July 29, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … The annual tradition of free community concerts heralding the upcoming Oregon Symphony season continues as the orchestra takes up residence in northeast Portland’s Woodlawn Park on Saturday, Aug. 27, and performs in Tom McCall Waterfront Park on Thursday, Sept. 1. The Woodlawn Park concert, which will be preceded by an afternoon festival celebrating the theme of “Back to School,” is sponsored by Health Net of Oregon with support from Safeco Insurance; the Waterfront Concert is sponsored by Microsoft with support from Northwest Natural. Media support is provided by KGW, KINKfm102 and the Portland Tribune.
Presented by the city of Portland through the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC) and Portland Parks and Recreation, this year’s “Oregon Symphony in the Neighborhoods” series introduces the Symphony’s newly appointed Resident Conductor, Gregory Vajda, who will conduct the Woodlawn Park concert and share conducting duties for the Waterfront concert with Music Director Carlos Kalmar.
The Woodlawn Park concert will feature American film music and Pops favorites; the Waterfront concert will preview the orchestra’s 2005-2006 season and conclude with the traditional performance of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” accompanied by live cannons and fireworks.
The location of the neighborhood 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 explained.
“We are fortunate to be working with an incredibly involved and committed neighborhood advisory committee,” Kosmala continued, “whose focus is on celebrating the cultural diversity of the surrounding neighborhood and to promote the ‘Back to School’ theme.” The committee wants to welcome students and parents from recently closed Applegate Elementary, who will be attending Woodlawn Elementary school beginning in September. A centerpiece of the “Back to School” theme includes the offering of free haircuts for kids, donated by local barbers from Woodlawn and surrounding neighborhoods. In addition, Schoolhouse Supplies will have an information booth set up at Woodlawn Park. The “Back to School” theme continues at the Waterfront concert, where concertgoers are encouraged to bring school supplies to donate to all Portland Public School students.
The performing artists and activities for Woodlawn Park have been planned by a committee of neighbors and representatives from the many cultural associations in southeast Portland, including the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, the Woodlawn Neighborhood Association, Portland Parks & Recreation and other local cultural and arts organizations.
The afternoon festival at Woodlawn Park begins at 3 p.m. Performers will include the AWOL Blues Band, a local five-piece band that performs authentic rhythm and blues, featuring Cornell Garrett, bass & vocals, Armando Espinoza, drums, Paul Keller and Greg Seymour, guitar and Doug Guinn, harp & vocals; Write Around Portland (WRAP), which features Poetry reading of works written by young people, performed by young people; Sojourn Theatre’s “Witness Our Schools,” an interactive theatrical performance that tells the story of Oregon’s schools and encourages dialogue about the role of public schooling in a free and democratic society and the Solid Rock Gospel Choir from the Solid Rock Church, an important part of the Woodlawn community for the past 35 years; tentatively scheduled performers include the March Fourth Marching Band; Woodlawn Elementary African Drum Ensemble and Metro Performing Arts’ Mexican Folk Dance Ensemble. .
Other organizations presenting festival activities will include Ethos, Inc., a neighborhood non-profit music organization that provides music lessons to low income and high-risk kids in north and northeast Portland; Community Gardens; SMART (Start Making a Reader Today); Portland Impact, a non-profit community organization that provides social and educational activities and youth mentoring which will lead a necklace and bracelet making activity ; Tears of Joy Puppet Theater, which will lead a mask making workshop; youth librarians from the Multnomah County Library who will teach kids how to make bookmarks, p:ear (program: education, art, recreation), an organization who builds positive relationships with homeless and transitional youth, through education, art and recreation to affirm personal worth and create more meaningful and healthier lives; Art on Alberta, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote Alberta Street's distinct culture and identity; and a Symphony instrument “petting zoo” featuring several Symphony musicians. Other tentatively scheduled organizations include the Portland Jugglers; the Blazers’ Boys and Girls Club, the Community Cycling Center, a non-profit bicycle shop that offers bike camps for kids and provides commuter bikes to low-income adults and Habitat for Humanity. There is still free booth space available for neighborhood non-profits, children’s programs, arts organizations and community development groups. Inexpensive food will be available for purchase throughout the afternoon.
Vajda, formerly the assistant conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony, will lead the 7 p.m. Symphony concert, which will include symphonic arrangements of film music including “Silverado,” “Murder on the Orient Express,” “Schindler’s List,” “Star Wars,” “the Wizard of Oz,” several James Bond movies and “West Side Story.” The concert will also feature several Gershwin songs with guest pianist Randy Porter including “I Got Rhythm,” and some well-known tunes from opera, including Offenbach’s “Can-Can” from “Orpheus in the Underworld.”
The Woodlawn Park Neighborhood Advisory Committee includes John Canda, Executive Director, NE Coalition of Neighborhoods; Louie Guerrero, Portland Parks & Recreation and Woodlawn Neighborhood Association members Gary Bailey, Elvira Hudson, Willie Ronson, Thelma Diggs, Anjala Ehelebe and Andree Culpepper.
Woodlawn Parkis located at the corner of NE 13 th and NE Dekum. In the event of rain, all activities will move to Jefferson High School, located at 5210 N. Kerby Ave.
The Symphony’s grandest community tradition continues when Kalmar and the orchestra present selections from the 2005-06 and Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” at Tom McCall Waterfront Park on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. (Raindate Sept. 2). Included will be excerpts from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 and Bartók’s “Concerto for Orchestra,” as well as music of Rossini, Sibelius, Gruber and a Motown medley. Members of the Portland Youth Philharmonic will again join the orchestra for the “1812 Overture,” which will include the accompaniment of live howitzers and fireworks. Vajda will conduct the Bartok and the Motown “Hot Soul” medley.
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 Elgar’s Cello Concerto with cellist Alex Chung, Ravel’s “La Valse” and Copland’s suite from “The Tender Land.”
NOTE: Waterfront concert attendees are encouraged to bring donations of school supplies; Schoolhouse Supplies will have representatives on hand to collect the donated school supplies for distribution to area students and teachers.
Gregory Vajda has been appointed to serve as the Oregon Symphony’s second Resident Conductor in its 109-year history beginning in summer 2005. Vajda conducted a Sundays at Two concert during the 2003-2004 season to great acclaim from both the orchestra and the audience. During the 2005-2006 season, he will conduct a Classical and a Pops concert, in addition to serving as the primary conductor for Youth Concerts and Kids Concerts.
Gregory Vajda has fast become one of the most brilliant conductors on the international scene. He was called a “young titan” by a Montreal Symphony Orchestra member during the 2003-2004 season run of Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” and Schönberg’s “Erwartung” with L’Opera de Montreal. Recognized for his strength and intensity in conducting 19 th century, 20 th century and contemporary repertoire, Vajda has just concluded his third and final season as assistant conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra..
Prior to his appointment with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, he served as music director to the New Theater Budapest, and artistic director of the Forras (Source) Chamber Music Workshop, founder and artistic advisor of the Valley of the Arts Summer Festival in Hungary, permanent guest conductor of the Hungarian State Opera (1998-2003), artistic leader of the Brass in Five Ensemble, principal conductor of the Ernö Dohnányi Symphony Orchestra in Budapest and was a member of the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra. When appointed assistant conductor in Milwaukee, he resigned all permanent European posts to focus completely on his full time job as well as guest engagements.
Highlights of the 2004-2005 season for Vajda included a third appearance at the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris and appearances with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Round Top Festival in Texas and the Grant Park Festival in Chicago. Vajda also led the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in a subscription concert series and was commissioned to compose and conduct a piece for the Making New Waves Festival in Budapest.
In the 2003-2004 season, Vajda’s schedule included the Oregon Symphony, Naumburg Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris and the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, as well as the New Year’s Gala Performance and a classical subscription series with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Vajda also conducted at the Woodstock Mozart Festival and Mostly Mozart Festival in Lincoln Center to great critical acclaim.
As assistant conductor with the Milwaukee Symphony, he led several regional tours, conducted the Milwaukee Symphony in a classical subscription concert as well as performances with Canadian Brass, Maureen McGovern, Peter, Paul and Mary and the King’s Singers. In past seasons, Vajda appeared with St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Ensemble Intercontemporain at Cité de la Musique, led performances at the Vienna Klangforum of Péter Eötvös’s “As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams” and “Three Sisters” (as part of the Vienna Festwochen), gave the premiere of his chamber opera “The Giantbaby” at the New Theatre in Budapest and the premiere of Hungarian composer György Ránki’s opera “King Pomade’s New Clothes” at the Hungarian State Opera. He has also conducted at the festivals of Avignon and Strassbourg.
In addition to conducting, Vajda is also a clarinetist and composer. Recently, he conducted his own composition for the silent film “The Crowd” at the Auditorium of the Louvre with American pianist Jay Gottlieb. He has also recorded his own orchestral piece entitled “Duevoe” with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He was honored with the Zoltán Kodály State Scholarship for composers in 2000 and the Annie Fischer State Scholarship for music performers in 1999.
Born in 1973 in Budapest, Hungary, the son of renowned soprano Veronika Kincses, Gregory Vajda studied clarinet and composition at Béla Bartók secondary school. He then studied conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music under Professor Ervin Lukács. He recently completed a half-year study session with the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris with Jonathan Nott. He has also been a conducting pupil of the well-known twentieth century composer and conductor, Péter Eötvös.
