Goudy Distinguished Artists Series Performance Archives
2025-2026
Pianist
Tuesday, November 4, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Willamette University’s Rogers Music Center, Hudson Concert Hall
Parker is the recipient of many international awards, and has won famous international competitions, including the prestigious Leeds International Pianoforte Competition in 1984 at the age of 24.[3] Parker received the National Arts Centre Award in 1996, a companion award of the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards.[4]
Parker has appeared as soloist with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Bergen Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Bournemouth Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Scottish National Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as every major Canadian orchestra. Parker has performed for the US Supreme Court, Queen Elizabeth II, and Prime Ministers of Canada and Japan. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1999.[6]Parker has recorded works by Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev. His recordings appear on CBC Records and the Telarc labels, among others.
The Nov. 4th concert program featured:
- Sonata in D Major KV 311 — W.A. Mozart
- Sonata op 57 "Appassionata" — L.V.Beethoven
- “Sonnetto del Petrarca 104” — Franz Liszt
- "Jeux d'Eau"— Ravel
Americana Set:
- “Got a Match?” — Chick Corea
- “Memories in an Ancient Garden” — Alexina Louie
- "China Gates" — John Adams
- "Blues Etude" — Oscar Peterson.
His public master-class was held on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, at 9:10 am in Hudson Hall. Admission was free and open to the public.
Singers and Musicians
Wednesday, April 8, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Willamette University’s Rogers Music Center, Hudson Concert Hall
Mahsa Vahdat and Marjan Vahdat are internationally acclaimed singers and musicians from Iran living in the San Francisco Bay area, are dedicated to both their personal, lifelong musical and artistic path and the greater cause of freedom of expression. The sisters continue to interact with a diverse international audience that highly appreciates their art.
Mahsa Vahdat's artistic work has offered audiences around the globe a deeper appreciation of Iranian poetry and music. With her enchanting voice deeply rooted in the heritage of her beloved country Iran, and her innovative musical expression and wide-ranging repertoire, she has fearlessly defied the bans on music and solo women singers imposed by Iranian authorities after the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979.
Mahsa has developed a highly personal style of musical expression, rooted in Iranian classical and regional music, a traditional and complex system of modes, melodic motives, and ornamentation infused with contemporary and innovative expressions and influences.
Her musical expression transcends cultural and language boundaries, embracing the beauty of diversity and the universality of human sentiments.
Mahsa’s awards include the Freemuse Award (Denmark 2010), Independent Music Award (USA 2013), German Critics Award (2016), Songlines Best Album for “Traces of an Old Vineyard” (England 2015), and the Transglobal Award for the album “Placeless” with the Kronos Quartet (2019.
Marjan Vahdat is an Iranian award-winning singer and musician. Her career has given a deeper knowledge of Iranian poetry and music to large audiences in Europe, America, Asia, Oceania, and Africa.
Marjan has developed her personal style based on the Persian vocal tradition of classical and regional folk music, with a contemporary expression. She always searched for ways to make her music relevant to the present world. Even if the origin of her style is Iranian, she believes in her music’s ability to express a universal message of humanism and freedom.
She has developed a unique style of performance, rooted in Persian classical and regional vocal music traditions, and infused with contemporary and innovative expressions and influences. Her many performances and recording projects include collaborations with many of the World's Most acclaimed musicians.
In 2003, Mahsa and her sister Marjan started a long-lasting collaboration with the Norwegian record label Kirkelig Kulturverksted (KKV) and producer and poet Erik Hillestad. This collaboration has led to a worldwide release of a series of award-winning and critically acclaimed albums.
Their performances and recording projects include collaborations with many of the world's most acclaimed musicians, including U.S. blues singer Mighty Sam McClain, the Kronos Quartet, Tord Gustavson, Teatr Zar and Grotowski institute, SKRUK Choir, Atabak Elyasi, and Bridget Kibbey.
Willamette pianist James Miley and other guest artists also performed at this concert.
Their public master-class for WU students was on Tuesday April 7, 2026, 9:10am in Hudson Hall. Admission was free and open to the public to observe.
Visit the Mahsa Vahdat website | Visit the Marjan Vahdat website
2024-2025
Composer
Wednesday, November 6, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
Willamette University’s Rogers Music Center, Hudson Concert Hall
It is with great excitement and pleasure as artistic director to reach out to our dear patrons and Oregon community about the upcoming Grace Goudy Distinguished Artists Series 2024- 2025 season! It was my intention this year to bring to campus the best of the new and the best of the old.
Our opening concert features the wildly inventive cutting edge Puerto-Rican composer Angélica Negrón, who has already made her mark in our state, performing on the prestigious Portland Series “ Third Angle”, and also premiering a major work with the Eugene Symphony.
Angelica is known for her extraordinary creativity. Negrón writes music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys, and electronics as well as for chamber ensembles, orchestras, choir, and film. Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR/Q2-New York), while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise.” Negrón has been commissioned by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Kronos Quartet, loadbang, Prototype Festival, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Sō Percussion, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia, the Louisville Orchestra and the New York Botanical Garden, among others. She was the recipient of the 2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize. Upcoming premieres include works for the Seattle Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra and NY Philharmonic Project 19 initiative and multiple performances at Big Ears Festival 2022.
Her residency will begin with a lecture/ question answer presentation to the Willamette community on the Music Department's weekly convocation Tuesday Nov 5. at 11:20 a.m. ( free to the public) . Her concert will follow on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in Hudson Concert Hall.
The first half of the concert will feature three separate works, all involving solo instruments in conjunction with electronics. The pieces are: “ Iniri”, “El Ruido de Mis Ojos” and “Disco Giratorio” performed respectively by two brilliant artist associates: cellist Kathryn Brunhaver, tenor- saxophonist Jonathan Hart, and our wonderful pianist, senior Trinity Goff. The second half of the concert Negron will take over and present a collection of her works with an eclectic assortment of instruments, many of which she has invented. This promises to be an evening of what concerts should truly be, an exploration of new sounds and aesthetics!
I mention the idea of what concerts “should be” with the understanding that performing masterworks of departed, deceased composers did not really become standard until Mendelssohn “resurrected Bach's “St Matthew Passion” in a concert. We, of course understand what then followed became the standard practice of having almost all of the works performed on a program be that of ancient masters.
For two centuries,the unique experience of hearing the works of contemporary composers for the first time has been the exception as opposed to the rule…
Of course, hearing masterpieces is a fabulous experience akin to going into the greatest art museum and seeing collections that span centuries. It was with this intention that I specifically desired to present the works of perhaps the greatest Renaissance composer, an individual whose staggering versatility and brilliance gave the musical world a foundation without which a composer like Bach might never have created the majestic legacy which inspired composers and those who love music for centuries. On February 19th, 2025,, the Portland based choral ensemble, Cantores in Ecclesia, will give us the unique experience of presenting an evening featuring uniquely the music of composer Josquin de Prez. This genius wrote not only music for the church but secular works, some of which became known as the quintessential Renaissance form known as madrigals. He composed not only in every important musical modality, but also in the major languages of the day: Latin, Italian, and French.
So, as previously indicated, I think these two concerts will offer our students, our patrons, and the Willamette Valley the best that music can provide!
-Jean-David Coen, Artistic Director
Here is a link to Angelica Negron speaking about one of her works.
Vocal Ensemble
Wednesday February 19, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Willamette University’s Rogers Music Center, Hudson Concert Hall
For 40 years, CIE has been dedicated to the restoration of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony to the church’s liturgy directed by Blake Applegate.
Cantores in Ecclesia is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony in liturgical context within the Latin Mass of the Catholic Church.
Comprised of both an adult and youth choir, Cantores in Ecclesia was first established in 1983. It began singing at St. Patrick's Church in 1985 through an arrangement with its pastor, Fr. Frank Knusel, and Bishop Paul Waldschmidt of the Archdiocese of Portland. The choir's first sung Mass at the historic NW Portland Church was the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, for which it sang William Byrd's Mass for Five Voices and selections from his Gradualia (1605). For the next 17 years, Cantores in Ecclesia was synonymous with St. Patrick's and the beautiful plainsong, polyphonic Masses, and motets heard each week at its Solemn Latin Vigil Mass. In September of 2002, the choir established its independence as a nonprofit organization, but its mission remained constant: to restore the rich treasury of chant and sacred polyphony to Catholic liturgy. After leaving St. Patrick's in 2002, the choir provided music for the Latin liturgy at Immaculate Heart Church for several years. From the first Sunday of Advent, 2007 to 2016, it began providing music for the parish of St. Stephen’s Church. The choir is now in residence at Holy Rosary parish in NE Portland where it currently provides music once a month and for feast days. It also regularly sings for mass at St. Agatha's Catholic Church in SE Portland.
In addition to singing liturgically, Cantores in Ecclesia has toured widely at home and abroad, with performances throughout Mexico, Spain, France, England and Italy, where it won gold medals in an international competition. The choir also presents several sacred concerts each year, has released three recordings to date, and has often been featured in the press, with articles in BBC Music Magazine, Brainstorm, Early Music America and Oregon ArtsWatch.
One of the highlights of the choir’s commitment to musical excellence is the annual William Byrd Festival held each August, which has brought guest conductors, lecturers and musicians to Portland for nearly three weeks of liturgical services, concerts, organ recitals, and lectures for the past 25 years.
But the principal service of Cantores in Ecclesia has been and will remain the task of combining music and liturgy. At its heart will always be the ancient sung prayer of Gregorian chant, surrounded and supported by the sacred music of great masters such as Palestrina, Victoria, and Byrd.