Oregon Ballroom Dancing EVENT

May 16th, Oregon Ballroom Dance Club is having a formal dance called Swingin' Summer Nights. The lesson will begin at 7:30 pm, with open dancing from 8:30-10:30 pm. University of Oregon students are $4 (with ID) and community members pay $6. The dance will take place on the UO campus in Gerlinger 220. There will be refreshments!

A silent auction will begin at 7:00 pm. Some of the items auctioned off will be private dance lessons with local professionals, a portrait etching by Robert Canaga, gift certificates, and other great items.

For more information, please email oregonballroom@gmail.com.

Brought to our feet by Butterfly!

A Suburb Mandama Butterfly! Eugene Opera again surprises and pleases!Lacking a large voice, the evil bastard Pinkerton was a little out classed buy his wife Kelly Cae Hogan (real) and by all others save some of the locals.
The set by Carey Wong was brilliant as was the lighting by Micheal Peterson. The direction by Kelly Kuo was perfectly balanced between the potential overplaying chorus and the usual overpowering principles. The harmonious leveling of the two made it a seamless event.
Overall, the voicing was strong and the acting was far better than I have seen in Opera for a while.
Please support ALL local theater and arts, your life will be changed and you will have much more to talk about!
More latter...Portland calls

entertainment=supurb play+great cast x top notch diretion

Last night we saw near perfection on stage at Willamette Rep! The four very different and equally talented actors, perfect direction, a set that became very real and solid , lighting that let us feel the chill of the Chicago fall, along with costumes, sound, and everything that makes a play, made this play great!
Few times have I lept to my feet and been swept up in thundering applause as I was last night!
Proof made us laugh, cry, and think.
If you see nothing else this season, you MUST see "Proof"!

Early Morning in The Galllery District

As I was headed for an early CVALCO meeting in the Hilton, I was stopped in my tracks by this wonderful sunrise! What's the old saying?"Red sky in morning, sailors take warning..."

First Friday in Eugene!

On February 1, 2008, the Lane Arts Council’s First Friday ARTWalk will be hosted by local artist and art advocate, Judy Allison, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

#1 Passionflower – East Broadway and Oak

Local authors Sandy and Peter Jensen will be reading Live Love Poems. Excerpts from Sandy’s book I Saw Us in a Painting, as well as selections of great love poems from many cultures and times, will be read aloud. It will be a fun event with lots of audience participation. Please bring you favorite love poems to share!

#2 Diva -- East Broadway and Olive
The overarching theme of DIVA’s exhibition this month is architecture. The artwork in Deborah Heal’s exhibit The Great House is featured in the Member’s Gallery. Influenced by her experiences living in Santa Fe, she shows paintings inspired by the vistas, colors, and shapes of the landscapes of northern New Mexico. Deborah Heal thinks of artistic potential as a great house. Just as rooms in a house are decorated differently, Deborah Heal strives to explore the different styles and functions of art in her own work.

The exhibit Architects as Artists, continues throughout February. It features the work of internationally renowned architect, Robert Harvey Oshatz. Oshatz presents models, photographs, floor plans, drawings, and video of his work in three of the DIVA galleries. Alongside his pieces are historical and recent images of downtown architecture from the city of Eugene, selected work of downtown proposals from UO architecture students, and artwork by local, working architects.

#3 Fenario -- East Broadway and Willamette

Stephen Beebe is currently living in Chico, California. Stephen's art is mixed media pop surrealism, often incorporating found objects. He has a bright, urban inspired aesthetic and color palette. His work seems to be influenced by urban contemporary life and has similarities to contemporary "low brow" art.

#4 Jacob’s Gallery -- 7^th and Willamette

The exhibit Reliquary: The Everyday Sacred consists of recent works by three Eugene artists, Sarah Grew, Claire Flint, and Ken Herrin. Three distinct voices share their explorations of everyday objects and experiences. Sarah Grew’s work combines found objects to create abstract forms. Claire Flint has a more traditional form with detailed still lifes and Ken Herrin’s sculptures are made from combining found objects into abstract, three-dimensional works. From purely abstract to the narrative figure, and using a wide array of techniques, each artist ‘iconifies’ the mundane in order to share their vision with the greater public.

Reviewed by Robert, Jan. 18th

#5 Blue Moon -- 6^th and Olive

This month come see jeweler Margarita O’Brien whose works are playful, colorful and beautifully detailed miniature ‘paintings’ on metal take the forms of wearable pendants, earring and wall art pieces. Margarita uses fine cloisonné and glass enamels of fine silver and copper. Also showing jeweler Renee Ford’s structural architectural inspired pendants with natural gemstones, whimsical “Peek-a-Boo” pierced back natural gemstone pendants and earrings along with figurative formed silver and copper vessels.

The following downtown merchants and galleries will also be open late:

Goldworks, Harlequin Beads, LaFollette Gallery, Magical Dreamtime, New Zone Gallery, Opus6ix Gallery, Sun Moonlight Gallery, Café Perugino, Karin Clarke Gallery & Annex, White Lotus Gallery, Museum of Unfine Art, and DNA Photographic.

Mozart on a Winter's night

We braved the snow and ice tonight to attend a wonderful performance by two flutists, a harpsichord player who did a little piano also, and a cellist. The setting was perfect. A small sanctuary, close seating, perfect acoustics, just enough brave music lovers, and a mix of music from Magic Flute to Bach.
The Oregon Mozart Players Chamber Music and Chocolate events are so wonderfully innocent, disarming, and intimate, much like I would assume they were 300 years ago but with better lighting.
Many years ago (1976) I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend a concert of Mozart's music in the palace on Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria. It is a scale model of Versailles, and has it's own Hall of Mirrors. It was lit by more than a thousand candles! As we sat in awe of the music, the wines, the feel of the room, and, after about an hour, the smell of wax, burnt wicks, and people who at that point in time, did not see the need to bathe every day.... I began to fold into the time that the music was written, to feel as if we were indeed transported to a slower time. I do admit to a love of the grand theatric, and dancing the night away in Ludwig's last castle was indeed a life shaping event, but equally as important is the small event we find here in Eugene, presented by our friends and neighbors, such as tonights concert. We must take advantage of these and enjoy that small moment that shapes us forever.
Here is a little night music.

A night at the Symphony

Gershwin’s American in Paris

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January 24, 8 pm

Giancarlo Guerrero, Conductor

Stefan Jackiw, violin

• Argento--Valentino Dances
• Barber--Concerto for Violin
• Copland--Appalachian Spring
• Gershwin--American in Paris

The Eugene Symphony celebrates the limitless depth of the American experience--reflective melodies, bustling rhythms, romantic virtuosity and more.

Another exciting night of wonderful music here at the Hult Center located in the heart of the Gallery District.

Come early and have a latte' at Perugino, or a cocktail at Adam's or at the Hilton (great little bar), or window shop the many galleries.

Oregon Mozart Players

We thoroughly enjoyed the "French Roast" program tonight at The Hult. An inventive mix of Faure', Ravel, ...Mozart(?). Yes, we were informed that Wolfgang DID write for the French, evedently with tougne in cheek. The most stirring ofthe evening was Symphony No. 31 in D Major K. 297 "Paris". The symphony is laid out in fast-slow-fast form (with no Minuet):

1. Allegro assai
2. Andante
   
3. Allegro

The symphony is scored for the large orchestras that were available to Mozart during his time in Paris: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in A), 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trombones, timpani, and strings. The Players did a superb job on this one.

Ma Mere l'oye (Mother Goose) was a joy, though because the movements are so close I at first thought,"My, what a long Prelude":)

The contra bassoon was worth the price of admission!

Here is a little Mozart in Paris, though NOT what we heard tonight.

Enjoy