The Fear No Music ensemble has no qualms about tackling unusual music. On Friday evening (September 16) at the Colonial Heights Presbyterian Church, the Fear No Music musicians performed some very eclectic numbers that loosely paid homage to other composers, ideas, or something vaguely intangible. The music stretched the ears of the audience with all…

Haochen Zhang, the youngest person ever to win the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, showed off his formidable skills at Portland Piano International’s recital series on Sunday afternoon at the Newmark Theatre. At 19 years old Zhang successfully conquered a challenging program that included works by Beethoven, Ravel, Brahms, Liszt, and contemporary composer Mason Bates.

harry potter and the deathly hallows: part 1 movie video Jon Kimura Parker delivered a finely honed and satisfying performance of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Oregon Symphony on Saturday evening (Oct. 3) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in its first concert of the classical music season. I really liked the…

Portland Piano International will feature Haochen Zhang in its first recital for this season on Sunday (October 4) at the Newmark Theatre. In June, I heard Zhang at the Van Cliburn competition, and he shared top honors with Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii. Zhang, age 19, moved to Philadelphia from Shanghai, China five years ago in…

(movies) the a-team A near-capacity audience at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall reveled in an unusual gala concert with the Oregon Symphony and virtuosi of the banjo, mandolin, tabla, and double bass on Saturday evening (September 26). The orchestra welcomed Bela Fleck, Chris Thile, Zakir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer and whipped up some very new…

This year, the Oregon Symphony is presenting a different kind of gala. There will be plenty of music, but the soloists will be four of the hottest names in the classical-crossover-to-jazz-bluegrass-world-music arena: Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, Chris Thile, and Zakir Hussain. The concert program will have something old and something new, and should appeal to…

Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg is known internationally known for her dynamic and virtuosic performances, but over the past few years she has successfully launched her own record label (NSS Music) and just last year she became the music director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, a top-tier ensemble that is based in San Francisco. On August…

Elmar Oliveira did it again. On Sunday afternoon (July 26) the virtuoso violinist lifted the spirits of the Chamber Music Northwest audience at Kaul Auditorium with a galvanizing performance of Ernst Bloch’s “Baal Shem,” Three Pictures of Hassidic Life for Violin and Strings. As if he were a rhapsodic cantor, Oliveira weaved a tale of…

Tchaikovsky really knew how to create a barn burner when he wrote the String Sextet in D Minor “Souvenir de Florence,” Op. 70, and it really brought down the house at Thursday (July 23) evening’s Chamber Music Northwest concert. Even the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s gem, which started in electrifying fashion, succeeded to build tension,…

Elizabeth Harcombe grew up in Roseburg, Oregon where she began playing piano at the age of 5. She was the pianist at the church where her mother served as organist. Harcombe studied music at Biola University and later got a Master of Music Education degree with an emphasis in piano pedagogy from University of Oklahoma.…