich

This is traditionally a wild and busy time of year for musicians and music lovers, so we are not scheduling much.

If you are interested in playing carols (or anything else) for a retirement home or children’s hospital in December, let me know and I’d be happy to set something up and join you.

Otherwise our next event is a play-in on January 10th. We’re doing it a little differently this time, and asking you to contact me if you are planning to come play with us. **Note that we are not playing at Lewis & Clark that day.** There’s room for everybody and all levels are welcome. We’ll provide sheet music and snacks- you bring your viola and violist friends.

Our next big shebang is February 22nd in Salem at Willamette University. This is just before some of the state school competitions and we are happy to present a masterclass for all levels. There will be a play-in, a short demo-recital of lesser known works worth knowing and more! We hope to see all you southern Oregon violists come, connect and play.

Stay tuned for more info here, including the details for a benefit viola recital on February 27th that you won’t want to miss.

November is the new December around here- hope you all have a great and busy month!

Hey all!

Just a friendly reminder that OVS has an event this Saturday November 8th at 1pm at Lewis & Clark College in Portland. The class portion has dissolved, but we will still host a play-in and would love to see you there.

There is also a viola-heavy concert this Friday night the 7th at 8pm featuring Fragile Horizon: for viola, speaking voice, computer and video by Robert Coburn and Milton Barnes’ Lamentations of Jeremiah for solo viola. You can find more info here.

This Saturday the 8th at 7:30 pm the Portland Youth Philharmonic will perform.

This Sunday the 9th at 2pm the Oregon Symphony will play Brahms 1. Let’s face it: pretty much anything by Brahms + the kick-butt OSO viola section= sweet!

I’m sure there are more- just let us know and we’ll be happy to post your event.

We had an excellent time last week at the Portland Cello Project’s Demo and Class at Lewis & Clark College.

Sorry we had no real camera that night- here’s what an older semi-crummy cell phone will get you:

Performance

Class

After treating the audience (73% of whom were also cellists) to a performance of several of his electronically enhanced pieces, Skip VonKuske moved on to explain how he approaches improvisatory playing. He finished by inviting all to the stage and led us in an impromptu reworking of a basic chord progression accompanied by some beats from his computer. Our groove inspired him to vamp on both Mission Impossible and Also Sprach Zarathustra- something for everyone in the mix.

If you missed the evening, you can find CDs from both Portland Cello Project and Skip VonKuske. They’re excellent local low-string talent!

Mark your calendar and stop by Lewis & Clark college Saturday November 8th at 1pm for a play-in and masterclass.

We’ll have more info for you soon and are happy to add you to the masterclass if you have something you’d like to play. Email Miriam to perform. All levels are welcome!

This week sure has come up quick!

Here’s the scoop on Friday night’s performance and class with the Portland Cello Project, serious rock stars that they are.

We’ll start at 7 pm in Evans Hall on the Lewis & Clark campus. Bring your instrument, whatever that may be, and your curiosity with a helping of creativity on the side. Leave any self-consciousness at home, or we can help you check it at the door.

We’d love to have musicians of all ages here and encourage you to bring students to this event as always.

Email Miriam with any questions. You can also call Miriam (during polite hours, please) at 503-341-1071.

GETTING TO LEWIS & CLARK:

Here are general directions to the campus.

To get to the music complex & parking for Evans, take the second left after the roundabout. It will look like you are entering a parking lot and if you stay straight you’ll head down a steep hill past a running track. Keep straight all the way to the parking lot at the end there and you should be able to find a spot. From the last parking lot, when you turn to look back up the hill you’ll see a small square cream building on your left up a small driveway. That’s the back of Evans Music Center and the main hall is on the second floor. We’ll put up some signs to help you out.

Photo by Alicia J. Rose from http://portlandcelloproject.com.

Oh, you guys!

We have a really great thing coming up on Friday, October 17th at Lewis & Clark College.

We had planned on having the Unbande present a concert for us, but that has been put on hold. You can still check them out on CD Baby, though! Especially recommended is their sweet version of Brandenburg 6.

But we got something really great to take their place: PORTLAND CELLO PROJECT!

These guys have agreed to come play for us, and to give a workshop/demo on various cross-genre topics. They’ll bring some electronic gadgets and are down with a demo-heavy Q&A session. If you’ve ever had an interest in arranging works for your instrument, in playing pop, rock or jazz, in getting a group of your-favorite-instrument together to do something artistically worthwhile, in becoming the number one seller on Amazon classical… well, that last one they may not be able to pass along but we can all congratulate them anyway.

So, as always, bring your viola and your violist friends. In fact this time around, all instruments are welcome!

Check out PCP online and come back here for updates soon.

Portland Cello Project Myspace Page

Portland Cello Project Website

Hey there!

Just wanted to let you all know we have a composer in our midst. Peggy Swafford, longtime contributor to the Viola Society and to Oregon’s music scene in general, has hooked us up with a means of purchasing her works. If you were at our first play-in this year in Portland, you’ll remember these fun, diverse pieces.

Check our classifieds (the link is over there —> in the right side column) for more info.
Thanks to most excellent Peggy and just a reminder that you can post info to our classifieds for free by simply emailing Miriam.

New event announcements are coming soon!

So sorry for the late notice, we’ll post another date soon!

If you would like to be listed on our Teacher Directory here, please email Miriam or leave a comment with the following information:

Ages/Levels/Specialties taught

General Location of Studio

Any bio or links you’d like to include

Your telephone number and email address

This listing service is free to current members of the Oregon Viola Society!

… from today’s Play-in in Portland.

Seriously yummy treats.