maine

MOMIX: ‘Viva Momix’ Notes by Aimée Petrin

Dear Friends, Dance is one of the most beautiful, visceral and expressive art forms. It can also be one of the most intimidating. Viewers often lament “I don’t get it” or “dance is too abstract” or that dance’s embodied form of storytelling doesn’t resonate with our verbal, linear brains. Or finally, “I don’t know how to … Read more

Improv on Immigration: Gabriela Montero Rocks Maine

By Linda Nelson, Portland Ovations Deputy Director Immigration. It is the hottest and most critical issue of our era. Pianist and Venezuelan ex-pat Gabriela Montero knows this dearly enough to have built a performance around what she called “a very emotional theme.” Montero’s unique program, “Westward,” was presented by Portland Ovations as part of an … Read more

Gabriela Montero: ‘Westward’ Program Notes by Linda Russell

compositions by age six, a rudimentary opera at nine, and his first symphony at ten; he became a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory at thirteen. During his study at the conservatory, Prokofiev gained respect for the music of Haydn and Mozart, for the elegant dance forms of the eighteenth century, and for the transparent sonority … Read more