Brett Campbell

Oregon

Freelance Writer at Freelance

Senior Editor at Oregon Arts Watch

Articles

Mariachi Tradición: Cultural education through music

4 weeks ago | orartswatch.org | Brett Campbell

While growing up in Forest Grove in the early 2000s, Charlie Garcia had heard snatches of mariachi music. “But I never paid much attention to it,” he remembers. “Mariachi was just part of the culture. I would see it at family parties, church or quinceañeras.”Ever since he’d begun violin studies in third grade, Garcia’s main musical focus had been Western classical. But something changed some years later, when his grandfather died.
Fertile Ground: Homegrown plays, west of the hills

2 months ago | orartswatch.org | Brett Campbell |Oregon ArtsWatch

Despite the considerable populations of Beaverton, Hillsboro and other Washington County towns, it’s been rare to find plays written by Oregonians staged west of the Tualatin Mountains. That’s changing, thanks in part to the rebooted Fertile Ground Festival of New Works’ recent emphasis on neighborhood hubs.
Spark Plug: Taking risks, building trust

2 months ago | orartswatch.org | Brett Campbell |Oregon ArtsWatch

Like so many other remote-working coffee shop laptop jockeys, Amanda Clark had been frequenting her favorite coffee shop, Beaverton’s Ki Coffee, for years. One day a few years ago, she remembers, “I looked at their back room with fresh eyes and wondered — what if we transformed that back room into a performance space?” She proposed the idea to the owner, a serious local arts supporter. “Hell yes!!” came the instant reply.
Spring classical season includes musical meditations on forests and a lost Oregon waterfall

Mar 26, 2025 | oregonlive.com | Brett Campbell

This spring’s classical music calendar includes concerts featuring the instruments that led the way to the future: string quartets (in the 19th century), percussion (in the 20th), and electronic (21st). It also offers remembrances of injustices past and present, and, right in season, music inspired by nature.
Music news & notes: March 2025

Mar 15, 2025 | orartswatch.org | Brett Campbell |Oregon ArtsWatch

We’ve been chronicling the adventures and achievements of young Portland composer, musician and student Elaina Stuppler over the past couple years, and her winning streak continues. Stuppler won the Oregon Music Education Association’s annual high school composition competition.
Unexpected connections, onstage and off

Mar 8, 2025 | orartswatch.org | Brett Campbell |Oregon ArtsWatch

When playwright Diana Burbano brought Sapience to Portland’s Artists Repertory Theatre two years ago, the company knew immediately that it wanted to stage it. The company had worked with Burbano when she contributed her Vertical City to its pandemic-era Mercury Company remote plays, and was excited to commission her new play in progress. But it also knew it needed help.
Saxophones for Peace: Quadraphonnes & friends play Moondog

Mar 7, 2025 | orartswatch.org | Brett Campbell |Oregon ArtsWatch

For three decades beginning in the early 1940s, New Yorkers were often bemused by the sight and sounds of a tall, long-haired bearded, blind and seemingly vagrant musician playing original tunes and reciting original poetry on a few midtown Manhattan street corners. A devotee of Norse mythology, he was sometimes known to sport a replica viking helmet, and maintained a shrine to Thor.
Shakespeare, minimalist and feminist

Feb 28, 2025 | orartswatch.org | Brett Campbell |Oregon ArtsWatch

Shakespeare is the GOAT, but his plays can be tough going today. Their archaic language, extended soliloquies (easier to read than apprehend onstage in real time), our lack of cultural context, and maybe above all, their sheer length can discourage some contemporary theatergoers, especially newbies.
Embracing Mystique or Divine Innocence

Feb 23, 2025 | tullahomanews.com | Brett Campbell

In the vast landscape of religious mythology, few stories carry as much nuance and intrigue as that of Lilith and Eve. Symbolic too many, these figures represent distinct archetypes of womanhood and identity, resonating through the corridors of spirituality, culture, and even feminism. But how would we navigate the enigmatic allure of Lilith against the divine innocence of Eve? Let's delve deeper into these complex characters and explore their implications in a modern context.
Celebrating diversity in Hillsboro

Feb 20, 2025 | orartswatch.org | Brett Campbell |Oregon ArtsWatch |Joe Cantrell

Just weeks into the advent of a new regime that gained power in part via promises of division, inequity, and exclusion might seem an unpropitious moment to celebrate multiculturalism. Then again, it might have happened at just the right time.