NEWBERG, Ore. — A chamber opera and music series with roots in the Willamette Valley will mark a milestone anniversary this spring with a concert bringing together three internationally recognized performers at Newberg’s LaJoie Theatre.
Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley — founded by Grammy Award-winning violist Caitlin Lynch, who grew up in the Willamette Valley — will present This Love Between Us on Friday, April 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the LaJoie Theatre inside the Chehalem Cultural Center. The concert is part of the organization’s 10th anniversary season.
Lynch is joined by soprano Katharine Dain, whose career has taken her to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra, among other major ensembles and opera houses across Europe and the United States, and pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute.
The program moves across several centuries of repertoire, including works by Brahms, Clara and Robert Schumann, Schubert, Frank Bridge, and contemporary composers Reena Esmail and Leilehua Lanzilotti.
The evening’s title comes from Esmail’s own composition, which she wrote, in her words, “through some of the darkest times in our country and in our world” — a meditation on human connection drawing on the words of the 13th-century poet Rumi.
The anniversary season marks a first for the organization: PCM is doubling its programming this year, adding a second residency to its calendar.
Ticket proceeds from the April 17 concert will benefit the financial aid fund of Young Musicians & Artists, a local summer camp with a 60-year legacy providing need-based scholarships for music instruction. PCM donates all concert proceeds to support music education in the community — a mission central to Lynch’s founding vision for the organization.
The residency also includes two public masterclasses at Willamette University: a piano masterclass with Jokubaviciute on the morning of April 17, and a vocal masterclass with Dain on April 18. A complimentary reception with the artists will follow the evening concert.
Tickets are available at pcmwv.org. Full artist biographies are available at pcmwv.org/artists.
