“When violist Kenji Bunch left his native Portland for music school in New York more than a quarter-century ago, contemporary classical music wasn’t much on the Rose City’s radar,” writes Brett Campbell in Monday’s (1/14) Oregonian. “The next year, a group of Portland musicians formed an ensemble devoted to elevating contemporary classical music. Five years ago, that ensemble, Fear No Music, selected Bunch as its new artistic director…. ‘Definitely there’s a real vitality now in the new music scene,’ he says…. On Monday, Jan. 21, Fear No Music plays its fifth Locally Sourced Sounds concert [of music by Portland composers], featuring … Ryan Francis’ ‘Music for Four Hands,’ … Willamette University music professor John Peel’s ‘Cielo,’ [written] for Fear No Music’s wife-and-husband team of violinist Inés Voglar-Belgique and violist Joël Belgique, who both also play in the Oregon Symphony; [and] pieces by two more Fear No Music/Oregon Symphony members… Citing Third Angle New Music and other local ensembles [Bunch says], ‘I think all of our groups have made a real push the last couple seasons to show the visibility of composers of color, female composers—to show people that composers do indeed look like all of us.’ ”
Posted January 16, 2019
