music
BY BRET CAMPBELL
Gettin’ Celly With It
PCP and other classic pasttimes
B
ack in 1994, UO freshman Douglas Jenkins
bought a cheap cello. The instrument was way too
small for him and, what’s more, he didn’t know
how to play it. But thanks to the generosity of a superb
teacher (Eugene Symphony cellist Sylvie Spengler) and
his own DIY determination, Jenkins — who’d played
guitar in high-school punk bands — not only learned to
play but also taught himself how to arrange pop music for
lots of cellos.
After graduating, Jenkins co-founded what turned into
one of Portland’s most fascinating bands, the electric
guitar- and cello-driven Bright Red Paper. Once in a while
he’d jam with other cellists exploring not only classical but
also pop and original music for cello. Those sessions
outgrew their original house gatherings, and Portland
Cello Project was born. Soon, friends from Portland’s
indie rock scene (Laura Gibson, Weinland’s Adam Shearer,
Corin Tucker, Loch Lomond, Horsefeathers) began sitting
in and then collaborating with the cellists. Their annual
dance parties started selling out some of Portland’s biggest
music venues, and their set lists grew to encompass
everything from Beethoven to Britney Spears, with Jenkins
creating more than 700 and counting.
PCP returns Thursday, Jan. 19, to the WOW Hall,
joined by brass and woodwind sections, drummer Rachel
Blumberg (Norfolk & Western, formerly of the
Decemberists) and guest singer Israel Nebeker, in music
that may range from J.S. Bach to the late, great 20th-century
French composer Lili Boulanger to that recently liberated
master of contemporary vocal counterpoint, Dwayne
Michael Carter, Jr., alias Lil’ Wayne.
The Eugene Symphony , with guest-artist violinist
Lindsay Deutsch, offers one of its most appealing concerts
of the season Thursday, Jan. 19, in a show featuring one of
the most joyous symphonies ever written, Mendelssohn’s
Fourth; one of contemporary Mexican composer Arturo
Marquez’s lively Danzons; the great Argentine composer
Alberto Ginastera’s rollicking 1941 Estancia dances as
well as a dazzling quartet of late 1965-70 works by
Ginastera’s student, the fabulous nuevo-tango composer
Astor Piazzolla, collectively called The Four Seasons of
Buenos Aires .
If that program sounds reminiscent of those offered by
former ESO music director Miguel Harth-Bedoya , maybe
that’s because guest conductor Andrés Franco studied
with him (and Helmuth Rilling) and now serves as
associate conductor of Harth-Bedoya’s Fort Worth
Symphony. You can learn to dance the tango in a free
lesson offered an hour before the concert by the ESO in
its Studio.
Pianist Jon Nakamatsu and San Francisco’s
Cypress String Quartet arrive Sunday, Jan.
22, to the UO’s Beall Hall for an excellent
program of quartets by Haydn (Op. 76,
No. 2) and Beethoven (Op. 95), as
well as Brahms’s epic Piano
Quintet in F minor. This show
leads the menu of UO concerts,
which includes a Jan. 23 recital by new UO
faculty member Pius Cheung playing his
adaptation for marimba of J.S. Bach’s
keyboard magnum opus, The Goldberg
Variations; a Jan. 26 Beall recital of classical
songs by Strauss, Schubert, Rachmaninoff
and more, performed by singer Laura Decher
Wayte and pianist David Riley ; and a Jan. 29
concert of new electronic music from around the world
curated by Prof. Jeff Stolet in the UO’s Schnitzer Hall.
If you’re still craving some rocking cello, you can find
it Saturday, Jan. 21, at The Shedd, when young California
cellist Natalie Haas returns with her mentor and musical
partner, the great Scots fiddler Alasdair Fraser , for the
fifth time. The genial, award-winning Fraser has done
more than anyone to revive traditional Scottish dance
music — much of which was traditionally played with
cello providing the bass line and also interweaving
melodic lines of its own. Haas and Fraser (pictured) just
released their third CD, Highlander’s Farewell, and the
duo’s virtuosic live performances always electrify fans of
Celtic and folk music. Finally, on Jan. 25, the San
Francisco based electronica duo Beats Antique brings its
Middle-Eastern flavored dance grooves
back to the McDonald Theatre.
ew
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18 JANUARY 19, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
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