The Oregon Symphony gets its 2013/14 season underway with five concerts of about as wide a spectrum that money can buy. From a company premiere of Takamitsu’s percussion concerto and a concert featuring world renowned pianist Lang Lang to a tribute to the music of ABBA and cabaret chanteuse Meow Meow with Portland’s favorite showman, Thomas Lauderdale. Tickets for all concerts available here.
The lineup
FRIDAY, SEPT. 6:
ABBA – The Concert — 7:30 p.m.; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Abba
The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Resident Conductor Paul Ghun Kim conducting; along with the world’s finest ABBA tribute band, Waterloo. The Program: popular hit tunes from the legendary band ABBA, from “Dancing Queen” to “Mamma Mia.”
The Concert is the live two-hour musical extravaganza celebrating Sweden’s most famous band. ABBA has sold more than 370 million records worldwide and inspired the phenomenally popular Broadway musical, Mamma Mia! ABBA The Concert follows the quartet through songs from their Eurovision beginnings in 1974 with hits such as “Dancing Queen” and “S.O.S.”
Tickets: begin at $21; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance, or online at any time.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 12:
Lang Lang: One performance only on Sept. 12 at 7:30 pm; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
The Oregon Symphony, with Music Director Carlos Kalmar conducting; Lang Lang*, pianist. He performed at the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics where his performance was viewed by over four billion people around the world. He’s heralded as “the hottest artist on the classical music planet” by The New York Times.
The Program: Copland: El salón México, Copland: Billy the Kid: Suite, Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3, Tchaikovsky: Capriccio italien.
Tickets: begin at $35; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 14:
The Cat’s Meow: Meow Meow & Thomas Lauderdale. Saturday, Sept. 14 at 8pm; at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Music Director Carlos Kalmar conducting, along with Meow Meow and Thomas Lauderdale. The Program: an evening of vocal and performance surprises. This is part of PICA’s TBA Festival. They are calling it, “an evening of sharp-clawed cabaret!” (Exclamation point, theirs.)
Tickets: begin at $25; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance.
Don’t know Meow Meow? Meet her:
Click here to view the embedded video.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 21, MONDAY, SEPT. 23
Scheherazade – Sept. 21 at 7:30 pm; Sept. 23 at 8:00 pm; at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
Sergio Careno
The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Music Director Carlos Kalmar conducting. Sergio Carreno, percussion, Niel DePonte, percussion, Jonathan Greeney, percussion, Luanne Warner Katz, percussion, Michael Roberts, percussion.
The Program: Takemitsu: From me flows what you call Time (percussion concerto), Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade. The inclusion of Takemitsu’s concerto on this program was designed to help the Portland Japanese Gardens celebrate their 50th Anniversary. Unlike the explosive sound usually associated with percussion concertos this one is delicate and gentle. This percussion concerto required the company to rent $3,000 worth of esoteric percussion instruments like the Anklung, tuned gongs, steel drums, and boobams. Two sets of chimes will be hung in the air over the audience and played from the stage with colored ribbons that connect the percussionist to the chimes. Percussionists have had to make special mallets to be able to play vibes, steel drums and glockenspiel at the same time.
Tickets: begin at $22: at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 28, SUNDAY, SEPT 29, MONDAY, SEPT. 30:
Kahane Plays Beethoven – Sept. 28 & 29 at 7:30 pm; Sept. 30 at 8:00 pm; at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Music Director Carlos Kalmar conducting; Jeffrey Kahane, piano.
The Program: Bartók: Dance Suite, Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3, Haydn: Symphony No. 64, “Tempora mutantur,” Johann Strauss, Jr.: Tales from the Vienna Woods
Tickets: begin at $22: at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance.
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