Share

OES Conductor and Artistic Director Beau Benson kicks off our 40th Season with a performance of Pendleton-born Hollywood composer Chris Thomas's Malheur Symphony. Originally commissioned by the Bowerman family in the wake of the Malheur Refuge Standoff, Malheur Symphony is a tone poem depicting the avian wildlife over the course of a day on the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon. Also to be presented is Richard Strauss's tone poem Don Juan, based on poet Nikolaus Lenue's play about the fictional Spanish libertine.

Guest Conductor Zach Banks joins OES to conduct the holiday favorite, Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. The OES Chorale will join the Symphony in presenting Ralph Vaughn Williams' Fantasia on Christmas Carols with guest baritone soloist Gabriel Elder.

Dr. Benson conducts Ravel's Mother Goose Suite from his ballet based on French fairy-tales from the Mother Goose Collection. To feature some of the talent within the symphony, OES Principal Trombone John Neurohr will perform a trombone concerto. The program is rounded out with Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 104 (London).

OES welcomes composer and pianist Connor Chee as the featured guest performer for the Chamber Music Festival, OES's annual pairing on wine and hors d'ouvres with chamber music. In addition to performing a selection of his original compositions, the Navajo (Diné) composer, author and educator will present a series of lectures in the Pendleton area on indigenous identity in classical music. Additional performances include Paul Reade's Suite from the Victorian Kitchen Garden, Schubert's String Quintet in C Major and more to be announced.

Our 40th Season concludes with the 1946 revision of Stravinsky's ballet suite Petrushka. A second performance this season featuring soloists from the ranks of the orchestra will be Assistant Concertmaster Viet Block and oboist Lauren Nebel's performance of Bach's Concerto for Violin and Oboe. Oregon composer (and occasional OES contra-bassoonist) Nicole Buetti's Odyssey Overture will round out the program.