Portland Symphonic Choir & push/FOLD: Vespers
In person: $40-$55 ($25 artist/educator/youth; $5 Arts For All – contact box office) |
Stream: $20
- Brandon Michael, tenor
- Claire Robertson-Preis, mezzo-soprano
- Megan Conroy-Peters, soprano
In a historic first, push/FOLD and the Portland Symphonic Choir team up to bring to you the world premiere of "Vespers"! "Vespers" fuses virtuosic dance and the choral music of Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil in a multidisciplinary immersive surround experience.
From award-winning composer and choreographer Samuel Hobbs alongside Dr. Alissa Deeter and the 100-member Portland Symphonic Choir, "Vespers" is an exceptional fusion of virtuosic dance and live, choral brilliance. Join us for an evening of unparalleled beauty, emotion, and an immersive surround experience of movement and the human voice.
"… was simply poetic… the scenes looked like paintings." – Jamuna Chiarini (Oregon ArtsWatch)
Celebrated for their powerful, athletic style that reveals relatable, abstract storylines, push/FOLD creates dance "filled with vulnerability and humanity… full of nuances and beauty." (Oregon ArtsWatch). "Vespers" is a departure from push/FOLD's traditional work, and a first for choreographer Samuel Hobbs who normally composes the music for each of their works.
Show-length: about 60 minutes without an intermission.
Artist-talks and Q&A follow each performance.
Attending in person: Contact the box office for $5 Arts-for-All tickets: (971) 501-7722.
Attending online: Livestream tickets have virtual access through July 5th.
About Portland Symphonic Choir
Established in 1945, the Portland Symphonic Choir has carried out this mission for almost eight decades: "To sing choral masterworks with excellence and passion and to engage, educate, and inspire its members and the community." With a notable reputation and long-standing commitment to the Pacific Northwest, the 100-person chorus includes musicians, students, retirees, and an assortment of working professionals. A central figure in the legacy of choral music in Portland, the Choir achieves excellence in musicianship, celebrates community through music, builds a sustainable musical legacy, and curates an inclusive musical space.
https://www.pschoir.org/About push/FOLD
push/FOLD is the vision of multidisciplinary artist and composer-choreographer Samuel Hobbs, founded in 2016 as a performance-focused arts organization. Immersive moodscapes, abstract storytelling, and athletic dance performance set to original sound, set, and lighting design are the hallmarks of push/FOLD's body of work. The backbone of push/FOLD's athletic style is Samuel's Visceral Movement Theory™ (VMT) technique which fuses elements of athletics and dance with training in visceral biomechanics and Osteopathic therapy. VMT reframes the expression of athlete and dancer biomechanics based on current movement research, resulting in increased career longevity and power and efficiency in movement.
As a community-oriented organization with the mission of developing community power through arts and movement education, support, and advocacy, push/FOLD's programs include masterclasses, workshops, presentations, student programming, dance-for-film, virtual and evening-length dance productions, artist-talks, and the Union PDX - Festival of Contemporary Dance, established in 2019. push/FOLD performs through regional festivals and self-produced performances; setting work on various professional artists and companies, including Portland's Polaris Dance Theatre (2019), and Oregon Ballet Theatre's main company (2023) and OBT2 (2020-21). In 2021 push/FOLD made our international debut at the renowned Dancing on the Edge Festival in Vancouver, BC and at the FIDCDMX festival in Mexico City, Mexico.
push/FOLD is a 501c3 tax-exempt non-profit arts organization based in Portland, Oregon.
https://www.pushfold.org/About Brandon Michael, tenor
About Claire Robertson-Preis, mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano Claire Robertson-Preis is a musicmaker--originally from Missoula, MT. and Boerne, TX. Claire holds double Bachelor of Arts degrees in Music and Russian from the University of Montana in 2016, studying abroad in both St. Petersburg, Russia (FINEC) and Graz, Austria (The American Institute of Musical Studies). With a M.M. Vocal Performance earned from West Virginia University in 2019, Claire's academic focuses include vocal pedagogy, perspectives in musicology, and twentieth-century music theory. While at WVU, Claire worked as a lecturer teaching private voice lessons and served as a Choral Intern with Suncrest United Methodist Church. Currently, Claire works as the Operations Manager for Portland Symphonic Choir and teaches voice to young singers at the Hoffman Academy in Portland, Claire is passionate about making the opera industry a more accessible space now and for future singers.