Annenberg Center Live Presents Portland Cello Project

Annenberg Center Live presents the Portland Cello Project, Saturday, October 20, at 8:00 PM. Portland's premiere alt-classical group brings an orchestral ensemble that includes six cellos, brass, percussion, and guest vocals by Patti King of the Portland band The Shins, to pay tribute to Radiohead with a unique spin on music from the band's OK Computer album. Tickets are available at AnnenbergCenter.org or 215.898.3900.

All of the cellists in Portland Cello Project are classically trained, yet find a unique connection between Radiohead and their own musical foundation. Since its release in 1997, OK Computer has served as inspiration for a wide range of artists. Portland Cello Project first performed the record in its entirety in 2012 for the 15th anniversary of its release. Since then some pieces have remained consistently in the group's repertoire.

In the fall of 2006, a group of nine cellists got on stage at Portland's Doug Fir Lounge to perform Western classical music in an informal setting. Many of the cellists that night thought it would only happen once. But slowly that one-off event became a second, and a third, cellists joined and left, and rejoined the group again, to perform in Portland's most popular clubs. By 2009, Portland Cello Project had evolved into a nationally-recognized performing, recording and educational ensemble, with a revolving cast of cellists. The group appeared across North America in a multitude of different venues, among them punk rock clubs, symphony halls, street parties, and exclusive private events. By 2010, a self-described "horde of cellos" was spending more than a quarter of the year touring, featuring a diverse repertoire that quickly ballooned to over 1,000 pieces of music. Under the artistic direction of Douglas Jenkins, Portland Cello Project grew and evolved, working with an all-star cast of cellists in the Pacific Northwest. They developed a three-part philosophy that has remained largely unchanged over the years:

To bring the cello places you wouldn't normally see it (from wild dance parties, to formal symphony halls, to street parties, to Millennium Park in Chicago).

To perform music on the cello you wouldn't normally associate with the instrument alongside music from the Western classical tradition (from Pantera, Taylor Swift, Kanye West, and Elliott Smith, alongside Bach, Rossini and Saint-Saens, to name just a few).

To build bridges between different musical communities through educational community outreach and through collaboration with numerous artists, among them The Dandy Warhols, Garrison Keillor, Ural Thomas, Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney), Jolie Holland, Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul and Mary), and cellists such as Ben Sollee, Maya Beiser and Zoe Keating.

Annenberg Center Live's 2018-19 chronological calendar is available online.