Because of a $1,000 grant from the Cultural Coalition of Washington County and the Oregon Cultural Trust, we were able to offer free admission to our April 19, 2015 concert.
This program included Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in D minor featuring soloist Mitch Iimori, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, and Wagner’s Flying Dutchman Overture.
To call Mitch Iimori a versatile musician is an understatement – on Facebook he is known as “Mitch the Ultimate Multi-Instrumentalist”. This Japanese-born Portland musician plays 50 instruments in 20 different styles, and speaks 10 languages, and is also a woodwind repair technician, as well as a surrealist painter. He is instructor of oboe, flute, clarinet, saxophone, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, guitar, balalaika, and many more. He has played with the Oregon Symphony, Salem Chamber Orchestra, Washington Chamber Orchestra, Third Angle, Columbia Symphony Orchestra and Portland Taiko. In January 2015, he appeared as the Erhu (Chinese vertical fiddle) soloist in Oregon Symphony’s Star Trek concert. He is also an active studio musician, and recorded the theme music of “Oregon Experience” (flute, clarinet, oboe) on OPB that is heard daily on OPB. He is also a consummate entertainer. In addition to playing the Marcello oboe concerto, he brought some other more exotic instruments to show off and serenade us with after the concerto.