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Portland Cello Project | |
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| Origin | Portland, Oregon, United States |
| Genres | Folk, Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Pop Music, Heavy Metal, Alternative Rock, Classical Music, Crossover Music, Jazz, Hip Hop |
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Labels | Kill Rock Stars |
| Website | portlandcelloproject.com |
The Portland Cello Project is a collective of cello players in Portland, Oregon who have been performing since October 2006.
For almost a year, the group performed ambiguously under the names "Celli" and "Cellodarity" and eventually, exclusively "The Portland Cello Project." [1]
Originally started by Tony Rogers, the first rehearsal took place at the Musicians Union in Portland, Oregon on August 16, 2006. Present at the rehearsal were Tony Rogers, Gideon Freudmann, Zoe Keating, Douglas Jenkins, and Jenette Mackie. Also invited to that first rehearsal were Justin Kagan, Todd Bayles, Skip vonKuske, Adam Hurst, and Noah Seitz. [2]
The first performance of the group was at The Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, Oregon on Sunday October 15, 2006. [2]
The management and artistic direction responsibilities of the group were split between cellists Tony Rogers and Douglas Jenkins, until mid-2007 when Rogers left Portland for West Virginia. July 1, 2007 was Rogers last official show with the group at The Doug Fir Lounge. At this performance, the group surprised Rogers by dedicating to him a cover of John Denver's "Take Me Home Country Roads" with special guest Holcombe Waller singing.
After Rogers' departure, Jenkins became the exclusive general manager and artistic director of the group. [2] Jenkins also produced all of the recordings the group has released.
In 2009 the group signed to a one-record deal with Kill Rock Stars, becoming the first and only cello ensemble on the record label. [3]
From 2009–10 the group had external management from Ingrid Renan and Slim Moon of Shotclock Management. In 2009 the group was added to the roster of The Billions Booking Agency, under Mary Brabec, who continues to work with them today. [4]
In 2012, the group recorded and released the songs from Beck's project, Song Reader , with guest singers.
While the goals of the group have evolved over the years, the group's current philosophy as stated on their website is:
The group's first tour was as main support for Buckethead on his west coast USA tour in December 2008. [6] In spring 2009, the group toured as main support for Alexi Murdoch, also on the west coast. [7] The group's first national US and Canadian tour was with Thao with the Get Down Stay Down in fall 2009.
Since 2009 the group has gone on numerous headlining tours, and played a wide variety of venues, from punk clubs like Dempsey's in Fargo, North Dakota, [8] to the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, [9] to concert halls like the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts [10] and Millennium Park in Chicago. [11]
As part of the group's philosophy to build bridges across music communities, the group includes musical collaborators on almost every show. The group's first collaborations with non-cellists were with Laura Gibson and Peter Broderick on Thursday May 24, 2007, at the Holocene nightclub in Portland, Oregon. [12]
Musicians the group has collaborated with include: Peter Yarrow, The Corin Tucker Band, Eric Bachmann, The Dandy Warhols, Storm Large, Dan Bern, Mirah, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, Justin Power, Weinland, The Builders and the Butchers, Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, Horse Feathers, Holcombe Waller, Shenandoah Davis, Kaylee Cole, The 1900s, Emily Wells, and many others.
The group's repertoire contains a wide variety of music, from classical pieces and movie themes, to jazz standards, to pop music covers and hip-hop. The group tries to perform an entirely new program on every series of performances. Almost all of the music performed by The Portland Cello Project is arranged by members of the group. The majority of the arrangements are written by Douglas Jenkins. Kevin Jackson and Skip vonKuske also contribute arrangements to the group.
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The group has a revolving cast, depending on who is available for performances and touring. Performing cellists include or have included: Diane Chaplin, Skip vonKuske, Gideon Freudmann, Kevin Jackson, Douglas Jenkins, Lauren McShane, Julian Kosanovic, Sage Coy, Heather Blackburn, Justin Kagan, David Eby, Collin Oldham, Anna Fritz, M Allegra Sauvage, Sonja Myklebust, Galen Cohen, Ashia Grzesik, Samantha Kushnick, Robert Brooks, Brian Bruner, Emma Wood, Melissa Bach, Sarah Young, Tony Rogers, Heather Broderick, Jessie Dettwiler, Erin Winemiller, Jenette Mackie, and Noah Seitz.
Increasingly the group incorporates other instruments as part of their regular line up. Their regular percussionist is Tyrone Hendrix. Other drummers have included Matthew Berger, John Vecchiarelli, and Rachel Blumberg. Brass and Woodwind players have included: John Whaley, Teagen Andrews, Jen Harrison, Jourdan Paul, Jill Coykendall, Leander Star, and Elise Blatchford.
Mirah is an American musician and songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York. After getting her start in the music scene of Olympia, Washington, in the late 1990s, she released a number of well-received solo albums on K Records, including You Think It's Like This but Really It's Like This (2000) and Advisory Committee (2002). Her 2009 album (a)spera peaked on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart at #46, while her 2011 collaborative album Thao + Mirah peaked at #7.
The Need is an American queercore band formed by the singer and drummer Rachel Carns and the guitarist Radio Sloan in Portland, Oregon, in the mid-1990s.
Providence was an American six-piece rock band, active from 1971 to 1974. The group originated in Boise, Idaho, but was later based in Portland, Oregon. The Moody Blues signed Providence to a recording contract with Threshold. They released one album, Ever Sense the Dawn, in 1972.
Caroline Dale is a widely recorded British cellist who currently plays principal cello for the English Chamber Orchestra and London Metropolitan Orchestra. She has also performed music for numerous films and played with a wide range of pop and rock musicians, including Joan Armatrading, Peter Gabriel, David Gilmour, David Gray, Oasis, Simply Red, Sinéad O'Connor and U2.
Gideon Freudmann, is a composer, performer and cello innovator coined the term CelloBop to describe his music. His solo performances often include improvisation and the use of technology to sample, loop and layer tracks in real time to create music that is complex, nuanced, creative and compelling.
Thao & the Get Down Stay Down was an American alternative/folk rock group that originated in Falls Church, Virginia in 2003, before relocating to San Francisco, California. Its final lineup consisted of Thao Nguyen and Adam Thompson. Previous members of the project included Frank Stewart and Willis Thompson (drums). The band released five studio albums: We Brave Bee Stings and All (2008), Know Better Learn Faster (2009), We the Common (2013), A Man Alive (2016) and Temple (2020).
Thao Nguyen, also known as Thao, is an American singer-songwriter originally from Virginia and now based in San Francisco. She is the former lead singer, songwriter and figurehead of the defunct band Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, and has collaborated with Joanna Newsom and Andrew Bird. Outside of the band she has collaborated on projects with several artists including Merrill Garbus, The Portland Cello Project, and Mirah. Her music is influenced by folk, country, and hip hop.
Esperanza Emily Spalding is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Award, a Soul Train Music Award, and two honorary doctorates: one from her alma mater Berklee College of Music and one from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
The Dimes are an American folk-pop band from Portland, Oregon. While The Dimes have released four EPs under their own self-titled label, The Dimes, their album, The Silent Generation, recorded under the label Pet Marmoset, is considered their debut album. The songs on The Silent Generation were largely based on stories which singer–songwriter Johnny Clay read in Depression-era newspapers, and which guitarist Pierre Kaiser found under the floorboards of his 1908 Portland home. The album was released in December 2007 to positive critical reviews. Their song "Jersey Kid" was featured on NPR Music's Second Stage.
Blue Giant was an American rock band from Portland, Oregon. An eclectic mix of country, indie rock, and psychedelic styles, Blue Giant have been called a Portland supergroup. The band was originally composed of the songwriters and musicians from Viva Voce, Kevin Leigh Robinson and Anita Lee Elliott, Chris Funk of The Decemberists, Evan Railton of Swords, and Seth Lorinczi of The Golden Bears, Circus Lupus & The Quails. Musically, Blue Giant could be characterized as rural psychedelic rock, with one music critic calling them a perfect country rock band.
Horse Feathers is an American indie folk band from Portland, Oregon, United States.
Lori Goldston is an American cellist and composer. Accomplished in a wide variety of styles, including classical, world music, rock and free improvisation, she came to prominence as the touring cellist for Nirvana from 1993–1994 and appears on their live album MTV Unplugged in New York. She was a member of Earth, the Black Cat Orchestra, and Spectratone International, and also performs solo.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops were an old-time string band from Durham, North Carolina. Their 2010 album, Genuine Negro Jig, won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, and was number 9 in fRoots magazine's top 10 albums of 2010.
Tina Guo is a Chinese-born American cellist and erhuist from San Diego. Her international career as a cellist, electric cellist, erhuist, and composer is characterized by videos featuring theatrical backdrops and elaborate costumes, a range of genres, and an improvisatory style in film, television, and video game scores.
Dave Eggar is an American cellist, pianist and composer.
The Builders and The Butchers are a folk rock band based in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is fronted by singer/guitar player Ryan Sollee. The other members of the band are Willy Kunkle, Justin Baier, Ray Rude, and Harvey Tumbleson.
Holcombe Waller is an American composer, singer and performance artist. He lives in Portland, Oregon, and has performed across the United States and Europe, both solo and with his ensemble, The Healers. His father was from France, therefore he is a French American.
A Retrospective is the first compilation album by the American group Pink Martini, released in September 2011 in the United Kingdom and the following month in the United States, Australia and Canada. The album contains twenty-one tracks from six studio albums. Guest artists include Michael Feinstein, French singer and songwriter Georges Moustaki and director Gus Van Sant ; the compilation also features remixes by New York City disc jockey Johnny Dynell and Hiroshi Wada.
A Far Cry is a Boston-based chamber orchestra. The orchestra is self-conducted and consists of 18 musicians called "The Criers". It was founded in 2007 by a group of 17 musicians in Boston. The orchestra performs in Jamaica Plain and previously served as Chamber Orchestra in Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A Far Cry has toured across America and undertook their first European tour in 2012. They also collaborate with local students in an educational partnership with the New England Conservatory and Project STEP. The orchestra has released nine albums, two of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance: Dreams & Prayers in 2015 and Visions and Variations in 2019.
Paul Wiancko is an American composer and cellist of the Kronos Quartet.
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