Save the Date! OBF 2009

Celebrating four major composer anniversaries (as well as the Festival’s 40th) the OBF 2009 scheduled highlights June 26-July 12 include a program of theatre music by Purcell, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation (in Portland and Eugene), and Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in a theatrical staging in collaboration with Eugene Ballet. Following the success of this year’s chamber music residency by the Shanghai Quartet, there’ll be the welcomed return of pianist Jeffrey Kahane as artist-in-residence.

Bach gets his due in the Discovery Series, which will explore the Christmas Oratorio, and Portland Baroque Orchestra will give a complete cycle of the Brandenburg Concertos, again in Portland and Eugene.

The much-anticipated centerpiece will be the world premiere of a new setting of Handel’s Messiah text from Swedish composer Sven David Sandström – a joint commission between the OBF and Helmuth Rilling’s Bach Academy in Stuttgart.

Watch for the full season announcement October 21.