Magic and Merriment
Thursday, December 17, 2026
6:00 pm
Hosted by Pam & Fred Miller
14 Guests • $175
SOLD OUT!
Please call 503.24.9842 if you would like to add your name to our wait list.
Step through the doors of the University Club of Portland into the sparkling magic of a bygone Christmas. Festive greenery, glittering decorations, shimmering candlelight, and the fragrance of fresh pine transform this elegant setting into an enchanting Old World holiday celebration. Savor a lavish buffet worthy of a Tudor feast while the bright chords and harmonies of members of the Oregon Renaissance Band play carols on instruments of another age. Welcome Yule!
- More About Oregon Renaissance Band
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The Oregon Renaissance Band, directed by Phil and Gayle Neuman, is an ensemble of 10 members that performs on a wide variety of historical instruments including early violin, recorders, sackbutts, serpent, violas da gamba, cornamusen, krummhorns, racketts, tartold, shawms, schreierpfeiffen, bagpipes, cittern, spinettino, tabor and other percussion. The group, formed in 1991, has performed for numerous concert series in the U.S. and Germany. Various configurations within the band include 4 singers, 4 sackbutts, 8 recorders, 4 bowed strings, 4 racketts, 4 cornamusen, 3 shawms, and many more. The ensemble specializes in performances with rhythmic precision, lively ornamentation and unparalleled variety. The members are David Bryan, Ben Fitch, Polly Gibson, Andy Harris, Laura Kuhlman, Cindy Markham, Gayle Neuman, Phil Neuman, Kathryn Richer, and Esther Saulle. The Oregon Renaissance Band appears in the recent movie “Buddymoon”, distributed by Orion Pictures.“For more than two decades, Phil and Gayle Neuman have added a vital dimension to Portlandʼs classical music scene: Renaissance music performed on authentic replicas of archaic instruments—spinettino, sackbutt, rackett, tartold, cornamuse, krummhorn, bells, tabor, plus more familiar early recorders, violin, viol, lute and guitar—from the time the music was written. Their dozen-member ensembleʼs annual concert includes music by William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Michael Praetorius and other important composers of the time—including a Magnificat by one Charles Pachelbel, spawn of the Canon fodder, and selections from their splendid new CD of Renaissance Christmas music and other celebratory sounds, Now Make We Joye”.
– Willamette Week
