Prominent Northwest Guitarists Perform Works by Portland Composer Bryan Johanson to mark 75th birthday of this nationally renowned creator

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October 24 at 7:30 p.m.

PCC Cascade Campus, MAHB, 705 N Killingsworth Ave, Portland, OR

​Admission is free, and the concert is open to everyone.

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Come celebrate the upcoming 75th birthday of Portland composer and classical guitarist Bryan Johanson with an evening devoted to his remarkable contributions to the guitar repertoire. Four distinguished guitarists: Jesse McCann, John Mery, Michael Partington, and James Reid, will come together to perform solo works by Johanson, offering audiences a vivid showcase of the imagination, color, wit, and musical depth that characterize his writing for the instrument.

A major figure in Oregon’s music community, Bryan Johanson taught at Portland State University from 1978 until his retirement in 2016. While there, he founded the university’s guitar studies program and Guitar Recital Series and later established the Portland Guitar Festival. An accomplished guitarist as well as a composer, he studied guitar with Christopher Parkening, Alirio Díaz, and Michael Lorimer, and composition with Charles Jones and Pulitzer Prize–winning composer William Bolcom.

Johanson has composed an extensive body of music for solo and ensemble guitar. His work has earned major awards from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival and School, the Kennedy Center, UCLA, and the Esztergom International Guitar Festival. Two of his guitar-quartet works, Pluck, Strum, and Hammer and Let’s Be Frank, were recorded by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet on Guitar Heroes, which won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album.

In addition to his works for guitar, his formidable compositional output encompasses ten symphonies, concertos for violin, cello, and piano, chamber music, song cycles, choral works,

The evening's performers bring deep personal and artistic connections to Johanson's music.

Jesse McCann, an award-winning Portland guitarist and member of the Oregon Guitar Quartet, studied for his Master of Music degree at Portland State University under Johanson. He served on the music faculties of both PSU and PCC, performed and taught throughout the region.

John Mery is a critically acclaimed guitarist, recording artist, and founding member of the Oregon Guitar Quartet. He has performed throughout the United States and internationally, as a soloist and with ensembles including the Oregon Symphony, Portland Opera, and 3rd Angle New Music. A longtime presence in Portland’s classical guitar community, Mery brings a wealth of experience in both traditional and contemporary repertoire.

Michael Partington, Artist in Residence and director of the guitar program at the University of Washington, is an internationally acclaimed British guitarist known for his lyricism, technical command, and expressive range. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Partington has commissioned and premiered works by Johanson and devoted his eleventh solo recording, Concoctions from the Kitchen, entirely to Johanson's music.

James Reid, a veteran concert guitarist who has performed extensively throughout the United States and Canada, has commissioned works from Johanson and has presented lectures on his music at international guitar festivals. Reid recently retired after directing the guitar program at the University of Idaho for more than four decades and continues an active career as a performer.

Together, these four artists offer a rare opportunity to hear Johanson's music through the interpretations of musicians who have performed, studied, commissioned, taught, and collaborated with him. The concert promises both a celebration of a milestone birthday and a tribute to a composer whose distinctive voice has helped expand the possibilities of contemporary classical guitar.