I’ll never forget the day last March when our orchestra went dark. We were in the middle of rehearsals for what would have been a spectacular performance of Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia, with projected images by Portland’s brilliant Rose Bond that would transform the Schnitzer concert hall into a visual and sonic feast.

And then it was over. After a very sad and emotional players’ meeting, we were sent home with no idea when we’d return. At the time, I remember thinking that at worst it would be a few weeks, that this shutdown was out of an abundance of caution, and that the short-term pain of shutting down, while awful, would get us through the crisis. Boy, was I wrong.

My family and I started to deliver food with UberEats, needing to keep busy. It was a relief to have something to do, to not give in to feelings of helplessness. And then I got a call from my dear friend, Danny Rosenberg, who had an idea about how to allow our musician friends to play chamber music from the safety of their homes, and thus was born our weekly Friday night concert series.

This Friday @ 6pm, we’ll present Cellocracker, featuring six virtuoso cellists from our beloved Oregon Symphony performing Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. This will be our 30th live-streamed performance since May, an amazing feat given the surreal circumstances. We’ve formed chamber ensembles with players from Toronto, New York, Washington D.C., Virginia, Naples (FL), Chicago, Portland, Malaysia, London, New Mexico, California, and Bratislava. We’ve premiered two new works by 45^th Parallel clarinetist James Shields and NYC based composer Aeryn Santillan, and we’ve covered an impressive range of musical styles, from jazz to baroque to contemporary, something that has always been a hallmark of 45^th Parallel.

Our goal in doing these shows has been to provide a creative platform to some wonderful musicians who’ve been sidelined through no fault of their own, and to bring a bit of optimism to the table that we feel is really needed these days.

The new year will bring some very positive changes to 45^th Parallel with the debut of a new website, and restaurant partners for our weekly concerts that will pair food for home delivery with our broadcasts. Our first experiment will take place on January 8th with the broadcast of Currents, featuring a performance of Shostakovich’s 15th Symphony arranged for sextet, and with restaurant partner Kachka creating a special menu of Russian food for the event. Stay tuned for more details.

We’ve come a long way since our first shows last May, when we had no idea if the technology was going to work, when we’d be sweating bullets as the clock struck 6PM. And yet, here we are, celebrating our 30th show, with more programs scheduled through the spring and hopefully beyond.

It’s been a blessing to be able to be creative amidst this calamity, to connect with each other and our amazing audiences during this extraordinary time of isolation and quarantines. Our thanks to the brilliant Danny Rosenberg for giving us this gift of connection, and thank you for joining us on this journey.

Happy holidays!

Ron Blessinger
Executive Director, 45^th Parallel Universe