The Shedd Institute
www.theshedd.org - 541-434-7000
sponsored by
Con & Mary Sheffer
Dan Curtis & Stephanie Shaff
Oregon Festival of American Music 2013
Body
And
Soul
Jazz Party at the Movies - Thursday Aug 8
“Handbells Will Be Ringing” has some
curious comments regarding composer
James MacMillan’s 2016 Oregon Bach
Festival commission. Campbell correctly
notes that OBF has an admirable history
of commissioning new work from
contemporary composers such as Arvo Pärt
and Osvaldo Golijov, but he oddly omits
mention of such OBF musical milestones
as Krzysztof Penderecki’s Credo (whose
world premiere OBF recording by Helmuth
Rilling won a 2001 Grammy award), as well
as Tan Dun’s 2004 Water Passion and the
2009 Messiah by Sven-David Sandström.
Perhaps more telling in the context of
Campbell’s article is a similar failure to
note Robert Kyr’s 1996 Inner Dawning
and Stephen Paulus’ 1989 Symphony for
Strings, if only because both composers
are U.S. citizens, and it might be added
that Kyr is also an “Oregon composer.”
Campbell’s main complaint appears
to be that James MacMillan, a Scot, is a
“non-American” composer in receipt of
“American taxpayer dollars.” This fact,
he claims, stems from Oregon’s relative
failure to support classical music and
Oregon composers in the same fashion
that Scotland does. This strikes me as a
misleading comparison at best. Scotland
became a constituent member of the
United Kingdom with the 1707 Act of
Union, but of course Scotland had a long
history of cultural identity before that date.
Oregon became a formal part of the U.S. in
1859, and its cultural history before then
was rather different from that of Scotland.
However, it must be noted that Oregon
as a political entity is older than the
current political states commonly known
as France, Germany and Italy, which
nonetheless have ancient cultural identities.
History does matter; the present cannot be
understood without reference to it. Given
prevailing U.S. attitudes toward taxation in
general and public fi nancial support for the
arts in particular, I view Oregon’s current
classical music “investment level” as a
glass half full, whereas Campbell would
have us see it as half empty instead, if that.
John E. Heintz
Eugene
A NONVIOLENT SOLUTION
Israel-Palestine negotiations are taking
place again, and could take six to nine
months. Some believe that the Israeli
government and the U.S. are just playing
a game. Israel has engaged in negotiations
on and off for 20 years while continuing
to build settlements in the West Bank and
expand its occupation.
I recently watched a documentary that
showed long lines of Palestinian people
in 1948 carrying their possessions as
they walked away from their homes in
the newly established Israel to live as
refugees elsewhere. The contrast between
the modern, affl uent settlements with parks
and swimming pools, and the poverty
and lack of water and electricity of the
Palestinian people was vivid.
The West Bank is now almost entirely
controlled by the Israeli occupation.
Military checkpoints and highways
separate the Palestinian West Bank
from the settlers. They vastly slow the
movement of the Palestinian people within
their territory and over its borders. The
Palestinians deserve better.
Jewish people who migrated to Israel
are descendants of the Holocaust, with all
the fears, the PTSD that still remain. They
have a right to live in a country where they
can be safe and secure. But the Palestinian
people do, too.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, and
they can’t make a viable solution. I yearn
for our governments to nonviolently and
fi rmly seek a solution that is just and that
can be the beginning of healing and of the
building of safe, dignifi ed lives for all the
Palestinian and Israeli people.
Peg Morton
Eugene
Oregon Festival of American Music 2013
Boogie Woogie
Going My Bugle
Way Boy!
Oregon Festival of American Music 2013
Fred & Ginger at RKO – Friday Aug 9
Tue Aug 6
Oregon Festival of American Music 2013
Shall
We
Dance
Fred & Ginger at RKO – Saturday Aug 10
NOT SO GREAT FAIR
After two years of not having 4H in Lane
County we were told it was back. We had
been participating with our children and
their horses in Benton County. Apparently
some money was available to restart 4H,
and we were recruited and invited to rejoin
our own home county: Lane County Fair.
Meredith Willson’s
T
HE
MUSIC
MAN
Augus 9, 10 & 11 Hult Center
541-682-5000
eugeneweekly.com • A ugust 8, 2013
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