Bob Priest is an avant-impresario in hippie-zen clothing, a champion of noise and synesthesia giving his all to keep Portland’s rainy spring soaking in modern sounds. He’s the founder and organizer of March Music Moderne, Portland’s prolific and densely packed contemporary-classical music festival.
—Christopher Corbell, PDX Magazine (read the full article)
Still…when Lou Reed’s most aggressive album meets Japan’s most outre dance form, no one is safe.
—A. L. Adams, Oregon ArtsWatch (read the full article)
Here’s the next to the final installment of the interview with Bob Priest of March Music Moderne.
—James Bash, Northwest Reverb (read the full article)
After a scintillating — and for some of us, exhausting — opening week, the final weekend of Oregon’s March musical madness, March Music Moderne, arrives, plus other chamber music concerts that flirt with modernity.
—Bret Campbell, Oregon ArtsWatch (read the full article)
If you’re still looking for something to do, and happen to love both the string quartet and the music of Benjamin Britten, I’ve got the perfect concert for you!
—Charles Noble, NobleViola (read the full article)
Closing out the festival, the Free Marz String Trio presents a program dubbed “The Marzian Chronicles.” Details are scarce, but the names of everyone from J.S. Bach to Ennio Morricone are given alongside, of course, Ray Bradbury. The Trio is somewhat known for its untraditional performances—they can involve elements of dance and audience participation, and nontraditional “classical” pieces by, for example, Jimi Hendrix and John Cage.
—Portland Monthly Magazine (read the full article)
The best I and my colleagues Mitchell Falconer, The Mousai and Storm Session (named after his piece in his honor) can do is show the people of his hometown of four decades what they’ve been missing, and show today’s musicians why they might want to play it, too.
—Maria Choban, Oregon ArtsWatch (read the full article)
In fact, Choban transcribed the aptly titled “Storm Session” from Svoboda’s original for electric guitar and bass, and the other rhythmically charged acoustic pieces on this hour-long, no-intermission 75th-birthday tribute to the dean of Portland composers crackle with rock’n’roll electricity.
Brett Campbell, Willamette Week (read the full article)
[MODERNE CLASSICAL] These two free March Music Moderne-ending concerts amount to a double bill. […] As MMM proves every year, musical modernism can be fun.
—Brett Campbell, Willamette Week (read the full article)
[WEIRD PIANOS] Keyboards take center stage in this concert of music by Portland composers Jennifer Wright, including her dazzling “Looper” for eight hands; Art Resnick, best-known as a jazzer, but who also composes in classical styles; and Ted Clifford, featuring prepared and unprepared pianos, pianos tuned a quarter-note apart, toy pianos, electric piano and even a “skeleton piano.”
Brett Campbell, Willamette Week (read the full article)
