Have a fun evening out pre-planned for you this spring with our Spring Concert Series featuring performances by world-class musicians!
MARCH 8 | Stumptown Swing — Swing Dance. Stumptown Swing takes audiences back to 1920's Paris, when people with guitars, violins and upright basses made the leap from French musette to American "hot jazz" and kept Parisians dancing to this evocative new sound.
APRIL 12 | Chelsea Janzen Williams & Leigh Brown — Vocal Jazz & Harp. Leigh Brown and Chelsea Janzen Williams present Hemel en Aarde - Heaven and Earth: a concert of harp and vocal music, featuring classical, jazz, and contemporary genres and a special premiere of a newly-commissioned work by the American Harp Society. (Lolati Wines will be served at this concert)
MAY 10 | Seffarine — Blend of Spanish Flamenco & Arab Andalusian. Seffarine's music embraces and extends Morocco's musical collision between Arabic, Iberian and West African cultures, forging vibrant original music deeply rooted in their backgrounds in flamenco guitar, oud and Arab Andalusian music.
Doors open at 6:30PM
PERFORMANCES BEGIN at 7:00PM
Concerts are approximately 60-75 minutes with an intermission
Purchase a subscription to all 3 concerts to get a complimentary glass of wine at each performance!
If subscribers are not able to make it to all concerts, they are welcome to have guests use their tickets.
Individual tickets for performances cost $30 for adults and $15 for students, but do not come with priority seating or complimentary wine. Sliding-scale pricing for concerts is available for anyone in financial hardship. Contact jeanneann@chehalemculturalcenter.org for more information.
Subscription for Two - $180
two tickets to each show, with priority seating
two complimentary glasses of wine at each show
Subscription for One - $90
one ticket to each show, with priority seating
one complimentary glass of wine at each show
ABOUT THE MUSICIANS
MARCH 8 | Stumptown Swing
Stumptown Swing performs a set of hot, cool and sultry classics, featuring swinging groove and gorgeous acoustic instruments played with intelligence and passion by four masters of their craft. Named after their hometown, Portland "Stumptown" Oregon, the quartet is closely associated with the network of Lindy Hop, Balboa and Swing Dance clubs that have made Portland a major center of the Swing Dance revival. They are in demand as a live band for the almost nightly swing dance events throughout Portland.
Tim Connell (mandolin and voice) and Mike Burdette (guitar) of Rio Con Brio formed Stumptown Swing after nearly a decade of playing pick-up gigs with Portland's best acoustic string musicians. They snapped up the hottest upright bass player in town, Keith Brush (Stolen Sweets, Pete Krebs Trio, Blue Cranes) and are proud to feature their long-time friend and collaborator, the absolutely pyrotechnic violinist, Ben Blechman.
APRIL 12 | Chelsea Janzen Williams & Leigh Brown
Leigh Brown is a professional harpist who has performed as a soloist and in ensembles and orchestras in Oregon, Indiana, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and the World Harp Congress in Prague. Born in Indiana, she began her musical training on piano at the age of six and on harp at age eight. She continued her music education while still in high school at the world-renowned School of Music (now Jacobs School of Music) at Indiana University. As an undergraduate, she received a scholarship to study with Distinguished Professor of
Harp, Susann McDonald, in the largest harp department in the world. She graduated in 2001 with a degree in harp performance and was awarded the special distinction of a Performer’s Certificate. At IU Leigh performed with various orchestras, harp ensembles and chamber groups and in the ballet and opera series. During her last year of college, she won the Career Award in Music from the National Society of Arts and Letters Competition, Bloomington Chapter.
Leigh performs classical to contemporary to pop and jazz for all types of events in the Portland area. She loves wine and has her own wine brand called Lolati Wines, which is inspired by her South African family roots. She resides in Oregon wine country with her husband and two border collies.
instagram: @leighlorraineb | @harpmakesmusic | @lolatiwines
Chelsea Janzen Williams is a northwest-based vocalist and actor, praised for her effervescent and versatile stage presence and lovely soprano voice, having performed professionally with theatres, opera companies, and vocal groups in Washington, Oregon, and Arizona. Chelsea's operatic roles include Pamina in Die Zauberflote (Aquilon Music Festival), Gianetta in L'elisir d'amore (Opera Bend), and Adele in Die Fledermaus (Cascadia Concert Opera). In 2012 she won the NW NATS classical voice competition and sang at the national finals in Chicago. She is a graduate of Linfield University (B.A. Vocal Performance) where she received a scholarship to study with Dr. Gwen Leonard, won the Linfield Concerto Competition, and premiered Libby Larsen's Moabit Sonnets. At Arizona State University (M.M. Vocal Performance) she studied with Dr. Anne Kopta and was the soprano soloist in Mozart's Requiem and Gounod's St. Cecilia Mass. In Arizona, Chelsea's musical theatre performances were with the Scottsdale Musical Theatre Company, Hale Center Theater, and as a guest vocalist with Kristin Chenoweth and the Phoenix Symphony.
Regionally, Chelsea has worked with theatre companies including Theatre 33, Lakewood Theater, The Elsinore Theatre, Enlightened Theatrics, Oregon Contemporary Theatre. She lives in Dundee with her husband Chase, a professional chef, and black lab Lilou Noir.
Instagram: @thechelseajanzen | @tenacious_sea_ ChelseaJanzen.com
MAY 10 | Seffarine
Seffarine takes its name from the ancient metalworking square in Fez, which is famous for the complex rhythms that ring out from the blacksmiths' hammers, and where Lamiae's family is well known as masters of the tradition. Seffarine's music embraces and extends Morocco's musical collision between Arabic, Iberian and West African cultures, forging vibrant original music deeply rooted in their backgrounds in flamenco guitar, oud and Arab Andalusian music. Nat and Lamiae built an international quintet bringing in all star musicians from Iran, the US and Spain, who infuse the sound with textured instrumentation and inspired improvisation. Sweeping kamancheh (Persian spike-fiddle) ornamentation plays off gritty bass grooves and explosive flamenco guitar, with Lamiae's fluidly riveting voice at the center, sending up sheets of cascading Andalusi melodies punctuated by the catchy hooks of North African Chaabi, sung in her native Moroccan Arabic. Their sound has taken them around the world, from touring Indonesia and Europe to receiving grants to study Ottoman singing in Turkey, to recording with top flamenco musicians in Spain such as Diego del Morao and Latin Grammy Award winner Antonio Rey.