A full house of around one hundred people crowded into the Community Music Center last night (March 6) for the Composed String Quartet Competition. Presented by Classical Revolution PDX, this competition featured the premieres of nine pieces that were played by a string quartet consisting of Classical Revolution PDX members: violinists Lucia Conrad and Stella Roshi-Moles, violist Mattie Kaiser, and cellist Erin Winemiller. The judges were conductor and composer Scott Ordway, composer and radio producer Robert McBride, and your trusty critic. We did not know any of the participating composers nor had we heard any of their music before. All of the compositions were of high quality and played well by the quartet. We, the judges, gave the distinction of honorable mention to Daniel Meddaugh for his pizzacoto-driven “Preludio for Alberto Ginastera,” and we awarded the top prize to Lawrence Tsao for his evocatively pulsating “Watching Time.” By winning, Tsao receives:
- A professional sound recording of his piece – recorded by Jeff Hylton Simmons
- A performance of the quartet at a major Classical Revolution PDX show
- And StaffGraph Manuscript Paper
Here’s a list of the composers and their compositions:
This was a fun and worthwhile event that I hope will become an annual part of the music scene in P-town. Mattie Kaiser was an exceptional host, and I got her picture while she was giving instructions to Scott, Robert, and myself:
And here’s a picture of Scott and Robert at the judges table:
James Bash writes articles for a variety of publications, including magazines such as Opera America, Open Spaces, Opera, MUSO, International Arts Manager, American Record Guide, Symphony, Opera Canada, and PSU Magazine. The newspapers include Crosscut, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Oregonian, The Columbian, The Portland Tribune, The Register-Guard, and Willamette Week. James has also written a number of articles for the Oregon Arts Commission and contributed articles to the 2nd edition of the Grove Dictionary of American Music. James was a fellow to the 2008 NEA Journalism Institute for Classical Music and Opera. He is a member of the Music Critics Association of North America (mcana.org) and lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, Kathy.
bob priest on Oregon Symphony’s Carin Miller Packwood discusses the crazy reed-making process for bassoons
RSS Feed
Facebook
Twitter
Newsletter
those crpdx folks are truly to be congratulated for being so supportive of living & breathing local composers.
and, thanx to you, james, for shining the light on such illuminated beings.