2025 Grammy winner and Portland Opera’s Artistic Ambassador Karen Slack brings her celebration of historic African Queens to The Reser. New works by acclaimed composers Jasmine Barnes, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon, Joel Thompson, and Portland Opera’s Music Director Damien Geter thrill alongside carefully selected pieces from the traditional repertoire in this…

A native of the Bronx, Samara Joy became entranced by classic R&B as a child and cut her teeth as a singer in her church’s gospel choir. And while her family history is deeply musical—her grandparents helmed the Philadelphia gospel group the Savettes, and her father, the musician and songwriter Antonio McLendon, has produced, composed…

ONN launches the season with a vibrant exploration of musical wit and transformation across time. Portland’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw opens the program with Entr’acte, a work inspired by the elegant and surprising turns of Haydn’s string quartets. Next, Anna Clyne’s Sound and Fury draws from the same Haydn source and Shakespeare’s Macbeth,…

The Reser’s debut of Worlds of Song brings together three extraordinary soloists who are reshaping musical boundaries. The show consists of short solo sets from each player alongside duets and trios for a true ‘one time only’ experience. The inaugural Worlds of Song event showcases the dazzling artistry of Brazil’s Badi Assad, the alternative folk…

Multiple award-winning actress and singer Lea Salonga is renown across the world for her powerful voice and perfect pitch. Lea most recently starred in the new musical Here Lies Love at the Broadway Theater and headlined Old Friends (alongside Bernadette Peters) on London’s West End. Her latest album, Sounding Joy | The Holiday Album, was…

Noam Pikelny is widely recognized as the preeminent banjoist of his generation. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as the “pros top banjo picker,” Noam is a founding member of Punch Brothers, a string ensemble which The Boston Globe calls “a virtuosic revelation” and The New Yorker describes as “wide- ranging and restlessly imaginative.” Pikelny was…

In 2017, Grammy-nominated artist Joan Osborne released the critically acclaimed album, Songs of Bob Dylan. Her artistic and soulful reinterpretations of the selection of Dylan songs was an eye-opening moment in an already celebrated career. Eight years after milestone recording, Osborne will release the stunning Dylanology Live on April 25th. The captivating recording finds the…

LaRussell is one of the most important artists of this generation. Not only has he brought back the art of rap, but he’s building a platform based on authenticity and good ethics. LaRussell and his independent collective, “Good Compenny,” are pioneering change within the industry. Vallejo, Calif., native LaRussell has infiltrated the hip-hop industry in…

Aside from being one of the principal innovators of modern jazz guitar, John Scofield is a creative artist of an even rarer sort: a stylistic chameleon who has forged a consistent, rock-solid aesthetic identity. Looking to commemorate his 73rd year, Scofield has penned a collection of new compositions and re-formed the swinging group – formerly…

Michael Kaeshammer isn’t so much a piano player as a piano whisperer, a master musician and songwriter able to coax dazzling, kaleidoscopic sounds from his instrument in a way few can rival. That gift powers Turn It Up, Kaeshammer’s superb 15th album, broadly described as “eclectic yet accessible jazz-based pop”. Across a brilliant, globe-trotting career…

From the imagination of Las Cafeteras, “Hasta La Muerte” is a 2 act, multi-dimensional theatrical and musical performance that explores the stages of grief and loss through the celebration of life and death. The production revisits Mexican folklore to tell new stories, engage old archetypes, challenge patriarchy, uplift the role of curanderas and re-examine our imagination about…

Celebrating 50 years in Taiko with the Golden 2×25 Tour in Fall 2025, Kenny Endo stands at the vanguard of the taiko genre, as one of the leading personas in contemporary percussion and rhythm in North America and in Japan. For 5 decades, he has led the way in this Japanese style of drumming in…