By Roger Wight
Low clouds drifting through the hilltop firs surrounding downtown. The icy, white peak of Mt. Hood sitting on the horizon. Some of the friendliest people I've met recently. And lots of delicious Northwest cooking.
Now that I'm back home in muggy summertime Washington, D.C., these are some of the impressions that stick with me after a wonderful visit to Portland, Ore.
The NPR team spent a week at Portland's Chamber Music Northwest, as part of the festival's landmark 35th anniversary season. We recorded concerts, spent some time with our colleagues at Oregon Public Broadcasting and enjoyed a warm welcome from the audience that had come to see a taping of Performance Today at Reed College's Kaul Auditorium.
Performance Today has aired concerts from Chamber Music Northwest for years, but this was PT's first visit to Portland. One of the most memorable things about this maiden residency was talking with folks in Portland who have been part of Chamber Music Northwest from the beginning.
Performance Today producer Valerie Stains spoke to Louise Scott, an 88-year-old Portland resident and music lover. Scott was a chairperson of the festival when it was founded 35 years ago by violinist Sergiu Luca. At that time, the small, informal concerts were held in a cafeteria at Reed College. Scott shares some of her memories and recalls that the most important order of business in those days was to raise money.
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