Thursday, November 15, 2007

Sharing artists and audiences

This weekend Ralph Kirshbaum will be performing for the first time with the Oregon Symphony. Kirshbaum has been a regular at Chamber Music Northwest for a number of years, and I would think that a number of Chamber Music Northwest subscribers might want to hear the Oregon Symphony this weekend because of Kirshbaum.

It's terrific to see major-league artists appearing in concerts that are sponsored by different organizations. Once in a while I've seen this happen with pianists who play on the series with Portland Piano International and also with the Oregon Symphony. Usually, this doesn't happen during the same season.

Of course, I don't want the same people to circulate among these organizations all the time, but some crossover or sharing among the groups is a good way to get stimulate audiences.

I have also enjoyed how Portland Opera has promoted hometown talents. Christine Meadows, who graduated from Portland State University was a regular at NY City opera and at Portland Opera for many years. We've also seen PSU grads like Kelly Nassief and Angela Niederloh star in recent productions. I just took a look at Clayton Brainerd's web site (he also graduated from PSU) and noticed that he will be appearing next year in Portland Opera's production of Fidelio. A great move by Portland Opera.

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