Musical prodigies aren’t exactly a dime a dozen, but acquiring the technique required to play violin or piano at concert-level ability often manifests in early childhood. Precociously talented young musicians, from Mozart to violinist Joshua Bell to pianist Lang Lang, are hardly uncommon. It is far more unusual, however, to find a young musician with…
Most musicians tend to reduce their professional engagements as they age. Not Itzhak Perlman. If anything, Perlman has increased his activities. In addition to his 40-plus years as one of the world’s premier violinists, in recent years he has returned to his alma mater – Juilliard – to teach. He’s also embarked on a second…
The Oregon Symphony welcomes pianist Emanuel Ax. Ax has an unusual double feature: he plays Johan Sebastian Bach’s Concerto for Keyboard in D minor, BWV 1052, alongside Richard Strauss’ Burleske for Piano and Orchestra with the Oregon Symphony on Jan. 11-13. Ax combines unsurpassed musicianship with a self-effacing, almost diffident approach to making music, whether…
“My favorite thing about Jewish food is eating it and then not eating it for awhile,” declares pianist Arnaldo Cohen, the newly appointed artistic director of Portland Piano International. An active performer, Cohen is often on the road for months at a time and receives many invitations to dinners in restaurants or private homes, which has allowed him to…
There’s been a lot of news about women in the military recently, particularly women who have experienced sexual assault. But that’s not what inspired playwright Andrea Stolowitz to write Ithaka, her newest play, which won the newly established Fowler/Levin Prize and is being produced by Artists Repertory Theatre this month. Ithaka centers on Lanie, a…
When you hear a Dave Frishberg song, you notice it. The lyrics are cool, wry, sophisticated and, at times, wistful. The music, always in service to the words, enhances their meaning in subtle, indefinable ways. Frishberg’s artful settings lend his lyrics a three- dimensional quality, so that they take on additional meaning. Frishberg’s songs, including…
Thanks to the TV show “Portlandia,” Oregonians west of the Cascades are now famous for their highly developed food sensibilities, militant bike activism, flowing long gray hair and ever-intensifying addictions to locally produced artisan coffees, oh-so-perfect pinots and craft beers. What “Portlandia hasn’t touched on – yet (hint) – is the amount of buzz generated…
David Shifrin could say he owes everything to his mishpocha (extended family). The world-renowned clarinetist is also a professor at the Yale School of Music and artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest, Portland’s summer chamber music festival. His official bio is studded with more notable accomplishments than we have room to print, but suffice it…
It’s high summer, and even if you’re not making an active effort to eat local, it’s just about impossible to go a day without ingesting something that has been locally grown or raised within 50 miles of Portland. All of the Portland metro area’s 50+ farmers markets are open and in full swing, and savvy…
“The piano is an instrument that has autonomy; it can mean anything,” declares pianist Arnaldo Cohen, who sees the connection between his Judaism and his musical career as an expression of independence. “This kind of Jewish influence is on a very unconscious level and comes from most of the experiences I had in my life…
