Apr

16

Portland Cello Project Portland Cello Project

with Erin & Her Cello & special guest Laura Gibson

Thu April 16th, 2015

7:00PM

Main Space

Minimum Age: 18+

Doors Open: 6:00PM

Show Time: 7:00PM

Event Ticket: $15

Day of Show: $20

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free for members
event description event description

With a repertoire reaching back to Bach and continuing to Taylor Swift, the Portland Cello Project continue to blur the lines between classical and modern composers. Cello Project will spend early 2015 on the road to support their latest release, to. e.s., a 12-song studio album paying homage to Elliott Smith. To e.s. features instrumental covers of the Portland songwriter’s music, as well pieces by contemporary composers that were inspired by Smith. The Cello Project were inspired by the 10th anniversary of Smith’s passing (started the project in 2013) and his influence on the Portland music scene. The album consists of 6 covers of Smith’s songs as well as commissioned pieces, with Smith as a starting point. The tribute, titled simply to e.s., was co-produced by Jackpot! Studio owner/Tape Op Magazine editor Larry Crane, who worked and had a connection with Smith. The album will feature six covers as well as original compositions by such as Rachel Grimes (Rachel’s), Peter Broderick (Efterklang, Horse Feathers, Norfolk and Western), the Oregon Symphony’s own Nancy Ives, Gideon Freudmann and something very bizarre and… thirst quenching by Seattle new music composer Nat Evans.
 
Cello Project has worked with Jackpot! Recording Studio owner and Larry Crane since their first album in 2008. It was a natural fit from day one. The diversity of the Cello Project’s records (from hip-hop to classical) required a chameleon of a producer, able to speak the varied languages of different musicians. Larry’s experience has made him a natural bridge builder between diverse collaborators and the Cello Project’s classically trained cast and crew.
 
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TABLE SEATING POLICY
Table seating for all seated shows is reserved exclusively for ticket holders who purchase “Table Seating” tickets. By purchasing a “Table Seating” ticket you agree to also purchase a minimum of two food and/or beverage items per person. Table seating is first come, first seated. Please arrive early for the best choice of available seats. Seating begins when doors open. Tables are communal so you may be seated with other patrons. We do not take table reservations.
 
A standing room area is available by the bar for all guests who purchase “Standing Room” tickets. Food and beverage can be purchased at the bar but there is no minimum purchase required in this area.
 
All tickets sales are final. No refund or credits.

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Portland Cello Project

Portland Cello Project Official Website | Portland Cello Project on Facebook

Since the group’s inception in late 2007, the Portland Cello Project (or, PCP, as their fans affectionately call them), has wowed audiences all over the country with extravagant performances, everywhere from Prairie Home Companion, to parties on loading docks in NYC, to symphony halls from coast to coast, to punk rock clubs.. The group has built a reputation mixing genres and blurring musical lines and perceptions wherever they go.

No two shows are alike, with a repertoire now numbering over 1,000 pieces of music both expected and unexpected to come from a cello. The Cello Project’s stage setup ranges from the very simple (4-6 cellos), to the all out epic (which has included 12 cellos playing with full choirs, winds, horns, and numerous percussion players).

The Cello Project’s mission is three-fold:

The Cello Project works to build bridges across musical communities through collaborations and educational outreach. They have collaborated with a diverse assortment of musicians, from high school and university music programs, to the Dandy Warhols to Garrison Keillor on Prairie Home Companion to Trampled by Turtles to Corin Tucker to Maya Beiser to Ben Sollee to Zoe Keating to Howe Gelb, just to name a few…

photo credit: Tarina Westlund

Erin & Her Cello

It all began one fateful Tuesday evening at a theater in New York City. Erin Hall, a cellist, was asked to compose and play her own music for the Naked Angels Dramatic Reading series, Tuesdays at Nine. Scared to compose solely for the cello, Erin opted to sing while accompanying herself a la pizzicato.
 
The result? A Career was born.
 
Pulling from her favorite influences– Peggy Lee, Cole Porter, and Serge Gainsbourg to name a few– Erin and Her Cello have quickly invaded music, comedy and theater stages throughout New York City. Their songs range from jazz, to blues, to French pop and 60′s girl group rock, all with a dash of humor. Catch Erin and Her Cello “solo” and they will loop harmonies into your hearts. Catch them with their full band, including piano, backup singers, horns, percussion and glockenspiel–will have you tapping your feet and singing along with “Sober” and “Walk of Fame.” In any performance, Erin and Her Cello will light up your night and leave you laughing out loud. (That’s right—laughing out loud.)
 
Winner, 2009 “Music is a Joke” Contest, Stand Up NY
 
“…the standout of the night is clearly Erin and her Cello – an NYC babe with a spunky personality and crystal clear voice who can rock a cello like it’s a Stratocaster guitar.”—philly.com.
 
Drawing on the everyday joys and indignations of life in New York City, Erin and Her Cello offer up songs that Strings Magazine calls “quirky, vivacious, and undeniably unique,” not to mention funny as hell! From Joe’s Pub to BAMCafe to Rockwood Music Hall, this kooky songstress and her stringed soul mate will unspool a night of original music that skillfully melds jazz, pop, comedy and blues.
 
Erin & Her Cello official site
Erin & Her Cello on Facebook
Erin & Her Cello on Twitter

special guest Laura Gibson

La Grande (pronounced in the way of the American West, without any hint of French inflection – “luh grand”) is a town just east of the Wallowa Valley in northeastern Oregon where native Oregonian Laura Gibson found inspiration while writing the songs that would become her new album of the same name. Gibson describes La Grande as a place that “people usually pass through on their way to somewhere else, but which contains a certain gravity, a curious energy.” She’s done more than her own fair share of traveling, playing over 200 shows in North America, Europe and Asia since the release of 2009’s acclaimed Beasts of Seasons (Hush Records), andLa Grande is, in part, an album about journeys and transitions.
 
The energy of the title track kicks off the record with a battering ram beat, hitting the ground like a herd of galloping horses. With a Tropicalia pulse, dirt-kicking distortion, whimsical woodwinds and heart murmur hooks on “Lion/Lamb,” and rail-jumping rhythms, majestic melodies and beyond-the-grave broadcasting of “The Rushing Dark”, La Grandeplays like an imaginary film score. It’s an album about strength and confidence – about the tension between wildness and domesticity and the courage required to embark upon either path, about asserting one’s will rather than submitting – and it’s a significant departure from Beasts’ subtle meditations on frailty.
 
The thematic notion of aggressively taking matters into one’s own hands was at the front of Gibson’s mind during much of the process of developing La Grande, a period in which she also took on the task of transforming a 1962 Shasta trailer into a makeshift studio/private writing place. The twin projects of restoration and transformation – all that sanding, painting and do-it-yourself problem solving – seeped into her music, a sometimes surreal blend of styles that doesn’t belong to any particular decade or genre, but leaves the listener with the distinct impression that something old has been repurposed in a brilliant new way. (read more here

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