Join the Portland Museum of Art and the Bach Virtuosi Festival for a free concert performed by Juilliard graduate students as a gift to the City of Portland. The selection of music is based around the museum’s collections and traveling exhibitions.
Free program happening in the Selma Wolf Black Great Hall
"We chose to perform these pieces because we felt there was a complexity to the colors that related well to the music," says violinist Raina Arnett. "We are deeply moved by the brush strokes of each work, and we all felt that each related nicely to Bach and the other composers for the period they represented. For example, Debussy identifies beautifully with the German Expressionism era and the keys and harmonies of Bach's fundamentalism pair well with the era of Monet and Renoir. Plus, there is a timelessness to Bach that comes together perfectly with [Kathy] Bradford's contemporary work."
For more events hosted by the Bach Virtuosi Festival, please click here.
Bo Pang began taking violin lessons at the age of five, and today he studies at The Juilliard School with Lewis Kaplan.
He has won several violin competitions, including the gold prize of the Beijing Division of the National Youth Artistic Violin Competition in 2011; the gold prize of the Beijing Division of the Fifth China Art Global Competition; and the first prize in the violin competition of China Art Park International Festival in 2016.
He has attended masterclasses with violinists, such as Lewis Kaplan, Paul Roczek, Rainer Küchl, Pierre Amoyal, Lucie Robert, Herbert Greenberg, Nicholas Mann, Birgit Kolar, Christiane Edinger, Christian Altenburger, Marine Klettner, and Michaela Girardi.
In 2018, he was selected to the Salzburg Academy Orchestra Soloists and participated in the opening ceremony of the Salzburg Festival. He also performed chamber music with the SAOS Orchestra that year. Professionally, he has performed at Moste Concert Hall, National Theater of China, Zhongshan Concert Hall, Beijing Concert Hall and the National Library Concert Hall.
Violinist Raina Arnett graduate of The Juilliard School where she studied under Lewis Kaplan as his teaching assistant. She also holds degrees in Violin Performance and Music Theory with high distinction from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied under Renee Jolles.
Passionate about contemporary music, Raina has collaborated with composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Charles Wuorinen, Julia Wolfe, and George Lewis, and has performed chamber music with members of the JACK Quartet, Ensemble Modern, Alarm Will Sound, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Eighth Blackbird. She is a founding member of the Glass Clouds Ensemble along with violinist Lauren Conroy and soprano Marisa Karchin as a way to connect with environmental issues. Recently, Raina performed with Ensemble Signal at Carnegie Hall, the Grafenegg Festival Orchestra in Austria, the Juilliard Orchestra, and Symphony in C. Raina will join the Southbank Sinfonia in London this fall as a recipient of one of their violin fellowships.
British-American violist Elijah Spies plays in spaces ranging from intimate living rooms and hospital wards to large concert halls. He began his formal studies at the Royal College of Music. He has performed at international concert series, including the BBC Proms, the Lucerne Festival, and Euro Young Classic. With a particular passion for collaborating with composers and creating new music, he has premiered more than thirty works as a soloist and chamber musician. He has performed chamber music alongside members of the JACK Quartet, ensemble-recherche, and International Contemporary Ensemble, and collaborated with renowned composers including George Lewis and Ted Hearne.
Since 2018, he has been on the artist roster for Concerts in Motion, an organization that provides professional concerts for isolated, homebound residents in New York. Elijah currently studies in the class of Geneviève Strosser at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, Switzerland, and holds a bachelor's degree from The Juilliard School. Having spent childhood summers in Maine with his family, he is thrilled to be returning to perform as part of the Bach Virtuosi Festival this summer.
Kelcey Howell graduated with a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where she was a student of Timothy Eddy. A Colorado native, she earned her Bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the University of Denver. As a member of The Juilliard Orchestra and various student chamber music ensembles, Kelcey has given performances across New York City in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Lincoln Center. An early highlight of her career is performing in masterclasses for Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Harrell, winning the University’s solo and chamber music competitions, and playing regularly as a substitute cellist in the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, Kelcey has enjoyed performing cello concerti with ensembles across Colorado and Montana, most recently the Boulder Philharmonic, Stratus Chamber Orchestra, Jefferson Symphony, Lamont Symphony, and Denver Young Artists Orchestra. She has completed additional studies as a fellow at the Aspen and Olympic Music Festivals, Music Academy of the West, Heifetz Institute, and New York String Orchestra Seminar. In the fall, she will begin pursuing further graduate study at the University of Southern California.