Chamber Music Northwest To Present Pacific Northwest Premiere Of LOEFFLER OCTET

Chamber Music Northwest will present the Pacific Northwest premiere of a rediscovered chamber work by Charles Martin Loeffler on March 28, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church Portland.

The concert, part of the organization’s 2025–2026 year-round season, will feature Loeffler’s Octet for Two Clarinets, Harp, Two Violins, Viola, Cello, and Double Bass, a piece originally written and premiered in 1897 before disappearing into the archives of the Library of Congress.

The work was rediscovered in 2020 and reconstructed by clarinetist Graeme Steele Johnson, a member of the ensemble WindSync and an alumnus of Chamber Music Northwest’s Protégé Project.

Johnson will perform the octet alongside an ensemble that includes David Shifrin, Chamber Music Northwest artistic director emeritus; violinists Isabelle Ai Durrenberger and Anna Lee, both Protégé Project alumni; and bassist Braizahn Jones of the Oregon Symphony.

The program also includes works by Robert Schumann and Claude Debussy, including Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Op. 73 and Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Première rhapsodie.

Artistic directors Gloria Chien and Soovin Kim said the performance offers audiences a chance to hear the once-lost composition for the first time in more than 125 years.

Chamber Music Northwest’s 2025–2026 season concludes with DRAWING ON THE WALLS, a collaboration with BodyVox that combines live chamber music with contemporary dance. The production will run April 24–26, 2026 at the Portland Community College Performing Arts Center Sylvania and feature performances by WindSync.

The organization will also present its 2026 Summer Festival, titled CONFLUENCE: OUR SHARED VOICES, with subscriptions currently on sale and single tickets available beginning May 1.