{"id":6550,"date":"2011-05-31T17:50:24","date_gmt":"2011-06-01T00:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=6550"},"modified":"2013-02-07T20:50:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T04:50:00","slug":"performance-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/05\/31\/performance-round-up\/","title":{"rendered":"performance round up"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ron Blessinger, Emily Cole, Hamilton Cheifetz, and Charles Noble perform music of Zhou Lang and Huang Ruo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last weekend I had the pleasure of taking part in two very enjoyable, but very different, concerts of chamber music. The first was as part of the Third Angle New Music Ensemble, which presented its Asian Music Now concert on Friday evening, which highlighted music by Asian composers, with music both brand new and a few years old.<\/p>\n

The works that I was involved with on the Third Angle concert were two works for string quartet by the wonderful Chinese composer (and recent Pulitzer Prize winner) Zhou Long<\/a>. The first, Chinese Folk Songs<\/em> (2004), presented seven classical Chinese folk songs in varying settings for string quartet. While the melodic and harmonic language Zhou uses in his works is decidedly Chinese, his use of the instruments\u00a0is very much in the Western classical vein. I found hints of Janacek and Debussy in Chinese Folk Songs<\/em>, which is a masterpiece in how it handles two very different styles of music in such a masterful and fluent way. It was a joy to play these two great works with Ron Blessinger, Emily Cole, and Hamilton Cheifetz. The second work, Song of the Ch’in<\/em>, is much more in the idiom of Chinese folk instruments, particularly the pipa<\/em>, which the viola emulates in the opening moments of the piece. The final work for string quartet was the String Quartet No. 2: The Flag Project<\/em> (2009), by Chinese composer Huang Ruo. A three movement meditation on the movements of Tibetan prayer flags in the wind, it was a challenging yet beautiful piece that suggests an ascendant career path for a composer from whom we will certainly be hearing things about in the future.<\/p>\n

A very different concert was presented on Saturday evening, a marathon chamber music concert which served as a benefit for the Phame Academy<\/a>, a wonderful program which serves developmentally disabled adult artists in Portland. Two of the artists from the Phame Academy began the program with two vocal and piano numbers, which showed the wonderful work that is being done by these exceptional artists. I was able to hear most all of the program before my piece, which was the last on the program. Everyone in the Kairos Ensemble played wonderfully together, a testament to the good-natured organizational skills and ebullient personality of violist Michelle Matthewson. Finally, six of us took to the stage for Brahms’ ever-popular and so fun-to-play Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major by Brahms.<\/p>\n

The next day, Sunday, Heather and I were off to George, Washington to play at the Sasquatch Festival<\/a> as part of the Harvey Rosenkrantz Orchestra with Pink Martini<\/a>. Ten hours on a bus isn’t the most delightful way to travel, but when you’ve got great friends along for the ride (as well as lots of reading material), it goes by pretty quickly. The young crowd (much younger than the typical Oregon Symphony show with Pink Martini) seemed to love the performance, and after a quick post-show dinner buffet, it was back on the bus for the five hour trip back to Portland.<\/p>\n

So, now I’ve got a couple weeks off until the Astoria Music Festival, so there is actually time to practice what I want, went I want, and how I want. Nice!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Last weekend I had the pleasure of taking part in two very enjoyable, but very different, concerts of chamber music. The first was as part of the Third Angle New Music Ensemble, which presented its Asian Music Now concert on Friday evening, which highlighted music by Asian composers, with music both brand new and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[135,138,2],"tags":[2693,2695,804],"class_list":["post-6550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-soloists-recitals","category-summer-festivals","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-phame-academy","tag-sasquatch-festival","tag-third-angle"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1HE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1573,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/19\/new-music-ensembles-win-racc-grants\/","url_meta":{"origin":6550,"position":0},"title":"new music ensembles win racc grants","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Photo courtesy of Fear No Music - credit: Charles Noble Congratulations to FearNoMusic, who were awarded a sizable grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council for their Home Grown concert coming in February 2009 as part of the Oregon 150 celebration, and the Third Angle New Music Ensemble, who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"In\u00c3\u00a9s Voglar & Jo\u00c3\u00abl Belgique - \u00c2\u00a9 Charles Noble","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/crw_0795-400x600.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2537,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/05\/16\/jennifer-higdon-third-angle\/","url_meta":{"origin":6550,"position":1},"title":"jennifer higdon & third angle","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll leave the reviews to the professionals, but last night's Evening With Jennifer Higdon concert presented by the Third Angle New Music Ensemble was one of the most enjoyable evenings of music that I've been to in quite some time.\u00c2\u00a0 It was great to have a few minutes to chat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"jennifer higdon and third angle new music ensemble","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/img_0656-400x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13700,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/04\/30\/third-angle-hearing-voices\/","url_meta":{"origin":6550,"position":2},"title":"Third Angle: Hearing Voices","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night I got to participate in a truly remarkable gathering of arts patrons in Portland. It was a Salon soiree at the loft home of Thomas Lauderdale, and the guest of honor was the renowned music writer\/critic for The New Yorker\u00a0Alex Ross. After a period of meet and greet,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "concert preview"","block_context":{"text":"concert preview","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/concert-preview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5900,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/03\/03\/twenty-five-years-of-third-angle\/","url_meta":{"origin":6550,"position":3},"title":"twenty-five years of third angle","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"On March 11th, 2011, Third Angle Ensemble celebrates its 25th anniversary with Reich-analia, a concert of classics by the modern master, Steve Reich, in the spectacular Atrium at Montgomery Park.\u00a0The concert begins at 8:00 pm. With advance purchase tickets are $30 for general admission, $25 for age 65 and older\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/25th_logo_page_image_480x60-200x250.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13935,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/11\/12\/third-angle-mixes-words-and-music-this-weekend\/","url_meta":{"origin":6550,"position":4},"title":"third angle mixes words and music this weekend","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"It's my third season with Third Angle New Music, and it seems that every single concert I play involves me doing something entirely new and different to me than anything I've ever done before. And that also involves it being one of the most difficult things I've done!\u00a0Playing a memorized\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/hearing-voices-4.0-e1447377712890.png?fit=700%2C322&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/hearing-voices-4.0-e1447377712890.png?fit=700%2C322&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/hearing-voices-4.0-e1447377712890.png?fit=700%2C322&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/hearing-voices-4.0-e1447377712890.png?fit=700%2C322&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13011,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/10\/19\/third-angle-gabby\/","url_meta":{"origin":6550,"position":5},"title":"third angle & gabby","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 19, 2013","format":"image","excerpt":"We had two nights of terrific concerts at Third Angle this Thursday and Friday, and this is a photo from the finale of Friday night's concert. Pictured are (L-R) Susan DeWitt Smith, Gabriela Lena Frank, and the Third Angle String Quartet. Gabby is just a force of nature, full of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Third Angle String Quartet with Gabriela Lena Frank. 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