Symphonic Safari
September 24, 2011
10:00 am
Center for the Arts Plaza, Downtown Gresham

A TERRIFIC family concert (FREE) on the Center for the Arts Plaza in downtown Gresham, immediately following the annual Teddy Bear Parade. Bring your lawn chairs, buy some refreshments from us, and enjoy the sights and sounds of Peter & the Wolf and other symphonic "animals." Touch, smell, and feel other art forms such as theater, dance, painting and don't miss the instrument petting zoo where you can bang and blow on many kinds of musical instruments. Finally, absolutely safari the orchestra while it plays for a one-of-a kind jungle experience! This is classical music like you've never felt it before.

Autumnal Reflections
October 14 & 16, 2011

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PCSO's 30th anniversary season is primarily comprised of pieces that have been requested by audience members and players-many of which are "encore appearances" from the past decades of programs. We open with a concert that reflects the changing seasons, as summer gives way to the darker edge of fall. This concert also pays homage to the influence of Sibelius, whose music had a profound effect on composers-especially those from Britain-at the turn to the 20th century. Butterworth's Second English Idyll, a delightful miniature, possesses an autumnal glow, while Mahler's Blumine (a brief movement originally included in the composer's First Symphony) is full of summer freshness. Sibelius' Symphony No. 3 includes a seasonal shift, closing with a stirring hymn of thanksgiving, which is in contrast to the winter darkness of Elgar's Cello Concerto, to be performed by Oregon Symphony Principal, Nancy Ives.

Beyond the Battlefield
November 18 & 20, 2011

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This concert features three works composed in the shadow of war and straitened times. Frank Bridge's music was dramatically altered by the horrors of the First World War and his brief but intense Lament for Strings creates a deeply felt threnody, with its stark dedication: "To Catherine, aged 9, Lusitania 1915." Samuel Barber's lyrical Violin Concerto was composed in 1939 in the wake of the outbreak of World War II and an underlying tension can be detected amid its soaring melodies and virtuoso exterior. The PCSO is delighted to welcome Brandon Garbot back to its stage from Cleveland-where he is studying at the Institute of Music. Beethoven's epoch-making Eroica Symphony (1803) was penned during the Napoleonic Wars and Siege of Vienna. Beethoven returned from the brink of suicide and changed the course of Western music overnight with this immense work, which is justly considered by many to be the greatest symphony ever written.

A Holiday Gift of Music
December 4, 2011
1:00 pm & 3:00 pm (two performances)
Mt. Hood Community College Theater
29th St & Kane Dr Entrance, Gresham

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The Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra presents its annual Holiday Concert. Special ticket prices for these two performances only: adults/seniors $10 and children are $5. Reserve your tickets today - these concerts will sell out! An instrument petting zoo is available one hour before each concert.

Reviewing 3 Eras
March 2 & 4, 2012

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The first public concert presented by the Portland Columbia Symphony, the then-Palatine Hill Symphony, was given in February 1983. The first work on that inaugural program was Brahms' Tragic Overture. We are delighted to welcome back the founding conductor, Jerry Luedders, to conduct this momentous piece with the PCSO. John Trudeau was music director of the PCSO from 1986-2000. His first concert (October 1986) included the Ninth Symphony by Shostakovich and the A major Piano Concerto, K. 488, by Mozart. It is apt that a faculty member from Lewis & Clark College-where the PCSO first rehearsed and performed-is featured at this retrospective concert as soloist, and we welcome pianist Susan Dewitt Smith to perform with us. Huw Edwards was named the third music director of the PCSO in 2000 and the first work on his debut concert was Herold's swashbuckling Overture to Zampa, which will close this concert with an energetic bang.

By Audience Request
May 4 & 6, 2012

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A five-part program of requests concludes the PCSO's 30th season. Verdi's name came to fame with his opera Nabucco (1842) and its theatrical overture has become a concert hall favorite. Portlander Angie Zhang will return from New York to perform the much-loved Piano Concerto No. 2 by Rachmaninov, after her heralded Chopin performance with PCSO a few years ago. One of Richard Rodgers' first forays into the Broadway musical was On Your Toes; the ballet sequence "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" takes place owards the end of this 1936 blockbuster. Delius was born 150 years ago in 1862 and the languid "The Walk to the Paradise Garden" from his opera A Village Romeo & Juliet is a marvelous example of his English impressionism. Berlioz has been described as "a genius with very little talent" but his bizarre Symphonie fantastique (1830) is an amazing piece, way ahead of its time, and the last two if its five movements are stunning in their gory realism-a great way to bring our 30th season to a close.