Oregon Mozart Players celebrates the past — and the future

By Daniel Buckwalter for the Eugene Scene (May 14, 2024)

For a final night at the podium with the Oregon Mozart Players, Kelly Kuo and OMP gave a masterful performance.

The full circle of Kuo’s 12-year tenure as artistic director of the Mozart Players was shown to all on May 11 at the Legacy Concert held at the University of Oregon’s Beall Concert Hall, and while OMP’s executive director Brian McWhorter correctly called the evening “bittersweet,” I choose to look at the sweet.

Kelly Kuo wraps up a 12-year tenure with Oregon Mozart Players at its May 11 concert

By Daniel Buckwalter for the Eugene Scene (May 15, 2024)

Change is afoot for the Oregon Mozart Players.

It had been long planned and, because of the pandemic, delayed a couple of years, but Kelly Kuo’s 12-year run as artistic director and conductor will come to a close on May 11 at the University of Oregon’s Beall Hall with the Legacy concert.

And he is at peace with it.

“I have believed from the beginning that for a community the size of Eugene, it’s always good to have a change of perspective after 10 years, as it’s easy to become stagnant,” Kuo says.

Oregon Mozart Players’ March concert offered “something for everyone”

By Daniel Buckwalter for the Eugene Scene (March 25, 2024)

There was the spiritually meditative beginning, the spritely interplay between the violin and viola in the middle, and the pure classical sound of Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 in A Major at the end.

In short, there was something for almost everyone on March 23 at the sold-out sanctuary of Central Presbyterian Church near the University of Oregon when the Oregon Mozart Players performed the program Breathe, a wonderful evening of music under the direction of artistic director and conductor Kelly Kuo.

Dec. 2 is the last chance to hear Oregon Mozart Players’ lush tribute to the Advent Season

By Daniel Buckwalter for the Eugene Scene (December 2, 2023)

The Advent season is here, and if you’re in the mood tonight for lush chamber music to ring in the season and participate in holiday singalongs, the Oregon Mozart Players have just the concert for you.

OMP’s second and final night of its annual Candlelight — Spirit of the Season performance takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 2 in the lovely sanctuary of Central Presbyterian Church near the University of Oregon.

Based on the first performance, led by conductor Kelly Kuo and played before a large and strong audience, I can tell you that it’s a relaxing evening of rich sounds that include Gregorian chants as well as an abundance of holiday cheer for patrons.