Inspiring a curious and imaginative community where the experience of the performing arts is a vital part of everyday life.
The more than year-long pandemic has taught us much to take into the future together. One of the things many Ovations' Members have mentioned to us is how our human need to gather and to belong — to groups, to communities, to a place and to each other — have been made more visible by our social [...]
Dear Friends With 90 years of bringing the finest classical music to Portland-area audiences, who would ever have imagined we’d be doing so virtually? Despite the changes in the world this past year, what hasn’t changed is Ovations’ dedication to classical and other chamber music forms; connecting our audiences LIVE with extraordinary performers from around [...]
Community suppers. Church potlucks. Festive receptions. Learning how to cook traditional dishes then sitting down together to enjoy. Gathering to exchange art, food, culture and community is on the menu at Portland Ovations. Throughout the years, our welcoming Portland communities have opened their hearts and cookbooks to Ovations artists visiting us from away. Fondly we [...]
Dear Friends Each January when I go to NYC for the annual Association of Performing Arts Professionals conference, one event always stands out for its vastness, variety and promise to surprise: globalFEST. With programming across three stages and four bands on each stage over the course of the evening, the result is an experience of [...]
Pictures at an Exhibition Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) Modest Mussorgsky received musical training as a child but made his livelihood as a civil servant in Russian government circles until his dismissal in 1867 due to alcoholism. As one of a group of prominent nineteenth-century Russian composers known as “The Five” who endeavored to create music with [...]
Portland Ovations Presents the launch of our 90th year Celebrate with us at our dynamic virtual benefit featuring Artists, Auctions, & Performancesstreamed to you LIVE from the Merrill Auditorium stage. The mainstage event will be emceed by business leader and performance poet Kerem Durdag & Sara Juli, renowned dance maker and comedian. Joining them are our Ovations’ hosts, Mary Allen [...]
This event will be captioned and ASL interpreted. Come hang with musician, singer, and storyteller Samuel James as he shares a behind the scenes glimpse at his "Story of Tiny Bill McGraw". You can expect many guitars, some harmonica jams, and double finger snaps. It goes without saying that he’ll also play a few improvised [...]
https://youtu.be/6Asd9I-eJqY This video series is captioned. Tiny Bill, a little Black boy, doesn't like being small. His grandfather takes Tiny Bill under his wing and teaches him - and the audience - about his musical heritage and that size isn't everything, especially if you can make a big sound! Through the story of Tiny Bill, [...]