Mandolin Cafe Event/Gig Calendar

Ring in the holiday season with the Oregon Mandolin Orchestra’s live/virtual concert
The Oregon Mandolin Orchestra will be performing in a holiday concert this year, rebounding after COVID upended plans in 2020.

Concert-goers can attend in-person 3 p.m. PST Sunday, Dec. 19, at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, 2201 S.W. Vermont St., Portland, Ore. Or, the concert can be livestreamed online through Zoom.

The concert’s wide-ranging program, assembled by OMO Music Director Christian McKee, will feature nostalgic holiday favorites sure to recall seasons past. To round out the program, McKee also has selected a graceful Scott Joplin rag, a beloved J.S. Bach cantata, a Yuletide mazurka from Italy and two movements of Gustav Holst’s “Moorside Suite.”

The OMO also will reprise a piece specially commissioned by the orchestra. The composition, entitled “Oregonia,” was written and arranged by John Goodin, an Iowa-based composer whose work has been performed by mandolin orchestras around the world. “Oregonia” was created to evoke the dramatic landscapes of the Oregon Country and the lives of the people who call it home.

“Oregonia” is especially emotional for OMO members because Goodin passed away Oct. 7, less than three weeks after the orchestra performed the piece’s world premiere.

To sign into the concert online through Zoom, use this link: https://qrco.de/bcW77x. No meeting ID is required.

Guests will have their video off and their sound muted as they enter a “waiting room,” where they will remain until the concert begins.

Suggested donation is $10 per person.