Brett Campbell, journalist
True stories about arts, culture, & more
This is the minimal web presence for Oregon- based writer Brett Campbell. I write frequently about music and other arts for the Wall Street Journal, Oregon Quarterly, Willamette Week, San Francisco Classical Voice, and Eugene Weekly. My work has also appeared in dozens of other publications, including The Oregonian, Portland Monthly, Andante, Salon, Oregon Humanities, Musical America, The Progressive, The Texas Observer, Utne Reader, and many more. You can see some of my recent clips by clicking on the links to the right, and true masochists can find many more at the websites of the publications listed above and others, or by request via the email address below.
I've taught magazine writing and editing at the University of Oregon School of Journalism & Communication and served as faculty adviser to the award-winning student magazine, Flux. I've been an editor of two fine magazines, Oregon Quarterly and The Texas Observer. I also do freelance story editing, copy editing, and proofreading. I've cut my freelance magazine writing back in recent years in order to concentrate on teaching, editing, and, most of all, research on a biography in progress that chronicles the life of the great American composer, Lou Harrison. I'm lucky to be wedded to the artist and photographer Carole Zoom, who took the photo on this page. You can also find evidence of our nefarious felines at her site. And I play and sing Javanese classical music in Venerable Showers of Beauty gamelan and Gamelan Sari Pandhawa. I'm honored to have been chosen to participate in the 2007 USC Annenberg / Getty Arts Journalism Fellowship Program in Los Angeles, and also in the 2005 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University in New York City. Email me at brettwriter at gmail dot com. | Premieres by Kronos Quartet and So Percussion Other Minds concerts revive an American original The migration of American new music A guide to recordings American Music's Great Connector Festival celebrates composer Henry Cowell Bay Area quartet Les grâces plays French Baroque music Evan Ziporyn's A House in Bali comes to Berkeley Separated by a century, Japanese woodblock artists portray a famous journey Oregon Shakespeare Festival premieres Bill Cain's masterful Equivocation Artist Spotlight: Aaron Jay Kernis New York composer returns to Cabrillo Festival Cabrillo Festival opens with composers from around the globe eighth blackbird and friends electrify 2009 Ojai Festival Seattle festival celebrates pioneers of American experimental music In envisioning its future, Portland looks backwards University of Oregon's new home for music and dance A young filmmaker documents America's only mainland deaths in World War II — and the reconciliation that followed Meredith Monk and Ann Hamilton’s Songs of Ascension Violinist Monica Huggett makes early music HIP Mark Applebaum's playful complexity University of Texas revamps its concert hall Stephen Scott makes music for a new instrument When Worlds Collide and Boundaries Fall Mercury Soul brings contemporary classical to the clubs The Alexander Quartet plays Ravel and Harrison Alarm Will Sound plays Son of Chamber Symphony Alex Ross's The Rest is Noise Assessing Philip Glass Dino Saluzzi and Anja Lechner's cinematic sounds Chanticleer, contemporary composers create a 21st century spiritual statement Working with musicians teases out the realities for young composers Oregon Symphony joins forces with composer Robert Kyr From the pen of Frank Lloyd Wright to Hawaii Lou Harrison's last opera finally takes the stage in San Francisco How the uncompromising L.A. architect learned to build on common ground The Poetry of Angles and Curves Brad Cloepfil brings Northwest perspective to architecture Kronos Quartet's Under-30 commission Channeling the Divine Contemporary, Classical and in California Pacific Symphony, Ojai Festival cultivate vanguard sounds New music from classical and club worlds A cultural center for Southern California Sitka Center bridges art and ecology Postcard from the Edge Time-based Arts Festival galvanizes Portland Populist Passion The 'Lion of Zimbabwe' Prowls the World LA Philharmonic's Minimalist Jukebox Festival A Choral Master's Grass- Roots Appeal Composer Morten Lauridsen Percussionist Evelyn Glennie Theatre in Motion Imago's Jerry Mouwad The trouble with marriage Lou Harrison's opera, Rapunzel How musicians learn to play
Whisked Away by Third Angle Portland ensemble's frozen music The Full Spectrum of Musical Color L.A.'s microtonal music festival explores sounds between the keys Tan Dun's Water Passion Lou Harrison's Joyful Music Celebrating a 20th century master Music Festival Comes Back from the Dead Second act for California's Cabrillo Festival Music festival revives "La Colline" Bach's St. John Passion Stirs Up Some Confronting anti-Semitic music A composer commemorates Nagasaki |
