Portland Conservatory of Music

The Kid Brother (1927) | Kinonik
2024-10-13 19:00 (America/New_York) | Portland Conservatory of Music, 28 Neal St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Harold Lloyd, these days, is the least known of the “Big Three” silent comedians, overshadowed by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. But in the 1920s he was the most successful, achieving the highest pay among silent film stars. He was known for his “Glasses Character” which embodied a resourceful and optimistic persona fitting the 1920s spirit, much like Jimmy Stewart in the 1940s or Tom Hanks in the 1990s.
In The Kid Brother, the most important family in Hickoryville is (naturally enough) the Hickorys, including Sheriff Jim and his tough, manly sons Leo and Olin. The timid youngest son Harold doesn’t have the muscles to match up to them, so he must use his wits to win the respect of his strong father–and also the love of beautiful Mary. The Kid Brother is a male version of the Cinderella story; Harold, the drudge of his family, lacks the size and strength of his father and brothers and is ordered about by all of them – only to prove the hero and win Mary’s love.
Harold Lloyd always claimed this to be his favorite among all his films, and, in later years, he proudly screened the film in selected theaters and at film schools.
Live musical accompaniment will be performed by Carolyn Swartz playing the fabulous grand piano at the Portland Conservatory of Music. As always, projected from a 16mm film print.

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Elevator to the Gallows | WMPG Jazz at the Movies
2024-10-12 19:00 | Portland Conservatory of Music, 28 Neal St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
WMPG’s Jazz at The Movies and the Portland Conservatory of Music are proud to present Louis Malle’s classic film noir film Elevator to the Gallows with the incredible improvised score by Miles Davis on Saturday, Oct. 12th.
Director Louis Malle’s first feature film Ascenseur pour L’Echafaud is a1958 crime thriller shot at night in Paris in B&W. With its innovative cinematography techniques, it heralded the arrival of the French New Wave. Film critic Roger Ebert called Malle’s Elevator “a noir masterpiece.”
Elevator to the Gallows was Miles Davis’ first film score, and was recorded by the trumpeter in an entirely unrehearsed and improvised session while he was in Paris. His haunting and lyrical playing on Elevator mark Miles Davis’s first foray into modal jazz, and a hint of what was to come, his brilliant jazz masterpiece Kind of Blue one year later.
Elevator To The Gallows is a treat for both the eyes and the ears. Come join us for this fabulous French flick and its stunning jazz score Saturday, October 12th, 7 PM, at The Portland Conservatory of Music, 28 Neal St., in Portland. Admission is FREE.

Free Jazz Workshop with Marguerite Juenemann, Gary Wittner, and Tony Gaboury
2024-10-05 16:00 - 17:00 | Portland Conservatory of Music, 28 Neal St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Bring your instrument and a fake book, or just come to watch the magic happen!
No tickets necessary.
Following the workshop, grab some dinner then come back to see Marguerite, Gary, and Tony perform live at PCM (tickets required)

Early Music Workshop: Plucked Strings and the History of Arrangement
2024-10-05 10:00 - 15:00 | Portland Conservatory of Music, 28 Neal St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Early Music Workshop: Plucked Strings and the History of Arrangement
A word often heard from proponents of the early music movement was authenticity (especially in the early years). Music should be played, they insisted, on the instrument(s) for which it was composed–ideally surviving original instruments of the period, or, at a minimum, faithful copies of those instruments. Even pitch, stringing materials, and much more, were often prescribed. “Arrangements? But why, with so much wonderful repertoire in its original form?”

But from the earliest surviving prints and manuscripts, we see that transcriptions formed a significant body of music–with composers going so far as to transcribe opera overtures for solo theorbo (or a 19th-century guitar)!

This workshop will explore historical examples of arrangements for plucked strings and invite participants to try playing surviving transcriptions as well as investigating how to make their own.

Schedule :

10 – 11am: Lecture on surviving plucked-string arrangements from the 1500’s to the 19th century.
11am to noon: Masterclass. Registered participants will be sent sample arrangements at least two weeks in advance, but are free to bring arrangements that they have found or made.
Break for lunch
1 – 2:30pm: Hands-on class on making arrangements. Sample works will be provided, but participants are encouraged to bring works of their own choosing. We will explore:

Finding works suitable for arrangement for your instrument
Selecting suitable keys
Tips on where ‘trimming the fat’ from a ‘candidate piece’ doesn’t hurt the finished product.

2:30 to 3pm: Question and answer session

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This workshop is available for students ages 14+

Registration is required
Register Now

Portland Piano Trio & 240 Strings
2024-09-28 15:00 - 16:30 | Portland Conservatory of Music, 28 Neal St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Portland Piano Trio Concert Information

Cesária Évora | WMPG Jazz at the Movies
2024-09-21 19:00 | Portland Conservatory of Music, 28 Neal St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
The film CESÁRIA ÉVORA follows the struggles and success of this legendary Grammy winning singer who was born into abject poverty in colonial Cape Verde. Join WMPG’s Jazz at the Movies for the Portland premiere of this film about Cesária Évora, world famous morna singer and Queen of World Music in the 1990’s and early 2000’s who became a feminist hero and an African icon at the height of her fame.
WMPG’s Jazz at The Movies and the Portland Conservatory of Music are proud to present the premiere showing of the film “Cesária Évora” on Saturday, Sept. 21st at 7PM. The Grammy award winning and legendary performer Cesária Évora, nicknamed “the Barefoot Diva”, was raised in abject poverty in the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa, and rose to become the Queen of World Music in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s without ever losing her connection to her humble beginnings. Join us on Saturday, September 21st to celebrate the music and inspiring life of this African icon, feminist hero and world famous morna singer, Cesária Évora. Admission is FREE. And, as a special bonus, the movie will be introduced by her former bandmate Kalu Monteiro.

Air Space and Jane Ira Bloom
2024-07-25 19:00 - 23:00 | SPACE, 538 Congress St, Portland, ME 04101, Portland, ME, 04101, US
Grammy-winning saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom joins forces with keyboard-percussion duo Air Space (Mike Effenberger and Brian Shankar Adler).

Air Space (Mike Effenberger and Brian Shankar Adler) teams up with award winning saxophonist, composer and improviser, Jane Ira Bloom to create an unforgettable performance embracing the conversational possibilities between each other, the audience and the space-time continuum.
Inspired by the minimalist structures and analogue textures of artists like Brian Eno, Jóhann Jóhannsson, and Nils Frahm, Air Space transcends boundaries, creating an atmospheric soundtrack to the somnambulist’s night in the deep woods.
At times sublime and at times combative, the group explores site specific, interactive, new music. Their expansive sound comes from Effenberger’s clever use of analog keyboards, tape delays and geological specimens pitted against Adler’s genre-defying use of percussion from South America, South Asia and the sewers of Brooklyn. Blending Indian raga, post-Cageian minimalism, and lo-fi nostalgia with an occasional field recording of crickets, tiny sparks fly while the music retains a deceptively serene appearance.
Air Space made its debut in 2022, performing in a casemate at Fort Gorges (Casco Bay, Maine). In 2024, the group released Cricket Cipher (Adhyaropa Records) and toured the Northeast, US. The group’s performances often invite audience members to interact with the music through the use of collective drones and polyrhythms.

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Soaring, poetic, quick silver, spontaneous and instantly identifiable are words used to describe the soprano sound of saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom. She has been developing her singular voice on the soprano saxophone for over 45 years. She is a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz. Winner of the Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition, the Downbeat International Critics Poll & Jazz Journalists Association Award for soprano saxophone, the Mary Lou Williams Award for lifetime service to jazz and the Charlie Parker Fellowship for jazz innovation. She is the first musician ever commissioned by the NASA Art Program and has an asteroid named in her honor by the International Astronomical Union (asteroid: 6083janeirabloom). Her critically acclaimed Cd “Early Americans” received a Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album and made numerous year end best lists. Her duo release with bassist Mark Helias “Some Kind of Tomorrow” was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air and received 4 stars from Downbeat Magazine. Her recent critically acclaimed duo projects “Tues Days” with drummer Allison Miller and “See Our Way” with Helias and trio project with Helias and Bobby Previte “2.3.23” all appear on Bandcamp. JIB finds inspiration in creating exploratory music with improvising musicians around the world and has participated in several international ‘remote’ events including a performance at the United Nations that linked improvising musicians in Korea, China, New York, and San Diego. She has recorded and produced 20 albums of her music dating from 1977 to the present. Bloom is a professor at New School University’s College of the Performing Arts in NYC. Nat Hentoff called Bloom an artist “beyond category.” Bill Milkowski has described Bloom as “a true jazz original…a restlessly creative spirit, and a modern day role model for any aspiring musician who dares to follow his or her own vision.”

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Described as “a polyrhythmic force” (JazzTimes), multidisciplinary percussionist and composer Brian Shankar Adler transcends the terrain between genre and geographic region, asking: how can we find connection through rhythm? He has performed internationally in caves, forests and adjacent glacial ice fields as well as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center and The Stone. He has been recorded on over fifty albums including his recent works, For a Gallery on the Moon (Chant Records, 2020) and Fourth Dimension (Chant Records, 2019). His music video, “Mantra” won best music video at Transcinema International Film Festival in Peru and an official selection at Quiet City Film Festival in New York City. Adler has worked with Kinan Azmeh, Ballet Hispanico, Jay Clayton, Guillermo Klein, La Bomba De Tiempo, Frank London, Kate McGarry, Palaver Strings, Kamala Sankaram, Elizabeth Swados, among others and has been featured in Modern Drummer Magazine, DownBeat, and NPR. He is currently on faculties at Bates and Bowdoin College.

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Keyboardist Mike Effenberger has curated an unmistakably individual voice drawing on gospel, minimalism, jazz, and 20th century music. He leads Weird Turned Pro and plays with fiveighthirteen, Jazzputin and the Jug Skunks, the secular roots and gospel choir Rock My Soul, OURBIGBAND, Sad Bastards / Loose Standards, Showmen’s Rest and Dan Blakeslee. When not in the northeast, Effenberger performs internationally with Bing and Ruth, and plays throughout the east coast with Soggy Po’ Boys. He appears on countless recordings from independent releases to larger labels, including 4AD and RVNG Intl, and is also active as a producer. His work has been reviewed in international publications including the Paris Review, The Guardian, and Pitchfork, as well as appearing on nationally syndicated media including NPR’s All Things Considered and PRX’s Echoes.

ELLIS: The Life and Complicated Times of Ellis Marsalis, Jr. | WMPG Jazz at the Movies
2024-05-18 19:00 | Portland Conservatory of Music, 28 Neal St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
WMPG’s Jazz At The Movies and the Portland Conservatory of Music are pleased to present the documentary
ELLIS: The Life and Complicated Times of Ellis Marsalis Jr.
Ellis Marsalis was the Patriarch of the First family of Jazz .To his talented kids, Winton, Branford, Delfeayo, Ellis & Jason, he was Dad. To generations of New Orleans musicians, he was a keyboard genius and composer, a teacher and the keeper of the flame.
ELLIS: The Life and Complicated Times of Ellis Marsalis Jr. is the story of one of American music’s heroes: a jazz musician who grew up in New Orleans, survived the racial injustices of Jim Crow segregation, flirted with bebop, and went back to his hometown roots to establish school and university programs to awaken in black students a sense of pride in their New Orleans’ heritage.
“In other places, culture comes down from on high”, Ellis taught them. “ In New Orleans it bubbles up from the streets.”
This movie ELLIS: The Life and Complicated Times of Ellis Marsalis Jr. tells the story of the pianist in his own words and music, ofter superimposed over early archival film footage of the Crescent City, and the vast floods like Katrina that would change its history forever.
Please join us Saturday, May 18th, for the movie about this great man Ellis Marsalis, the heart and soul of the New Orlean’s jazz community, who kept the flame burning and single handedly changed the entire world of jazz.
Tickets are FREE and no reservations are required. Saturday, May 18th, 7 PM, , at The Portland Conservatory of Music, 28 Neal St., Portland.
