music
BY BRETT CAMPBELL
Musical Treats and Travels
A delicious spread of sounds
A
irlines may no longer provide
fi ne free food on their fl ights
(at least not to those of us who
fl y coach), but a pair of recommended concerts
offer the opportunity for musical time travel —
accompanied by delectable treats. On May 7 at the
Hult Center’s Soreng Theater, the Eugene Vocal
Arts Ensemble sings a commendably ambitious
program of choral music that ranges from Renaissance
sounds (madrigals by Thomas Morley and John Dowland,
Orlando di Lasso and Josquin des Prez, Claudio Monteverdi
and Carlo Gesualdo) to early and late Romantic music by
Schubert and Schoenberg (including the latter’s powerful Peace
on Earth), to The Dream Keeper, a brand new composition by
William Averitt, accompanied by four-hand piano, the poetry of
Langston Hughes and elements of tango, jazz and more.
Sweet treats also grace the Oregon Mozart Players’
delicious Chamber Music & Chocolate concert Sunday, May 1,
at Central Lutheran Church, where four OMP musicians will
play Franz Schubert’s gloriously tuneful Quartet Movement
and one of Beethoven’s most popular early string quartets,
the dramatic Op. 18 #4.
Another urgently recommended concert spans styles
and centuries, when Friday, April 29 University of
Oregon Opera presents a rare and fascinating double bill
at Beall Concert Hall: two Italian madrigal comedies, the
musical counterpart of theater’s satirical commedia dell’arte,
with its archetypal comic characters, masks and wigs. The great
20th-century composer Luciano Berio’s A-Ronne comically
depicts servants gone wild, while Renaissance composer
Adriano Banchieri’s Senile Madness waggishly recounts the
old story of love and youth vs. age and money. They’re directed
by one of the Northwest’s musical treasures, bass and scholar
Nicholas Isherwood .
The UO goes all 21st century on Saturday, April 30. From 4-8
pm, several rooms and performance halls at the music school host
the recurring musical exploration called [m] , a free, come-and-go-
as-you-please meander that lets music lovers experience a wide
range of contemporary sounds — medieval to modern ensembles,
jazz in the courtyard, electronic instrument petting zoo, student
compositions and multimedia works.
That evening, the school’s always-intriguing Future Music
Oregon program hosts the experimental California performance
trio SoundProof (violinist Patricia Strange, bassist/composer/
computer performer Brian Belet, and fl ugelhornist/trumpeter/
composer Stephen Ruppenthal), which combines contemporary
sounds with advanced digital processing techniques. The forward-
gazing show in the school’s room 163 also features interactive
student performance works and fi xed-media compositions.
And you can hear today’s music on May 1, when UO jazz pianist
Toby Koenigsberg leads a trio in his own compositions and those
of Elliott Smith, Tim Willcox and others at Aasen-Hull.
There’s more Latin American improv on tap at the Shedd on
May 5, when Los Angeles percussionist Poncho Sanchez returns
to the steamy Latin jazz that animated his 1980s albums. Beginning
with his 1970s work in the great Cal Tjader’s band, Sanchez has
energetically surveyed Afro-Cuban and other Latin rhythms on
more than two dozen albums.
The Shedd continues its globe trotting with Johnny Clegg ’s
May 1 concert. One of South Africa’s most enduring stars, fi rst in the
‘80s with the interracial band Juluka (which challenged apartheid
laws), then the more rock-oriented Savuka, the anthropologist/
activist/singer/songwriter has lately been lighting up the festival
circuit with this electric band that includes dancers. On his new
album Human, Clegg’s politically charged songs, in both Zulu and
English, sound as bold as ever.
ew
Johnny Clegg
FOR A FULL SCHEDULE VISIT WWW.MIKETHRASHERPRESENTS.COM
FOLLOW US ONLINE AT: WWW.MYSPACE.COM/MIKETHRASHERPRESENTS
WWW.MIKETHRASHERPRESENTS.COM/FACEBOOKEUG · TWITTER.COM/MIKETHRASHEREUG
WEDNESDAY
JUNE 1
MCDONALD
THEATRE
1010 WILLAMETTE ST
6:30PM DOORS
ALL AGES · BAR W/PROPER ID
TICKETS AT TICKETSWEST
CHARGE BY PHONE
1-800-992-TIXX
& SLEEPER
AGENT
TUESDAY
JUNE 7
MCDONALD
THEATRE
1010 WILLAMETTE ST
6:30PM DOORS · ALL AGES
BAR W/PROPER ID
TICKETS AT TICKETSWEST
CHARGE BY PHONE
1-800-992-TIXX
This
FRI
FRIDAY APRIL 29
MCDONALD THEATRE
1010 WILLIAMETTE ST · EUGENE, OR · 6:30PM DOORS · ALL AGES
TICKETS AT SAFEWAY/TICKETSWEST
CHARGE BY PHONE 1-800-992-TIXX
WORTH THE
DRIVE!
BLITZKID
& THE DARLINGS
SATURDAY JUNE 18 WOW HALL
291 W 8TH AVE · 7:00PM DOORS · ALL AGES
BEER & WINE AVAILABLE W/PROPER ID
TICKETS AT TICKETSWEST · CHARGE BY PHONE 1-800-992-TIXX
COMING SOON: VANS WARPED TOUR
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
THURSDAY JUNE 16
ELSINORE THEATRE
170 HIGH ST SE · SALEM, OR · 7:00PM DOORS · ALL AGES
TICKETS AT SAFEWAY/TICKETSWEST
CHARGE BY PHONE 1-800-992-TIXX
& JESSICA LEA
MAYFIELD
SATURDAY JULY 16
LB DAY COMCAST
AMPHITHEATRE
2330 17TH STREET NE · SALEM, OR · 5:30PM DOORS · ALL AGES
TICKETS AT TICKETMASTER
CHARGE BY PHONE 1-800-745-3000
EUGENE WEEKLY APRIL 28, 2011 27