Resonance Ensemble Presents: "Beautiful Minds"
PORTLAND, OR — In honor of World Mental Health Day, Resonance Ensemble kicks off its 2019-20 season with Beautiful Minds, a concert performed by the region’s finest singers sharing musical stories about living with depression, anxiety, and trauma. The concert will open on October 5th at 7:30pm with a second performance on October 6 at 4:00pm, both at Cerimon House in NE Portland.
“As with all of Resonance concerts, we will perform thought-provoking new vocal music that shines a light on different and often neglected perspectives, in this case mental illness,” says Artistic Director Katherine FitzGibbon. “The power of music to heal is never more present than when artists create work that highlights a universal struggle.”
Music will be featured that will share stories that foster understanding, with a goal of helping reduce the stigma of mental illness. The concert will include:
An Atom of Faith, by Lisa Bielawa, featuring mezzo-soprano Rachel Hauge and violinist Paloma Griffin Hébert
An excerpt from Next to Normal performed by Portland favorite Sarah Maines
Music by Melissa Dunphy and Jake Runestad
An original poem read by Poet in Residence S. Renee Mitchell
The world premiere of Portland composer Brandon Stewart’s Alone, setting a Sara Teasdale poem that depicts depression and the contemplation of suicide
Beautiful Minds will also serve to connect community members with mental health resources in the local Portland area.
“We have partnered with Trillium Family Services and their KEEP OREGON WELL campaign as well as the Oregon chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, two local mental health organizations who are dedicated to improving the quality of life for Oregonians living with mental illness,” FitzGibbon says.
‘We hope everyone will join us for this evening of tender, vulnerable music-making, whether they have a personal link to the themes, love to hear extraordinary new premieres, or come because they trust Resonance to create powerful programs that promote meaningful social change.”
BEAUTIFUL MINDS
October 5, 2019 | 7:30 PM
October 6, 2019 | 4:00 PM
Cerimon House | 5131 NE 23rd Avenue, Portland
Tickets: $30 general; $25 senior; $15 student
Resonancechoral.org | 503.427-8701
#beautifulminds
#keeporegonwell
Note to Journalists: Katherine FitzGibbon and Damien Geter are available for print, online, and broadcast interviews. If you would like more information on this event or would like to schedule an interview, please contact Liz Bacon Brownson at liz@ohcreativepdx.com or by calling 971-212-8034
About the Resonance Ensemble 2019-20 season:
In its eleventh season, Resonance Ensemble, a professional vocal ensemble based in Portland, Oregon, creates thoughtful programs that promote meaningful social change. Resonance Ensemble works to amplify voices that have long been silenced, and they do so through moving, thematic concerts that highlight solo and choral voices, new and underrepresented composers, visual and other performing artists, and community partners.
Resonance Ensemble’s outstanding musicians give voice to the concerns, hopes, and dreams of all communities. Their concerts reflect this in the themes that reside in BEAUTIFUL MINDS, SAFE HARBOR, and AN AFRICAN AMERICAN REQUIEM.
Under Artistic Director Katherine FitzGibbon, Resonance Ensemble has performed challenging and diverse music, always with an eye toward unusual collaborations with artistic partners from around Portland: poets, jazz musicians, singer-songwriters, painters, dancers. The Resonance Ensemble singers are “one of the Northwest’s finest choirs” (Willamette Week), with gorgeous vocal tone, and they also make music with heart.
The groundbreaking work that Resonance Ensemble has been producing over the last few years has been noted by local media and national arts organizations. In Oregon Arts Watch, Matthew Andrews described Resonance this June as “Part social commentary, part group therapy, and part best damn choir show in town." Chorus America honored Artistic Director Katherine FitzGibbon this summer with the Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal for her work rededicating Resonance to promoting meaningful social change, and for the meaningful community partnerships she creates. For the tribute to Dr. FitzGibbon, please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaJMVozrcPo.
About Artistic Director Katherine FitzGibbon:
Katherine FitzGibbon is Artistic Director of Portland’s professional Resonance Ensemble, called “one of the finest choirs in the Northwest” by Willamette Week. With Resonance, she has collaborated with the Portland Art Museum, Artists Repertory Theatre, Third Angle New Music, Portland Chamber Orchestra, Thomas Lauderdale and Hunter Noack, the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, the Oregon Poet Laureate, and local actors, composers, visual artists, and dancers. Resonance partners with local artists and community organizations to explore questions of equity and inclusion.
Dr. FitzGibbon was just named the winner of the 2019 Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal. Given periodically by Chorus America, the nation’s premier organization supporting the advancement of choral music today, the Louis Botto Award recognizes a mid-career choral leader for her exceptional work in developing a professional choral ensemble. An independent panel selected Dr. FitzGibbon to receive the award, which will be presented at Chorus America’s 2019 Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to be held June 26–29.
Dr. FitzGibbon is also Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Music at Lewis & Clark College. In 2014, she was an inaugural winner of the Lorry Lokey Faculty Excellence Award, honoring “inspired teaching, rigorous scholarship, demonstrated leadership, and creative accomplishments.” A faculty member at the summertime Berkshire Choral Festival, Dr. FitzGibbon has also conducted choirs at Harvard, Boston, Cornell, and Clark Universities, and at the University of Michigan. She is a lyric soprano and music historian whose research on German choral music and politics has been presented and published internationally.
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