Vancouver Master Chorale – Christmas Concert
2023-12-03 15:00 - 16:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | First Presbyterian Church, 4300 Main St., Vancouver, WA, 98663, United States
Come hear a Christmas concert featuring soloists, choir, and the Vancouver Master Chorale Orchestra including Bach’s Magnificat and an adaptation by Benedict Sheehan of Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol.”
Tickets:
$5 Students
$25 Adults

Newport Symphony Orchestra - Magical Tales
2024-01-20 19:30 - 21:30 | Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W Olive St, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
Erica Brookyser, mezzo-soprano
Adam Flatt, conductor
Erica Brookhyser, mezzo-soprano
Newport’s favorite singer in Manuel de Falla’s enchanting El amor brujo and selections from Aaron Copland’s “Old American Songs,” and the orchestra in Stravinsky’s powerful Firebird.
Newport Performing Arts Center
Ticket Price:
$44.25-$69.75* Standard/Preferred/Premium
$15.50* Students w/ID

Newport Symphony Orchestra – Magical Tales
2024-01-21 14:00 - 16:00 | Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W Olive St, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
Erica Brookhyser, mezzo-soprano
Adam Flatt, conductor
Erica Brookhyser, mezzo-soprano
Newport’s favorite singer in Manuel de Falla’s enchanting El amor brujo and selections from Aaron Copland’s “Old American Songs,” and the orchestra in Stravinsky’s powerful Firebird.
Newport Performing Arts Center
Ticket Price:
$44.25-$69.75* Standard/Preferred/Premium
$15.50* Students w/ID

Newport Symphony Orchestra – Bolero & Symphonic Jazz
2024-03-23 19:30 - 21:30, 2024-03-24 14:00 - 16:00 | Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W Olive St, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
Kim Scott, piccolo and flute
Adam Flatt, conductor
Jazz Radio Celebrity Kim Scott, piccolo and flute
For the season finale, a piccolo concerto by Vivaldi, a suite for jazz flute by Kim Scott, and Ravel’s Bolero.
Newport Performing Arts Center
Ticket Price:
$44.25-$69.75* Standard/Preferred/Premium
$15.50* Students w/ID

"We Are Not Strangers" - Book Talk and Discussion
2024-05-26 14:00 - 16:00 | OJMCHE Auditorium, 724 NW Davis St, Portland, OR, 97209, United States
Come see a book talk about the graphic novel We Are Not Strangers hosted jointly by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE) and the Japanese American Museum of Oregon (JAMO).
We Are Not Strangers is a historical fiction based on the story of the author’s Jewish immigrant ancestors who settled in Seattle and befriended Japanese Americans. When World War II broke out and the Japanese Americans were forced from their homes into prison camps, his ancestor went to extraordinary lengths to help and support them.
I will be part of a panel discussion with the book’s author, Josh Tuininga and with Ellen Eisenberg, professor of American History at Willamette University.
Click here to read my blog post about this.
The event is free, but RSVP is recommended. Click here for event details and to RSVP.

Oregon East Symphony - Summer Concert
2024-06-09 14:30 - 16:30 | Vert Auditorium, 480 SW Dorion Avenue, Pendleton, OR, 97801, United States
Oregon East Symphony’s Summer Concert:
Debussy – La Mer
Dukas – Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Williams – Harry Potter Suite

The Immigrant Story Live
2024-09-14 19:00 - 21:30 | Catlin Gabel School, 8825 SW Barnes Road, Portland, OR, 97225, United States
In partnership with the City of Portland Office of Community and Civic Life Immigrant & Refugee program, as part of Welcoming Week 2024, and in the spirit of a welcoming and inclusive community, The Immigrant Story Live presents an evening of soulful music and moving storytelling by immigrants and other residents of our community hosted by Catlin Gabel School.
Join us Saturday, September 14, 2024, from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in the Cabell Center Theater, located at Catlin Gabel School, 8825 SW Barnes Road, Portland, Oregon 97225.
To kick off this year’s Welcoming Week celebration, we invite you to hear four compelling stories told — and lived — by men and women from a diversity of backgrounds. Some made arduous journeys here as refugees and some have wrestled with questions of personal identity as second generation immigrants. All are helping to create Oregon’s rich patchwork of cultures. Storytellers with roots in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Japan and Laos will share their stories of courage, fortitude and resilience.
After a brief intermission, the evening will continue with a melodious music performance by Seffarine, a Portland-based ensemble led by Lamiae Naki and Nat Hulskamp. They will bring a unique blend of music that features soulful Moroccan vocals, flamenco guitar, Arabic oud and Persian kamancheh accompaniment, resulting in an inspiring musical experience.
This is the sixth year that the Immigrant Story has been a part of Welcoming Week, which is designed to bring together immigrants, refugees, and U.S.-born residents to raise awareness of the benefits of welcoming everyone to our communities. We have experienced the power of people coming together to continue to create and celebrate an inclusive and welcoming community where we all belong.
Free event. Limited seating. First-come, first-served. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
This free event is made possible by a generous contribution by the Zidell Family Foundation. Additional funding was provided by a grant from the City of Portland and Travel Portland.

Toby Loftus introduces Mitzi Asai Loftus and her book "From Thorns into Blossoms"
2024-09-15 15:00 - 16:30 | Tigard Public Library, 13500 SW Hall Blvd., Tigard, OR, 97223, United States
OSU Press published my mom’s memoir, From Thorns To Blossoms this year! She is 92 years old and her book tells the story of her Japanese parents coming to the U.S., settling in Hood River and raising 8 kids, and surviving the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII.
I will introduce her at a book talk at the Tigard Public Library. Please come if you can!

Newport Symphony - Symphonic Bacchanale and the Divine Cello
2024-09-28 19:30 - 21:00, 2024-09-29 14:00 - 15:30 | Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W Olive St, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
Mark Votapek, Cello
Adam Flatt, Conductor
Robert Schumann – Symphony No. 4 in D Minor
Camille Saint-Saëns – Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor
Ernest Bloch Schelomo
Camille Saint-Saëns – Danse Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah

Newport Symphony - The Land, the Sea, and the Birds
2025-01-18 19:30 - 21:00 | Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W Olive St, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
Adam Flatt, Conductor
Joseph Haydn Symphony no. 83 “La Poule”
Einojuhani Rautavaara Concerto for Birds and Orchestra “Cantus Arcticus”
Sara Carina Graef Yakona
Claude Debussy La Mer (The Sea)

Newport Symphony - The Land, the Sea, and the Birds
2025-01-19 14:00 - 15:30 | Newport High School, 322 Eads St, Newport, 97365, United States

February 19, Day of Remembrance
2025-02-19 12:00 - 13:00 | Tigard Public Library, 13500 SW Hall Blvd., Tigard, OR, 97223, United States
February 19 is Day of Remembrance, the date in 1942 when FDR signed Executive Order 9066 which led to the forced removal and mass incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans.
Tigard Teammate Toby Asai Loftus will perform his work, “How Could I Forget” in honor of his mother, Mitzi Asai Loftus, whose entire family was incarcerated – except for her brothers who served in the U.S Armed Forces in the Pacific Theater. “How Could I Forget” is work for solo viola and spoken word. The text is excerpted from Mitzi’s recently published memoir, “From Thorns To Blossoms” (OSU Press, 2024), set to music composed by Toby. Toby has performed on the viola with the Newport Symphony Orchestra for over 20 years.
Following the performance, Toby will welcome questions and discussion about Japanese American incarceration and his family’s experience.

Oregon East Symphony - Spring Concert
2025-03-16 14:30 - 17:00 | Vert Auditorium, 480 SW Dorion Avenue, Pendleton, OR, 97801, United States
Strauss – Metamorphosen [25’]
Schubert – Symphony no. 3 [25’]
Chee – Bassoon Concerto featuring Jacqueline Wilson

Newport Symphony - Magnificent Beethoven, Majestic Prokofiev
2025-03-22 19:00 - 21:30 | Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W Olive St, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
David Korevaar, piano
Adam Flatt, Conductor
Wojciech Kilar Orawa
Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 3 in C minor, op. 37
Sergei Prokofiev Symphony no. 5

Newport Symphony – Magnificent Beethoven, Majestic Prokofiev
2025-03-23 14:00 - 15:30 | Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W Olive St, Newport, OR, 97365, United States

Newport Symphony - Listening for Shakespeare
2025-03-25 08:00 - 17:00 | Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W Olive St, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
Frank Oden, performance poet
March 22, 2026 – 2:00pm at the Newport Performing Arts Center.
Otto Nicolai, Overture to “The Merry Wives of Windsor”
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Suite from “Much Ado About Nothing”
Giuseppe Verdi, Ballet Music from “Macbeth”
Dan Kellogg, “Pyramus and Thisbe”
Leonard Bernstein, Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story”
A concert like none other! Maestro Adam Flatt welcomes performance poet Frank Oden to share the stage with the Newport Symphony Orchestra!
Mr. Oden will connect the works together with the wondrous performances of some incredible music inspired by the immortal William Shakespeare. The concert will weave together the dramas, the comedy, the tragedy, and heartfelt honesty.
Join the shenanigans of Sir John Falstaff as he tries to seduce “The Merry Wives of Windsor” for financial gain. Follow the gossipy intrigue of Claudio and Hero and Beatrice and Benedick. Can you hear the vile Don John almost ruining the whole thing?
Join the orchestra on a trip to Scotland and dance to ballet music that eases the burden of the bloody king. Next, we’re off to Greece to hear the sad story that inspired Shakespeare’s, Ovid’s “Pyramus and Thisbe”, two youths madly in love trading whispers through a crack in the wall before their sad fate is met. We close with Bernstein’s take on those star crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, in his landmark “West Side Story”. The Symphonic Dances will have you dancing in your seats, you won’t want the fun to end!
All of this connected and shared with the dramatic expertise of our guest, Frank Oden.
Enjoy!

Oregon East Symphony - Summer Concert
2025-06-08 14:30 - 16:00 | Vert Auditorium, 480 SW Dorion Avenue, Pendleton, OR, 97801, United States
2:30pm, Sunday, June 8th, 2025 | Vert Auditorium (480 SW Dorion Ave, Pendleton, OR)
Elgar – Enigma Variations
Sibelius – Symphony No. 7
The 2024-2025 season concludes with Edward Elgar’s mysterious musical cryptogram Enigma Variations. Also to be performed is Sibelius’s unchracteristically brief Symphony No. 7.

Free Fourth of July Community Concert
2025-07-04 16:00 - 17:00 | Newport Middle School, 825 NE 7th Street, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
Join the Newport Symphony for our Annual Fourth of July Concert!
This concert is FREE for all to attend as a true celebration of our community!
This year, the NSO under the baton of Maestro Adam Flatt, welcomes back Oregon’s Own Miss America, Katie Harman Ebner! Katie has parlayed her Miss America experience into a robust and multifaceted career in opera, musical theater as well as with symphony orchestras and a variety of special projects from live stage to television, and spanning genres including Broadway and jazz. She’ll wow you with the power of her voice as she sings selections from the great American songbook. You will enjoy all your patriotic favorites as well as a couple of surprises.
July 4th, 2025
4:00pm
Newport Middle School
We’ll see you there!

Newport Symphony - Listening for Beethoven
2025-09-27 19:30 - 21:00, 2025-09-28 14:00 - 15:30 | Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W Olive St, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
Ben Kim, piano*
Willamette Master Chorus, Paul Klemme, director
Gabriela Lena Frank, Elegía Andina
Jake Runestad, A Silence Haunts Me*
Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 “Emperor”*
Ludwig van Beethoven, Choral Fantasy in C minor, for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra, Op. 80*
We are excited to start the season off with a powerful tribute to one of the greatest composers of all time.
The concert begins with Elegía Andina, by Gabriela Lena Frank. She grew up with neurosensory high-moderate/near-profound hearing loss. Regardless of this challenge, Frank has become an incredible force in the world of music. This piece is dedicated to her older brother Marcos and explores what it means to be from different ethnical persuasions through traditional Peruvian elements.
Next we move on to Jake Runestad’s moving exploration of Beethoven’s deafness. Pianist Ben Kim and the Willamette Master Chorus led by Dr. Paul Klemme, join the Newport Symphony for this transformative music is set to a poem by the composer’s friend, Todd Boss. This text explores Beethoven’s mindset at his growing deafness while using some of the maestro’s own musical ideas. According to Dr. Jonathan Talberg:
“Runestad has done what he does best—written a score where the poetry creates the form, where the text drives the rhythm, where the melody supports the emotional content, and where the natural sounding vocal lines, arresting harmony, and idiomatic accompaniment — in this case, piano in honor of Beethoven — come together to offer the audience an original, engaging, thoughtful, and passionate work of choral art.”
Our friends in the chorus take a well earned break as Ben Kim and the NSO put Beethoven front and center with his aptly titled “Emperor” concerto. This is without question a masterwork although it has a sad asterisk alongside the grand title. Piano Concerto No. 5 was the first of Beethoven’s concertos that he did not premiere himself, this because his hear was deteriorating significantly. Nonetheless, he has given us a remarkable work that has changed the landscape of all the concertos that follow.
Tonight’s concert closes with the great Choral Fantasy in C minor. We welcome the Willamette Master Chorus back to the stage with Ben Kim, Maestro Adam Flatt, and the great Newport Symphony Orchestra. On the night of December 22, 1808, Beethoven was giving the Viennese premiere of Symphony No. 5, Symphony No. 6, his Fourth Piano Concerto, with him as the soloist, and he decided he needed a grand finale, of sorts, to bring this FOUR HOUR concert to a close. The result, this Choral Fantasy. The musicologist William Runyan writes, “Beethoven may have ground out the Choral Fantasy in haste at the last minute, to serve the dubious function as a concert-ending flag waiver, but the audience that night got much more than it expected.”

Newport Symphony - Gandelsman Returns!
2025-11-08 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-11-09 14:00 - 15:30 | Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W Olive St, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
Gandelsman Returns!
Adam Flatt, conductor
Johnny Gandelsman, violin*
November 8th, 2025 – 7:30pm at the Newport Performing Arts Center – Pre-concert chat with Maestro Adam Flatt at 6:45pm
November 9th, 2025 – 2:00pm at the Newport Performing Arts Center.
Jennifer Higdon, Blue Cathedral
Felix Mendelssohn, Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64*
Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 “Pathétique”
Buy tickets online HERE FOR SATURDAY or HERE FOR SUNDAY.
We begin this evening’s concert with renowned American composer, Jennifer Higdon. Written in 1999, Blue Cathedral was commissioned for the 75th anniversary of the Curtis Institute. Titles of musical compositions are often—most often it can seem—misleading, but this one is singularly apt. Cast in a single short movement of lush, soothing cascades of orchestra sound, the over-used descriptor, “shimmering,” is more than apropos in this case. Imaginative scoring for strings and delicate percussion—including exotic bells and water glasses—are the foundation for an evocation of the atmosphere of the title. Short motives from various wind instruments provide aphoristic commentaries throughout, but generally without what would call “tunes.” The whole weft of sound seems to gently and constantly float upward without having to start all over at the “bottom.” It’s a remarkable and sensual musical experience, and justly deserves its popularity as perhaps the composer’s most performed composition.
Next up, we celebrate the welcome return of local favorite and MacArthur Genius Fellow, Johnny Gandelsman. Mendelssohn wrote several concertos for both piano and for violin. The last concerto, for violin, is one of the most important solo works of the nineteenth century. Finished in the fall of 1844, after many years of work, the concerto is the product of a man at the height of his artistic powers. At the time Mendelssohn was literally the toast of Europe, composing fervidly, visiting everywhere as guest conductor and composer, serving as music administrator of a new conservatory in Leipzig, and all the while trying to cope with the bedeviling trials of an official appointment at the Prussian court at Berlin and Potsdam. He was literally working himself to death, and his life, indeed only lasted a few more years. The concerto was premièred in 1845 in Leipzig by Mendelssohn’s friend, the great violinist, Ferdinand David, himself a noted composer (yay trombones!) but the performance of it by the very young virtuoso of violin, Joseph Joachim, one month before Mendelssohn’s death in 1847 must have been a particularly poignant one. At the time he was driven to incapacitation by the death of his beloved sister; that and his onerous professional schedule led to a series of strokes that killed him. Johnny Gandelsman’s performance is certain to move you to new emotional heights.
The evening concludes with Tchaikovsky’s massive Symphony No. 6. Maestro Adam Flatt and the Newport Symphony will take you on a powerful journey into the depths of the composer’s very soul. This symphony is Tchaikovsky’s last work—he died of cholera only nine days after its première—and it is universally hailed as one of his finest. It exhibits all of the characteristic passion and melodic beauty for which the composer justly is known, and is suffused with a dark and tragic essence. Tchaikovsky struggled all of his life with his identity, fears of social rejection, and frustrated relationships with others. By the end of his life these issues had surely come to a head, and the composer freely spoke with his brother of the reflection of his suffering in this final, gripping composition. There is even a current musicological fight over whether or not he poisoned himself to end his life (under threat of social disgrace), or deliberately drank the un-boiled glass of water during an epidemic. In any case, the circumstances of his life’s final struggles are manifest in this beautiful and tragic work. In the event, he had at first actually considered “Tragic” as a subtitle for the symphony, but his brother suggested the Russian for “pathos,” and the French equivalent, “pathétique,” is the evocative descriptor that we all know. But, be aware of inexact translations–there is nothing pathetic here.

Newport Symphony - Listening for Shakespeare
2026-03-21 19:30 - 21:00 | Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W Olive St, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
Frank Oden, performance poet
March 21st, 2026 – 7:30pm at the Newport Performing Arts Center. Pre-concert chat with Maestro Adam Flatt at 6:45pm
Otto Nicolai, Overture to “The Merry Wives of Windsor”
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Suite from “Much Ado About Nothing”
Giuseppe Verdi, Ballet Music from “Macbeth”
Dan Kellogg, “Pyramus and Thisbe”
Leonard Bernstein, Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story”
A concert like none other! Maestro Adam Flatt welcomes performance poet Frank Oden to share the stage with the Newport Symphony Orchestra!
Mr. Oden will connect the works together with the wondrous performances of some incredible music inspired by the immortal William Shakespeare. The concert will weave together the dramas, the comedy, the tragedy, and heartfelt honesty.
Join the shenanigans of Sir John Falstaff as he tries to seduce “The Merry Wives of Windsor” for financial gain. Follow the gossipy intrigue of Claudio and Hero and Beatrice and Benedick. Can you hear the vile Don John almost ruining the whole thing?
Join the orchestra on a trip to Scotland and dance to ballet music that eases the burden of the bloody king. Next, we’re off to Greece to hear the sad story that inspired Shakespeare’s, Ovid’s “Pyramus and Thisbe”, two youths madly in love trading whispers through a crack in the wall before their sad fate is met. We close with Bernstein’s take on those star crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, in his landmark “West Side Story”. The Symphonic Dances will have you dancing in your seats, you won’t want the fun to end!
All of this connected and shared with the dramatic expertise of our guest, Frank Oden.
Enjoy!

Newport Symphony - Listening for Shakespeare
2026-03-22 14:00 - 15:30 | Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W Olive St, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
Frank Oden, performance poet
March 22nd, 2026 – 2:00pm at the Newport Performing Arts Center. Pre-concert chat with Maestro Adam Flatt at 6:45pm
Otto Nicolai, Overture to “The Merry Wives of Windsor”
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Suite from “Much Ado About Nothing”
Giuseppe Verdi, Ballet Music from “Macbeth”
Dan Kellogg, “Pyramus and Thisbe”
Leonard Bernstein, Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story”
A concert like none other! Maestro Adam Flatt welcomes performance poet Frank Oden to share the stage with the Newport Symphony Orchestra!
Mr. Oden will connect the works together with the wondrous performances of some incredible music inspired by the immortal William Shakespeare. The concert will weave together the dramas, the comedy, the tragedy, and heartfelt honesty.
Join the shenanigans of Sir John Falstaff as he tries to seduce “The Merry Wives of Windsor” for financial gain. Follow the gossipy intrigue of Claudio and Hero and Beatrice and Benedick. Can you hear the vile Don John almost ruining the whole thing?
Join the orchestra on a trip to Scotland and dance to ballet music that eases the burden of the bloody king. Next, we’re off to Greece to hear the sad story that inspired Shakespeare’s, Ovid’s “Pyramus and Thisbe”, two youths madly in love trading whispers through a crack in the wall before their sad fate is met. We close with Bernstein’s take on those star crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, in his landmark “West Side Story”. The Symphonic Dances will have you dancing in your seats, you won’t want the fun to end!
All of this connected and shared with the dramatic expertise of our guest, Frank Oden.
Enjoy!

Oregon East Symphony - Summer Concert
2026-06-07 14:30 - 16:00 | Vert Auditorium, 480 SW Dorion Avenue, Pendleton, OR, 97801, United States
Program:
Buetti – Odyssey Overture for OrchestraBach – Concerto for oboe and violinStravinsky – Petrushka (1947)

Newport Symphony Free 4th of July Concert
2026-07-04 16:00 - 17:00 | Newport Middle School, 825 NE 7th Street, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
Join the Newport Symphony on Saturday, July 4th at Newport Middle School for this free concert.
Celebrate the 250th Birthday of the United States with your friends at the Newport Symphony Orchestra. Enjoy music inspired by a handful of rebels who built a revolution. Not only will you hear the patriotic favorites, but also some familiar tunes from movies and much, much more. There will even be a couple of fun surprises.
We’ll see you there!
This free concert is provided to the community by the Newport Symphony Orchestra and its donors in partnership with the Lincoln County School District, and with the generous sponsorship of Oregon Coast Bank and Georgia-Pacific.

Newport Symphony - Siren Song
2026-09-26 19:30 - 21:00, 2026-09-27 14:00 - 15:30 | Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W Olive St, Newport, OR, 97365, United States
Adam Flatt, Conductor
Women of the Willamette Master Chorus*
Paul Klemme, director
Claude Debussy: Nocturnes*
TBD: Willamette Master Chorus*
Jessie Montgomery: Coincident Dances
Igor Stravinsky: Suite from “The Firebird” (1945)
September 26th, 2026 @ 7:30pm – Preconcert chat at 6:45pm
September 27th, 2026 @ 2:00pm
