Classical crystal ball gazing

I've got a new piece up on Crosscut.com, where I offer some crystal ball gazing for Portland's art-music scene, by way of nominating four current major players as among the best poised to "grow into scene-shifting classical music leaders." Read on.

(that's PSU's Ken Selden, director of orchestral activities, above)

Let's do a bit of crystal ball gazing. Ten years from now, let's say.

Portland, Oregon has further transformed itself from a sleepy Seattle little sister to a fully cosmopolitan city offering the country's most efficient public transit system, the most green-collar jobs, and a robustly supported arts scene where institutional glamour and downtown grit rub friendly weekend shoulders. Can you see it?

It may be closer than you think. As Portland continues to scoop up national acclaim for its advances on the pop music, film, and food fronts, the classical or "art music" scene hums along with just the same ear-popping vibrancy. In addition to the regular roster of touring circuit appearances by the current A-list classical music stars — Lang Lang and Joshua Bell next season at the Oregon Symphony; Dawn Upshaw with Friends of Chamber Music — a number of class-act musicians are roosting in Stumptown, and happily so. Some come for institutional connections: as a section member in the Oregon Symphony or member of Portland Opera's Studio Artist program, for example. Others, scrappy self-starters, come because Portland's rep as an affable, affordable city for young creatives is well-deserved. The latter is what lured me here from Boston two years ago.

As for who's leading the charge, I'd like to nominate four Portland-based musicians — a music administrator, blogging Oregon Symphony member, young conductor, and ambitious educator — as having especially promising potential for growing into scene-shifting classical-music leaders. I asked each to talk about why they're committed to making art music work in a wonky "big town," where they feel they can make an impact, and who they consider to be important other folks making noise on the PDX classical circuit.

And then I go on to chat with/about those four top-shelf musicians/music administrators in the city, all worthy of attention: conductor Ryan Heller, Oregon Symphony violist and blogger Charles Noble, administrator slash singer Mark Powell and PSU orchestral director Ken Selden.

Each of those four, in turn, recommended four folks they felt would be major Portland art-music players in the years ahead. Some names that surfaced: Elaine Calder, Carlos Kalmar and Ron Blessinger (twice each); Gil Seeley, Scott Tuomi, Tuesday Rupp, Hamilton Cheifetz, and a few others.