The Britt Festivals presented the third concert of the 2015 Classical Season on Friday evening, August 7, and it was the first of three weekend concerts that diverged from the typical classical season fare of previous seasons. Music Director Teddy Abrams, in his sophomore season, had already begun to make his mark, and shape a […]
Every summer, Camelot Theatre’s Conservatory offers a six week program for aspiring young talents, providing morning instruction in acting, voice and dance, taught by professional artists, with afternoons dedicated to rehearsals and performances of a Summer Production. The program culminates in 6 performances by the Conservatory graduates of the Summer Production on the Camelot Theatre […]
As I described elsewhere (http://jacksonvillereview.com/britt-orchestra-delivers-an-epic-start-to-maestro-abrams-sophomore-season/), the 2015 Britt Festivals Classical Season began with an epic start on Opening Night. That was followed on Saturday, August 1 with the Second Night concert. Much was dialed down the second night: the temperature was only in the 90’s instead of 107, the forest-fire generated smoke wasn’t pea […]
Epic: – of unusually great size or extent; – spectacular; very impressive; awesome [Dictionary.com, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/epic]
The Britt Orchestra opened the 2015 Classical Season Friday evening, July 31, delivering a concert that was epic in all the senses of the word listed above: The performing ensemble on stage was the largest ever to perform at the […]
Most seasons, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) presents at least one play imported from another culture and adapted so it works for a contemporary American audience (e.g. The White Snake 2012, Throne of Blood 2010). This season, OSF gives its audience Secret Love In Peach Blossom Land by bilingual U.S. born Taiwanese playwright, Stan Lai. […]
Imagine, for a moment, that you are 12-years-old. You and 449 other students are herded into the school gymnasium where a six-member band, decked-out in neon zoot suits and fedora hats, is playing decade hit songs from 1940’s “In the Mood” to Bruno Mars’ latest hit, “Uptown Funk.” […]
By the time you read this News from the Hill the Britt Orchestra will have already arrived here in beautiful southern Oregon. As you can imagine, our Music Director Teddy Abrams has been working tirelessly over the past several months to make his vision a reality. The first rehearsal […]
MEDFORD, OREGON, JULY 22, 2015 – Actor, comedian and musician Jim Belushi joined the Holly Theatre in April as the Honorary Chair of the Holly Theatre Restoration Project. His six-episode DIY Network series, Building Beluishi, follows Belushi and his team […]
On Saturday, July 18, I attended a very curious production of the rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, at Talent’s Camelot Theatre. The piece tells the story of the last seven days of the life of the Biblical Jesus of Nazareth. The music, drawn from the 1970 Broadway musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, […]
When I saw Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s (OSF) production of Pericles in the Thomas Theatre for the first time, everything about it was SO outstanding: the profound story, performances so good by ALL the actors, theater technical arts so perfect, music that so effectively heightened the emotional impact of the piece, that it defied my expectations […]
The Count of Monte Cristo was penned as an adventure novel by Frenchman Alexandre Dumas in 1844, set in the midst of the political conflicts between Napoleon and the French monarchy of that time. “The book is considered a literary classic today. . . . ‘The Count of Monte Cristo has become a fixture of […]
On August 8, 2015, enjoy fresh foods from the Hanley Farm kitchen, local craft beer, and music performed by The Fret Drifters! The Fret Drifters are acoustic guitar wizards known for their high energy shows and their “anything goes” approach to playing. Dancing is encouraged!!!! Bring your lawn chairs and blankets, dancing shoes, and appetite! […]
Tickets for Craterian Performances’ 2015-2016 season go on sale to the general public at 10 am Tuesday, July 14, 2015. Tickets may be purchased in person at the box office, located at 16 S. Bartlett Street in Medford, or by phone at 541-779-3000. Sales are opened to the general public after five weeks of priority […]
I went to a party the other night, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s (OSF) Allen Elizabethan Theatre. It was advertised and seats to it were sold like the rest of the plays in repertory at OSF, as the world premiere of a new musical, Head Over Heels. But it was nothing like any of the […]
Oregon Cabaret Theatre (OCT) is a small (compared to the three Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) theaters nearby, Medford’s Craterian Theatre and even the slightly larger Camelot Theatre down the road in Talent) 140 seat dinner theater in Ashland, in a converted church around the corner from OSF. It has presented 141 theatrical shows in 30 […]
The 2015 Britt Festivals season got off to an auspicious start Saturday, June 6 with its annual Taste of Summer Celebration in downtown Jacksonville. This year’s event was HOT in every sense of the word. The celebration this year featured some torrid music by bands such as Salsa Brava and the Talking Heads cover band […]
The Rogue Valley Symphony will return to EdenVale Winery for two outdoor summer concerts this year. June 19, 2015 is the first Summer Series concert featuring oboist Gabe Young. Music Director Martin Majkut called Gabe “an exceptionally talented musician and a thoughtful young artist.” This performance will feature Gabe Young on Benedetto Marcello’s Oboe Concerto […]
Rogue Valley classical music fans are most fortunate to enjoy exemplary musicians of a superior quality far beyond what one would expect to find in a rural, remote area off the beaten track, year round, including the world class Britt Classical Orchestra in the summer, and the Maestro Martin Majkut led Rogue Valley Symphony, both […]
A question for you: what performance space has the finest musical instrument piano in the world? One might suppose the answer ought to be Carnegie Hall, or Vienna’s Musikverein or Konzerthaus, perhaps Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall or Sydney’s Opera House. Well, you may be surprised to learn that a claim […]
CENTRAL POINT, Ore.—(April 28, 2015)—After a successful residency on the Oregon Coast in which University of Oregon dancers worked with high school students and gave community performances, the UO Repertory Dance Company is turning its eyes on Central Point.
On May 15 and 16, the UO Repertory Dance Company, composed of the elite student dancers of […]
The Britt ACE (Arts Career Exploration) program is presenting a concert by the Portland Cello Project in the Britt Performance Garden on June 4th, 2015 from 8 to 10 p.m. The concert is a culmination of knowledge through a year of study by the ACE participants, who consist of Medford students from both North and […]
Christopheren Nomura, at age 51, is perhaps the preeminent baritone singer of his generation. The Japanese-American prodigy was raised in the San Francisco Bay area and began his singing career early as a boy soprano. He made his professional operatic debut in the boys’ choir of the San Francisco Opera at age 6 and performed […]
One of the 11 plays the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is presenting in repertory this season is the classical American musical, Guys and Dolls. I saw it at OSF’s Angus Bowmer Theater in Ashland on Sunday, April 19, 2015. I’ve been asked by numerous inquirers, both before, and after, seeing the OSF production, “is it […]
Those two phrases were uttered by Britt President and CEO Donna Briggs to describe the 2015 Summer Season that was announced on Thursday evening, April 9, 2015, at the Britt Festivals Season Announcement Party in the Britt Pavilion in Jacksonville. But both phrases were borrowed from […]
Have you ever had one of those eerie, exhilarating experiences of feeling “unstuck” in time and space, like the characters in a Kurt Vonnegut novel (e.g., Slaughterhouse-Five, The Sirens of Titan, Cat’s Cradle, etc.)? That’s what it was like attending my first concert at the Artistic Piano Gallery showroom on Biddle Rd. in Medford, a […]
The musical, Sunset Boulevard has a checkered history. Various productions of the musical have received very mixed reviews. When it’s been good, it’s very, very good, and when it’s not, it’s landed like a thud. The musical owes its roots to the 1950 film by Billy Wilder that tells the story of the relationship between […]
On Saturday, March 14, 2015, I had the great pleasure of viewing an absolutely stunning, magical Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) original stage adaptation of Sarah Waters’ critically acclaimed best-selling Victorian crime thriller novel, Fingersmith. The 2002 novel had been hailed as brilliant, portraying the seedy life of a Dickensian Victorian London, incorporating some surprising plot […]
Chamber Music Concerts (CMC) has been entertaining classical music audiences in the Rogue Valley with performances of chamber music for 31 seasons. The majority of the concerts, like most composed chamber music, have featured trios or string quartets (usually a pair of violins, a viola, and a cello). On the first weekend in March 2015, […]
The Rogue Valley Symphony (RVS) presented its current season’s Masterworks 4 concert in performances on February 27 (Ashland),28 (Medford) and March 1 (Grants Pass), offering an “Orchestra Showcase” – i.e., the focus was on the orchestra itself and its own musicians; there wasn’t a featured soloist for this concert. Music Director Martin Majkut chose two […]
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) officially kicked off its 2015 Season on Friday evening, Feb. 27 with the opening performance of a new production of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. Much Ado was written by Shakespeare around 1598, in the middle of his career as a playwright, and right […]
Martin Majkut, Music Director of The Rogue Valley Symphony announced the orchestra’s 2015-16 season on Sunday, February 22, 2015 at an invitation-only season preview for sponsors. The season will include five Masterworks concerts with gems such as Claude Debussy’s La Mer, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 “Pastorale”, and the Oregon premiere of a new […]
Since when, you might wonder, is the Symphony in the business of predicting the weather? Well, it’s NOT really. What the Rogue Valley Symphony was up to, specifically at their Season Preview event at the Ashland Springs Hotel on a balmy Sunday afternoon in late February, is providing a glimpse of what’s in store for […]
Ashland, Ore.— The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) will host three free Hip-Hop Poetry Open Mic events this spring on March 9, April 6 and May 4. All Hip-Hop Poetry Open Mic events will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. […]
As practically everyone is aware, Sunday, February 22, 2015 was the night of the Academy Award ceremony and broadcast from Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre where this year’s Oscar winners were announced. Locally, the event was celebrated in a big way by the Ashland Independent Film Festival (AIFF) which filled the Historic Ashland Armory with a black […]
Britt Festival just announced their 2015 Britt Classical Programs! Tickets go on sale to both members and non-members on Friday, February 6, 2015 at 9am. Get your tickets at brittfest.org!
Friday, July 31 – 8 p.m.
ABRAMS: Visceral
SCRIABIN: Poem of Ecstasy
ORFF: Carmina Burana
Guest Artists: Hugh Russell, baritone; Celena Shafer, soprano; Javier Abreu, tenor, Southern Oregon […]
In late February, Jacksonville again takes center stage of the Southern Oregon music scene when the South Stage Cellars Rising Stars music competition returns to town—at Redmen’s Hall. The five Saturdays of fun starts-off with four semi-final rounds on February 28, March 7, March 14 and March 21. The final round will be held on […]
Aspiring singers and songwriters are encouraged to sing their hearts out on February 27 as Pony Espresso Coffee Shop and Café hosts the next in a series of open mic nights. Held in conjunction with the Southern Oregon Songwriters, Open Mic Nights are every 4th Friday from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm in Jacksonville at […]
The inaugural Winter Concert Series in the Bigham Knoll ballroom rocks on with more local talent performing in February. On Saturday nights, treat yourself to the sounds of The Fret Drifters on Feb. 14, the Evening Shades on Feb. 21 and 221 Fly on Feb. 28. Hilary Kemmling of Bigham Knoll notes, “We really love […]
On Sunday, February 8, 2015, the Southern Oregon Repertory Singers, under the direction of Dr. Paul French, took their audience at the SOU Music Recital Hall in Ashland on a musical journey reflecting on the seasons of life in The Passing of Time concert. I’ve written about Dr. French in these pages before (“His is […]
Music
February 1, 7:30pm: Jesse Cook, Guitar Concert; flamenco music. CRATE;
Tix: CRATE
February 6, 7:30pm: Tutunov Piano Series Concert III, piano duo Ivona Kaminska and Christopher Bowlby; works by Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Debussy, Junkinsmith and Milhaud. SOUMRH; Tix: OCASOU
February 6, 7:30pm: Feelin’ Groovy, Music of the ‘60’s featuring Simon & Garfunkel; starring Jim Witter. CRATE; Tix: CRATE
February […]
If you are getting on in years, as I am, you will recall a period in American music when the acoustic guitar was a vital instrument in popular music. It was played extensively by hit pop artists like Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, and many others. And there were a variety of virtuosos […]
Imagine, if you can, a large country estate, isolated, surrounded by vineyards, orchards and agrarian fields. Having a great room, with a vaulted ceiling and walls lined with original paintings, able to hold over 50 seated guests, and of course, featuring a classic baby grand piano. A venue much like the chamber room of a […]
Britt is now accepting applications for two summer programs: the returning String Quartet Academy, and the pre-concert music series on Britt’s Performance Garden stage.
Central Point’s 2nd annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr., will be from 6-7pm on Thursday, January 15th. King was the chief spokesman for nonviolent activism in the civil rights movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. The campaign for a federal holiday in King’s honor began soon after his assassination […]
Siskiyou Singers performed their 2014 holiday season concert on December 12, 13 & 14 under the direction of Mark Reppert, at the SOU Music Recital Hall in Ashland.
That a music competition of this caliber could happen in a small, historic town like Jacksonville, Oregon is a testament to the phenomenal commitment to the musical arts in the greater Rogue Valley. This coming February, 2015, twelve of the most expressive, passionate and talented local musicians from Southern Oregon will vie for winning season […]
On Saturday, November 15, a Gala Celebration Concert and reception were held, commemorating the opening of the new Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University. It’s a grand sounding institution, but don’t go searching around Ashland’s Southern Oregon University campus looking for a new building with that name etched on it – because […]
The Ashland Independent Film Festival presented two special benefit performances over Thanksgiving weekend of the new documentary film, Pelican Dreams, by Judy Irving, whose previous film, Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, won the Festival’s Audience Award in 2006. Pelican Dreams is a beautifully filmed movie, of triumph over adversity, with gorgeous camera work of pelicans […]
If you’ve been reading Jacksonville Review’s reviews of performing arts events in the Rogue Valley, you’d get the impression that our community offers top quality entertainment, performed by international touring virtuosos, skilled professional musicians, and top flight performers, to rival the quality offered in much larger metropolises in the U.S. and abroad. That certainly applies […]
On Friday evening, November 14, the Oregon Center for the Arts’ Tutunov Piano Series presented for its second concert of the season, pianist extraordinaire, Francesco Nicolosi, to a packed house at the SOU Music Recital Hall in Ashland. Nicolosi, 59 years old, born in Catania Italy and centered in Naples, is perhaps the most distinguished […]