Concerts in the Park

In the summer, Dave and I like to attend outdoor concerts. Our favorite summer orchestra is the Portland Festival Symphony. This summer marks the 32nd year that this orchestra has presented concerts in Portland's public parks.  This season's opening concert, which we attended on Saturday evening, was held at Cathedral Park in the St. John's area of Portland.  Did I mention that these concerts are presented free of charge? 

The orchestra opened with the always popular, Stars and Stripes Forever, conducted by Sean, an entertaining layman from the Oregonian newspaper, a concert sponsor.

Guest conductor, Michael Allen Harrison, conducted Dave's favorite piece of music, Victory at Sea by Richard Rodgers.

The rest of the program was conducted by Portland Festival Symphony founder and music director, Lajos Balogh.

We heard Rossini's La Gazza Ladra Overture, Beethoven's Symphony #3 (Eroica)--movements 2 and 3, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture (minus the cannons!), America the Beautiful with the audience invited to sing along, and Haydn's Toy Symphony with children participating--a Portland Festival Orchestra tradition.

The weather was beautiful and the park's natural grassy amphitheater is a good place to gather to listen to a concert.

A small part of the crowd on Saturday night.

St. John's Bridge runs over the park, but the traffic didn't interfere with the musical performance.

Portland Festival Symphony will present five more free outdoor concerts this summer.  The programs vary at each concert, but all include fine classical music.