Performing Opportunities | UO School of Music and Dance

Performing Opportunities

Our students, faculty members, and world-famous guest artists perform more than 200 music and dance events on the UO campus each year.

In addition to over 30 ensembles, there's no shortage of independent contributions from students and faculty alike at the School of Music and Dance. Some of the groups and events are the fecund creations of our ingenious faculty; others are produced and run by students. Whatever's happening, it's sure to be fresh and exciting.

Here are a few examples:

Beta Collide
Beta Collide is a leading-edge new music ensemble directed by flutist Molly Barth and trumpeter Brian McWhorter. Beta Collide focuses on "the collision of musical art forms, from complex to ambient; from low-brow to high-brow; from radically extended technique to site-specific improvisation." Recent projects include collaborations with Mark Applebaum, Scott Rosenberg, Stephen Vitiello and Amit Goswami (the physicist in the film What the Bleep Do We Know?). The group was named in The Oregonian's list of the Best in Classical Music for 2008. Beta Collide has premiered works by Robert Kyr and Douglas Detrick, and performed the music of John Cage, György Ligeti, and John Fonville.
Cultural Forum at the EMU
The Cultural Forum presents hundreds of bands and musical acts each year. Groups range from national acts such as Flogging Molly, Jason Mraz, Kronos Quartet, Sting, DJ Spooky, and The Books to regional favorites such as Gossip, Rasputina, Hot Buttered Rum, and Aphrodesia D. Concerts are presented at local venues both on and off campus. Annually, the Cultural Forum presents the Willamette Valley Music Festival. This free event includes over 40 acts performing folk, bluegrass, Indie, world-beat and more. The festival is held at the Cuthbert Amphitheater located near campus on the Willamette River.
ECCE
Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble (ECCE) is a student-formed, student-run ensemble dedicated to the diversity and widespread appeal of contemporary concert music. Its primary mission is to perform and premiere new works by young composers from around the world, although preference is often given to composers from the northwest United States.
Jazz Café
Jazz Café occurs on several Friday evenings a term in the Aasen-Hull Hall. Undergraduate and graduate jazz combos perform jazz standards as well as their own arrangements and compositions. Light refreshments are available for purchase.
|m| concerts
An annual [m]ysterious foray into [m]odern [m]usic, with the audience invited to move from room to room to sample contemporary offerings such as a remix of Sigur Ross' "Ara Batur," a human sound sculpture, a funk chart for wind ensemble, two appearances by Beta Collide, and some Balkan folk music. Check out their blog! Sounds begin at 5…
Mind the Gap!
University of Oregon's co-ed a cappella group all about "Overcoming the gap between men and women (settling adversity with diversity!), setting ourselves apart from other the other A Cappella mainstream brand, and finding commune and confidence in each other and our music."

Oregon Composers Forum
UO composition students created the Oregon Composers Forum to showcase new music.
"You’ll be hearing the freshest, newest music that's ever been created in your own life time!" —Jerry Hui, 10' MM

	Program Sample
	Meiling Lee	Miniature
	Scott J. Ordway	Piano Trio No.1: "We Were Lost, But There Was Laughter There"
	Aaron Manela	Selections from Refugiado (The Refugee)
	Jesse Jones	Danse acrobatique
	Meiling Lee	La'ah
	Jason Gerraught	Glisten
	David Roberts	Trio for Two Clarinets and Bassoon
	Jerry Hui	Dreamscape in watercolor
	Ken Strand	Hey, Weirdo.
	Jamie Keesecker	Trio

Sospiro
Sospiro is a new music vocal ensemble comprised of graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Oregon. Graduate and undergraduate composers at UO collaborate with the choral conducting department in an effort to promote the creation of new choral and vocal music and to offer choral conductors and composers the opportunity to work together toward world premiere performances.
On the Rocks
The University of Oregon premier, all-male a cappella ensemble. The group was founded in 1999, the first official collegiate a cappella group in Oregon. It has since flourished into one of the top collegiate groups in the nation. OTR has gained national notoriety through its dedication to quality, ensemble, and above, all, cutting loose on stage. Perhaps most notable is the group's 2nd place in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella 2003, and 3rd place the previous year. Check out their renditions Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," and Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance."
SoundBytes
Originally founded in 2006 by Brian McWhorter, assistant professor of trumpet, Sound-Bytes offers free creative and experimental music performances in the EMU Concourse Lobby every Monday from precisely 11:54 a.m. to 12:08 p.m. The Sound-Bytes series gives students walking to and from class during the day a few minutes to listen to new music. The series seeks to expose students to new, experimental music in order to challenge their thoughts about contemporary music composition and performance.

"It's a great way for someone to just get a little taste of something new and exciting" —Sarah Viens, D.M.A. in trumpet
Tai Hei Ensemble
"East Meets West" student performance group formed with the goal of exploring and enacting international dialogs across the Pacific Rim through music. Music of “cross-cultural dialog” takes many forms, including mixed ensembles of western and non-western instruments, compositions for western ensemble inspired by non-western musical traditions, and pieces that are only programmatically cross-cultural.

Guest Artists
The world comes to Eugene in the form of renowned ensembles such as the Guarneri, Tokyo, Juilliard, and Emerson string quartets—all regularly drawn to campus by the University of Oregon's acclaimed Chamber Music@Beall Series.

Artists such as John Adams, Elly Ameling, Les Ballet Africains, Taylor 2, Philip Glass, James Galaway, Imani Winds, and Barry McNabb are frequent flyers to Eugene.

Our Robert M. Trotter visiting Professorships provide annual residencies for guest artists such as conductor Helmuth Rilling, Sequentia director Benjamin Bagby, and tubaist Sam Pilafian.

Teaching Opportunities
For ten years running, every single one of our music education graduates has received job offers upon graduation. If you want to teach, a degree from Oregon signals strong preparation.

A limited number of graduate teaching fellowships (GTFs) are available to admitted graduate music and dance majors. Awards vary somewhat from year to year but they frequently are available in the following areas:

Music: band, brass instruments, choral conducting, composition, intermedia music technology, jazz studies, music education, music history, music theory, percussion, piano accompaniment, piano pedagogy, stringed instruments (some in affiliation with the Eugene Symphony), voice, and woodwinds
Dance: dance and dance accompaniment

These fellowships include a stipend as well as a tuition waiver and generous health benefits. For more information contact the Graduate Office, School of Music and Dance.

The Community Music Institute (CMI) helps UO strings majors gain invaluable teaching experience by giving weekly individual and group lessons to more than 100 students, ages three and older, in Eugene and surrounding communities.

Music students also assist with the school's intensive summer programs for middle school and high school musicians: Concert Band Camp (including an all-star jazz band), Marching Band Leadership Camp, Jazz Improvisation Camp, and the Northwest Suzuki Institute.