Filmmaker Kenny Hamlett Reflects on the Requiem
“It was an absolute pleasure to be able to document and help share these stories.”
Onset at The Winningstad Theatre for “Around the Requiem”. Photo by Adam Edwards, Courtesy of Oh! Creative
Around the Requiem | Reflections
Photo by Karen Pride, courtesy of Oh! Creative
On Sunday, May 21st, Resonance Ensemble unveils the premiere screening of Around the Requiem, a new film centering on a conversation between artists and performers from An African American Requiem and moderated by Dr. S. Renee Mitchell. Filmed days before the premiere of this historic work, the film acts as a capstone to a series of materials inspired by An African American Requiem.
We celebrate its one year anniversary this month not only with the film premiere, but with additional reflections on those involved in its creation. You can read Damien Geter and Katherine FitzGibbon’s reflectons here.
Today’s reflection comes from Kenny Hamlett, with Oh! Creative Productions who served as the Director of Photography (DP) for the film. Kenny is passionate about creating stories that matter and we asked him to take a moment to share a little about what being a part of this project means to him.
We look forward to having Kenny with us for the premiere on Sunday as a guest panelist.
Photo by Karen Pride, courtesy of Oh! Creative
Kenny Hamlett | Reflecting on the Requiem
Being a Black man in the film industry as a creative, I find myself always looking to be a part of projects that focus on sharing stories that are personal and real to me.
Growing up, I struggled with my identity. What does it mean to be a Black man? I remember learning to play the violin, and feeling like I was a sellout, but I honestly wanted to be different. I didn’t like the idea of being put into a box, but that left me confused. I didn’t have people or stories I could go to that would affirm my decision to pursue things that weren’t traditionally Black.
Anyone that says they want to be a change maker knows that it starts with sharing our own stories. I love seeing Black and Brown folks challenge norms and stretch the world’s view of what it means to be a Black person and what we can and can’t do. It was so inspiring hearing about Resonance Ensemble’s project with Damien Geter and when I was invited to work with them, there was no way I could say anything but yes. I believe these sorts of stories need to be told and I’ve dedicated my career to sharing them as often as I can.
Filmmaker Kenny Hamlett on location for the Requiem Story Series | May 2022 Photo by Karen Pride, courtesy of Oh! Creative
A Free Arts and Music Festival is Coming to Portland!
“This festival is the result of artists from many disciplines and traditions working together to honor and celebrate our planet. We hope all who join us will leave with a renewed sense of ways in which we all can work together to heal our Earth.”
Resonance Ensemble presents “Earth’s Protection,” a free arts and music festival with Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered and special guests Nancy Ives, Ed Edmo, Joe Cantrell, Four Directions, and Fear No Music
PORTLAND, OR — Resonance Ensemble concludes their 2022-23 Justice For All season on Friday, June 9, with Earth’s Protection: a free festival of music, visual art, and dance—featuring special guest performances and partnerships with Portland Audubon, Fear No Music Ensemble, and Four Directions.
Harold Paul of Four Directions
Beginning at 5:00 PM, festival-goers are invited to the grounds of Lewis & Clark College to dine from local food trucks, and visit Portland-based Cherokee artist Joe Cantrell’s “Our Planet: Universe” photography exhibit with works available for purchase. At 6:30 PM attendees can enjoy a drumming and dance demonstration by the Nez Perce performing ensemble Four Directions, under the direction of Harold Paul, featuring jingle dance, fast and fancy, and circle dance—with audience participation welcomed.
Resonance is also excited to announce a new partnership with Portland Audubon, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to wildlife conservancy. Portland Audubon will be on site to share information about initiatives audience members can implement and support and is a featured community partner for this event.
Image from the release of a rehabilitated bald eagle in downtown Portland. Provided by Portland Audubon
The afternoon of commemoration and celebration will then culminate at 7:30 pm in a concert at Agnes Flanagan Chapel. In this final concert of the season, Resonance Ensemble presents the Oregon premiere of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered, with projections by Joe Cantrell and Deborah Johnson. Composer and Oregon Symphony principal cellist Nancy Ives performs her Songs from Celilo, with poet Ed Edmo reading his original text. Other highlights include works by Jasmine Barnes and Reena Esmail, and appearances by tabla player Shrikant Naware and the Fear No Music ensemble.
The event is free to all, and pre-registration for the seated concert in Agnes Flanagan Chapel is required.
“As we began planning this concert in partnership with Native elder artists Joe Cantrell and Ed Edmo, it became clear that our regular concert format couldn’t contain everything we wanted to share,” says Artistic Director Katherine FitzGibbon. “This festival is the result of artists from many disciplines and traditions working together to honor and celebrate our planet. We hope all who join us will leave with a renewed sense of ways in which we all can work together to heal our Earth.”
Left to Right: Joe Cantrell, Ed Edmo, and Nancy Ives
This event is generously sponsored by Ronni Lacroute, the Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Cultural Trust, and the Oregon Community Foundation.
Attendance is free, and donations in lieu of ticket purchase are gratefully accepted.
Concert pre-registration is required in order to ensure adequate capacity. Attendees are invited to bring blankets and lawn chairs for the pre-show picnic seating. Visit resonancechoral.org for more information.
Event Summary
The free festival, located on the grounds of Lewis & Clark College, will begin at 5:00 pm with:
A 5:00 picnic, with food available for purchase, in front of the Agnes Flanagan Chapel
The “Our Planet: Universe” exhibit of the photography of Joe Cantrell in the Diane Gregg Pavilion, adjacent to the Chapel. This collection of images will be available for purchase, with proceeds generously allocated to benefit future work of Resonance Ensemble
A 6:30 drumming and dance demonstration by the Nez Perce performing ensemble Four Directions, under the direction of Harold Paul, featuring jingle dance, fast and fancy, and circle dance—with audience participation welcomed.
The main concert event begins at 7:30 pm in the Agnes Flanagan Chapel, with free admission to those who have pre-registered, as capacity is limited. The concert includes:
The Oregon premiere of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s powerful work Mass for the Endangered with video designed by Deborah Johnson (CandyStations), conducted by Resonance Ensemble Artistic Director Katherine FitzGibbon, with the vocalists of Resonance Ensemble and instrumentalists of Fear No Music Ensemble.
The performance of an original work, Songs for Celilo, by composer-cellist Nancy Ives. Scored for “singing cellist,” this work includes original poetry and narration by renowned writer Ed Edmo (Shoshone-Bannock), with projected imagery by photographer Joe Cantrell (Cherokee). Songs for Celilo pays tribute to the human, cultural, and environmental costs of the 1957 flooding of Celilo Falls by the Dalles Dam installation.
The first live performance of Resonance’s pandemic-era commission Normal Never Was, by composer Jasmine Barnes
Tabla player Shrikant Naware will join Resonance Ensemble to perform Reena Esmail’s The Tipping Point
Note to Journalists: Artistic Director Katherine FitzGibbon, composer Nancy Ives, and photographer Joe Cantrell are available for print, online, and broadcast interviews. If you would like more information or would like to schedule an interview, please contact Liz Bacon Brownson at liz@resonancechoral.org or by calling (503) 427-8701.
FOR CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS
EVENT TITLE: Resonance Ensemble Presents: Earth’s Protection
TIME & DATE: Friday, June 9th | Festival begins at 5:00pm, Concert begins at 7:30pm
LOCATION: Lewis & Clark College: The Agnes Flanagan Chapel (615 S. Palatine Hill Rd)
PRICING: Admission is free, but pre-registration is required. Donations in lieu of ticket purchase are gratefully accepted.
Umatilla Indian women beside Celilo Falls on the Columbia River, 1899 - Courtesy of Washington Rural Heritage Museum
Resources and additional program information coming later this month - check back soon to see how you can enhance your experience!
Unless otherwise indicated, all photos in this release are by Rachel Hadiashar
Around The Requiem: An interview with Damien Geter & Katherine FitzGibbon
“Being able to sit with Dr. Mitchell, Onry (a member of the choir), the conductor Bill Eddins, and the soloists—who are also some of my closest friends —it was just really special. To see my friends doing their thing—I felt very proud to have been able to bring them along on the journey—and to be able to take a moment to talk about it on camera…It was just great.”
As we look forward to the premiere of our short film, “Around the Requiem,” we reflect with some of the artists who made ”An African American Requiem” possible.
This week, Resonance Ensemble Artistic Director Katherine FitzGibbon and composer Damien Geter met for a conversation about Geter’s pivotal work, “An African American Requiem,“ his ongoing work with Resonance, and how Kathy and Damien’s partnership came to be.
Photo by Karen Pride
Kathy: As you know, Resonance premieres a short film later this month called “Around the Requiem.” I thought it would be interesting for us to talk about our partnership to give folks a sense of how Resonance got involved with your work and who we are together as collaborators. First, how did you get involved with Resonance Ensemble?
Damien: Well, I moved to Portland in 2015. And ironically, Kathy is the sister of a very good friend of mine from when I lived in Indianapolis. And when I moved to Portland, Resonance hired me as a singer.
Kathy: We loved having you sing with us! And you even decided to join our board – why?
Damien: Well, the mission of Resonance aligned with my own personal artistic goals and philosophy. I think that the work that Resonance does is important in the world because it uses art in one of the ways that art should be used, and that is to promote social causes. It was a natural fit for me to join the board. Since then, I’ve taken on the role of Artistic Advisor, alongside the great Shohei Kobayashi. We are currently working on season 2023-24, which is going to be amazing.
Kathy: Let’s talk about An African American Requiem. How did it feel composing and premiering it, knowing it was in the hands of Resonance?
Damien: Well, I knew it was in good hands. I could write anything that I wanted, and I knew that it was going to be fine because not only is the group politically astute, but also musically just a beast. I knew I could write whatever I wanted to.
Photo by Rachel Hadiashar
Photo by Rachel Hadiashar
Damien: What was it like for you, when you started rehearsing the piece?
Kathy: Honestly, it was a dream come true. It felt like a weighty responsibility because I believe in you so completely, and I believe in your music. And I felt and I knew in my bones that An African American Requiem was going to be a generational piece of music that could really transform the dialogue, certainly here in Portland, but also nationally. By the time we got to rehearsals in 2022, having had our interrupted attempt in 2020, we knew it was going to be live-broadcasted coast to coast and syndicated thereafter by All Classical Portland. We also knew we were going to be able to do it both with the Oregon Symphony in Portland and then with the Choral Arts Society of Washington at the Kennedy Center. I knew it had the potential to have a huge impact.
Damien: It felt good to know I could count on Resonance to do this right.
Kathy: Thinking back on the time you were composing it, I felt so honored that you had let me into the compositional process. I had seen it PDF by PDF as it was being born over the period of a couple of years, really. And I felt so much love for the music and such a belief in the music that I wanted to be sure the performance was worthy of it. The stakes were so critical, and I wanted to give everything possible. It's really, of the things I have done in my life besides having my family, the most important thing I've ever been attached to. Thanks for trusting me with it, Damien.
Photo by Rachel Hadiashar
Damien: Yeah, thanks for trusting me. Because really, I had not written anything on that scale before. Honestly, some of those moments just poured out of me. I'm not going to say that it was easy to write, but there were certain movements that... For example, The Confutatis. I wrote that in a day.
Kathy: Oh, my goodness.
Damien: And then once I had the idea for Lacrimosa, that took longer to write because it was a little bit more complicated, but it didn't take me very long to write.
Kathy: Some composers write the tune in a basic harmonization, and then later on, they go back and do the orchestral detail. The thing that surprised me about witnessing your process, was that it flowed out of you fully orchestrated. You heard the whole orchestral color in your imagination as you were writing and it was like you had the three-dimensional picture of what you wanted the music to be from the very beginning.
Damien: Yeah, the piece was pretty much fully formed as it went along. To think that it was supposed to be this little short Requiem originally, and then as I moved forward, it was just like, no, we actually need to say this.
Kathy: What did it feel like to you to sit at the world premiere in Portland with Resonance, with the Oregon Symphony, and with the soloists who are not only amazing artists, but your friends? Can you describe that feeling?
Damien Geter with Oregon Symphony President and CEO Scott Showalter and flutist Adam Eccleston backstage at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
Photo by Rachel Hadiashar
Damien: Honestly, I was sitting in there and trying to listen to it as if I did not write it and just listen to it as an audience member. And I think I was pretty successful in doing that. But at the same time, when I was sitting there, it felt like I was in another world because the moment was there.
Also, just to see the impact that the piece has on people. After I conducted it [in January with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra], this woman came up to me and she was like, I just got to tell you, I grew up in a racist household. And she told me that the Requiem changed her heart. This was down in Texas. I was like, okay, that says a lot. So, we need to get this thing out in the world. I'm really honored to have been a vessel to make this. I have nothing to do with it, I just put the notes on the page.
Kathy: Do you remember the “Around the Requiem” filming? What was that like?
Damien: This was filmed on the Winningstad Theatre stage - two days before the actual premiere of the Requiem. Remember, the original premiere had been delayed for two years. The piece was finished two years before that. So there were all these years, literally, that had passed. And then it was suddenly actually happening — and to think the whole hall was sold out. That was really cool. I don’t remember exactly what we talked about, but I do remember it was filmed in the middle of a whirlwind week of rehearsals and interviews and I was feeling excited and emotional about everything.
Kathy: I remember that so well. I was so happy it was finally happening. Do you remember what sitting on that film set was like?
Around the Requiem cast on stage at The Winningstad Theatre - May 2022 Photo Courtesy of Oh! Creative
Damien: Yeah, so being able to sit with Dr. Mitchell, Onry (a member of the choir), the conductor Bill Eddins, and the soloists—who are also some of my closest friends —it was just really special. To see my friends doing their thing—I felt very proud to have been able to bring them along on the journey—and to be able to take a moment to talk about it on camera…It was just great.
Kathy: I am looking forward to watching it with you on May 21 and remembering some of this journey we’ve been on together. Thank you, Damien, for trusting Resonance with this historic work.
Damien: Thank you, Kathy, for believing in it. I knew it was in good hands with Resonance Ensemble, and I was right.
Attendance for Around the Requiem on May 21st is free, but registration is required. To register today, or for more information, visit our event page.
Resonance Ensemble Presents new date for ‘Around the Requiem’ the world premiere film screening
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — April 25, 2023
RESONANCE ENSEMBLE PRESENTS NEW DATE FOR THE WORLD PREMIERE FILM SCREENING OF “AROUND THE REQUIEM” AT NEW EXPRESSIVE WORKS
The final film in a series of videos reflecting on the impact of ‘An African American Requiem’
PORTLAND, OR — On Sunday, May 21st, 2023, Resonance Ensemble invites the public to New Expressive Works for the world premiere of “Around the Requiem,” filmed in May of 2022. The short film features an intimate conversation with artists from An African American Requiem, the historic choral-orchestral work that had its premiere two days later. An opening reception will kick off the event at 4:00 PM, and the screening begins at 4:30 PM. Attendance is free, but registration is required.
From behind-the-scenes of the “My Requiem Story” series. Photo provided by Oh! Creative Productions.
About the Film
Baritone soloist Kenneth Overton talks with composer Damien Geter in Around the Requiem. Photo provided by Oh! Creative Productions.
Commissioned by Resonance Ensemble, the film was produced by Oh! Creative Productions and filmed on May 5, 2022—two days before the world premiere of An African American Requiem. In the film, poet Dr. S. Renee Mitchell moderates a conversation with composer Damien Geter; conductor William Eddins; soloists Brandie Sutton, Karmesha Peake, Bernard Holcomb, and Kenneth Overton; and Onry, a baritone from the African American Requiem choir. The group discusses the significance of Geter’s work, their experiences as Black artists in classical music, their struggles, and their joy.
Composer Damien Geter with All Classical Portland’s Adam Eccleston.
“Around the Requiem” is the final work in a series of videos and supporting materials that were produced to supplement the premiere of An African American Requiem. From the deeply personal My Requiem Story series to the educational curriculum—which reached hundreds of public school students—audiences and students in Portland were able to access the world premiere with deeper context. Resonance Ensemble has been working with Portland Public Schools to further develop this project for students across the nation to experience the Requiem and the larger history surrounding it.
“James Baldwin said it best, ‘you write to change the world...’” says A. Mimi Sei—author of the foreword for An African American Requiem. “Damien Geter was born to write this masterpiece, and it will change how we show up in the world.”
Along with A. Mimi Sei, speakers and post-screening panelists will include Resonance Ensemble Artistic Director Dr. Katherine FitzGibbon, composer Damien Geter, filmmaker Kenny Hamlett from Oh! Creative Productions, and more.
About the Event
An opening reception will kick off the free event at 4:00 PM and the screening begins at 4:30 PM. Resonance Ensemble’s Artistic Director Dr. Katherine FitzGibbon will introduce the 40-minute film. After the screening, all are welcome to stay for a conversation with FitzGibbon, Geter, Sei, Hamlett, and more.
A. Mimi Sei (left) and Dr. Katherine FitzGibbon (right).
Attendance is free, but registration is required. Donations are welcome.
For more information on New Artistic Works, including transit and parking, visit resonancechoral.org/new
Note to Journalists: Katherine FitzGibbon and Damien Geter are available for print, online, and broadcast interviews. If you would like more information on our season or would like to schedule an interview, please contact Liz Bacon Brownson at liz@resonancechoral.org or by calling 971-212-8034.
AROUND THE REQUIEM
WHEN: Sunday, May 21 @ 4:00pm
WHERE: New Expressive Works (N.E.W.) | 810 SE Belmont St. | Portland, OR 97214
TICKETS: Attendance is free, but registration is required.
For further details, visit resonancechoral.org or call our box office at (503) 427-8701
CLICK TO LEARN MORE:
Resonance Ensemble | Katherine FitzGibbon | New Expressive Works | Damien Geter | A. Mimi Sei | S. Renee Mitchell | Kenny Hamlett
*Unless otherwise credited, photos in this press release are by Rachel Hadiashar.
UP NEXT | Earth’s Protection
Our next event is also free! Visit our event page for Earth’s Protection to learn more.
Portland Public Schools presents the debut performance of the PPS Latinx Community Choir
A world premiere by composer Luz Elena Mendoza of Y La Bamba. Performed by a multi-generational group combining Latinx PPS singers with adult mentors from Portland’s award-winning professional choir Resonance Ensemble, along with additional musical groups.
On Tuesday, April 11, 2023 at 6:30 PM, Portland Public Schools and Arts for Learning Northwest (formerly Young Audiences) invite the public to the 2023 HeART of Portland event to hear the first ever PPS LatinX Community Choir perform the world premiere of El Agua De Mi Ser (The Water of My Being) composed by the powerhouse songwriter, guitarist, and frontwoman Luz Elena Mendoza of the popular Portland-based band Y La Bamba.
“Resonance is excited to support this project for young Latinx artists, this world premiere by Luz Elena Mendoza, and to continue our history of collaboration with Portland Public Schools.” says Artistic Director Katherine FitzGibbon. “I can’t wait to hear it next week!”
The PPS Latinx Community Choir, featuring singers from Resonance Ensemble and conducted by Lynn Mendoza-Khan. (Choir seen here with associate conductor DeReau K. Farrar) Photo by Kenny Hamlett, courtesy of Oh! Creative
“This premiere will serve as a catalyst for new directions providing opportunities for singing artists of color in PPS.”
The PPS Latinx Community Choir is a choir specially assembled for this work conducted by Lynn Mendoza-Khan with associate conductor DeReau K. Farrar—both Resonance Ensemble musicians. The choir features Latinx PPS student singers joined by musicians from other Portland-area groups, including the award-winning professional choral group, Resonance Ensemble. Luz Elena Mendoza and a backing band will also be featured.
Conductor Lynn Mendoza-Khan
“The rehearsal process has enabled PPS students who identify as Latinx to bring a piece of music to life that directly addresses experiences of Latinx artists,” conductor Lynn Mendoza-Khan notes, “It has been powerful working together with these brilliant student musicians on music that profoundly encapsulates aspects of our experiences, that centers our needs and our dreams. We’ve come together as a community on this project, and it has been a beautiful celebration of the students and of a connection across generations.”
El Agua De Mi Ser will draw from themes explored on Y La Bamba’s MUJERES, including the complexity of a bicultural childhood—further complicated by its context in the Eurocentric choral music world as well as the predominantly-white Pacific Northwest.
Resonance singer Zaria Williams supports the work of a student singer during rehearsal. Photo: K Hamlett courtesy of Oh! Creative
“El Agua De Mi Ser is a body of my work that I still have never gotten to hear.” Luz Elena Mendoza says. “I am so happy that the choir is learning this music and that they might find healing in it. This concert is only the beginning. What we are manifesting for the HeART of Portland will continue to grow.”
Following the launch at the HeART of Portland event, Luz has invited the choir to be part of an album release performance at the Wonder Ballroom on April 26, 2023.
The project is generously supported by a Creative Heights award from the Oregon Community Foundation. PPS and Resonance Ensemble extend gratitude to the Camas High School Choir under the direction of Ethan Chessin and Arts for Learning Northwest (formerly Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington) for their part in shepherding this work.
For more information about this event, please visit ppsarts.com
Associate Conductor, DeReau K. Farrar, takes in the music during rehearsal. Photo: K Hamlett, courtesy of Oh! Creative
“Portland Protests” delivers works with purpose.
Artists Kenji Bunch and A. Mimi Sei (left) and Judy A. Rose and Vin Shambry embrace following the concert
Earlier this month, Resonance Ensemble presented a concert of vocal music and poetry in dialogue with film, visual art, and photography. Curating an evening of what OregonArtsWatch has deemed “works with purpose,” co-artistic advisor and conductor Shohei Kobayashi’s vision explored a wide range of reactions to the Portland protests of 2020. Audiences were invited to consider and intentionally remember our city’s past, collectively grieve, and dare to envision more just futures.
Today, we share highlights from the program complemented by images captured by photographer Rachel Hadiashar. Thanks to our REAP initiative, online audiences will soon be invited to enjoy the concert virtually on our YouTube channel. (Click here to be added to the invite list!)
PORTLAND PROTESTS: THROUGH FILM & PHOTOGRAPHY
Still image from Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon
Throughout the program, the concert was interspersed with video excerpts from the moving documentary, Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon. Produced by local filmmakers Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, and Erin Yanke, the clips chosen feature members of Portland’s reform and abolition movements to help audience members further understand the impacts of police brutality in our own community, and imagine a world without institutionalized violence.
Also complementing the music and paintings was the photography of Tojo Andrianarivo. Images of the 2020 Portland protests provided powerful context throughout the concert.
The photo above the choir, taken by Tojo Andrainarivo reads: Black History is Our History. Black voices matter, Black pain matters, Black joy matters, Black men matter, Black women matter, Black feminism matters, Black spaces matter, Black healing matters.
PORTLAND PROTESTS: THROUGH COMPOSERS REMEMBERED
The program opened with a beautiful setting of the St. Francis Prayer by Margaret Bonds, whose impressive and rich catalogue of works has recently enjoyed a vivid resurgence in the classical music world. The lush textures ascend as the text asks to be the light in a dark place, to be hope where there is none, and to be a channel of peace in a world of chaos.
“Portland PROtests…Portland proTESTS…I think it’s both” Conductor Shohei Kobayashi
Pianist Hannah Brewer
Later in the program, another Bonds work, Troubled Waters—a darkly playful and cinematic interpretation of the spiritual “Wade in the Water” for solo piano. Starting with a low burble and building to gushing lines with towering leaps, Hannah Brewer’s dynamic, powerful, and graceful performance highlighted the fresh, contemporary feel of this Bonds work despite being one of the oldest works on the program for the evening.
PORTLAND PROTESTS: THROUGH LOCAL COMPOSERS AND POETS
Freshly-commissioned by Resonance, poetry and music by acclaimed local poets and composers were highlights of the concert. With texts from writer A. Mimi Sei, Resonance Ensemble Poet-in-Residence S. Renee Mitchell, and spoken word artist Vin Shambry set to music by Judy A. Rose, Kimberly Osberg, and Fear No Music’s Kenji Bunch, audiences will be invited to consider and intentionally remember our city’s past, collectively grieve, and dare to envision more just futures.
COMMISSION #1 RE-FLEC
Poetry by Vin Shambry
Composed by Judy A. Rose
RE-FLEC, a powerfully direct and hauntingly vivid depiction of the thoughts running through the speaker’s mind in the wake of yet another police-involved murder was the first of the three commissions to premiere. Alberta House director and poet, Vin Shambry read his poetry before the new piece was performed.
“My sense of loss stems from knowing any moment that I could be killed...History keeps repeating itself, our black bodies are turned into symbols. What if some of us chant, because we’re scared to be the chant?”
Composer and Portland-local Judy A. Rose left audiences in a breathless silence for nearly half a minute following the performance of her setting of RE-FLEC. Solos by Emily Lau and Onry soared over the ensemble texture—using not only a wide range of chorus textures, but powerful writing for the string quartet (from Portland’s beloved contemporary music organization, Fear No Music) and piano as well. A gut-wrenching work, this piece will certainly stay with listeners and performers alike for years to come.
Alberta House director Vin Shambry reads his poem, RE-FLEC.
Onry performs the spoken word solo from RE-FLEC
Guest composer Judy A. Rose following the premiere of her work.
“Where is the healing in all of this? Who is fighting for what? Where is the joy? The justice? An evoking of love?”
COMMISSION #2
SEEK WHAT YOU WANT TO FIND
Poet: S. Renee Mitchell
Composer: Kimberly Osberg
Also in conversation with Pander’s works—both the flood series as well as his colorful and dramatic depictions of the 2020 protests—was Dr. S. Renee Mitchell’s poem, Seek What You Want to Find. The text explores both the despair of the events captured, as well as the hope one can draw from these images—focusing on resilience, dignity, and humanity. Saturday’s audiences heard Dr. Mitchell read and our Sunday audience heard the poem read by poet Kendall Clay-Brown.
Poet-in-Residence Dr. S. Renee Mitchell performs her work, “Seek What You Want to Find”
Composer (and Resonance team member!) Kimberly R. Osberg set the text for chorus and string quartet—weaving the theme from Wade in the Water (which appears in the poem) with original motives depicting combat and chaos as well as hope and resilience. Brilliant and shimmering performances from the string quartet along with commanding solo moments from Vakare Petroliunaite, Cecille Elliott, Brandon Michael, and DeReau K. Farrar vividly captured the complexity of the events depicted in the paintings.
Guest composer Kimberly R. Osberg and conductor Shohei Kobayashi embrace after the performance of her work.
Resonance Ensemble performs “Seek What You Want to Find”
COMMISSION #3
Shout Out
Poetry by A. Mimi Sei
Composed by Kenji Bunch
Later in the program came a much-needed burst of hope from poet A. Mimi Sei—whose poem Shout Out, invites the reader to be motivated to action rather than to sit frozen in despair. The poem was beautifully accompanied by photos from Tojo, reminding audience members of not only the difficulty and division of the 2020 protests, but also of the great community outpouring and push towards change.
“We undressed lies, brandished our pain, Stood watch and shouted, “Never again!””
Guest composer A. Mimi Sei performs her work, “Shout Out”
Cellist Valdine Mishkin with Resonance Ensemble
Starting with sparse, percussive hits from a tambourine and caxixi and a simple repeating note from cellist Valdine Mishkin, the piece begins with much of the choir being divided from one another—joining only at key moments to highlight the gradual coming together. The work builds into an uproarious chorus of syncopated textures and playful counterpoint from the cello as the choir repeats “sing out, shout out, in wondrous harmony", before boldly ending in a quiet, reflective unison texture.
Guest composer Kenji Bunch following the premiere of his work, Shout Out.
PORTLAND PROTESTS: THROUGH VISUAL ART
Henk Pander’s Paintings
For the set of works by David Lang, anthems, audiences were invited to wander the space to get a closer look at the installation of paintings by local painter, Henk Pander that were on display Historic Alberta House. Listeners’ experience of the paintings were accompanied by sparse, meticulous invocations by the ensemble—both voices and strings—as well as a transcendent solo by Vakare Petroliunaite. In addition to the paintings, a short documentary on Henk Pander (produced by his son, titled The Stain) also played in the lobby.
Audience members walk throughout Alberta House to view the paintings on display.
PORTLAND PROTESTS: THROUGH HARMONY
To close the program, Joel Thompson’s powerfully bittersweet setting of two poems by Langston Hughes pleads with the listener to “hold fast to dreams.” Gorgeously lush, heartbreakingly conflicted harmonies left audiences holding both the pain of our communal memories of these events, as well as the challenge to envision a better Portland—for every member of our community.
Audience graciously gives a standing ovation upon conclusion of the concert.
PORTLAND PROTESTS: A PANEL DISCUSSION
From the panel discussion with artists
After the program, several of the artists involved spoke with artistic director Dr. Katherine FitzGibbon to share more about their experiences in creating, rehearsing, and sharing these works. The audience asked questions and shared their thoughts on the paintings, photos, film excerpts, poems, and compositions shared throughout the program.
A MOMENT OF GRATITUDE
From the artists and performers, and our team here at Resonance Ensemble, thank you for being a part of this weekend of community healing and reflection. The full concert—including the panel discussion—will be available for free next month.
We invite you to explore our Enhance Your Experience page to learn more about the topics, artists, and works shared as part of this program.
To support our initiative to provide free, high-quality videos of our performances, visit the Resonance Ensemble Access Project (REAP) page—and help us keep this vital accessibility tool alive!
UP NEXT: FREE WORLD PREMIERE FILM SCREENING!
Click here to read more about Around the Requiem, showing Friday, April 21st.
Imagining What is To Come | A Letter from Conductor Shohei Kobayashi
“The result, we hope, is an evening of music, paintings, photography, and film at Historic Alberta House that opens space for us to nuance and expand our understandings and memories of what happened here in Portland and to imagine what’s to come.”
Conductor Shohei Kobayashi | photo by Rachel Hadiashar
Guest conductor Shohei Kobayashi takes a moment to share their program notes from this weekend’s concert, Portland Protests.
Just a year or so ago when we began imagining this event, we learned that four previously unseen works by Portland-based artist Henk Pander would be on display at Historic Alberta House as part of the 7th Vanport Mosaic Festival.
Conductor Shohei Kobayashi | photo:Karen Pride
The oil paintings, inspired by Pander’s eyewitness accounts of the downtown protests sparked by viral videos of the state-sanctioned murder of George Floyd, make subjects of the federal courthouse and the justice center—two high profile epicenters of Portland’s racial justice protests in 2020—2021. Upon seeing these buildings-turned-fortresses flanked by armed federal officers in tandem with the increasingly emboldened white nationalist presence around the city, Pander recalled his childhood living in Nazi-occupied Holland at the end of WWII. “This is what fascism looks like,” says Pander.
The first of the set, called Stain, features the federal courthouse with a prominent vertical smudge, “a stain on the American justice system.” The paintings, in addition to Pander’s works depicting scenes from the 1948 Vanport flood, really demand our attention, and it was clear that we would need to program the concert to be in dialogue with them.
Just a few existing pieces came to mind as effective counterpoint with the artwork.
To open the concert: Margaret Bonds’ 1968 St. Francis’ Prayer, only recently rediscovered in 2015 and published in 2020, a plea to be made instruments of peace, change agents in the world, written the January after the summer protests of 1967—right around the time Pander moved to the states. Sounds like Bonds imagining in vibrant harmony the world she wishes to see.
To view the paintings: selected movements from David Lang’s 2014 the national anthems, with a stitched-together text of lines extracted from the multiple national anthems, set with the composer’s characteristically transparent style. Sounds like and encourages critical distance.
To close the concert: Joel Thompson’s 2016 Hold Fast to Dreams, commissioned as a response to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a choral recitative and aria combining two Langston Hughes texts contemplating the nature of dreams. Sounds like acceptance of a turbulent reality while still pressing on.
Guest composer Judy A. Rose and conductor Shohei Kobayashi | photo by Rachel Hadiashar
With these pieces and Pander’s artwork as the frame, we sought to fill out the concert with local perspectives. We commissioned three local poets – Dr. S. Renee Mitchell, A. Mimi Sei, Vin Shambry – to write texts for new choral works by three local composers – Judy A. Rose, Kimberly R. Osberg, Kenji Bunch. We collaborated with photographer Tojo Andrianarivo who spent several months in 2020 on the ground documenting protests in both Portland and Seattle to select images to project throughout the concert. We connected with filmmakers Julie Perini, Jodi Darby and Erin Yanke to share excerpts from their 2015 documentary Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon.
The result, we hope, is an evening of music, paintings, photography, and film at Historic Alberta House that opens space for us to nuance and expand our understandings and memories of what happened here in Portland and to imagine what’s to come.
Warmly,
Shohei Kobayashi
Conductor and Artistic Advisor
Resonance Ensemble
Tickets still available for both Saturday March 18 at 7:30 pm and Sunday March 19 at 3:00 pm. Click here for more information about Portland Protests and to buy yours today.
Rehearsals underway for "Portland Protests"
Resonance musicians at a recent rehearsal. (pictured: Top Left: Brandon Michael, Tim Galloway, Claire Robertson-Preis, Erik Hundtoft, Les Green, Hannah Brewer, DeReau K. Farrar Center: Vakare Petroliunaite, Ethan Allred, Kevin Walsh, Front Left: Jessica Israels, Emily Lau, Chris Engbretson, Kathy FitzGibbon, Amy Stuart Hunn, Shohei Kobayashi, Jackie Cano (Mar 2023)
Rehearsals are underway for our next concert “Portland Protests” and the musicians are busy rehearsing music by Margaret Bonds, David Lang, and Joel Thompson alongside newly commissioned works from local poets and composers (Pairings by A. Mimi Sei/Kenji Bunch, S. Renee Mitchell/Kim Osberg, and Vin Shambry/Judy A. Rose)
“To share these new works with this ensemble is an honor,” adds Shohei Kobayashi, guest conductor and co-artistic advisor for Resonance Ensemble. “These new choral works, their texts, and the visual and film media all speak to shared humanity, loss and being lost, the courage and fearlessness of the protesters, deep emotional exhaustion, and resilient, insistent hope.”
Also featured on the concert:
Vanport Mosaic presents four large-scale oil paintings by Portland-based Dutch artist Henk Pander, created in response to 2020’s racial justice protests. As part of the exhibit, visitors will also be able to watch The Stain, a short documentary by Jacob Pander about his father’s work lifelong commitment to unmasking fascism, shaped by his childhood in Nazi-occupied Holland.
Images from the 2020 Portland protests by photographer Tojo Andrianarivo will be projected during the concert.
Documentary filmmakers and Portland-based media artists Jodi Darby, Julie Perini and Erin Yanke share an excerpt from their film Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon, documenting the history of conflict between the Portland police and community members.
A panel discussion with guest artists will follow the performance, moderated by Shohei Kobayashi, inviting conversation and reflection
“Portland Protests” takes place at the Historic Alberta House on Saturday, March 18 and Sunday, March 19, 2023. Audiences will be invited to consider and intentionally remember our city’s past, collectively grieve, and dare to envision more just futures.
Tickets are on sale now. Click here to buy yours.
Resonance Ensemble announces exciting new collaborations.
Resonance Ensemble announces additional partnerships for “Portland Protests” concert.
A concert reflecting on Portland’s racial justice protests and our collective hopes for this city
PORTLAND, OR — Resonance Ensemble announces exciting new collaborations in their upcoming “Portland Protests” concert, taking place at the Historic Alberta House on Saturday, March 18 and Sunday, March 19, 2023. Led by guest conductor Shohei Kobayashi, Resonance will offer an evening of vocal music and poetry in dialogue with film, visual art, and photography, joined by a string quartet from Portland’s Fear No Music, exhibits by Vanport Mosaic, and additional featured artists.
Works by Margaret Bonds, David Lang, and Joel Thompson will be heard alongside newly commissioned poetry and music by acclaimed local poets and composers. With texts from writer A. Mimi Sei, Resonance Ensemble Poet-in-Residence S. Renee Mitchell, and spoken word artist Vin Shambry set to music by Judy A. Rose, Kimberly Osberg, and Fear No Music’s Kenji Bunch, audiences will be invited to consider and intentionally remember our city’s past, collectively grieve, and dare to envision more just futures.
Also featured:
Vanport Mosaic presents four large-scale oil paintings by Portland-based Dutch artist Henk Pander, created in response to 2020’s racial justice protests. As part of the exhibit, visitors will also be able to watch The Stain, a short documentary by Jacob Pander about his father and his lifelong commitment to unmasking fascism, shaped by his childhood in Nazi-occupied Holland.
Images from the 2020 Portland protests by photographer Tojo Andrianarivo will be projected during the concert.
Documentary filmmakers and Portland-based media artists Jodi Darby, Julie Perini and Erin Yanke share an excerpt from their film Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon, documenting the history of conflict between the Portland police and community members.
A panel discussion will follow, inviting conversation and reflection.
“These artists have borne witness to major events in Portland’s history. In sharing their individual stories through their artistic disciplines, they remind us of the power of the arts to provide a layered, thought-provoking experience,” says Resonance Artistic Director and founder Katherine FitzGibbon. “This is Resonance’s mission in action, bringing powerful new music and art to life that makes us all think and want to create change.”
“To share these new works with this ensemble is an honor,” adds Shohei Kobayashi, guest conductor and co-artistic advisor for Resonance Ensemble. “These new choral works, their texts, and the visual and film media all speak to shared humanity, loss and being lost, the courage and fearlessness of the protesters, deep emotional exhaustion, and resilient, insistent hope.”
Vin Shambry, a frequent Resonance guest artist and Artistic Director for Historic Alberta House, reflected on this fifth season of collaborations between Resonance and the NE Portland event space.
Laura Lo Forti, Vanport Mosaic co-founder and co-director
“My relationship with Resonance is deep and rooted in our shared commitment to reaching and engaging voices from our community that have been disproportionately impacted by social, economic, and racial injustices,” says Shambry. “Portland Protests is a call to remind us all of the power of art to inspire change and heal our souls. I am grateful for the opportunity to add my writings to this experience and look forward to another incredible Resonance concert.”
"As memory activists," said Laura Lo Forti, Vanport Mosaic co-founder and co-director, "our work is grounded on the belief that artists are witnesses to history while offering powerful images of healing and possibility. We are honored to present the stunning artwork by Henk Pander and to be part of this unique collaboration with Resonance Ensemble and Alberta House."
Single tickets are now on sale at resonancechoral.org. For more information on Historic Alberta House, including transit and parking, visit resonancechoral.org/alberta-house
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PORTLAND PROTESTS
WHEN: Saturday, March 18 @ 7:30 pm | Sunday, March 19 @ 3:00 pm
WHERE: Historic Alberta House | 5131 NE 23rd Ave, Portland, OR
TICKETS: Single tickets are on sale now. click here
Single ticket prices: $35/adult, $30/senior, $10/student, and $5/Arts for All
Note to Journalists: Katherine FitzGibbon, Shohei Kobayashi, Damien Geter as well as the commissioned artists are available for print, online, and broadcast interviews. If you would like more information on our season or would like to schedule an interview, please contact Liz Bacon Brownson at liz@resonancechoral.org or by calling 971-212-8034.
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Resonance Ensemble Access Project (REAP) Providing free, online access to the music. Video access available on all concerts; donations gratefully accepted
We are proud to present the Resonance Ensemble Access Project (REAP), our initiative to ensure that all of our concerts are available to the world both in-person and online. Providing this vital accessibility also increases the expenses of producing our concerts, so we are asking our supporters to consider an additional donation to underwrite this access for those who cannot afford to donate.
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About Resonance Ensemble
In its fourteenth 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. 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 the country: 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 as “Part social commentary, part group therapy, and part best damn choir show in town;” (June 2019) Chorus America honored Artistic Director Katherine FitzGibbon in the summer of 2019 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 Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Lewis & Clark College, where she conducts two of the three choirs and oversees the vibrant voice, choral, and opera areas. In 2014, she was an inaugural winner of the Lorry Lokey Faculty Excellence Award, honoring “inspired teaching, rigorous scholarship, demonstrated leadership, and creative accomplishments,” and in 2019, she received the David Savage Award for “vision and sustained service.” She has also conducted choirs at Harvard, Boston, Cornell, and Clark Universities, and at the University of Michigan and has served on the faculty of Berkshire Choral International.
Dr. FitzGibbon founded Resonance Ensemble in 2009, initially dedicated to thematic, collaborative vocal performances with artistic partners. In the last several years, she and Resonance have shifted their mission, using the same innovative thematic programming approach to amplify voices that have long been silenced, focusing on underrepresented composers and communities. In June of 2019, Chorus America honored Dr. FitzGibbon with the prestigious Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal in recognition of her work with Resonance Ensemble. Chorus America’s press release noted, “As founder and artistic director of Resonance Ensemble, FitzGibbon has captained a bold organizational shift—from its original mission exploring links between music, art, poetry, and theater, to a new focus exclusively on presenting concerts that promote meaningful social change.”
With Resonance, she has collaborated with the Portland Art Museum, Third Angle New Music, Portland Chamber Orchestra, Thomas Lauderdale and Hunter Noack, poet/performer S. Renee Mitchell, the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, and many actors, composers, visual artists, and dancers. Resonance has been described as “one of the Northwest’s finest choirs” (Willamette Week) and “the best damn choir show in town” (Oregon Arts Watch). She has commissioned new works from Melissa Dunphy, Renee Favand-See, Damien Geter, Joe Kye, A. Rose, Kenji Bunch, Kimberly Osberg, Freddy Vilches, Vin Shambry, Dr. S. Renee Mitchell, Mari Ésabel Valverde, and Jasmine Barnes.
Dr. FitzGibbon is President-Elect of the National Collegiate Choral Organization, and her choirs have performed at the NCCO, ACDA, and OMEA conferences. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Princeton University, Master of Music degree in conducting from the University of Michigan, and Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting at Boston University. Her research has been presented and published internationally.
About Historic Alberta House
Is a Creative Community Center intended for all, with a focus that is committed to reaching and engaging voices from our community that have been disproportionately impacted by Oregon’s social, economic, and racial injustices. Surrounded by and intertwined with the reminders of a complex history marked by vibrancy, resiliency, and ingenuity, as well as racism, exclusion, and trauma, we open the doors of this historic building for the community to explore.
About Vanport Mosaic
The Vanport Mosaic is a memory-activism platform. We amplify, honor, and preserve the silenced histories that surround us in order to understand our present, and create a future where we all belong. Join our effort and help us fight historical amnesia. In 2022 the National Trust for Historic Preservation recognized Vanport Mosaic as one of 80 organizations nationwide using historic places as catalysts for a more just and equitable society, showcasing the multi-layered intersections of underrepresented communities of people.
GUEST ARTISTS
About Guest Conductor/Artistic Advisor Shohei Kobayashi
A multi-faceted musician, Shohei Kobayashi synthesizes their experiences as a conductor, ensemble vocalist, and art song interpreter with their insights as a solo singer/songwriter and bandmate to connect and collaborate with music lovers of all backgrounds. Shohei currently leads the choral program and teaches courses in music theory and musicianship at Reed College.
Shohei got their start as a conductor by assisting the choirs at Lewis & Clark College (led by Resonance founder Dr. Katherine FitzGibbon) and First Presbyterian Church of Portland for two years before going on to pursue graduate studies at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with Jerry Blackstone and Eugene Rogers. While a student, Shohei served as assistant conductor for the UMS Choral Union, led by Scott Hanoian. From 2016 to 2020, Shohei helped prepare the 175-member auditioned symphonic chorus for collaborations with Budapest Festival Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, and Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra on works including Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3 (“Kaddish”), Sibelius’s Snöfrid, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, and Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. Highlights include directing a surprise Choral Union appearance in Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce and being called up to lead the musicians of the Budapest Festival Orchestra in vocal warm-ups.
Shohei has been selected conducting fellow for numerous workshops, festivals, and masterclasses including Chorus America’s 2018 and 2019 Conducting Academies, Hot Springs Music Festival, National Collegiate Choral Organization’s 2015 and 2017 Conference Masterclasses, Princeton Festival Conducting Masterclass, Interlochen Choral Conducting Institute, and Norfolk Chamber Choir and Choral Conducting Workshop. In previous years, they also attended the 9th Ithaca International Conducting Masterclass, participated in University of Illinois’s Choral Conducting Symposium in Urbana-Champaign, and received the Berkshire Choral International’s Robert Page Conducting Fellowship.
As a professional tenor and ensemble singer, Shohei has sung with ensembles including sounding light, ÆPEX Contemporary Performance, Helmuth Rilling’s Fifth Weimar Bach Academy Chorus, VIR, and Choro in Schola. Shohei currently sings with Resonance Ensemble, Big Mouth Society, and Jecca Jazz Ensemble.
Shohei holds a DMA and MM in Conducting (Choral) from University of Michigan and a BA in Music (composition focus) from Lewis & Clark College.
Since 2013, Shohei has been involved with Resonance in a number of ways from volunteering as a stage hand and sound technician to serving on their board and performing with the ensemble. They join Resonance Ensemble in the 2022-2023 season as a guest conductor and Co-Artistic Advisor.
For more information about Shohei Kobayashi: resonancechoral.org/shohei-kobayashi
About Composer Kenji Bunch
Kenji Bunch uses his work as a composer and performer to look for commonalities between musical traditions, for understandings that transcend cultural or generational barriers, and for empathic connections with his listeners.
Mr. Bunch draws on vernacular musical traditions, his interest in history, the natural world, and his classical training to create new concert music with a unique personal vocabulary that appeals to performers, audiences, and critics alike. After nearly three decades as a professional musician, whose work has been performed by over sixty American orchestras, by chamber musicians on six continents, and has been recorded numerous times, he considers his mission to be the continuing search for and celebration of shared emotional truths about the human experience.
Mr. Bunch maintains an active performing career, and is widely recognized for performing his own groundbreaking works for viola. In the ongoing search for fluency in other musical styles, he developed a deep interest in vernacular American music and improvisation. Mr. Bunch was the fiddle player and vocalist with the band Citigrass for over 15 years, and is a frequent collaborator with jazz, pop, folk, country, rock, and experimental musicians. He has also collaborated extensively with choreographers and filmmakers.
A graduate of the Juilliard School, Mr. Bunch left New York City after 22 memorable years to return to his native Portland, Oregon, where he currently serves as Artistic Director of new music group Fear No Music, and teaches at Portland State University, Reed College, and for the Portland Youth Philharmonic.
For more information about Kenji Bunch’s work: kenjibunch.net
About Composer Kimberly Osberg
Kimberly R. Osberg is a composer from Eau Claire, Wisconsin who specializes in interdisciplinary collaboration. Her projects have included dance, film, environmental sound installations, instrumental theatre, plays, opera, visual art, award ceremonies, and stage combat. Her music has been described as “brilliant,” “highly-engaging,” “wonderfully suspenseful,” and “intensely colorful,” and has received acclaim from academic, commercial, and public audiences alike. She is also an active writer, creating original text for over a dozen musical works—including a tone poem for projected text and chamber orchestra (Rocky Summer, Dallas Chamber Symphony), and an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” for her operetta, Thump.
Other notable collaborations include projects with the Pittsburg State University Wind Ensemble, the New Voices Opera company, and the Indiana University Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance (including mainstage shows Macbeth and Prospect Hill, and works for dance and stage combat). Since moving to Portland, Oregon in 2020, Kimberly’s prolific output has exploded into a dynamic array of works—including collaborations with the Beau Soir Ensemble, the Merian Ensemble, the Grand Circle New Music Ensemble, the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble, the Chaski duo, Whistling Hens Ensemble, Calypsus Brass Quintet, Pacific Brass Ensemble, the Bassless Trio, tuo duo, and SANS; duo; not to mention several middle school, high school, and collegiate music programs, as well as countless individual musicians across the country—resulting in over 80 new musical works since January of 2020.
For more information about Kimberly Osberg’s work: kimberlyosberg.com
About Composer Judy A. Rose
Judy A. Rose has a B.S. and M.Ed from Portland State University. She worked for Portland Public Schools as a music teacher for 20 years. She is currently the Upper School Music Teacher at The Catlin Gabel School. Judy is an active composer, music director, accompanist and singer in the Portland Metro area.
Her works have been performed across the country by student and professional singers alike, including performances by Pacific University Chamber Singers, Laude, Phoenix (AZ) Chorale, Grant High School A Cappella Choir, Grant High School Royal Blues, In Medio, Franklin High School Armonia Choir, West Linn HS Symphonic Choir, Portland Symphonic Choir, Willamette Master Singers, Tilikum Choir Community, The Delphian School Choir, Scappoose High School Choir, Newberg High School Choir, Lakeridge High School Choir, Des Moines Lincoln High School Chamber Choir, OSU Bella Voce Treble Choir, Forest Grove High School Choir, Choral Conducting Workshop with Rodney Eichenberger, Pacific Youth Choir and the Oakland Youth Chorus.
Judy’s choral compositions are published with Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and Pilgrim Press. Her latest choral original/arrangement of “Soon Ah Will Be Done” will be published in 2023 in the Gary Packwood Choral Series at Gentry Publications.
In addition to these ensembles, her works have been performed at a wide array of conferences including the various ACDA conferences (Montana, Ohio, Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon, Washington), the CCDA Summer Conference, NJMEA Conference, Northwest ACDA Regional Conference and the West Texas Choral Workshop. She has also been featured on the popular All Classical series “Thursdays at 3,” the Portland Tribune, Moveable Do Podcast, featured on JW Pepper New Sounds (Santa Barbara Music Publishing) and The Columbian. She received a GAP Grant from the Artist Trust in 2019, a composing residency at Centrum in 2020 and in 2021 a month-long composing residency at Hedgebrook on Whidbey Island.
Judy enjoys playing the Native American Flute, birding, wildlife photography, and spending time with her family. Judy & her spouse share their home with Naomi (a rescued Cardigan Corgi & Chesapeake Retriever mix).
For more information about Judy A. Rose’s work: judyarose.com
About Poet S. Renee Mitchell
Dr. S. Renee Mitchell is a published author, curriculum designer, community activist and multi-media artist. She also is a sur-thriver who has found her life purpose since disentangling from bullying, sexual assault, and domestic violence.
After 25 years as an award-winning newspaper journalist - where she was nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize - Renee reinvented herself as a Creative Revolutionist; co-founded a culturally specific, drop-in DV resource center; and began gifting her talents to community as a poet, playwright, performer, speaker, teaching artist and self-taught graphic designer in order to create and contribute to empowering projects and programs, community healing ceremonies, plays, songs and books about healing from trauma.
Motivated by intention and heart, Renee’s deepest desire is to help others use their creativity to let go, gather up and move on in order to find themselves, their voice, and their place in the world. Her nonprofit, I AM M.O.R.E. centers youth voice, using culturally relevant, trauma-informed practices to help participants learn how to better serve their communities.
For more information about S. Renee Mitchell’s work: reneemitchellspeaks.com
About Poet A. Mimi Sei
Aminata R. Sei (Mimi) is a writer and social justice advocate. She is working on a creative nonfiction account, The Universe Calls Me Daughter, that will chronicle her experiences in Africa, America, and Asia. She graduated from the Anderson Schools of Management at the University of New Mexico. Mimi is reading for a Master of Liberal Arts degree concentrating in Creative Writing and Literature at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. She has showcased essays and written for Huffington Post, and has penned several articles for Medium.
She is a 2017 inaugural writer for the Stanford University Alumni Writers’ Critique Group, Oregon Chapter. Mimi has also contributed to projects with renowned composers, Interim Music Director and Artistic Advisor for the Portland Opera Damien Geter, and the University of Michigan Director of Choral Activities Eugene Rogers. Her text, Breathe, written for A Cantata for A More Hopeful Tomorrow, premiered with the Washington Chorus in 2020. With Geter she authored the foreword for An African American Requiem, which premiered at the Oregon Symphony in May 2022. In March 2023, she will collaborate with Resonance Ensemble and famed Chicago Opera Vanguard Composer Matthew Recio.
On November 9th, 2016, she wrote “Unite Gather, Heal, Move On,” published by Huffington Post. In October 2018, she showcased two essays and was a featured speaker at Writing as Resistance, a forum discussion on the purposeful and effective use of writing for activism. In 2019, she wrote Sierra Leone - Influencing Change from a Distance. It was featured at the Model UN Forum at the Dalian American International School in Dalian, China. She is also a contributing writer for the quarterly Convent Scoop from St. Joseph’s Secondary School in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
She is the former President of the Catlin Gabel School Parent/Faculty Association, as well as the Trustee and Chair of the School’s Board Inclusion and Diversity Committee. She is passionate about Inclusion and Equity efforts, especially at educational institutions, and is vested in creating safe and welcome spaces to facilitate insightful dialogue and exchange.
Mimi is also a Board Member of the Northwest Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and The Resonance Ensemble.
She is an avid reader and a lover of music and all things African. Mimi lives in Portland, Oregon.
For more information about A. Mimi Sei’s work: sei-mimi.medium.com
About Poet Vin Shambry
Vin Shambry, Artistic Director of Historic Alberta House, is a published writer, acclaimed storyteller, international actor and director, painter, and community builder. He grew up in Portland and has traveled the world as an artist and creator. He performed on Broadway as Tom Collins in "Rent" and recently wrapped filming on “Outdoor School,” a feature film based on his life growing up in Portland and his experiences with housing insecurity. He is passionate about creating a safe space for artists in the Black community in Portland to expand their artistic limits, to gather, to create, and to belong. Vin says, “When you create spaces like this, where artists don’t have to conform or change to fit a certain template, their ideas are free to flow and their creativity just expands in a really beautiful way. That is what Historic Alberta House is all about.
For more information about Vin Shambry’s work: vinshambry.com | www.outdoorschoolthemovie.com
About Henk Pander
The Dutch artist Henk Pander arrived in Portland in 1965 and, except for brief periods, has lived there ever since, creating works that challenge status quo modern art of the Pacific Northwest. In his drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings, Pander depicts subjects ranging from the death of friends to erotic fantasies, from the wreck of the New Carissa to the ruins of Ground Zero, and from the skylines of Portland and Amsterdam to abandoned airplanes and automobiles in the American West.
Henk Pander’s works are in many collections, including those of the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), Museum Henriette Polak (Zutphen, The Netherlands), City of Amsterdam, City of Portland, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena), Portland Art Museum, Frye Art Museum (Seattle), Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (University of Oregon), and Hallie Ford Museum of Art (Willamette University), where a fifty-year retrospective exhibition of his work was shown in 2011. His public commissions are at Oregon State University, Oregon Public Safety Academy (Salem), Portland Center for the Visual Arts, and numerous other locations.
For more information about Henk Pander’s work: henkpander.format.com
About Tojo Andrianarivo
Tojo Andrianarivo has over five years of experience as a photographer specializing in portrait and live music. Though he was born in Madagascar, he has resided in the U.S. for the majority of his life—living in four different states—save five years spent in Nairobi, Kenya. Currently he lives in Portland, Oregon, and enjoys exploring all the amazing scenery and food the Northwest has to offer.
Follow Tojo on Instagram at @tojofotos and tojofotos.com to keep up with his latest work.
About “Arresting Power” and the filmmakers who created it.
Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon documents the history of conflict between the Portland police and community members throughout the past fifty years. The film features personal stories of resistance told by victims of police misconduct, the families of people who were killed by police, and members of Portland’s reform and abolition movements.
Utilizing meditative footage taken at sites of police violence, experimental filmmaking techniques, and archival newsreel, Arresting Power creates a space for understanding the impacts of police violence and imagining a world without police.
Portland-based media artists Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, and Erin Yanke are inspired by radical anti-authoritarian, anti-racist movements of the past and they are dedicated to engaging with and documenting current social movements. Their work covers the spectrum of film, video, installation, radio, web, music, and photography. Always excited to challenge traditional forms, they are committed to a fluid, non-hierarchical creative process that involves the sharing of skills and production roles.
For more information about the film: arrestingpowers.com
For more information about Resonance Ensemble:
Website: www.resonancechoral.org
Facebook: /resonanceensemblepdx
Instagram: @resonanceensemblepdx
Twitter: @resonanceensemblepdx
Hashtags: #JUSTICEFORALL? #resonanceensemblepdx #PortlandProtests
Artist Spotlight: Meet Cecille Elliott
“Letting go is why this song exists in the first place.”
Cecille Elliott is no stranger to the stage. She regularly performs as a singer, violinist, violist, and guitarist around the Northwest, sharing her voice in an array of venues and across many genres. Those who follow Cecille on Instagram also know Cecille’s writing, usually displayed atop her artwork and sketches. There is no doubt—Cecille is a multifaceted artist.
What you may not know about Cecille, however, is her immense catalog of original compositions—decades in the making, and rarely shared in public spaces.
If you were at our recent Dirty, Stupid Music show, you were treated to a premiere of one of these works, We Are Murmurs, commissioned by Resonance Ensemble. Now, just a few weeks later, we unveil this new work on our YouTube channel. To mark the occasion, we asked Cecille to share more about her creative process—and what it took for her to create and share this work with all of us.
Will you share some of your journey as a musician?
Looking back at my early days, I know I was trying to find my own identity in music—I have a pretty strong internal compass, and when I’m drawn to music that draws me or excites me, I want to participate in it. My parents—who are musicians themselves—gave me a rigorous music education experience, although ultimately never placing pressure on me to do a particular thing as my career, which I’m very thankful for. I did feel however, from others as well as myself, a weight and an intense pressure to live up to certain expectations around music. Internally, I grappled with a lot of insecurity. Externally, I’d found myself loving and participating in several different music cultures that often did not embrace one another, or sometimes where I didn’t feel embraced.
One of the things that was constant throughout all of that was songwriting, and writing often became a bridge for me to navigate all of those things. I think without knowing it, when I was listening to music on the radio, I was internalizing pop-style song structures, first translating that on guitar and eventually to what I was writing on piano too. Songs just started flying out of me. Once I realized I could create my own songs in pop genres, in my own voice and style, I was writing all the time.
Why do you think songwriting ended up being the constant for you?
Cecille (left) performing with musicians from Master Wu Man’s band during Silkroad GMW. Photo by OJ Slaughter.
There was definitely a therapeutic element to it, probably largely unconscious back then but very conscious to me now. There’s something that continues to fascinate me about it—how something I am experiencing won’t fully reveal itself until I’ve written it in poetry or music. I like exploring the creative capacities of language, the multiple ways to write and communicate.
When I write music that doesn’t have words or vocals, I treat the instruments as the story-tellers. They have to accomplish the same communication and expression of words without them being there, so there’s a different type of creativity I’m engaging with in that respect
When those two things meet, you can say one thing with words, then have the backing music either support or subvert those words. That play and exploration I find fascinating.
While you perform publicly, you haven’t shared much of your songwriting publicly. Do you consider the music you write to be private?
I write about a lot of different things, and yes, sometimes they can be really personal and can make it harder for me to share. It’s hard to express myself sometimes. Music can also be a way for me to process intense emotions.
“2013, writing out a chart for my song ‘Stardust’”
How do you find inspiration for your music?
Inspiration can come from nowhere, or other times I actively seek it out. It’s sometimes hard to predict what will be the catalyst for an idea. I vehemently don’t trust work that feels like it’s trying too hard to “be something”, which can mean a lot of things I suppose. I think I mean that at its core something is insincere, and if I ever find my own work veering in that direction it begins to repel me. Doing my best to stay connected with that intuition helps my internal inspo compass, at least a little. I want to create from a genuine place. I do better work if I don’t force it. I’m less in my own way. Starting parameters can be super helpful, such as searching my old poems or voice memos for previous ideas, but by giving myself permission to find flexibility in the topic or process, that malleability allows me to discover and uncover the most genuine version of whatever it is I’m trying to express. At that point, with patience and some trial and error, the rest sort of unfolds itself.
Women who are very much at the helm of their creativity and expression, I’m drawn to them and inspired by them. From guitar ladies like Alanis Morissette and Avril Lavigne to piano ladies like Alicia Keys and Fiona Apple. They were huge writing influences on me during my teenage years when I really began writing a lot. I resonated with the fact that they tapped into their emotions and unapologetically created from that space. It snowballed from there in terms of women that continue to inspire and influence me in that way; Imogen Heap, Taylor Swift, Lianne La Havas, Esperanza Spalding, Kimbra, the band Joseph (Closner sisters), Björk, and on and on, there are so many.
What about for the music? Is that usually developed at the same time as lyrics?
It’s been both at times. Poems are starters often, but there are also times where I find a chord progression or melody first. I used to write a lot on piano, and currently I have the midi keyboard and my guitar I use for writing. As a teenager, I was also heavily influenced by film music—film composers like John Williams and Howard Shore—and jazz musicians like Oscar Peterson and George Gershwin. College was my introduction to many different vocal jazz and classical choral styles. I draw a lot on my orchestral background as well as my choral background to think about colors and mood–the way the quality of a melody can change based on what instrument is playing it and how. But, there’s been a lot of times when I just put chords into Ableton or on my loop pedal–then I just write and write; could be just a melody, but if it’s poetry I might write multiple pages before something feels like it’s flowing, or even just writing for the sake of the words themselves.
Can you expand on what you mean by the words themselves?
Artwork for Cecille’s new piece, “We Are Murmurs”
Sometimes it’s about the shape, sound, or rhythm of the words. It’s good for me to leave room for play. I like challenging myself–can I rhyme in the middle of this phrase instead of the end, can I have the same sound in every line for the next ten lines? Play and experimentation helps me take the entire thing less seriously, relax and explore. There are so many voice memos of me singing into my phone, or just saying a phrase multiple different ways.
I’ve really liked writing that way too, because often even before I come up with a melody I’m working through the rhythm–what will this sound like when I read it and experiment with emphasis weight shifts? Almost like in a slam poetry sense.
When you were commissioned to write We Are Murmurs for Resonance, how did you go about writing it?
It sounds silly, but my first thoughts were that I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. I was grateful for the opportunity and was afraid I wouldn’t be able to “produce” something that would be relevant or meaningful in context. I definitely ran into the trouble of trying to set parameters for myself about the piece’s overall sound and focus–and it felt forced and I couldn’t finish ideas and they began to repel me. After hitting that mental reset button, We Are Murmurs really just flew out of me in comparison to the other ideas I had been working on.
With your music being so personal, do you find that you prefer to create on your own? Or do you also like collaborating with others?
While I do write mostly alone, at times I actually prefer to create music with other people–like improvising or composing with other people–even if it's just a temporary project because I feel a lot less precious about my ideas and I feel like I can go through them a lot quicker, be less in my head. When it's just me, it has to sit with me a lot longer because I don't have this sort of immediate feedback that you get of sharing something in the room–playing off of other people’s thoughts and being a bit more objective about it.
That’s part of what was nerve-wracking bringing We Are Murmurs and the other two ideas I was working on to our first rehearsal. I had only heard the piece as a MIDI track before the first rehearsals and I didn’t really know what these parts were going to actually sound like when they were all together, actually singing through the words. Would the words flow? Would the harmonies make sense? Would it be hard to read? Was this part going to sit in someone’s voice well? It was hard to know.
What was it like to perform We Are Murmurs for the first time?
This is my first time having an experience like this–of writing something, rehearsing it with other people and directing what we’re going to do with it. It was going to be really hard no matter who those other people were, but I do have a lot of gratitude for Kathy [Dr. Katherine FtizGibbon] who really opened this door for me and encouraged me. I feel like she placed a lot of trust in me, and I really didn’t want to disappoint her or the other singers. When I was hitting my first real snag in my process, she met with me to talk through things–and even after 20 minutes of being able to talk with her, it just felt like I was able to get back on track really fast, even though I changed ideas two more times after that! Touching base helped me put less pressure on myself and get out of my own way.
What is this piece inspired by?
It’s about experiencing very sudden grief. It explores the notion of not being ready for change, and change coming anyway. That’s about all I think I want to say for now. This piece is a way for me to process, to understand a certain type of grief—and the disbelief that can accompany it.
So how does it feel to have it out in the world now?
It’s exciting and scary. Ultimately I’m really glad I did this, because it’s been a goal of mine for most of my life. I only started performing sets of original music a few years ago, though I’d been writing well over a decade before that. To have the ability to compose/write music that needs more than just me as a musician to execute it, and then to be able to share it with others, that experience has been eye-opening, humbling, a huge honor. I want to keep writing and sharing. I’m so grateful to the four other vocalists who joined me on this. I felt very self conscious and they embraced my work and gave it life. Their support meant so much.
What’s up next for you?
I’m still writing and performing, still learning, just working at trying to create a space for myself within it all.
I’ll be playing a solo set at McMennamin’s Al’s Den on March 19, in the evening shortly after Resonance’s next concert highlighting Portland Protests which I’m also performing in. So, come to the earlier Resonance concert, and then come hang out with me downtown afterwards! I’ll have my guitar, loop pedal, my electric violin, it’ll be lots of fun.
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All professional photos in this article by Rachel Hadiashar | All photos on this feature provided by Cecille Elliott
LISTEN TO “WE ARE MURMURS”
BUY THE SHEET MUSIC FOR “WE ARE MURMURS: https://www.cecilleelliott.com/store
