Honoring Pride 2023

June is nationally recognized as LGBTQI+ Pride Month. The city of Portland will officially recognize the occasion in July this year.

All Classical Portland wishes a happy and healthy Pride to all of our friends in the queer community. You are seen, you are loved, you are valued, and you are always welcome here.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Pride Month is observed each year in commemoration of the June 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York, a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. To honor the month, All Classical is shining a spotlight on the lives and works of LGBTQI+ artists, and their many invaluable contributions to classical music and the arts.

Read on for some of the highlights you’ll hear when you tune in at 89.9 FM in Portland or anywhere in the world via the live player on our website.

HIGHLIGHTS

• ON AIR – Throughout the summer and all year round, All Classical Portland’s programming will include works written and performed by LGBTQI+ artists, including Pink Martini’s Thomas Lauderdale, pianist Hunter Noack, singer and classical guitarist Edna Vázquez, Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Music Director and conductor of the Metropolitan Opera), GRAMMY-award and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, and more!

• ARTS BLOG – Discover five LGBTQI+ musical artists who provide endless joy, talent, and beauty to our collective soundscape, including Thomas Lauderdale, Marin Alsop (Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra), and more. Read this post by Rebecca Richardson on the All Classical Arts Blog.

• THURSDAYS @ THREE – On July 13, 2023, T@T host Christa Wessel will welcome pianist Hunter Noack, creator of In a Landscape: Classical Music in the Wild and All Classical’s inaugural 2019 Artist in Residence, for a live performance. Listen at 89.9 FM , via our free mobile app, or our live player. Learn more about Hunter and T@T.

PAST

• LIVE EVENT – All Classical’s Spring 2023 Intern Cindy Flores guest conducted the Portland State University Band concert on June 8, 2023! Portland State University School of Music & Theater presented Tú-tti, a symphonic pride celebration concert in partnership with the Rose City Pride Bands. The concert featured works by Omar Thomas, Michael Markowski, Randal Standridge, Samuel Barber, Julie Giroux, and more.

• ICAN – On June 1, 2023, the International Children’s Arts Network featured My Magic Family by author Lotte Jeffs, as part of their Audio Book Tour. In this celebratory, reassuring rhyming story a little girl with two mommies shares the magic of her family and discovers how great all of her friends’ families are too. This Book Tour program is no longer available, but you can enjoy ICAN’s vibrant programming 24 hours a day at ICANRadio.org.

RECOMMENDED READING

• 2023: Five LGBTQI+ Artists You Need to Know, a blog post by Rebecca Richardson, All Classical’s Music Researcher & Digital Producer

• 2023: Christa Wessel Meets Thomas Lauderdale & The Pilgrims, a conversation with Pink Martini’s Thomas Lauderdale

• 2023: All Classical Portland’s Poetry Project 2023: The Improv Sessions, a collaboration of music and poetry with Sunday Brunch host Suzanne Nance, pianist Hunter Noack, and Oregon Poet Laureate Kim Stafford

• 2021: Music Exploring Queer Experiences, a blog post by Emma Riggle

• 2020: Nine Fantastic LGBTQI+ Classical Music Groups in Oregon, a blog post by former All Classical Intern Kelly Lantz