Leaning into the Lockdown
By Brett Campbell for Oregon Arts Watch (June 24, 2020)
One more Oregon classical music institution holds out enough hope that the music will resume to extend the contract of its artistic director. Eugene’s Oregon Mozart Players announced that Kelly Kuo will remain as artistic director and conductor through the 2023-2024 season.
Homeward Unbound
By Brett Campbell for Oregon Arts Watch (June 16, 2020)
How would those principles operate in practice? Chamber ensembles and even chamber orchestras will continue to exist and perform, though maybe not in Schnitzer-sized venues. Think Portland Columbia Symphony, Oregon Mozart Players, and community orchestras. And there are always YouTube and other online options if you want to stream Great Orchestras playing hoary classics. Personally, I’ll miss the Big 5 experience, even as I understand that it might not be sustainable in the 21st century.
CAFE 541: Five questions with ...
OMP Artistic Director Kelly Kuo
By Matthew Denis for the Register-Guard (June 6, 2020)
Since the 2012-2013 season, Kuo has been the artistic director of the Oregon Mozart Players, a nonprofit chamber orchestra seeking to enrich community lives with excellent performances and vigorous advocacy for chamber music. In extending Kuo’s contract through 2023-2024, OMP’s celebratory 40th season aligns with Kuo’s 10th anniversary with the company.
In this edition of “Five questions with ...,” CAFE 541 chats with the artist about his drive and path to leading orchestras and what his expectations are for OMP looking forward. The following is a lightly edited version of that conversation.
Oregon Legends
By Brett Campbell for the Eugene Weekly (November 27, 2019)
Oregon Mozart Players’ annual Baroque Candlelight Concert has long been of the city’s most enchanting holiday traditions. This year’s edition features a pair of sparkling Vivaldi concertos, including a spectacular one for dueling trumpets, plus an arrangement of J.S. Bach’s famous keyboard classic, the Goldberg Variations, for strings, and more.
Oregon Mozart Players performed Reena Esmail and Kevin Puts, October 2019 in Eugene’s Beall Hall. Photo by Torrin Riley.
Claiming Culture, Marketing Emotion
By Daniel Heila for Oregon ArtsWatch (November 8, 2019)
Beall Hall at the University of Oregon School of Music was almost at capacity on October 12th for the Oregon Mozart Players’ New Worlds concert–the first of three 2019-2020 season concerts featuring contemporary classical compositions. The progressive program and the exciting young guest artists–Eugene’s Delgani String Quartet–promised a compelling listening experience. Two works by American composers under the age of 50 were the program’s highlights: Teen Murti by Reena Esmail and How Wild the Sea by Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Puts.
MusicWatch Weekly: A wider net
By Brett Campbell and Matthew Andrews for Oregon ArtsWatch (October 9, 2019)
Rising Indian American contemporary classical composer Reena Esmail’s evocative 2013 piece Teen Murti leads the Oregon Mozart Players’ October 12 program at Beall. Informed by raga melodies, its title refers to the New Delhi residence of the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, a building whose sculptures influenced her composition’s form. The concert centerpiece, Mozart’s incomparable final symphony, is one of music’s greatest treasures. Eugene’s own Delgani Quartet joins the orchestra for Pulitzer Prize winning American composer Kevin Puts’ How Wild the Sea, inspired by the devastating Japanese tsunami tide of 2011, which reminded Puts of the earthquake of 1995 that destroyed much of Kobe. When he visited that two years later, its rapid rebuilding accounts for the hopeful tone of his piece’s second movement, “Saisei” (rebirth).
CAFE 541: Cherry picking the new classical music season
By Terry McQuilkin for the Register-Guard (August 28, 2019)
If you haven’t heard the Oregon Mozart Players, you should really check out some of their concerts. Yes, this ensemble plays some music by its namesake every concert season, but what I find especially distinctive is the creativity of music director Kelly Kuo’s programming. I’ll admit to being disappointed by some second-rate works that Kuo has programmed in past seasons, but many of his choices have been real revelations.
The orchestra’s opening concert Oct. 12 features two effective works written within the past half-dozen years. Reena Esmail skillfully oxygenated Western musical forms with traditional Indian music elements in her “Teen Murti.” Kevin Puts, using sometimes spare musical language, composed a moving homage to the Japanese people’s resilience after the 2011 tsunami, in his “How Wild the Sea;” this performance will feature the Delgani String Quartet.