The Portland Choir & Orchestra (formerly the Portland Ensign Choir & Orchestra) is a non-profit musical organization that consists of 120 volunteer singers and 45 musicians from the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Many members travel up to 100 miles to participate in rehearsals and performances. [1]
Founded in 2005, the choir has performed many classical, folk, gospel, holiday and other traditional carols all across the Pacific Northwest. From Vancouver, Washington, to Salem, Oregon, the Portland Choir & Orchestra has brought the joy of music to thousands of people.
The Portland Choir & Orchestra has performed with various guest artists, including Grammy nominated and acclaimed concert violinist Jenny Oaks Baker, Broadway performer Dallyn Vail Bailes, and Mormon Tabernacle Organist Clay Christiansen. [2] Local celebrities to lend their talents to the Choir & Orchestra include former Portland Trail Blazer announcer Bill Schonely, who helped narrate a special concert dedicated to the veterans of the United States Armed Services.
Performing two concerts each season, the Portland Choir & Orchestra's repertoire consists of Christmas and other Holiday favorites, as well as a Spring concert usually centered on either Easter or Memorial Day. Dr. David Thomas is the Artist Director of the Portland Choir & Orchestra, with Dr. Edward Higgins serving as the Orchestra Director. [3]
The Choir & Orchestra have performed in various concert halls, including the Newmark Theatre in Portland, Oregon, the Skyview Auditorium in Vancouver, Washington, Lincoln Hall on the campus of Portland State University, and the Rogers Music Center on the campus of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.
The choir has performed the National Anthem for several Portland Trail Blazers games at the Moda Center (formerly the Rose Garden.) Attendees reported a reverence never before seen or heard during the National Anthem when the choir sang. [4]
The Portland Trail Blazers are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. The team played its home games in the Memorial Coliseum before moving to Moda Center in 1995. The franchise entered the league as an expansion team in 1970, and has enjoyed a strong following: from 1977 through 1995, the team sold out 814 consecutive home games, the longest such streak in American major professional sports at the time, and which has only since been surpassed by the Boston Red Sox and the Dallas Mavericks. The Trail Blazers are the only NBA team based in the Pacific Northwest, after the Vancouver Grizzlies relocated to Memphis and became the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001 and the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008.
TheTabernacle Choir at Temple Square, formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is an American choir affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has performed in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for over 100 years. Its weekly devotional program, Music & the Spoken Word, is one of the longest-running radio programs in the world, having aired every week since July 15, 1929.
Moda Center, formerly known as the Rose Garden, is the primary indoor sports arena in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is used for basketball, rodeos, circuses, conventions, ice shows, concerts, and dramatic productions. The arena has a capacity of 20,500 spectators when configured for basketball. It is equipped with state-of-the-art acoustics and other amenities.
The Veterans Memorial Coliseum is an indoor arena located in the oldest part of the Rose Quarter area in Portland, Oregon. The arena is the home of the Portland Winterhawks, a major junior ice hockey team, and was the original home of the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. It has been included on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its architectural significance.
The Portland metropolitan area is a metro area with its core in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. It has 5 principal cities, the largest being Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identifies it as the Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan statistical area used by the United States Census Bureau (USCB) and other entities. The OMB defines the area as comprising Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill Counties in Oregon, and Clark and Skamania Counties in Washington. The area had a population of 2,512,859 at the 2020 census, an increase of over 12% since 2010.
Kevin Jerome Duckworth was an American professional basketball player who played as center in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A native of Illinois, he played college basketball at Eastern Illinois University before being drafted in 1986 in the second round by the San Antonio Spurs. Before completing his rookie season with the Spurs, he was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers where he spent most of his six seasons and was named the NBA's Most Improved Player and a two-time All-Star. After playing with three more teams he retired in 1997 and returned to Oregon where he would later work for the Trail Blazers' organization.
South Salem High School (SSHS) is a public high school in Salem, Oregon. It was built in 1954 as the second public high school in the city. After South Salem opened, the former Salem High School was renamed North Salem High School.
NBC Sports Northwest was an American regional sports network owned by the NBC Sports Group unit of NBCUniversal, as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. The network broadcast regional coverage of professional sports events throughout the Pacific Northwest, focusing primarily on the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers and college sports events involving the Oregon Ducks. It also covered other sports events involving teams within the northwestern United States, including those featuring college and high school teams.
Union High School is an American public high school in Vancouver, Washington. It is part of the Evergreen Public Schools school district. While the campus is located within the proper city limits of Vancouver, it has a Camas area zip code. The campus was completed in July 2007. Union High School's principal is Gregg Brown. The school colors are black, silver, and red. The school's mascot is the Titan.
Philadelphia Boys Choir & Chorale is a boys' choir and men's chorale based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, currently under the direction of Jeffrey R. Smith. They are known as "America's Ambassadors of Song" and are considered to be one of the best boys choirs in the world. They have performed in concert venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, the Kimmel Center, Notre Dame de Paris, King's College Cathedral, and Philadelphia's Academy of Music.
The Portland Trail Blazers were one of three new teams to join the NBA for the 1970–71 season. The franchise played its inaugural regular season game on a Friday night in Portland, beating the fellow expansion Cleveland Cavaliers 115–112 on October 16, with 4,273 in attendance.
Keller Auditorium, formerly known as the Portland Municipal Auditorium, the Portland Public Auditorium, and the Portland Civic Auditorium, is a performing arts center located on Clay Street in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. It is part of the Portland's Centers for the Arts. Opened in 1917, the venue first changed names in 1966, being renamed again in 2000 in honor of a $1.5 million renovation donation by Richard B. Keller. An extensive remodeling and modernization in 1967–68 effectively changed its original exterior appearance beyond recognition.
The Oregon Chorale is an American concert choir based in Hillsboro in the U.S. state of Oregon. Founded in 1985 as the Washington County Chorale, the 60 person group performs in the Portland metropolitan area, as well as tours in Europe. The group presents music ranging from classical and opera music to folk and contemporary numbers.
Martin Ellis is an American church, concert and theatre organist. He is currently the organist for Rose City Park Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon. He was Principal Organist and Assistant Music Director at North United Methodist Church, and Senior Staff Pianist/Organist, Staff Arranger and Orchestrator for the Indianapolis Children's Choir and Youth Chorale in Indianapolis, Indiana until August, 2014. He works with Gresham High School's Theatre Arts Department as their resident piano accompanist.
Huw Edwards is a Welsh conductor. Edwards' conducting career began at age seventeen when he became music director of the Maidstone Opera Company in England. He later attended the University of Surrey, where he conducted the college orchestra along with an ensemble that he formed himself. At age twenty-three, he won a conducting competition which sent him to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He then held a lecturer position at Northwestern University in Chicago, where he was also a doctoral candidate. Edwards was conductor and music director of the Portland Youth Philharmonic from 1995 to 2002 followed by the Seattle Youth Symphony from 2002 to 2005. He served as music director of the Portland Columbia Symphony from 2000 to 2012 and with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra from 2003 to 2020.
Joseph Schwantner: New Morning for the World; Nicolas Flagello: The Passion of Martin Luther King is a classical music album by the Oregon Symphony under the artistic direction of James DePreist, released by Koch International Classics in 1995. Recorded at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon, in September 1994, the album is a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. and was released in his honor on the following holiday in his name.
Valerie Coleman is an American composer and flutist as well as the creator of the wind quintet Imani Winds. Coleman is a distinguished artist of the century who was named Performance Today's 2020 Classical Woman of the year and was listed as “one of the Top 35 Women Composers” in the Washington Post. In 2019, Coleman's orchestral work, Umoja, Anthem for Unity, was commissioned and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Coleman's Umoja is the first classical work by a living African American woman that the Philadelphia Orchestra has performed.
John Thomas Holiday Jr. is an American operatic countertenor. His repertoire focuses on the Baroque and contemporary composers, including staged opera and opera in concert, works for voice and orchestra, and experimental mixed-media. He has participated in several world premieres. He has performed with several opera companies in the United States, toured with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and sung in Shanghai and several European cities. He also sings gospel, pop, and jazz; he was a contestant on season 19 of NBC's The Voice, a vocal competition television series.
Oregon Mandolin Orchestra (OMO) is an all-volunteer community orchestra based in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 2010, the OMO consists of about 30 members and has been led by music director Christian McKee since April 2017.
The Columbia Gorge Orchestra Association (CGOA) is a nonprofit organization that sponsors several performing ensembles in the Columbia River Gorge area of Oregon and Washington. Founded in 1978 as the Mid-Columbia Sinfonietta, the CGOA was created in 2005 and now encompasses six ensembles: Sinfonietta, Voci Choir, Jazz Collective, String Quartet (classical), Stages (musicals), and Youth Choir. As of 2020, Mark Steighner is the artistic director of the association.