WORKS

Giovanni Sollima | Alone (1998)
Andy Akiho | Spiel (2020)
Eve Beglarian | I will not be sad in this world (2006)

PERFORMERS

Valdine Ritchie Mishkin, cello
Chris Whyte, percussion
Sarah Tiedemann, flute

GUEST SPEAKER

Nina Shekhar (video)

Canadian cellist Valdine Ritchie Mishkin is a diverse musician, recognized both as a gifted cello teacher of all ages and an avid solo, chamber, and orchestral musician. Equally dedicated to teaching the youngest students in early education as well as training advanced cellists, Dr. Mishkin serves on the faculty at Willamette University and teaches at her home studio in West Linn. Passionate about educating the next generation, Mishkin coaches orchestral repertoire with the Portland Youth Philharmonic and the Salem Youth Symphonies, judges competitions for regional and national organizations, is a clinician for the Walla Walla Suzuki Institute, and serves on the boards of the Oregon Cello Society and Oregon ASTA. 

A seasoned performer of both ensemble and solo repertoire, Mishkin champions contemporary chamber music with Fear No Music, Third Angle, March Modern, and formerly the Blue Box Ensemble. She has been featured live on All-Classical FM Portland’s Club Mod and Thursdays at Three. Valdine serves as a regular substitute cello with the Oregon Symphony, and previously performed with Houston Grand Opera, Houston Ballet, and on period instruments with the Mercury Ensemble. Debuting at age 10 as a soloist with the Winnipeg Symphony, Mishkin has been a featured soloist with the Mercury Ensemble, Chehalem Symphony, Chamber Camp of Portland, McGill Symphony, Winnipeg Youth Symphony, Aurora Chorus, and Portland Boy Choir.

Mishkin holds Doctorate and Masters degrees from Rice University as a student of Lynn Harrell and Norman Fischer, a Bachelor of Music from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) as a student of Antonio Lysy, and holds an Associate Performance Diploma and teaching certificate in both cello and piano from the Royal Conservatory of Toronto as a student of Julie Banton and Ann Lugsdin (Winnipeg). Performing across Canada, United States, and Europe, Mishkin ’s development was shaped by such festivals as Tanglewood, Orford, Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada’s National Music Competition Festival (finalist), and Schleswig-Holstein Orchestra Academy; by masterclasses with Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, Zara Nelsova, David Finckel, Richard Aaron, the Juilliard Quartet, and Arnold Steinhardt; and under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Larry Rachleff and Timothy Vernon.

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Called “hypnotic, enthralling…dynamic” (Oregon ArtsWatch), with playing described as “a striking diversity of styles and spirit” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), Christopher Whyte (b. 1983) is known for his wide-ranging artistry as a percussionist, timpanist, collaborator, composer, and educator. He has presented recitals, concerts, and masterclasses internationally in Asia, Europe, Canada and throughout the United States. 

As an original member of the Portland Percussion Group, he is dedicated to fostering percussion performance through dynamic concerts, engaging collaborations, and the creation of new music. In October 2020, the quartet made its European debut performing a full-length concert at the GAIDA Festival of Contemporary Music in Vilinus, Lithuania in addition to collaborating on Steve Reich’s iconic “Drumming” with the Colin Currie Quartet. Whyte also serves as resident percussionist with Third Angle New Music, collaborating with a wide range of musicians and composers to advance the development and performance of new music. He has worked closely with composers Gabriela Lena Frank, Pauline Oliveros, Sarah Hennies, William Kraft, Angelica Negron, Dominic Murcott, Michael Johanson, and Mendel Lee, among others as an active commissioner of new music for percussion. In the 22-23 season, he appeared as a member of arx duo project, giving the US Premiere of Dominic Murcott’s “Harmonic Canon” at the Other Minds Festival, performing Pascal Le Boeuf’s “Triple Concerto” with the Missoula Symphony, and performing and recording at Connecticut Summerfest.

He regularly performs with the Oregon Symphony, including on their Grammy-nominated recordings Spirit of the American Range and Aspects of America: the Pulitzer Edition, as well as with the Portland Opera Orchestra, Oregon Ballet Theater, and other notable ensembles. Whyte is also looking forward this fall to the release of his debut solo album on New Focus Recordings, featuring works by Lou Harrison, Sarah Hennies, Toshio Hosokawa, and his own “A Cold Stability” for percussion and electronics, commissioned by Third Angle New Music and inspired by the process of winemaking so intertwined in the life of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. 

A dedicated teacher, Whyte is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Percussion at Portland State University where is he Percussion Area Coordinator, and has served on the faculty of Western Oregon University. He is a founding member and resident faculty of the International Percussion Institute, a summer percussion performance and research institute in Aberdeen, Scotland. He is the director of the Portland Summer Percussion Academy, a week-long educational gathering of high school percussionists focused on a broad range of western and non-western percussion instruments. He has performed or presented at the College Music Society (CMS), Northwest region NAfME conference, The Midwest Clinic, nienteForte Festival, Oregon Music Educators Association Conference (OMEA), the PICA Festival, New York’s Fringe Festival, and Music for All National Chamber Music Festival, and is currently President of the Oregon Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society.

Whyte holds degrees from the University of Oregon (B.M., M.M.), and Boston University (D.M.A.)  and his former teachers include the late Charles Dowd and Boston Symphony Principal Timpanist Timothy Genis. He is a Yamaha Performing Artist, and proudly endorses Vic Firth Drumsticks, Remo Drum Heads, Zildjian Cymbals, and Black Swamp Percussion Instruments. His compositions are published with Tapspace, MSC, Matrix, and Bachovich publishing. 

Chris lives in Newberg, Oregon with his wife Charlotte, their son Forrest, and their Akita, Decan.

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Sarah Tiedemann currently serves as Artistic Director and flutist of Third Angle New Music and a member of the Oregon Ballet Theatre Orchestra. She has performed across North America, Europe, Australia, and China with orchestras including the Swedish Radio Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Norrköping Symphony, Oregon Symphony, and Boise Philharmonic, and at festivals including Chamber Music Northwest, the Britt Festival, the Astoria Music Festival, and the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP). 

A contemporary music specialist, Sarah has appeared with Third Angle, Cascadia Composers, Northwest New Music, and Boston’s Callithumpian Consort. Her world premiere performance of Derek Jacoby’s Flute Concerto was broadcast internationally on WGBH’s Art of the States, and she is featured on Third Angle’s recent album Alone, Dancing: Music of South Asian-American Composers. In 2021 she joined forces with violist Wendy Richman and harpist Sophie Baird-Daniel to form press conference-inspired trio Three Musicians Tonal Landscaping.

Also a skilled arts administrator and educator, Sarah served as Executive Director of Young Musicians & Artists (YMA) summer arts camp and as Marketing Director at Chamber Music Northwest. She is a faculty member at Lewis & Clark College and previously taught at the International Youth Music Camp in Chengdu, Portland State University, and Willamette University.

Sarah graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin Conservatory and a Master of Music degree with Honors in Performance and Academics from the New England Conservatory. A national winner of the U.S. Department of Education’s Jacob K. Javits Fellowship in Performance, she went on to pursue postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, funded by a generous award from the American-Scandinavian Foundation. Her past teachers include Jeanne Baxtresser, Michel Debost, John Heiss, Karen Gifford, and Tobias Carron.

Highly reliant upon excitement/stress for motivation, Sarah has managed a national congressional campaign, made dry cappuccinos as a barista, played the lead role in an indie film, hiked throughout the Pacific Northwest, and studied voice with Grammy-nominated artist Valerie Day of Nu Shooz. A sporadically avid runner, she participates in the Hood to Coast Relay most summers, usually under-trained but with great snacks. In her spare time, she enjoys growing flowers, fruits, and vegetables and fixing up the cute house she shares with her husband Charley and two cats. If you’re wondering what that sound is, Sarah is currently learning to play the EWI. She appreciates Oxford commas and never misses an episode of Days of Our Lives.

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