music
BY BRETT CAMPBELL
Musical WayBack Machine
Ancient to modern sounds on Eugene stages
T
he wayback machine is especially
active this month in Eugene music.
On Thursday, May 10, The
Ambrosia Ensemble performs sacred
music from throughout the centuries at
Central Lutheran Church. The group, run
by UO students, will perform motets by
Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis,
Romantic paragon Anton Bruckner, and
work by three contemporary Eugene
composers, including four premieres from
the new opera, The Canticle of the Black
Madonna.
Saturday, May 12, the dial is set for the
Renaissance, when the Eugene Vocal
Arts Ensemble, accompanied by
Byrdson Early Music Consort
performs in costume at its ever-popular
annual English madrigal dinner, which this
year moves to the Lane County Fairgrounds’
Wheeler Pavilion. Omnipresent local actor
Bill Hulings will preside over the
ceremonies as the Bard, and along with
enjoying the feast, the audience can
participate in Renaissance dancing —
around a Maypole.
We flash forward a few centuries on
Sunday, May 13, to the Baroque era, when
the Oregon Bach Collegium performs
chamber music by George Frederic Handel
at United Lutheran Church. The period-
instrument specialists will play the glorious
opera and the oratorio composer’s less-
often-heard small scale sonatas in
historically informed style on violin,
harpsichord, recorder, lute, oboe and voice,
with UO music professor Marc
Vanscheeuwijck on baroque cello.
Friday, May 18, back at Central Lutheran
Church, the new early music ensemble Vox
Resonat ventures even further back — to
the Middle Ages, to sing some of the
earliest existing written Western music.
Another UO prof, Eric Mentzel, who won
a major international reputation as an early
music singer with groups such as Sequentia
and the original European incarnation of
Vox Resonat, will lead the group of soloists
in songs dedicated to the Virgin Mary
composed in Italy, Spain, England and
France from the 12th through 15th centuries.
May wasn’t just the month of spring fertility
but also when the medieval cult of the
Virgin Mary really heated up, and that
fervor still shines through these haunting,
rarely performed works.
Skipping over the popular Classical era,
the machine alights in the Romantic period
on May 17, when the Eugene Symphony
performs Anton Bruckner’s big Symphony
#6, a march from proto-Romantic composer
Hector Berlioz, and 19th century rock star
Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto #1, featuring
24-year-old prize-winning pianist Adam
Garden of
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stay on this planet was as tragic as his songs
were compelling, in part because American
society of the time forced him to live a
closeted gay life, and that emotional
intensity pervades his songs, no matter how
superficially happy the words.
We return to the present with a couple of
shows at Beall Concert Hall. The Oregon
Percussion Ensemble , on May 21 plays
music by today’s greatest living composer,
Steve Reich, one of the most popular
younger composers, Jennifer Higdon, and
more. One of today’s most acclaimed
younger jazz pianists, Dan Tepfer brings
his New York-based trio to perform
Tuesday, May 15, with the Oregon Jazz
Ensemble.
Also at The Shedd, Sunday, May 13, the
Emerald City Jazz Kings perform
music of another, less renowned mid-
century American show-tune master, Jimmy
Van Heusen, whose songs (“I Thought
About You,” High Hopes,” “Come Fly with
Me,” et al) graced plenty of major films in
the 1930s, ‘40s and beyond.
Finally, The Shedd looks to the future
Saturday, May 12, when the rising young
Austin fiddler/singer Carrie Rodriguez
combines her classical violin training at
Boston’s Berklee College of Music with her
dad David’s epic songwriting legacy and
her own spunky compositional style. ew
2012 Festival of the American Liszt Society
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Golka at the bench. The concert kicks off a
symposium of scholars who’ll be checking
their Liszt at the UO music school next
weekend, which includes a solo recital by
the acclaimed pianist Antonio Pompa-
Baldi May 18, at Beall Concert Hall.
There’s lighter Romantic music on the
program at the Eugene Symphonic
Band’s May 14 concert at First Baptist
Church, including Berlioz, waltzmeister
Johann Strauss and more — including a
contemporary work by new UO percussion
professor Pius Cheung.
We enter the early 20th century May 21,
at Springfield’s Wildish Theater, when
Chamber Music Amici performs lovely
works by American composer Arthur Foote,
Andre Jolivet’s 1944 Chant de Linos, and a
movement from Argentine composer Astor
Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.
Staying in the middle of the last century,
singer Siri Vik performs some of the
greatest American songs in concerts at The
Shedd, May 18 and May 20, featuring the
immortal lyrics of Broadway legend Lorenz
Hart and the music of Richard Rodgers.
Along with familiar fare such as “Where or
When,” “Spring is Here,” “It Never Entered
My Mind,” “The Lady is a Tramp” and
“My Funny Valentine,” the show also
spotlights some of his lesser known, though
equally witty compositions. Hart’s brief
Fiesta Mixing Bowl Sets
by Homer Laughlin
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34 MAY 10, 2012 EUGENE WEEKLY
SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND DANCE
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A three-day event featuring
over sixty performers and
lecturers from the U.S., Canada ,
and Asia. Visit us online for the
complete festival program .
541-346-5678
liszt.uoregon.edu
EO/AA/ADA institution committed to cultural diversity.
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