Chamber Music Northwest Presents
Inspirations & Influences
2022 Summer Festival
Continues Three More Weeks, Citywide
~100 Artists | 5 Premieres | 60+ Concerts & Events
Chamber Music Northwest is just finishing its second week of their five-week festival, with 15 more concerts and dozens of free public events left to experience. Continuing through July 31, the 2022 Summer Festival features programming across the Portland-metro area. Themed Inspirations & Influences, this dynamic festival boasts music from around the globe with an array of world-renowned musicians to match.
From Artistic Directors Gloria Chien and Soovin Kim: “Our world is full of beautifully diverse cultures that are interconnected in remarkable ways. The exchange of ideas between people from different parts of the world has created a vibrant musical fabric that today’s composers continue to use in their fresh creations. Throughout our 2022 Summer Festival, Inspirations & Influences, we will explore and celebrate ways in which composers are impacted by their peers while retaining their own distinct voices. Composers and their pieces will often “talk” to each other on these programs: Claude Debussy’s harmonic liberation leading to George Crumb’s wildly colorful orchestration of Black American spirituals; Maurice Ravel, Reena Esmail and Henry Cowell incorporating styles and tonalities of traditional music from Asia; and Melinda Wagner’s modern-day reimagining of one of the great works of the 17th century, Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.”
Chamber Music Northwest’s 2022 Summer Festival features nearly 100 of the finest chamber musicians in the world — from string and saxophone quartets to renowned soloists — performing a wide variety of compositions —from classics to new works — by some of today’s great living composers, and with musical influences from around the world.
Greater Portland performance venues this year are Beaverton’s new Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, Reed College’s Kaul Auditorium, Portland State University’s Lincoln Hall and Lincoln Recital Hall, Alberta Rose Theatre and The Armory at Portland Center Stage, as well as upcoming free community concerts in Gresham, Milwaukie and Vancouver, Washington.
The 2022 festival boasts five CMNW-commissioned, or co-commissioned world and west coast premiere works. Upcoming premieres include: the west coast premiere by Melinda Wagner, Dido Reimagined; the world premiere of Chris Rogerson’s Meditation for Violin and Saxophone Quartet; the world premiere of David Schiff’s Vineyard Rhythms; and the world premiere of Fang Man’s Partridge Sky. Premiered Sunday, July 3 was Alistair Coleman’s (Broadacre City). Providing the opportunity for composers to create new music is a long-standing hallmark of CMNW, with more than 135 new works commissioned and premiered since 1971.
Particularly exciting festival highlights for audiences are Sandbox Percussion’s upcoming two concerts. On July 14 and 15 Sandbox will perform with acclaimed baritone Kenneth Overton in the recently late George Crumb’s A Journey Beyond Time – American Songbook II which melds the human voice with more than 100 instruments. The next week, on July 19 at the Alberta Rose Theatre as part of the New@Night series, award-winning Portland-based composer Andy Akiho and Sandbox Percussion join forces with Seven Pillars for thier Portland premiere performance. A mesmerizing fusion of sound, light and movement, Seven Pillars was nominated for two 2022 Grammy Awards and the Pulitzer Prize in Music. Another very special opportunity for festivalgoers will be the one-night-only presentation of Pulitzer Prize-winner Melinda Wagner’s world premiere Dido Reimagined with renowned soprano Dawn Upshaw and the Brentano Quartet. This is an immersive exploration of the Renaissance soundscape of Henry Purcell’s beloved opera Dido & Aeneas, and also offers a new take on Dido’s tragic tale.
CMNW has brought back its exciting contemporary music series which has transformed into New@Night, with an early evening social time followed by music from today’s most innovative and creative composers at either The Armory, or Alberta Rose Theatre. The organization’s much-lauded Protégé Project is back with a new crop of talented artists: Alistair Coleman (composer), Zlatomir Fung (cello), Anna Lee (violin) and the Viano String Quartet. Upcoming concerts feature the Viano String Quartet (free community concert on Tuesday, July 12) and Jessica Lee (Protégé Artist Spotlight on Tuesday, July 26).
New this year, CMNW offers three intimate Protégé Artist Spotlight lunchtime recitals at Lincoln Recital Hall showcasing two young rising-star musicians, Anna Lee and Zlatomir Fung, whose careers are beginning right now, and a now-famous Protégé Project alum, violinist Benjamin Beilman. Fung’s concert has passed, but still on deck are Benjamin Beilman and Anna Lee.
Upcoming Week-By-Week Highlights
Week 3 — Painting Vibrant Pictures with Music
Creating a mosaic of sound with a myriad of instruments, week three plumbs George Crumb’s epic songbook of Black American spirituals with baritone Kenneth Overton and Sandbox Percussion, explore the landscape of Eastern-inspired chamber music and discover new works by young American composers.
Week 4 — Prepare to be Wowed
From Andy Akiho’s scintillating Seven Pillars to the premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winner Melinda Wagner’s inventive Dido Reimagined, world-renowned soprano Dawn Upshaw, the Brentano Quartet and the dynamic Sinta Quartet will make week four the highlight of the summer.
Week 5 — Out with a Shimmer
The festival finale week is filled with presence, musical poetry and love — from David Schiff’s vineyard-inspired world premiere, to chanteuse Fleur Barron’s evocative voice, and concluding with a romantic and effervescent masterpiece celebrating the transformative power of love.
Free Community & Education Events
Chamber Music Northwest is committed to making great music and music education accessible in our community. CMNW presents three upcoming community concerts, and continued pre-concert “prelude” performances featuring young musicians every Thursday at The Reser, and Saturday at Reed College. All of CMNW’s Education and Community Engagement concerts are free and open to the public.
Free Community Events
July 12 @ 7pm Community Concert featuring the Viano String Quartet | North Clackamas Park, Milwaukie
July 14 @ 7pm PSU’s Youth Percussion Camp Prelude Concert | Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
July 16 @ 6:30pm University of Oregon Saxophone Quartet Prelude Concert | Kaul Auditorium, Reed College
July 19* POP-UP Performance with Vijay Gupta & Soovin Kim | p:ear, Blanchet House (not public event)
July 21 @ 6:30pm Prelude Concert featuring TBA | Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
July 22 @ 7pm Community Concert featuring Sinta Saxophone Quartet | Gresham Arts Plaza, Gresham
July 23 @ 6:30pm Metropolitan Youth Symphony Prelude Concert | Kaul Auditorium, Reed College
July 28 @ 6:30pm Prelude Concert featuring TBA | Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
July 29 @ 7pm Community Concert featuring the Vancouver Symphony Brass Quintet | Columbia Tech Center Park, Vancouver in partnership with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Vancouver Parks & Recreation. Movie Night follows.
July 30 @ 6:30pm Prelude Concert featuring TBA | Kaul Auditorium, Reed College
CMNW holds free masterclasses at PSU’s Lincoln Recital Hall. All masterclasses are recorded and available on cmnw.org in a few weeks.
July 1 @ 10am: Zlatomir Fung, cello
July 8 @ 10am: Ettore Causa, viola
July 15 @ 10am: Benjamin Beilman, violin
Weekly Open Rehearsals are held at Reed College every Wednesday morning at 11am.
Complimentary AT-HOME passes will be offered to local music education organizations that serve students from diverse backgrounds and underrepresented communities.
Key Links
Chamber Music Northwest 2022 Summer Festival
2022 Summer Festival
Overview
New@Night
Protégé Spotlight Recitals
Young Artist Institute
Concert Guide
Subscriptions & Tickets
About Chamber Music Northwest:
Now in its 52nd season, Chamber Music Northwest shares the richness and diversity of chamber music with more than 50,000 people through 80 events annually, including our Summer Festival of outstanding concerts, illuminating outreach activities, educational programs and support of young musicians and innovative collaborations across the Portland Metro region.
Chamber Music Northwest’s mission is to inspire our community through concerts and events celebrating the richness and diversity of chamber music, performed by artists of the highest caliber, presenting our community with exceptional opportunities for enjoyment, education and reflection. Chamber Music Northwest is led by Artistic Directors Gloria Chien and Soovin Kim and Executive Director Peter Bilotta.
As one of the nation’s leading chamber music presenters, Chamber Music Northwest brings to our community the world’s greatest musicians and composers, from rising-star members of our Protégé Project and exceptional local musicians to world-renowned artists that include Grammy Award winners, Avery Fisher Prize honorees and MacArthur ‘Genius Award’ recipients. Together they collaborate to perform the expansive 500-year chamber music repertoire, ranging from beloved classics and hidden masterpieces to less conventional projects and contemporary works.
Chamber Music Northwest is an international leader in celebrating chamber music’s enduring relevance and diversity, with more than 100 commissions and premieres of new works as well as its Protégé Project, which cultivates the next generation of dynamic chamber music performers by supporting exceptional, early-career chamber musicians and composers in their professional development.