Very special benefit concert by soprano Nan Haemer

By Lorin Wilkerson

A concert will be given Friday, May 2nd at 730 p.m. at St Mary's Cathedral by soprano Nan Haemer. Accompanying on piano will be Ramona Moore. Admission is free, but the concert is intended as a fund-raiser for Portland Symphonic Choir. Haemer and Moore will perform selections from Italian Opera, German songs and American Standards.

Nan had this to say:

“Originally, I was going to do this recital at my house, but we got a free cathedral, and a monster was born. This will not be a stuffy, non-interactive recital or an extravaganza of derring-do, either. Some of the selections are:

Per la gloria
Porgi amor (Mozart)
O mio babbino caro (Puccini)
Nel cor piu non mi sento
Vissi d'arte (Puccini)
L'altra notte in fondo al mare (Boito)

Then 3 Germans, (2 Schumanns and a Brahms)

Then, SHOW TUNES, SHOW TUNES, SHOW TUNES (or Jazz standards/American art songs since that's how they SHOULD be classified).

Come & see.
Laugh, cry, hurl, give money.”

Oberlin-trained pianist Terry Nelson will also be performing during this concert. For those of you who haven’t heard Nan sing, not only does she have a marvelous soprano but a quick and biting sense of humor. This should be a hoot as well as a great musical experience.

A little more about the purpose of this recital: in an effort to keep the wolf away from the door (and that’s a great big monstrous $100k wolf that will be knocking on May 19th), an incredibly generous board member will match all contributions to the PSC between now and May 18th, up to $50,000 dollars. This is a challenge not only to members of the Portland Symphonic Choir, who have been concocting various imaginative fundraisers and giving generously from their own pockets, but also to the classical music community in Portland at large as well. Talk about casting your bread upon the waters…. any monetary donation you give will be doubled, and the PSC is sorely in need at this moment.

While addressing an immediate financial emergency, this is ultimately about the long-term health of Portland’s oldest choral institution. For 63 years, the PSC has been a fixture in Portland’s art community. Think of the magnificent utterances of the human spirit that this marvelous group will bring to Portland over the next year: "Carmina Burana," Beethoven’s Ninth, Vaughan-Williams’ "Serenade to Music," Mozart’s Requiem and the entire set of Rachmaninoff’s ‘Vespers," just to name a few. So if at all possible, please come and support Nan & Co. in this worthwhile endeavor, or if you can’t make it this Friday, visit www.pschoir.org and make a donation in the spirit of this generous challenge.