Great Northwest Music Tour
Portland Cello Project
- Old St. Francis School - Father Luke's Room |
- Wednesday, March 24
- 7 p.m. |
- Free |
- All ages welcome
Every month the Great Northwest Music Tour blazes a fresh musical trail, bringing an ever-changing lineup of talent to McMenamins Historic Properties. There is no admission charge to the festivities, and our unique hotels offer food, handcrafted beverages and a cozy place to bed down after the last note is played. Bring your friends and family and jam to a different artist every month.
About Portland Cello Project
The first time you see the Portland Cello Project perform you might be perplexed when you hear affectionate fans shouting "We love PCP!"
In spite of a barrage of musical and visual sensory overload, you'll figure out that you aren't in a crowd of horse-tranquilizer-snorting maniacs, and that "PCP" is the tongue-in-cheek acronym of this group of classically trained cellists.
But you'll wonder what kind of a crowd this is. In the course of one of PCP's epic 2-3 hour shows (the format of which is always a one-time affair the group writes almost entirely new arrangements for every performance cycle) you'll see such sights as: old ladies, straight out of the symphony hall nodding their head to cello hip-hop; young children playing air cello while dancing to 16 cellos accompanying The Builders and The Butchers; hipsters too-cool-for-school mesmerized by Arvo Paert; members of the Decemberists playing late 19th century Russian compositions transcribed for Hammond organ, a 40-piece choir, and of course: a symphony of cellos.
Since the group's inception in late 2007, they have performed with a veritable "Who's Who?" list of Portland musicians, from Laura Gibson to The Dandy Warhols, Horse Feathers, Mirah and Loch Lomond, just to name a few.
The cello is more-or-less the only constant in this amorphous Portland collective. Yet there is an organizer holding this anarchic display of controlled chaos together. You'll see him sitting in the back row of the cello section at all of these shows, as if to appear an anonymous member of the horde. This is Douglas Jenkins. Jenkins, who often pens 15-20 new scores for each performance, has led the band through several CDs of original songs and covers, and has been at the heart of the band's rise to immense popularity in their hometown.
Although it's no longer an anomaly for popular musicians to work with an orchestra, it tends to be on the symphony's terms, in the symphony's concert halls, and for the symphony's exclusive rates. The classically trained cellists of The Portland Cello Project are working to reverse that tradition by making their talents accessible to their guests wildest dreams, while bringing the instrument into venues where you wouldn't normally see cellos. With this in mind, the group will be touring McMenamins properties, bringing their collaborative philosophy to a hotel near you!
- Band website:
- http://portlandcelloproject.com/
