August 4, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Free community concerts will once again herald the coming of a new Oregon Symphony season as the orchestra performs in southeast Portland’s Glenwood Park on Saturday, Aug. 28, and in Tom McCall Waterfront Park on Thursday, Sept. 2. The Glenwood Park concert, which will be preceded by an afternoon festival celebrating the cultural diversity of the park’s neighborhood, is sponsored by Health Net of Oregon; the Waterfront Concert is sponsored by Bank of America with support from Northwest Natural. Media support is provided by KINKfm102 and KOIN 6.
Presented by the city of Portland through the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC) and Portland Parks and Recreation, the “Oregon Symphony in the Neighborhoods” series features a concert of American pop and jazz favorites with guest conductor Matthew Catingub at Glenwood Park (Aug. 28) and a preview of the Symphony’s 2004-2005 season with Music Director Carlos Kalmar at Tom McCall Waterfront Park (Sept. 2). The Waterfront concert will conclude with the traditional performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, this year accompanied not only by cannons and fireworks but by the first-time lighting of the architectural features of the Hawthorne Bridge courtesy of the Willamette Light Brigade and Portland General Electric. A performance by the Portland Youth Philharmonic (PYP) and its Music Director Mei-Ann Chen, fresh from their Carnegie Hall debut this summer, will precede the Symphony concert; members of PYP also will join the Symphony for the 1812.
While it is traditional for the “Oregon Symphony in the Neighborhoods” series to conclude with the Tom McCall Waterfront Park concert, the location of the second parks concert is determined based on community need, said Vice President of Education and Community Engagement Michael Kosmala. “We work very closely with RACC to identify a city park whose neighborhood can best benefit from the unifying power of music,” he said. The neighborhood surrounding Glenwood Park has experienced some social and economic challenges in recent years, he said, so this collaboration with the Symphony is advancing community efforts to strengthen the neighborhood.
“We are fortunate to be working with an incredibly involved and committed neighborhood advisory committee,” said Kosmala, “whose focus is on celebrating the cultural diversity of the surrounding neighborhood while strengthening spirit and unity.”
The performing artists and activities for Glenwood Park have been planned by a committee of neighbors and representatives from the many cultural associations in southeast Portland, including the Community Language and Culture Bank; the Oregon Vietmanese Community Association; Kelly S.U.N. School, the International Refugee Center of Oregon, Lents Neighborhood Association and other local cultural and arts organizations.
The afternoon festival at Glenwood Park begins at 3 p.m. Performers will include: the Slavov Bulgarian Duo performing Bulgarian music in traditional and contemporary styles with master accordionist Milen Slavov and vocalist Zhivka Papancheva; Chisao Hata, an arts educator, performer and community activist who incorporates movement, sound, rhythm, metaphor, inquiry, and other essential elements of performing arts training into a movement piece with youth of many cultures from the neighborhood around Glenwood Park; Antonio Centurion and his Paraguayan harp trio; Hawaiian musician Sam Kama and his family of dancers; folk musician, dancer and teacher Leonid Nosov from the Cultural Expressions Arts Center performing traditional Ukrainian songs on the bayan, a Russian-style button accordion; and Kellogg Middle School jazz pianist Grant Richards, who was recently honored by Downbeat Magazine as the Best Jazz Instrumental Soloist in the Middle School Division nationwide.
Other festival activities will include a Symphony instrument “petting zoo;” Lorna Miller’s Little Kid’s Jamboree, an interactive music improvisation program for babies and toddlers; and Fernando Sacdalan teaching the art of making Philippine paper lanterns. There is still free booth space available for neighborhood non-profits, children’s programs, arts organizations, and community development groups. Food and beverages will be available for purchase throughout the afternoon.
Catingub, the Principal Pops Conductor of the Honolulu Symphony, will lead the 7 p.m. Symphony concert, which will feature Catingub’s arrangements of popular and jazz standards including music of Cole Porter, Dizzie Gillespie, George Gershwin, Herbie Hancock and Jimmy Van Heusen.
The Glenwood Park Neighborhood Advisory Committee includes local resident Terri Montgomery; Betsy Redfern, Glenwood Park supervisor, Portland Parks and Recreation; Tina-Chinh-Nguyen, Oregon Vietnamese Community Association; Judy and John Welch, Lents Neighborhood Association; Susan and Scott Reynolds, Kelly Elementary School PTA; Greg Belisle, Kelly S.U.N. Community School; Kayse Jama, Community Language and Culture Bank; Phyllis Laners, IRCO (International Refugee Center of Oregon); and Alyssa Reed, IRCO and Kelly S.U.N. Community School.
Glenwood Park is located at the corner of SE 87 th and SE Claybourne. In the event of rain, all activities will move to Marshall High School, located at 3905 S.E. 91st.
The Symphony’s grandest community tradition continues when Kalmar and the orchestra present selections from the 2004-05 season and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture at Tom McCall Waterfront Park on Thursday, Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. (Raindate Sept. 3). Included will be excerpts from Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, as well as music of Wagner, Mendelssohn, Johann Strauss and a medley of Beatles’ tunes. Members of the Portland Youth Philharmonic will again join the orchestra for the 1812, which this year will culminate not only with fireworks and National Guard cannons, but with the first-time illumination of architectural lighting of the Hawthorne Bridge by the Willamette Light Brigade.
A non-profit organization, the Willamette Light Brigade was formed to illuminate the architecture of Portland’s downtown bridges. The Burnside Bridge will be lit next: see www.lightthebridges.org for details. Paddy Tillett, founder and Chair of the organization, said that lighting the bridges allows us to see “a visual focus at the heart of our community that is otherwise dark at night. It’s appropriate to highlight these structures which symbolize mutual dependence of citizens on both sides of the river. Bridge lights will show the civic pride of those who live and work here and add a dimension of delight to river crossings.”
The Symphony concert will be preceded by a 5 p.m. performance by the Portland Youth Philharmonic under the direction of Music Director Mei-Ann Chen. Chen will lead the PYP in a program that features excerpts from Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” Sarasate’s “ Zigeunerweisen” and the fourth movement from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor.
Food and beverages will be available for purchase.
