Today's Birthdays

Antonio Sacchini (1730-1786)
Simon Mayr (1763-1845)
Nicolai Rubinstein (1835-1881)
John McCormack (1884-1945)
Heddle Nash (1894-1961)
Rudolf Kempe (1910-1976)
Stanley Black (1913-2002)
Theodore Bloomfield (1923-1998)
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004)
Natalia Gutman (1942)
Lang Lang (1982)

and

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
Ralph Barnes (1899-1940)
John Bartlett (1820-1905)
Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971)
Ernesto (Che) Guevara de la Serna (1928-1967)
Jonathan Raban (1942)
Mona Simpson (1971)

Review: Oregon Symphony's concert, featuring works by Tchaikovsky, Akiho, and Green

Andy Akiho takes a bow - photo by Jason Quigley

Guest review by Joshua Lickteig

— The month of May’s final concert for the Oregon Symphony was one of full volume and conveyed discernment through kinetic assortment and distinct traditions. The motion in the building at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall the evening of Saturday the 30th was in fervid flow. The evening’s program, “Percussion & Rhythm”, spanned works separated by nearly 150 years.

The latter half brought a luminous rendering of Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (1878) by Tchaikovsky, a work not indirect in foretelling future music. The orchestra here illuminates an early modernist seer following their daring and considered voyage with Andy Akiho’s "Percussion Concerto" (2019) and Brittany J. Green’s "Testify!" (2024).

The sectional shifts of Symphony No. 4 highlighted varieties of responsibility across instruments, recurring through fanfare to vanity to ache to acceptance, and shared anchorage of brass and woodwind and strings. The most notable of Music Director and Conductor David Danzmayr’s enthralling guidance showed in the timing of the piccolo passage in movement III. (Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato), the counterposing of the finale’s use of Russian folk with the rhetorical Russian imperial style of movement I. (Andante Sostenuto), and the finale’s swift call and response between orchestra and horns. The melody of exposed bassoon was both joyous and inquisitive.

"Testify!" arrived as its own whirlwind, preceding the Tchaikovsky in OSO's first performance of the work. In just five minutes, building from a church tambourine pattern — maternal influence made orchestral by Green (b. 1991) — and bodily jubilation scored as cheerful exclamations of joy, the piece bloomed into something the musicians would collectively discover rather than perform. Green’s invention runs through Julius Eastman’s organic minimalism — rhythm as living, breathing testimony rather than process — and from the stage emanated a sonic prism.

Across three movements and an interlude, the "Percussion Concerto" opened the evening with a cosmic assortment of instrumentation: ceramic bowls, marimba, toy piano, brake drum, vibraphone, other found objects — each not merely played but awakened. OSO inhabited an urgency evocative of performing "Rite of Spring," but less insistent and more transparent, sometimes giving way to impulse, but mostly to discipline. Destabilizing metric jolts in the progression of the first movement (Ceramic) transposed forces active in the timeless earth and heavens, dissolving the questioning of categories of music in the way of yielding to vital force. In places, staccato phrasings would later find their mirror in Symphony No. 4, as would thunderous and glistening celebrations of triangle, timpani, and bass drum. Some sounds achieved were abstruse; bow on vibraphone, for instance, like a ghostly synthesizer. Akiho (b. 1979) was seated for the concerto in the west dress circle, then appeared on stage with the orchestra alongside Danzmayr, the percussionists Michael Roberts, Stephen Kehner, Jon Greeney, and Sergio Carreno, receiving ovation after ovation. An encore performance included Akiho with steel pan in a special arrangement of his composition "Daidai Iro | Orange" for percussion quintet. The concert was recorded for commercial release.

Also note that on June 5, Reference Recordings released “Beneath Lighted Coffers: Concerto for Steel Pans & Orchestra” the Oregon Symphony's first album under David Danzmayr, featuring the same four percussionists who premiered the Percussion Concerto six years ago with Colin Currie.

The night’s program, nearing the close of OSO’s 129th season, was concentric in lucid sonority, each work drawn toward the others in a way neither announced nor explained, yet each questioning its own purpose and happiness in profoundly different ways. Rhythm was not ornamental but architectural. And melodic configurations expressed how the ordinary is transformed through observation.

Today's Birthdays

Anton (Antonín) Wranitzky (1761-1820)
Anton Eberl (1766-1807)
Elisabeth Schumann (1888-1952)
Carlos Chavez (1899-1978)
Alan Civil (1929-1989)
Gwynne Howell (1938)
Sarah Connolly (1963)
Alain Trudel (1966)

and

Frances Burney (1752-1840)
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Mary Antin (1881-1949)
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957)
William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)
Artem Chekh (1985)

Today's Birthdays

Vanni Marcoux (1877-1962)
Werner Josten (1895-1963)
Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986)
Leon Goossens (1897-1988)
Maurice Ohana (1913-1992)
Uta Hagen (1919-2004)
Ian Partridge (1938)
Chick Corea (1941)
Oliver Knussen (1952)

and

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)
Egon Schiele (1890-1918)
Djuna Barnes (1892-1982)
Anne Frank (1929-1945)

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672-1749)
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
George Frederick McKay (1899-1970)
Hazel Scott (1920-1981)
Shelly Manne (1920-1984)
Carlisle Floyd (1926-2021)
Antony Rooley (1944)
Douglas Bostock (1955)
Conrad Tao (1994)

and

Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
William Styron (1925-2006)
Athol Fugard (1932-2025)

Pianist and Birder Kai Frueh to Present a Unique Concert in West Linn June 20

Kai Frueh, a Corvallis native now based in Bowling Green, OH, is a pianist and birder who will bring a very unique concert to The Meteor Lounge in West Linn at 7pm on June 20. Describing himself as a "collaborative musician and interdisciplinary artist who blends new music, environmental themes and birdsong into chamber, ensemble, and immersive solo performances," Kai forms one half of the Frueh Brothers duo (along with his brother, violinist Ben Frueh).

In addition to being obsessed with music, he is obsessed with birds, and the West Linn concert is just the first in an ambitious summer program in NW Oregon this year. Not only is there the opportunity to hear Kai's music, in West Linn on June 21, as well as in Corvallis June 27 and in Lincoln City July 10, but he will also put his expert-level birding abilities to use and guide a birdsong walk at the incredibly birdy Powell Butte Nature Park in east Portland. Complete details are:

1. Summer Solstice Bird Concert with Kai Frueh

Meteor Lounge 

2015 8th Avenue West Linn, OR 97068

Saturday, June 20, 2026

Doors open: 6:45 p.m.
Concert begins: 7:15 p.m.

Sponsored by Bird Alliance of Oregon as part of their Bird Days of Summer.

Tickets required. All seating is General Admission.
Fee: $25 members / $35 non-members
Student/youth fee: $15

Proceeds will go to supporting Bird Alliance of Oregon’s programs.

2. The Bird Days of Summer: Intersection of Birdsong and Music — Birding at Powell Butte

Powell Butte Nature Park

16160 SE Powell Blvd, Portland, OR

Sunday, June 21, 2026

8am – ~ 10:30am

Sponsored by Bird Alliance of Oregon as part of their Bird Day’s of Summer.

Join musician and birder Kai Frueh for an exploration of the birds of Powell Butte Nature Park. This walk will focus on the songs of our feathered friends which Kai uses in his musical performances.

We will move at a relaxed pace with frequent stops to enjoy the musicality of birdsong and discuss intersections of birdsong and music. With a mixture of habitats including grassland and forest, we will get to experience a lot of birdsong and enjoy birding by ear. Participants of all experience levels are welcome!

Registration required

3. Kai’s Bird Concert sponsored by Mid Willamette Bird Alliance

Good Samaritan Episcopal Church

333 NW 35th St, Corvallis, OR 97330

Sunday, June 27, 2026, 7pm PDT

This will be a one-hour immersive bird-themed concert combining Kai’s two biggest passions: music and birds. In this concert Kai explores many different ways composers have drawn inspiration from birds in their piano works spanning from the early 1700s all the way through today. The concert will include works by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Amy Beach, and Olivier Messiaen, as well as pieces written specifically for this program by Brad Balliett, Julia Tchira, and Thomas Meinzen. The musical experience is enhanced with many of Kai’s field recordings, compiled to recreate a natural soundscape in the concert hall. This concert promises to be an unforgettable experience, delighting bird fanatics and music lovers alike.

Free Admission – donations appreciated

4. Kai’s Bird Concert as part of Seven Cape Bird Alliance Osprey Days

Lincoln City Cultural Center, Lincoln City, OR

540 NE Hwy 101, Lincoln City, OR

Friday, July 10, 2026 7pm PDT

Same program as #3

Concert tickets and registration for the bird outing are available at his website, linked to aboved. Watch NW Reverb in the weeks to come for an interview with Kai, which will be conducted as we bird some of his favorite spots in his hometown of Corvallis, as well as a review of the Lincoln City Concert.

Today's Birthdays

Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900)
Hariclea Darclée (1860-1939)
Frederick Loewe (1904-1988)
Ralph Kirkpatrick (1911-1984)
Tikhon Khrennikov (1913-2007)
Bruno Bartoletti (1925-2013)
Mark-Anthony Turnage (1960)

and

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)
Terence Rattigan (1911-1977)
James Salter (1925-2015)
Maurice Sendak (1928-2012)

Review of Colin Currie and the Oregon Symphony playing Danny Elfman's 'Percussion Concerto' up at Classical Voice North America

 

In my first assignment for CVNA, I reviewed the June 4th concert at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. You can read the article here.

Today's Birthdays

Anton Weidinger (1766-1852)
Otto Nicolai (1810-1849)
Alberic Magnard (1865-1914)
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Cole Porter (1891-1964)
Dame Gracie Fields (1898-1979)
Ingolf Dahl (1912-1970)
Les Paul (1915-2009)
Franco Donatoni (1927-2000)
Charles Wuorinen (1938-2020)
Ileana Cotrubas (1939)

and

Baroness Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914)
George Axelrod (1922-2003)
Patricia Cornwell (1956)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1840, Franz Liszt gives a solo performance at the Hanover Square Rooms in London billed as "Recitals." This was the first time the term "recital" was used to describe a public musical performance, and it caused much discussion and debate at the time. Liszt is credited with both inventing and naming the now-common solo piano "recital."

Today's Birthdays

Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1750)
Nicolas Dalayrac (1753-1809)
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942)
Reginald Kell (1906-1981)
Emanuel Ax (1949)
Harold Meltzer (1966-2024)

and

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)
John W Campbell (1910-1970)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1912, Ravel's ballet, "Daphnis et Chloé" was premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, by Diaghilev and the Ballet Russe, Pierre Monteux conducting.