Inside the Orchestra
Let’s Get to Know: Alicia Waite
Joined the Oregon Symphony in fall 2008
RUNNER’S HIGH – Like most Portlanders, horn player Alicia Waite hopes to enjoy the Rose City’s outdoor activities. A runner who’s already completed a half-marathon, a full marathon is “on the radar. That’s something that I would want to check out.”
WEATHER OR NOT – “Portland’s kind of a whole new climate. I’m a little nervous about the rain, but I’ve been receiving umbrellas as gifts,” she says. “I hear it’s not too bad.”
HOMECOMING – The pins in Waite’s career map all snake eastward. She’s blown her horn in Wisconsin, Chicago and Norfolk. But now she’s looking forward to returning to Oregon, “a place that just feels like being in the western United States, because that’s what I’m more familiar with, growing up in Colorado.”
How We Spent Our Vacation
Think your summer was fun? Look at how a few Oregon Symphony musicians spent the off-season:
JENNIFER ARNOLD, viola: I just had the most amazing experience playing concerts, touring and teaching all over Central and South America. I performed for two weeks in Panama City, Panama, and in Bogota, Colombia, in May and June. Then I headed to Brazil to perform in Salvador, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Campos do Jordäo. After that I performed in Rosario and Buenos Aires and taught for a week in Montevideo, Uruguay, as part of a new music festival created by my friend.
KEIKO ARAKI, violin: I’ve been training to be a member of Portland Taiko since January. This summer they offered a special four-week intensive training program, so I spent the month of July with five other aspiring taiko players from Portland, California, Arizona and Illinois learning about taiko, attending rehearsals and helping with PT's educational programs. The program culminated with performances at "Celebrate Hillsboro," the Obon festival at the Oregon Buddhist Temple and the Oregon Symphony’s Mt. Scott Park concert in August. I have considerably bigger biceps and leg muscles now than I did at the start of the summer! (Next up: PT’s fall concert on Sept. 19. Details here: www.portlandtaiko.org.)
FUMINO ANDO, violin: I have been in northern Italy for four weeks as an assistant coach of Zephyr Music Festival (www.zephyrmusicfest.org). It’s a very intense chamber music festival for piano and strings (young players – usually 19 or older – audition live in San Francisco or send audition CDs to get into the program). This summer was my fourth time there.
The main activities (rehearsals, coaching, performances) are in Courmayuer, Italy, across the Alps from France and Switzerland. But there were also many bus and train trips to Torino, St. Bernard on the Swiss side, Moneglia (near the Cinque Terra) and Barbaresco for winery performances!
CHARLES RENEAU, trombone: I went to West Africa this summer to visit my fiancee, who is a Peace Corps volunteer in a small farming village. I spent a month in Senegal and the Gambia and got to see a lot about what life is like in a sub-Saharan African nation. In this photo, I’m outside Laura's hut. If you'd like to see more, she’s got 48 photos posted on the blog I set up for her: www.lgmassengale.blogspot.com
Outside the Schnitz
You can find Principal Percussionist Niel DePonte conducting Oregon Ballet Theatre’s opening performances of Swan Lake Oct. 11-18 at Keller Auditorium (tickets: www.obt.org). In June DePonte conducted the Kennedy Center Orchestra for OBT in the nation’s capital when the company made its debut there, to rave reviews from the New York Times, the Washington Post and The Oregonian.
