MUSIC
BY BRETT CAMPBELL
THE ROMANTIC-SPOOKY SPECTRUM
From the Eugene Symphony’s Mahler moment to Vox Resonat’s cemetery Day of the Dead concert
T
he brilliant banter between Beatrice and
Benedict in Shakespeare’s comedy Much
Ado About Nothing, one of theater’s most
entertaining duets, seems ideal for a musi-
cal setting. Sure enough, French Romantic
composer Hector Berlioz, who created the trail-
blazing Fantastic Symphony and other colorful
orchestral works, wrote one (including the libretto,
which adds some characters and subplots and jet-
tisons others) in 1862.
Yet in an opera world too often content to
recycle the usual suspects, the symphony is sel-
dom performed, except for its overture.
Eugene Opera (also see Bravo story this issue)
remedies that Oct. 28 and Oct. 30 when it brings
LEYLA MCCALLA PLAYS MUSIC
Berlioz’s sparkling Much Ado to the Hult Center’s
FROM HER HAITIAN HERITAGE AT
SAM BOND’S GARAGE
Soreng Theater. This production features not only
some of Oregon’s finest singers (Melina Pyron
and Brendan Tuohy in the leads, plus Laura
his symphonies, remaining popular ever since. Better
Beckel Thoreson and Sandy Naishtat) but also two of
still, the vocal quartet will sing contemporary songs writ-
Eugene’s top actors, Bill Hulings and Steve Wehmeier.
ten by some of Portland’s most accessible classical com-
It might be your only chance to see this relative rarity
posers.
performed live in Oregon.
Earlier on Oct. 22 at the University of Oregon’s Beall
Some French-Shakespearean sparkle is just the anti-
Hall, Russian String Orchestra plays Schoenberg’s
dote to the late Romantic Germanic gloom that will no
intense late Romantic tone poem Transfigured Night and
doubt still hover over the Hult in the wake of Eugene
Schubert’s string quartet Death and the Maiden, leavening
Symphony’s Oct. 20 performance of Gustav Mahler’s
the heaviness with a little Mozart. The next day, Oregon
tragic 1904 6th Symphony. Actually, like all of Mahler’s
Camerata comes to Beall to play 20th-century music by
symphonies, this one seems to contain a whole galaxy of
Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski, Russia’s Alfred
emotions — he’d actually married and celebrated the
Schnittke, the crazy-fun Stanford composer Mark
arrival of two children just before writing the symphony,
Applebaum and Brazil’s Heitor Villa-Lobos.
mostly on a pastoral vacation — before he brings the big
hammer down at the end.
And at 4 pm Oct. 23 at the UO’s Lewis Integrative
There’s more German Romanticism on Oct. 22 when
Science Building, multidisciplinary artist Audra
terrific Portland small choir The Ensemble and a pair of
Wolowiec leads semaphore, a performance featuring
crack pianists perform Brahms’ light-hearted Love Song
CHOIR, Portland composer and sound artist Jesse
Waltzes at Central Lutheran Church (1857 Potter Street).
Mejia’s experimental vocal group, whose score is based
Written for amateur musicians, these mega-pop hits of
on data from a neuroscience lab.
their day made Brahms a star and a lot more money than
Halloween’s nigh, which means Eugene early music
ensemble Vox Resonat’s Day of the Dead con-
cert returns Oct. 29 to (shudder) the Masonic
Cemetery Mausoleum at E. 26th and University.
They’ll sing a powerful lament on the fall of the
Roman Empire by the great Renaissance composer
Dufay, and other suitably spooky Renaissance and
Baroque music by Purcell, Josquin, the murderer
Gesualdo, Byrd, Lassus and more.
Other annual spookfests also return: Mood
Area 52 performs its sizzling live score (electric
guitar, cello, accordion, bass, horns, toy piano,
percussion) to F.W. Murnau’s classic vampire flick
Nosferatu Oct. 28 at Bijou Art Cinemas, while the
same night’s annual Pipe Screams concert at
First United Methodist Church (1376 Olive Street)
features spooky classical music by costumed
organists and choristers. You can repent your sins
at the same church the next day at a free choral
concert with music of Haydn, Vaughan Williams,
Messiaen and more.
On Oct. 27, The Shedd brings back one of the jazz’s
most visionary and admired composers-bandleaders-
trumpeters, Dave Douglas — but in a different configu-
ration than the many we’ve seen there. This time, he’s
playing new music he wrote for The Westerlies, the young
Seattle-born, New York-based brass quartet that enchant-
ed Broadway House last year and which will be joining
Douglas and drummer Anwar Marshall. It’s a don’t-
dare-miss double treat.
Finally, this Friday, Oct. 21, you can hear a couple of
former Carolina Chocolate Drops explore American roots
music at Sam Bond’s Garage. Dom Flemons plays and
sings Piedmont blues, spirituals and jug band music,
while cellist-guitarist-banjoist Leyla McCalla plays and
sings original and traditional music from her Haitian
heritage as well as the Creole, Cajun, jazz and French
influences that still simmer in and around her New
Orleans home. And speaking of cellos, on Oct. 29 the
cello-rock trio Rasputina plays the WOW Hall. ■
PHOTO BY DEVVON SIMPSON
BARNO’S
BACKYARD BALLROOM PRESENTS
Many of us played in bands as teenagers. Far fewer collaborated with The Dead
TOMMY STINSON'S
COWBOYS IN THE CAMPFIRE
SHISHO
32
October 20, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
Milkmen, got noticed by Dr. Demento or opened for Tommy Stinson of The
Replacements.
ShiSho, a folk-punk-comedy duo comprised of teenaged sisters Viviane and
Midge Ramone, recently relocated to Eugene from Akron, Ohio. The pair has
accomplished all those monumental things while still living at home with their
parents.
Viviane Ramone tells EW she realizes folk-punk-comedy is an unusual descriptor.
“We were raised on punk music. We love punk music,” she explains. “We play
acoustic guitar and accordion. There’s not a lot of technical finesse.”
“We really try to capture the spirit of punk within the constraints of our acoustic or
folky instruments,” Viviane continues. “A lot of our songs tell stories. We try to keep
our songs lighthearted — a carefree attitude.”
The siblings are settling into Eugene nicely. “Eugene is super cool!” Ramone
says. “The Boreal especially has that DIY feel.”
ShiSho’s Oct. 21 show is the pair’s first performance in town, and the inaugural
event at a new house venue called Barno’s Backyard Ballroom.
On top of all that, ShiSho is opening for legendary punk guitarist Tommy Stinson of
The Replacements who, along with Chip “Slippy Fly” Roberts, will perform an all-
acoustic set as Cowboys in the Campfire.
ShiSho is excited to debut in Eugene alongside a bona-fide punk-rock legend.
“Tommy is such an amazing songwriter!” Ramone says.
ShiSho opens for Tommy Stinson’s Cowboys in the Campfire “Southern Dandies
Tour” 7 pm Friday, Oct. 21, at Barno’s Backyard Ballroom, 3230 Fillmore Street; $20,
tickets available at ticketfly.com. All ages. — William Kennedy