Performances
Upcoming performances
Musica Universalis is busy creating new projects for the coming year! Watch this space for schedule information.
Summer Outdoor Concert Series
CANCELED: Thursday, September 5, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Ankeny Rainbow at NE 28th and Ankeny
Unfortunately our outdoor concert scheduled for today has been canceled due to weather. Our instruments can’t take the extreme heat. (Not to mention the musicians and audience!) Please join us instead for our garden concert on Sunday, September 8, at Periwinkle Song Studios.
Sunday, September 8, 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Periwinkle Song Studios
FREE, $20 suggested donation
RSVP at periwinklestudio41@gmail.com
RSVP at periwinklestudio41@gmail.com
Our second concert on Sunday, September 8th at 4:00PM takes place in the beautiful garden of the Periwinkle Song Studios in Sellwood. This late afternoon concert will be a bit more of a “formal” affair complete with a glass of wine, refined conversations, and all the trappings of an “evening soirée.” There is a $20 suggested donation for this concert.
RSVP at periwinklestudio41@gmail.com
Veronica, In Bed
Written by Briana Ratterman Trevithick
Directed by Štěpán Šimek
Thursday, December 5th
Friday, December 6th
Saturday, December 7th
Shaking the Tree Theatre, 823 SE Grant St.
As we enter the dark theatre live music is playing, and we see a beam of light hitting an enormous bed, laden with pillows. Heavy red drapes, just behind the bed, stretch from ceiling to floor. We discover we are in Veronica Franco’s bedroom where, after a life as revered poet and famous courtesan, she now lives in poverty. Veronica is in a fever state, and from her deathbed, she is ready to tell her story. In this surreal and fragmented world based on life during the 16th c. Italian Renaissance, a multisensory and immersive experience enfolds, blending puppetry, music, intermezzo opera, projections, and physical theater to create a visually and musically stunning and emotionally resonant exploration of Veronica Franco’s life. The music will be a mix of period music, original compositions, and arrangements of modern Punk played on period instruments, and the script will mix historical language and modern reckoning, as we find her struggles to be as relevant today as they were in the 16th century.
In the fall, the collaborators will gather to explore the themes, puppetry ideas, movement etudes, and preliminary music selections and compositions. In November, the group will begin a 3-week Performance residency at Shaking the Tree Theatre in Portland, testing our ideas, developing the overall shape of the piece, and presenting a work-in-progress. We will spend early 2025 in intense rehearsals, sharpening elements, and eventually presenting the finished piece in Portland.
Veronica in Bed is a collaborative play written by Brianna Ratterman and Stepan Simek. Fellow actors are two of Portland’s acclaimed actors, Jean-Luc Boucherot and Joellen Sweeney, along with all the members of Musica Universalis.
A Winter Celebration
Friday, December 20
Saturday, December 21
Sunday, December 22
“The2509,” 2509 NE Clackamas St., Portland
Musica Universalis remounts our very popular Winter concert for another round of mystical and magical carols for winter and advent.