Friday night I got my first chance to play on the awesome Classical Up Close series presented by musicians of the Oregon Symphony. I had played a ‘blitz’ event at the OHSU Center for Health and Healing in the South Waterfront neighborhood a couple days earlier (also very fun!), but this was my first chance to both attend and perform at one of the evening concerts.
The concert was held at the incredible sanctuary of Lake Grove Presbyterian Church in Lake Grove. It’s a gorgeous setting (they did a $2M remodel several years ago), capped by one of the most striking organ installations I’ve seen – contemporary and grand. The acoustics are also very friendly to all instruments, and the feeling of playing on the stage was very comfortable. It’s a gem!
To say that this was a unique experience is to underrate it substantially. With Kyle Mustain (OSO English hornist) as the master of ceremonies, each group of musicians performed, and then the floor was opened to questions from the audience. All sorts of inquiries were fielded, from “how much do you practice?” to “what instruments do you play?”. Even some viola jokes were told, when the subject of what the difference between the violin and the viola was: “they’re the same size, just the size of the performers’ heads are different”.
There was beautiful playing all around, a chance to perform with colleagues that don’t normally sit near one another on stage, and the warmth from the audience and the musicians was palpable. If you haven’t yet had a chance to attend one of these very special concerts, you really owe it to yourself to get to one of the two remaining evening concerts – 7:30 tonight at West Linn Lutheran Church [map], and Sunday evening at 7:30 at The Old Church [map] in downtown Portland. There will also be continuing short blitz concerts each day around town as well. Check out the web site for details! www.classicalupclose.com