Skip to main content
Accessibility is one of Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra’s biggest values, one that will be prominent in the upcoming concert, ¡Adelante! Voices of Tomorrow, set to close out its 41st season.
PCSO’s chosen venues—First United Methodist Church in Southwest on Saturday, May 4, and Gresham High School on Sunday, May 5—aren’t just more centrally located for the orchestra’s audience and orchestra members. Churches and schools are more comfortably familiar to PCSO’s audiences than traditional concert halls, which carry over a stuffy, exclusive reputation from the last century.
“It’s the combination of a professional orchestra with the lack of pretension and a welcoming attitude that we think serves the community in a way that is necessary,” said Kevin Irving, the orchestra’s executive director. “These are places where people don’t feel they need to meet some criteria—I don’t think they do in order to go to the Schnitz, but the perception is a hurdle to clear, and we’re trying to set it up so people can have a really high quality experience, and at the same time feel less intimidated by that experience.”
PCSO usually plays the music of living composers of color, giving the works as much weight and importance as the established canon of classical Western chamber music, which had been written and commissioned almost exclusively by straight white male composers for centuries. ¡Adelante! will feature music from Latine composers, including by Portland composer Freddy Vilches.
“[Vilches] has this all-encompassing knowledge of Latin-American rhythms, cultures and contributions into the classical music repertory, and he’s bringing all of that knowledge and all of those instruments into the work he’s created for us,” Irving said.
Both concerts will feature performances of Vilches’ Latin American Suite. PSCO principal flutist Adam Eccleston, also an All Classical Radio host, will lead the flutes and strings for their rendition of Alberto Ginastera’s Impresiones de la Puna.
Additionally, the BRAVO Youth Orchestra will also take to the stage, performing Georges Bizet’s Carmen Suite No. 1. PCSO works regularly with the after-school orchestra, which was founded as a nonprofit in 1975 and rebranded in 2013. Irving said PCSO has mentored BRAVO for years, but that this is the first time the companies have performed together.
“We’ve been subsidizing visits from our invited soloists and principal players of PCSO to go to the BRAVO campuses and instruct kids, so the next level would be to give those kids the opportunity to play alongside professional musicians,” Irving said.
Irving said the orchestra chose the ¡Adelante! theme to coincide with the weekend’s Cinco de Mayo holiday, and to celebrate music director Steven Byess’ 10th year with the company.
“If there’s a secret sauce or magic ingredient, I would say it’s our music director, Steven Byess, who is so warm and welcoming and is so unpretentious,” Irving said. “Anyone who comes into a [PCSO] concert should immediately feel at ease, and unencumbered by the weight of any preconceived notions about what you’re supposed to know or do. It’s all about having that essential, rich experience of music being brought to life in your presence.”