Oregon Art Beat; #1009; Portland Baroque Orchestra

She just had a million notes to play, and they really rely on being able to see their music when it's a long, when it's a three hour piece. I ended up there holding a candle kneeling down for, then fortunately the lights came back on after about ten minutes. But no, we will not be performing by candlelight. Are you ready for me? I am. Well, great. Can we name it? Who you are? I am Tom Cerrillo. Okay. I am Tom Cerrillo, and I am the Executive Director of Portland, Baroque Orchestra. So, in a nice succinct nutshell, tell me the story of Portemore Workshop, all twenty -five years with it, and combine your energy to fifteen years. No. I think I can do that. It's funny. Well, I wasn't here at the beginning. I've been here five years, but twenty -five years ago, around 1983, there were three young men, Doug Leedy, Paul White, and David Kerr, and they saw a need in the Portland community for 18th century music and 17th century music to be performed

in a way that was being done in England at the time. It started in the 70s, and on historic instruments or handcrafted reproductions, using what scholars thought were more like the conditions that the music had been written for. What it was was peeling away about two hundred and fifty -three hundred years of tradition that had grown with society and economic situations much about the concert hall, and in the nineteenth century when concert halls were built, and the middle -class grew, audiences became larger, which was a wonderful thing, but instruments had to become louder, and they were altered. The violin went through, and almost every instrument in the classical music realm went through a major change throughout the nineteenth

century, so therefore, by 1950, all the great works of Bach and Handel and Mozart were being played on instruments that were vastly different from the instruments they had been composed for. Did that change on the composer's sound? Absolutely. It changed the way the music was articulated, much like the punctuation in our sentences, and the way I might speak words would be different, and that was one of the largest changes. It changed how fast people could play, and how quick they could change tempi, perhaps, or the range of color also. One of the largest difference was that the strings of a violin, and the entire violin family, that had traditionally, for hundreds of years, been made out of sheep intestine or gut. During World War I, there was a shortage of gut, because it was used for suturing with

World War I, and they switched to using more metal strings. Now, the metal had always been wire, had always been part of some traditional instruments, like the harpsichord was always strung with wire, but violins always had gut strings, and by the twentieth century, almost certainly the end of the twentieth century, no one was playing with gut strings. But some violinists, and I should let the experts talk about that, because I'm not a violinist, but some violinists did, in fact, use gut strings even in the twentieth century for some at sometimes. But it changes the color of the music, and that's why the music is so different the way a group, like Portland Baroque Orchestra, plays it. So this group of this collective, and it was really a collective, and they're still kind of, as we like to say, a little bit of Bolshevik mentality here in this orchestra, because we were founded as a collective, not by one artistic director. They were at the forefront. There was only one

other professional orchestra doing this work on the west coast at the time, and that was Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, had started two or three years prior, and they had the foresight these three gentlemen, and David Kerr is still very involved with the orchestra. He little longer plays with us, but has a very important violin shop in Southeast Portland. They created connections to the world's most important specialists, and this included Tom Kupmann, a harpsichordist from Holland, who was doing literally missionary work in the 80s. He had his own orchestra that he developed also in the 80s in Amsterdam, but he wanted to work with groups, like Portland Baroque Orchestra, to raise the level and awareness of this type of music making, and he was the first artistic advisor of the group, and I know that David Stabler, who wrote for the Oregonian even back then, said it was absolutely outrageous that Portland Baroque Orchestra was able to attract this major star, this young startup group, but they did, and that led in a few years later to Monica Huggett

coming in as the first full -time professional artistic director of the group, and Monica had worked with Tom Kupmann for many years, and with him had established and co -founded with him the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Fourteen years now. Monica has been with the orchestra officially as artistic director for fourteen years. It is, and she had a long history performing with our musicians and teaching them at master classes before that, so she's been known to the Portland area even since the mid -80s. It is home to her. She's on the road to becoming an American citizen, and I think she considers this very much one of her homes. 25 years is not a small achievement in the music world. There are a lot

of groups, and then vicious, and as marvelous as they are from business side, we can keep going. How are humanity? I can't take any credit personally. The organization has been resilient throughout the 25 years and creative, and I think those are the key. I think being resilient and being dynamic to change is the most important aspect for a successful arts organization today, and this organization has had that. When I came to the organization, it was in a very strong position. It was absolutely debt -free. It had not been previously. It struggled a bit around the time 2000 -2001. When I came on board in 2003, I came here from Washington, D .C., from the Kennedy Center, knowing of Monica, knowing of the group. The biggest

asset that this organization had was its audience. Not just the size of its audience, but its passion. I am still amazed by the level of dedication of our audience. How engaged they are with the music. A lot of it has to do with performing in a space like this, where no one is really more than 40 feet away from the musician, and many people in the front rows can literally feel the sweat coming off the musicians. Monica, and I talk about this too, when we're in town, people don't just stop her, but they go and they say, oh, hi Monica, how's it going? How's your house? People feel really connected, and I think that has to do with just the nature of our audience, that collective start, and the nature of how we perform in these intimate places where you're really connected. I think that's how this organization has succeeded, and through great commitment also of the musicians, particularly of the

Portland musicians. We're a national group of players. Many of our players are based here, but perform all over the country, and many people who are based elsewhere in the country play here. But we have 11 people on stage, 12 of you, Count Monica, who really are Oregonians now, out of 16 for this set. And I think that's an amazing thing, and we are at the top of our game in the field, we're the fourth largest in the country, we serve, and we're the third largest in terms of audience served. And people are always surprised to hear that, but it gives me great, pride is the wrong word, it gives me faith in the business, I've been an arts administrator for going on 15 years now, and I worked for the big organizations, for the Metropolitan Opera, for the Santa Fe Opera, for the John of Kennedy Center, and I always believed in my heart that you didn't have to be huge, to be fantastic in first rate, and that's why I took this job, because I knew this orchestra was first rate,

and I knew Monica was absolutely first rate, and it was small, and it was my first executive position, and we're still under a million dollars a year, but we were just reviewed in Gramophone magazine, internationally, we get invitations to wonderful festivals, and again, but it comes down to the handful of groups that are up there. It's great because we have our own character, we're really earthy, I mean quite, the people always say I have a friend, when I used to work in the modern instrument business, they used to, one friend of mine used to call period instruments earthen tones, because there was always a history of it being kind of hippies, and Birkenstocks, and Monica does in fact wear Birkenstocks, and it did start in the 70s, I'm a child of the 80s, so I did, I did have Birkenstocks in college, but how we compare is we have a really unique sound,

because we haven't been dictated from the beginning to buy one artistic figure like Christopher Hogwood, or Tom Cook -Money, even, it was always collective, and even though Monica has made her stamp very much in this organization, she is a collaborative artist by nature, and not a dictator, so we have this, this sense of raw individual passion coming together, and you hear it in our recordings, people can easily criticize our recordings, our performances, if they want to, and say, oh well they're not as pristine and polite, but that's not what we're about, we're about people engaging in the music, and engaging the audience in the music, and the audience affects the music making as much as the players do in some ways, and the players would say that, and that's how we

compare, we're a great time, and that's why also with our small budget, the best people in the world want to come and work with us, it's a labor of love, their agents can't stand it, because the fees are low, but Richard E. Gar has been coming here for years, Paul Goodwin, obviously Tom Cook -Money, and a lot was because of hospitality, Laura Cunningham was one of our founding musicians, and she cooks amazing dinners, in addition to being an architect and a great violin player, so that's how we compare as unique, and homey, we're a little just the whole experience being here with the group. Portland Baroque Orchestra has been continuously performing to audiences here for 25 years now. The first performance was in October 1983, and it stemmed in part

out of the a couple of other organizations, the Early Keyboard Society, and I might get the names wrong, excuse me, but there were some early music groups happening, but out of that stemmed Portland Baroque Orchestra in 1983, so 25 years we've been performing. Much better. I'm six foot one, and so here we go, tell me who you are and what you do. My name is Curtis Daly, and I'm the double bass player in Portland Baroque Orchestra. Now you're a local guy, but I understand it. Yeah, I

grew up in Salem, a graduated from North Salem High School, and eventually I wound up in Portland. But I gather your musical career has taken you a lot of places. Yeah, yeah, especially since I started playing the early music, I traveled a lot more than I did in the past. I was mostly in Portland until then. What is early music? Well, the music of the Baroque era, like the Portland Baroque Orchestra plays. Before that I was playing jazz and played in the opera orchestras, sometimes sub -dissimphony and other groups, but the early music feels a little more specialized, so there are less of us doing it, and so there are more opportunities to travel around and play with other groups. There's one thing about playing early music. There's another also to playing it on the types of instruments you choose. Tell me about that, because you really are different from a lot of our instruments. Well, the big difference, I mean, I think anybody looking at my bass will recognize that it's a bass fiddle with it. The biggest difference with this instrument is that it's strong entirely

with gut strings. These three strings have gut center, and then they've been wound with metal, and then these two strings are just plain gut, so they produce quite a different sound than what persons familiar with these days. How old is your instrument? This bass is from about 1770, and it was actually made in Venice, so it's kind of fun to be playing the music of Avaldi, who was, of course, headquartered in Venice, and this instrument is actually a little bit newer than Avaldi, but it came from the same town. That's remarkable. 1770. Yeah, and it's still kicking. It's working better than I do. Yeah, it's still good health, you know, not too fussy, and yeah, it's great. Why period instruments? Why are they so important? Well, I think that when

we use instruments that are period correct for the music we're playing, it's a totally different sound, and as a listener, I think that's easily perceived, and as a player, the setup of the instrument itself causes us to play differently than, like, I play much differently on this instrument than I would play on a bass that's strung with high tension steel strings that I would use in a modern symphony orchestra. The tension on the strings themselves is about 60%. So there's a lot less tension on the instrument. The instrument vibrates in a different way, it resonates differently. So that's a real big difference in just the way the feel of the instrument is, and then I use a different style of bow, which probably viewers that are familiar with modern style violin bows will see that it looks a little different, and it gives a different feel to what I'm playing. So the overall response of the instrument is quite a bit

different than what we would have in a modern instrument. How would you describe the delay person, the difference in the sound quality of the sound that it creates? It's more earthy. With the bass, definitely, more earthy. It seems more grounded. You're probably used to letting the music speak for itself instead of having to describe the music. Yeah, I'm curious what people will experience on Friday. Well, I can make a few sounds if you'd like. Well, here's the lowest note on my bass. So you can hear that it's... It has a gritty, earthy kind of texture to it. That's really nice. But I think people who are familiar

with jazz and jazz bass, you know, dude, sounds like a bass. And again, you mostly stand when you perform. Now, you always probably have. I stand, yeah. And that's pretty historically correct. Back in the old days, they sometimes would use a little box under the bass, but actually an end pin for the double bass is pretty historically correct. And I'm really comfortable standing. And I like kind of hovering over the group so I can sort of watch everything going on. But I understand that much of the group will also be standing. Yes, yeah. And that's not something modern audiences are used to do. No, but I think that the kind of music that we play and the kind of spirit that we're trying to create and everything, if everyone's standing, you have so much more freedom of movement, like I can move a little bit. And I'm not locked into one position. And I, of course, the, you know, if you have a 100 -piece

symphony orchestra and everybody's kind of bobbing and weaving, it's going to be distracting to the audience. But with a 20 -piece group, I think a little bit of physical activity on the stage, it engages the audience. And also, it's good for us, too, because we're looser than. And we relate to each other's physical movements, too. Like, when Monica makes a move on, you know, I can register with that. And she directs with her shoulders? Oh, yeah. With her hair, with her shoulders. Yeah, she's very physically active when she's playing. And we're all watching for indications from her. Yeah, it's very graphic. It sounds theatrical. A little bit. And, of course, the four seasons are very theatrical piece of music anyway. It's intended to evoke very specific events and represented in music. And I think it is musical theater in a way. How tall is that? It's written. How tall are you? I'm six foot one. So,

I guess without the pan, I don't know, it's about as tall as I am. And this is a fairly good size base. There's certainly smaller ones and bigger ones, but this one's on the large side. So, you were drawn to this over jazz? Was it because of the musical qualities that you enjoyed? Or was it the economic viability of being a musician? I don't know what attracted me to jazz originally, but there's some, I played saxophone in the jazz band in high school. So, maybe that was it. And somehow I got some interest in the bass. But I studied classical bass from the very beginning because I thought, well, that would be a really great way to get a foundation of how to play the thing. And then at some point, my interest kind of switched and I also realized that the potential job opportunities in our orchestra are maybe a little steadier than playing in jazz groups. I supported myself

playing jazz for a long time. How long were you doing this? Almost 20 years. I think I started in 1989 with PBO. I'm sorry? I think I started in 1989 with PBO. You've been here almost since the beginning? Almost, but there are members of the orchestra that have been here longer than me. So, I'm far from the most senior member of the group. I think that says a lot about the group that people really love playing this music in this environment and people generally stick around. Tell me about how the group is turning this year and what do you think keeps it thriving? Well, the group's 25 years old this year and this is our anniversary season. Of course, we're really excited about that. And I think that we become a cultural institution. Probably for some very good reasons. We're filling a niche in the Portland musical market that no one else is addressing. And I think when people hear us play

that music that they're oftentimes very familiar with, when people certainly know the quality and they know Bach and the kind of top 40 of Baroque, but they hear it in a completely different way, then they would hear it if the symphony played it or if a modern chamber orchestra played it, which is not to say that they wouldn't play it wonderfully, but it does engage the years in a completely different way. I think that the people find some traction in that and they want to come and check us out and see what else we're doing. Is it more authentic? The way you play? The right word? What were you to describe? We try. Of course, no one really knows. They weren't big on writing down things so much back then and there are some treatises on Baroque performances from the period, but we're trying our best. And you're using the original instruments? Although I understand there are probably a few replicas here. Yeah, there were

some new instruments that are replicas of old ones. And in one sense, that's probably closer to the spirit of the early music because, for instance, in 1600, they were playing on new instruments from 1600. So by the time the Baroque era ended sometime around 1750, people would have had the opportunity to be playing on instruments for a couple hundred years old. By then, the people were still playing on new instruments. For instance, the start of various golden periods was around 1700. So we're actually playing on older instruments sometimes than the people of that period would have been. And how have you managed to keep this one going so long? Did it take any special care? Just try not to hurt it. It was in good shape when I bought it. So it's been pretty healthy and just try to keep it that way. 25 years added very, very impressive for a local arts

group. I think so. I think it says a lot about what we're doing. To say about drawings. It says a lot about the audience too, that they continue to come. We've had some some lean times, but we've had some really good times and it seems like we're really on a good period for the orchestra right now. Of course, Monika's there's no one better than Monika for for what we do and I think to have a person of her statutory working with the group is really amazing for everyone. I know the orchestra members are totally blown away that we can have someone for a caliber working with this consistent basis. I know she likes being here and she likes working

with us and so maybe it says a little bit about us too. We provide her with a good experience. I think she keeps coming back. Thank you very much. If you don't mind standing here for another minute, I think we'd like to get a couple more shots of the instrument and a couple more shots. You actually played some the same notes you did a moment ago, but let's just wait for a second to finish. You just read my mind. No, the bridge is actually a replica

though. This was such a different color. This was set up as a modern instrument when I got it. A lot of from a principal bassist in the San Francisco Symphony. So I kind of baroculated. A lot of it's original. One thing about these instruments, a lot of these were cut down to a smaller dimension because they're just so big and this one somehow didn't get cut down. It's got a lot more original wood than some of them. So you play with the San Francisco? No, not me. But this bass has. The previous owner. You still live in Salem? I live in Portland. I've been here for 20, 27 years. You'll let me know when to. Okay.

Okay. So first of all tell me who are you and what you do? Sure. My name is Joanna Blendolf. I'm one of the co -principle cellists of the Portland Brook Orchestra. Can I get you to do that again, but look only at me for the whole thing? Okay. Okay. Okay. My name is Joanna Blendolf and I'm one of the co -principles of the Portland Brook Orchestra. Tell me a little bit about your instrument. Sure. This is actually a copy of an older instrument made in 1785 by a maker named Galiano and a wonderful Luthier in Bloomington, Indiana. At the time, Timothy Johnson built this for me. I commissioned it in 1999. I'm very, very happy with it.

Why are you guys all so hung up on the types of instruments you play? Explain what's that little part? Sure, sure. What's important when you're doing period instrument performance is having an instrument that is either a replica of or an original broke instrument. The reason is because the way it's built is slightly different from the modern instruments used today. So the gut strings create a completely different sound than the steel strings they use in today's instruments and also the fingerboard is shorter. You don't want to have a full fingerboard like you have in a modern cello. Just the more the more material that's on the instrument, the more sort of closed it sounds. So these instruments are a little

warmer, a little more resonant in a personal space than the modern instruments. How would you describe the sound that these generate? Sure. I guess I do. It's warm and kind of intimate. These instruments that weren't made to project very far, they were performed mostly in churches and in small salons in the Brook period. So yeah, it's just a warmer, it's a very low tension kind of sound. And here we are. And here we are. Perfect venue. How long have you been performing in the PBO? My first season was the year 2000 -2001. And has it met your expectations? Absolutely, absolutely. As a broke cellist, what I primarily do is play what's called continual in different broke orchestras. And here in PBO I have a wonderful continual team, meaning the harpsichordist, the

whatever plucked instrument is performing and the double bass. What we all form, what's called the continual group. That's what makes this job so special. Did you study broke music? I did. I did. I did. Yes, yes. In graduate school. Why? The sound, the sound and the movement that goes on. When you play broke music, it's a lot of it's up to you how the music is projected. There are no dynamic markings in the music. There are no specific phrase markings like you see in today's music. So it's sort of up to the performer to make it come alive. So that's why I chose to do this music. It's very personal. So how do you know you're performing it the way the composer wrote it? That's a very, very good question. This is where we need musicologists. As a period performer, you have to do a good bit of research

into the music you're playing. We read the treatises written during the time for our various instruments. So just kind of learn and grab information where you can. You actually have to do historical research. Yes, yes, definitely. To learn how to play your own instrument. To learn how to play the instrument, yeah. Can you say that for me? That's that's for you. Oh, oh, sure. My voice in the story will get you to tell all of it. Okay. When it needs to do quite a bit of historical research in order to fully understand how to play these early instruments. That's remarkable. So why Portland? Why Portland? I landed here very recently. I was living down in the San Francisco Bay area last 11 years or so and I met the man of my dreams and he's going to school at the University of Oregon and I decided to follow him. So we're living in

Eugene and it worked out perfectly for me because since I've been playing with PBO for a number of years, to be this close to my work is wonderful. In Portland is a great community and I've started to teach at some of the local schools and feel more part of where I live. Tell me about PBO's reputation nationally, especially as somebody who's come here from a little more recently than some of the people who've been here for decades. Right, right. It has a very, very good reputation across the U .S. and abroad. I think primarily because of the fantastic director we have, Monica Haget, her name and her reputation really makes this ensemble exciting when people talk about PBO, they think, oh Monica Haget and also people are pretty aware of the so congenial feeling we have in this group. Everyone's kind and considerate

and yeah, everyone's very supportive in this group and I think that goes far. So for the average layperson who hears a little bit about classical music doesn't know that much, this doesn't sound like stuffy classical music. No, absolutely not. It's not stuffy in the least. In fact, it's alive and vibrant and yeah, we all put our personalities into this music and especially in this group. Tell me what it's like playing with Monica. With Monica, you never know what's going to happen one moment to the next. She's very dynamic. She encourages you to give you all. She's very inspiring and yeah, she makes this music as exciting as we hope it would have been back in the 18th century. Is there something that she does that's different from typical characters,

typical directors? Yeah, I would say her charisma, her personality comes out much more than any director I've ever worked with and it also just her body movements sort of suggest excitement and just different emotions in the music and that just permeates through the group. You can really tell what she's doing. 25 years is quite a compliment. There are a lot of local music groups that simply can't hang on because it's not financially feasible. That's true. That's true. I mean, it sounds like as much the audience as it is the group. Absolutely, absolutely. We have a very very devoted audience and that makes a big difference and also the players, like I said before, is very friendly with each other. We're a family basically and families stay together when times are really hard and the arts,

you know, things don't go so well financially for many arts groups and I think for PBO, just the fact that we've held it together no matter what. That makes it really special. Would you play a few notes? Give us an example. Sure. How would your instrument sound? Sure, absolutely. Let me just tune it here. That's marvelous. Thank you. It's been you people sit so much closer to the farmers. That's true. That's true. Okay. You feel

the audience being this close. It makes a difference in performance. Really? Absolutely. Absolutely. You want to please the people you see when you're sitting in an enormous hall and all you see is blackness but you know there are hundreds and hundreds of people out there. There's not that same kind of intimacy and your performance intimacy. I prefer this venue just for that reason that you can actually see people's faces, their reactions. This is one of my favorite places to play. While that's not an old instrument, it is designed specifically to sound like one. Yes, exactly. In fact, the way it was built, the maker didn't use any kind of machinery. He just used hand -carved every piece and yeah, the varnish is actually based on an old Galiano varnish. He had the recipe and he dried the pieces of wood with the varnish outside his home

in the sun just like they would have done. No electric blowers like they have these days. So a lot of love was put into this instrument. Anything else you want people to know about PBO that comes to your mind? No, just that it's a fantastic group and I hope that our audience just grows and grows through the years and we love performing for Portland. 2008, let's see. Will you be here in 2033 for their fifth year? I sure hope so. We'll see you, we'll see you. I think it's just a few more. I'll use a little more plan. Oh sure, yeah. Then you

made... It's going to do staging, changes, because it would be nice to sort of do that for to do the changes like in the concert. I have to boss them around, you know, they're kind of easy going west posters and you just have to really just make sure they know what's going on and what's expected.