Classical Music in Portland
From opera to symphony to chamber ensemble, Portland offers top-notch classical music.
Oregon Arts Watch
Portland Opera, the Oregon Symphony and Chamber Music Northwest offer an ongoing lineup of inspiring performances, from timeless works to modern interpretations.
Chamber Music Northwest
Crowds flock to this five-week season of concerts presented by Chamber Music Northwest every summer (June-July); a one-week Winter Festival is held in late January/early February.
Fear No Music
Creating curiosity in modern and contemporary classical music through live ensemble performance and their youth mentorship programs, Fear No Music presents the music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in a chamber ensemble.
Oregon Symphony
More than 300,000 people each year enjoy performances of works from classical to pop by the Oregon Symphony under the direction of Eckart Preu. Season: September-May.
Portland Baroque Orchestra
The Portland Baroque Orchestra presents classical music on historical instruments in intimate settings. Season: October-May.
Portland Opera
One of the United States’ top opera companies, the Portland Opera has an anything-but-stuffy approach. Season: February-August.
Portland Taiko
The performers in the award-winning Portland Taiko Asian American drumming ensemble weave rhythm, melody, humor and movement together into an exhilarating musical experience.
Third Angle New Music
Pulling the classics into the new age, Third Angle New Music has set out to create the “soundtrack of our time” by commissioning new works by living composers and presenting innovative performances in collaboration with theater companies, sound artists, and performers locally and internationally.
Upcoming Classical Concerts
Immerse yourself in the sounds of classical music at these upcoming events.
Tallis Scholars: Darkness to Light
The Tallis Scholars return to the series with a program spanning Lent and Easter, especially poignant this year as their tour takes place between the dates of Easter, March 31 on the Gregorian calendar and May 5 on the Julian. Two expansive settings of the Lamentations (White and Tallis) fill the first half, with the…
Willamette Falls Symphony Spring Concert
Join the Willamette Falls Symphony and conductor, Dr. Mark Perlman, for the Spring Concert featuring Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Max Bruch Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra, and Emmanual Chabrier España. Their mission is to serve our community audience and musicians by making quality classical music affordable and broadly accessible.
Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony
A testament to Beethoven’s sly wit, the Eighth Symphony finds the revolutionary composer transforming beloved 18th-century dance forms with new dramatic possibilities. Violinist Baiba Skride displays a “soaring, incisive tone” (Strad) in Britten’s Violin Concerto, an emotionally charged work composed as Europe descended into World War II. Program Britten: Four Sea Interludes Britten: Violin Concerto…
Inon Barnatan
A celebrated pianist of "breathtaking charisma" (Philadelphia Inquirer) and "uncommon sensitivity" (New Yorker), Inon Barnatan brings Portland Piano International's season to a close with a program of mesmerizing music by Rachmaninoff and Schubert. Rachmaninoff's early Moments musicaux showcase signature elements of the Russian composer's unabashedly romantic music — lush melodies, heightened expression, and thunderous, bell-like…
A World Apart: The Music of Haydn & Pärt
Imagine an intriguing and satisfying aural combination: the fullest color spectrum paired with the most uncompromising grayscale… and join the choirs of Trinity Cathedral, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, vocal soloists, and guest conductor Gabriel Crouch for an exciting evening of music by Franz Josef Haydn and Arvo Pärt. You’ll hear Pärt’s haunting work for strings…
Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
A rollercoaster of pianistic flourishes, Rachmaninoff’s ravishing rhapsody is given a tour-de- force performance by soloist Simon Trpčeski. Dvořák’s distinctly Bohemian style shines in his brooding, mysterious Seventh Symphony, in which the composer gives voice to personal grief and the struggles of his nation. *In Salem on Friday, May 10, 2024, 7:30 pm Program Dobrinka…
The BACH Dialogues – Christopher O'Riley and Matt Haimovitz
Acclaimed musicians Christopher O'Riley and Matt Haimovitz defy convention in "The BACH Dialogues," a concert that breaks boundaries and reimagines the music of a legend. Forget stuffy recitals. This explores where Baroque meets cutting-edge technology, and iconic sonatas get a vibrant new lease on life.
Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique
Berlioz paints a portrait of obsessive love with opium-fueled visions of cinematic realism, featuring haunting ballroom waltzes, a march to the guillotine, and maniacal witches’ dances. Opening the program, Debussy’s tone poem heaves with hazy sensuality, and violinist Carolin Widmann explores nature and love in works by Takemitsu and Chausson. Program Debussy: Prelude to an…
A Century of Unforgettable Music
PYP concludes its centennial season with a performance of Franz Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony – the first piece ever performed by this orchestra, formerly known as the Portland Junior Symphony. Don’t miss your last chance to be thrilled by Season 100’s Portland Youth Philharmonic on the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall stage. PYP welcomes special guests to…
Schubert & Strauss
The lyricism of music inspired by dance takes center stage in Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony and Strauss’s Rosenkavalier Suite — their rhythms and melodies evoking the opulence of 19th-century Vienna. And Artist-in-Residence Xavier Foley paints musical portraits of Argentina in a new arrangement of Piazzolla’s tango-infused Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Program Giancarlo Castro: Commission and…
PSU Orchestra: Unfinished Business
Ken Selden conducts the PSU Orchestra with music of Franz Schubert and William Grant Still. Ken Selden was appointed conductor and music director of the Symphony Orchestra and New Music Ensemble at Portland State University in fall 2006. Under his direction, the PSU Symphony has received three awards in Adventurous Programming from ASCAP and the League…
Brahms’ First Symphony
The season concludes in a blaze of orchestral glory with Brahms’ First Symphony, a work of intense passion and soaring lyricism. Plus, Principal Bassoon Carin Miller displays her instrument’s suave tone and puckish agility in Villa-Lobos’s Ciranda das Sete Notas. At the same time, Gabriella Smith’s One serves as an urgent appeal to protect our…
Metropolitan Youth Symphony: Landscapes
For its season finale, Symphony Orchestra is excited to present pieces inspired by nature, including Portland Beauty, by award-winning composer and MYS conductor Giancarlo Castro D’Addona, based on Giancarlo’s first hike to Mirror Lake; Smoulder by Andrea Reinkemeyer, which evokes the devastation of forest fires and other ominous signs of climate change; and the world…
Chamber Music Northwest Summer Festival
Chamber Music Northwest’s annual summer festival combines high-caliber classical music with a laid-back atmosphere.
Opera a la Cart at The Square
In partnership with Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland Opera will bring an Opera a la Cart live performance to The Square over the lunch hour. Inspired by Portland’s food cart culture, Opera a la Cart is a mobile performance venue that brings live opera performances directly into the community spaces where people gather. You’ll find them…
Chopin and Alpine Symphony
Inspired by his own adventures in the Alps, Strauss' An Alpine Symphony evokes nature's power and majesty in a journey through crashing waterfalls, misty meadows, and furious storms. And Portland favorite Garrick Ohlsson leads an equally intense journey of the heart in Chopin's First Piano Concerto, channeling the work's melancholy grace with "a sound so…
Brahms 2: Moments in Light and Darkness
From the wistful horn calls of its opening bars to the life-affirming radiance of the closing chorale, Brahms' Second Symphony conjures bucolic landscapes where sunlit serenity and ominous storm clouds share the sky. Plus, Composer-in-Residence Andy Akiho premieres a new concerto for cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, who performs with "unforced simplicity and beauty of tone" (New…
Dvořák’s New World Symphony
In his Ninth Symphony, Dvořák aimed to create musical portraits of his time in America—weaving a vibrant tapestry of Black spirituals and Indigenous folk songs with tunes from his native Bohemia. And things go bump in the night in Wagner's ghostly overture to The Flying Dutchman and Liszt's Totentanz, a captivating work based on macabre…
Baroque Splendor With Handel & Bach
Courtly dances and buoyant melodies take center stage in two Baroque favorites: Handel's Water Music and Bach's Keyboard Concerto in A Major, featuring the "extravagantly gifted" (LA Times) Awadagin Pratt. Equally enchanting and energetic, Haydn's “Drumroll” Symphony brims with humor and wit, building to a riotous finale where fleet-footed tunes race across every corner of…
Itzhak Perlman
“A recital by Itzhak Perlman is inevitably a journey into perfection: virtuosity of the highest order, the sweetest tone imaginable, impeccable intonation, mature musicianship, and a pleasant stage persona to boot.” (Palm Beach ArtsPaper) Enjoy a solo violin recital by the legendary Itzhak Perlman accompanied by pianist, Rohan De Silva. Artists Itzhak Perlman, Violin …
Shostakovich 5: Heroism and Hope
Written as Stalin's Great Terror campaign made music a matter of life and death for Soviet composers, Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony is a searing search for hope in a time of darkness and oppression. Fear and vulnerability also hover over Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto, its hushed laments and demonic dissonances mirroring the composer's anguish upon his…
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
From festive birdsong and thunderstorms to harvest celebrations and tranquil snowfall, Vivaldi's wildly popular Four Seasons represents Baroque music at its most cinematic. Start the holiday season with this timeless classical favorite performed by your Oregon Symphony. Program Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, Violin Concerti Other works to be announced
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