Over the summer, campers from The Telling Room’s program Ekphrastic Excursions, came to Merrill Auditorium and listened to “Coincident Dances” by Jessie Montgomery and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” two work on the PSO’s Classical concert, Scheherazade, on November 16. The campers explored how different soundscapes, themes, and instrumentations inspired their writing, and two of the poems… Read More

Jessie Montgomery Coincident Dances Jessie Montgomery was born in New York City in 1981. Coincident Dances was first performed by the Chicago Sinfonietta, Mei-Ann Chen conducting, on September 16, 2017. It is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, Timpani, percussion and strings. It lasts… Read More

Sunday, November 16, 2025 PSO Music Director Eckart Preu returns to our podium with a program about color, light and atmosphere, but also about the desire of cultures to mix and evolve. American composer Jessie Montgomery explains that her exuberant work was inspired byunexpected musical pairings she experienced walking down the street in her New… Read More

Missy Mazzoli Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) Missy Mazzoli was born on October 27, 1980 in Lansdale, PA. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) was first heard on April 8, 2014 performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of John Adams. The version for expanded orchestra heard tonight was first played… Read More

Tuesday, October 28, 2025 Guest conductor David Amado makes his PSO debut in a brilliant program about the heavens and the gods of old. The concert opens with another PSO début: the music of American composer Missy Mazzoli. Mazzoli writes that her nine-minute piece is “music in the shape of a solar system.” It’s elusive,… Read More

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Concerto for Violin & Orchestra in D Major, Op. 35 Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, Russia, in 1840 and died in St. Petersburg in 1893. He composed his Violin Concerto in 1878, and it was first performed in 1881 by violinist Adolf Brodsky with the Vienna Philharmonic, Hans Richter conducting…. Read More

Sunday, October 5, 2025Tuesday, October 7, 2025 Welcome to the hundred first season of the Portland Symphony Orchestra! If you were here last season, you heard spectacular collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Opera Maine for La bohème, and ChoralArt for Orff’s Carmina Burana. This season brings the orchestra itself into focus in great works including Holst’s… Read More

Tuesday, June 17, 2025 Portland Symphony Music Director Eckart Preu leads the closing program of the orchestra’s 100th Anniversary season. American violinist Tai Murray makes her PSO debut at this concert, though she has performed previously in Portland with other organizations. The music on this program highlights views of the USA from inside and out…. Read More