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| | Listen & Learn - LINEAGE
Wednesday, September 24, 2025, 6:00 PM at First United Methodist Church (1838 SW Jefferson St, Portland)
Orchestra Nova Northwest invites audiences behind the scenes with the launch of Listen & Learn: Your Backstage Pass to ONN, a new educational and performance event offering rare, in-person access to the orchestra’s final dress rehearsals, in advance of ONN’s season-opening symphony LINEAGE: Sound & Fury.
The evening begins with a 45-minute interactive class led by guest speaker Dr. Mark Burford, Music Department Chair at Reed College. A leading music historian, Burford specializes in twentieth-century African American music and European concert music of the long nineteenth century.
Following the talk, attendees are invited to stay for the orchestra’s working rehearsal—a rare opportunity to sit in the hall as the full ensemble refines the program. Music Director Steven Byess will be mic’d throughout, offering real-time commentary, artistic insights, and direct engagement with the audience as the music comes together.
This special event is designed for anyone curious about the music-making process—or anyone who wants to go deeper into the repertoire and themes explored in ONN’s upcoming concerts. With only 20 seats available, this intimate experience is expected to fill quickly. | Purchase Your Tickets |
| | LINEAGE: Sound and Fury
September 27, 2025 7:30pm Mt. Hood Community College, Gresham
September 28, 2025 3:00 PM Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, Beaverton SOLD HERE
Wit, theatricality, and transformation take center stage in works by Haydn, Caroline Shaw, and Anna Clyne. This imaginative season opener bridges centuries with flair.
Program:
CAROLINE SHAW Entr’acte (a minuet & trio)
JOSEPH HAYDN Symphony No. 60, Il Distratto
ANNA CLYNE Sound and Fury
ONN launches the season with an exciting and creative program that offers a compelling exploration of musical wit, theatricality, and transformation across time. Portland Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte, inspired by the elegant surprises of Haydn’s string quartets, juxtaposes classical refinement with unexpected turns. Anna Clyne’s Sound and Fury, inspired by Haydn’s Symphony No. 60 and Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is imbued with visceral energy and literary allusions that echoes both Shakespearean drama and Haydnesque contrast. At the center of the program stands Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 60, Il Distratto, a masterful fusion of humor and invention, originally composed for the stage. Together, these works offer a striking balance of reflection, wit, and intensity and form a rich dialogue between past and present, revealing how composers continue to reinvent the concert experience with imagination and daring.
For a sneak peek at ONN's final dress rehearsal before LINEAGE, check out the new event "Listen & Learn": TICKETS HERE | Purchase Your Tickets |
| | INNER LANDSCAPES: Depths of Expression
November 15, 2025 7:30pm Mt. Hood Community College, Gresham
November 16, 2025 3:00 PM Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, Beaverton SOLD HERE
Maria Garcia, Piano
Featuring Portland pianist Maria Garcia and the Western U.S. premiere of Rainn by Karena Ingram, this evocative program highlights the lyrical power of Lūcija Garūta alongside the warmth of Dvořák.
Program:
KARENA INGRAM Rainn (Western U.S Premiere)
LŪCIJA GARŪTA Piano Concerto in F-sharp Minor
ANTONIN DVORAK Symphony No. 8 in G Major
A program that invites you on a journey through a vibrant musical landscape, blending the bold and contemporary with the timeless and profound. This exciting program presents the Western U.S. premiere of a new composition titled Rainn by Karena Ingram, a rising star in contemporary composition. Her evocative work explores the fluidity of nature and emotion and is presented in collaboration with the League of American Orchestras’ Toulmin Commissions Program. Portland piano virtuoso Maria Garcia performs the dramatic elegance of Lūcija Garūta’s Piano Concerto in F-sharp Minor — a hidden gem of the 20th-century repertoire, brimming with intensity, lyricism, and dazzling virtuosity. The program closes with the radiance of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major, a celebration of nature and folk-inspired melodies, bursting with joy and optimism.
| Purchase Your Tickets |
| | ELLIS ISLAND: Dream of America
March 14, 2026 7:30pm Mt. Hood Community College, Gresham
March 15, 2026 3:00 PM Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, Beaverton SOLD HERE
Artina McCain, Piano
A multimedia experience! Carlos Simon’s Hellfighter’s Blues and George Gershwin’s Concerto in F lead to Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: Dream of America, performed with live actors and archival visuals drawn from the Ellis Island Oral History Project.
Program:
CARLOS SIMON Hellfighter’s Blues
GEORGE GERSHWIN Piano Concerto in F
PETER BOYER Ellis Island: Dream of America
This extraordinary program presents a work of the powerful, contemporary voice of composer Carlos Simon, whose works resonate with history, hope, and heart. Pianist Artina McCain returns to perform George Gershwin’s brilliant Piano Concerto in F, a work that blends classical traditions with the bold rhythms of jazz and pulses with energy, romance, and the unmistakable spirit of the American Jazz Age. The program closes with Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: Dream of America, a poignant and inspiring tribute to the immigrants who shaped the American story. Innovative in its format, the work brings elements of the theater and multimedia into the concert hall, employing actors and projected historical images from the Ellis Island archives. The spoken texts for the work come from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, an historic collection of interviews with actual immigrants about their experiences emigrating to America. This dynamic work reminds us of the hopes, struggles, and dreams that built a nation. | Purchase Your Tickets |
| | BY NATURE: Resilience and Triumph
May 16, 2026 7:30pm Mt. Hood Community College, Gresham
May 17, 2026 3:00 PM Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, Beaverton SOLD HERE
Sara Davis Buechner, Piano
A tribute to the legacy of LGBTQ+ composers, featuring the return of celebrated pianist and trans advocate Sara Davis Buechner. A stirring close to the season that celebrates resilience and identity through music.
Program:
LEONARD BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 2
for Piano and Orchestra: The Age of Anxiety
PYOTR TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E Minor
ONN presents a program that honors two incredible LGBTQ+ composers whose voices have shaped the classical music canon. Leonard Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety, a symphony in name and a piano concerto in spirit, traces a soul’s search for meaning in a fractured world. Inspired by W.H. Auden’s Pulitzer prize-winning poem, the music journeys through introspection, disillusionment, and, ultimately, hope — with the solo piano as its restless, poetic voice. ONN welcomes the return of dazzling piano soloist Sara Davis Buechner in her fourth appearance with ONN. The orchestra is featured in the powerful Symphony No. 5 in E Minor of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, a deeply emotional journey that weaves darkness and hope, struggle and triumph. Often interpreted as a reflection of Tchaikovsky’s inner turmoil and longing, the symphony builds to a triumphant finale — a powerful reminder of resilience through art. ONN celebrates these two remarkable composers, acknowledging their courage in living authentically in times when their identities were often marginalized. | Purchase Your Tickets |
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Have questions?
Give us a call at
503-234-4077, or email
info@novanw.org.
We're happy to help!
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