“How will the artists respond to this moment?”

This was the question posed to me from a patron when the pandemic hit last year. 54 concerts later, I believe we’ve answered that question.

At the end of this month, on June 25th, we will be bringing our weekly online concert series to a close with our 54th show over the last year. We’ve turned the corner. Live concerts are starting to happen. People are gaining confidence that the worst is behind us, and the Great Resumption has begun. We’re taking a break, back with live concerts in September.

But first, we have a wonderful show on June 18th! Les Parisiennes features flutist Martha Long and pianist Maria Garcia performing three rarely performed yet amazing pieces by three remarkable Parisian women: Lili Boulanger, Mélanie Bonis, and Yuko Uebayashi.

Our final show on June 25th will be a retrospective, with players talking about their experiences during this past year, and a look-see at some of our favorite moments from the concerts. We hope that you’ll join us for what will be a fun celebration of a year of creativity amidst calamity, 45^th Parallel style!

In every sense of the phrase, our Friday night concerts have been a labor of love, an inspired effort to find the opportunity for artistry and connection even in the most daunting of circumstances. For the performers, this was about more than just keeping our chops up. Our shows were a chance to play pieces we’d never had the chance to perform before, to learn new skills in producing and editing shows, and perhaps most importantly, to reassess our relationship with music, something that being furloughed from one’s orchestra job tends to provoke.

Danny Rosenberg, friend of 45^th Parallel, is the reason why these shows have happened. He invented the application that started us on this journey, he’s been the one pulling all the strings behind the curtain, he’s the one who patiently worked with luddite musicians for whom technology tends to be a four-letter word. For service way beyond the call of duty, we declare every Friday at 6pm Pacific Time to be “Danny Hour,” during which we will all raise a glass to toast our dear friend.

We’ve had the pleasure of working with performers all over the world, from Canada to Malaysia to Bratislava to London, and all over the US. The list of repertoire we’ve presented is mind-boggling, including a world premiere by Aeryn Santillan, programs of music by artists of color and women, and experimental shows that indulged our need to push boundaries. It’s been a wild, thrilling ride.

Looking ahead, we see opportunity to build on this momentum, with a season of live concerts that will take what we’ve learned from this past year and apply it to the concert experience. Our new home will be the Jacobs Center atrium (formerly the CH2M building), generously donated for our use by our brilliant venue sponsor, SKB Properties.

Our 2021-22 season is titled Gratitude, for the blessing of being able to play together safely, for the fellowship that only live music can provide, and to our amazing audience and supporters for showing us the love during this unbelievable year.

Next season showcases the kind of variety that is a hallmark of 45^th Parallel concerts, including:

• World premieres by Nina Shekhar, Marco-Adrian Ramos, Brandon Rumsey, and Kenji Bunch
• 45^th Parallel Universe as the hub of a creative wheel, with collaborative partners filmmaker Scott Ballard, venue sponsor SKB Properties, Astoria’s Liberty Theatre, and Gabriela Lena Frank’s Creative Academy of Music.
• Experimental artistry with percussionist Sergio Carreno and two colleagues in different cities, combined into one ensemble through groundbreaking technology.
• The cello Nutcracker, a new holiday tradition!
• Pyxis Quartet playing G.F. Haas’ String Quartet no. 3 in pitch blackness, performed at OMSI’s Planetarium
• Music for 4/20, featuring Steve Reich’s epic Music for 18 Musicians, performed at PICA
• September Sundays in the garden

And there’s much, much more. Look for the full season announcement, including ticket information, in early July.

It’s been a blast, friends. See y’all in September ;)

Ron Blessinger
Executive Director, 45^th Parallel Universe