Countless classical music organizations around the world struggle to answer the question of how they will bring what’s seen as an aging artform to younger audiences. Big-city symphonies frequently collaborate with pop, rock and hip-hop stars for one-off gigs where string sections accompany 808s and electric guitars. As special as these symphonic showcases may be, they can be few and far between… and not in Central Oregon.
The same can’t be said for The Portland Cello Project, a group with the professional chops to be playing in symphonies, but with a penchant for touring like a rock band. In 2006, nine cellists gathered in one of Portland’s storied indie clubs and haven’t looked back since. Known for innovative takes on everything from Radiohead to Beck, Rihanna to Outkast to Kanye and Jay-Z, The Cello Project returns to Bend April 23 with the principal cellist of the Oregon Symphony and celebrated composer Nancy Ives to present a program dubbed “Sunshine & Stars” — an unplugged, cellos-only show featuring a constellation of songs inspired by light and hope, including works by Ives, Stevie Wonder, Beethoven, The Beatles and Billie Eilish.
For almost two decades, The Portland Cello Project has continued to, “find a path to make things more cello focused,” says the group’s longtime artistic director Douglas Jenkins, with, “more cellos, more string textures and more top-notch playing from top-notch players. You’ll see a lot of this in this Bend performance, with some songs going back to what you’re used to seeing with us (outside-the-box takes on popular music), but now much more contrasted with the classical and even some contemporary classical music.”
The Source caught up with Jenkins, the person who’s arranged the more than 1,300 pieces of music that make up his group’s repertoire. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Source Weekly: You founded this group — or concept for a group — in 2006. Did you ever imagine it’d still be around today?
Douglas Jenkins: It was a few of us in 2006, and it’s odd at this point thinking back to “founding” it as Skip vonKuske, one of the other founders who has been on stage [for] almost all shows since the beginning, recently moved to New Jersey. Kevin Jackson, another mainstay, is really stepping up lately to help move the group to its next level. Gideon Freudmann lives on an island in Washington now. I didn’t imagine the group would still be around, but in 2006 I was in my 20s, so I mean, I also had tunnel vision and just kept trying to make good music.
SW: Can you talk a little bit about your evolution as a group — from nine cellos to a full band with drums, bass, etc. — and how this has enabled you to fulfill your mission of bringing cello to the people
DJ: We’ve really just tried to go where the music is good and not let ourselves get locked into a definite direction, and when we’ve started to get pigeonholed, we’ve done big pivots to avoid it. It might be the only reason we’re still doing things that are interesting, and also, it might be the reason we’ve struggled off and on over the years! We’ve tried to make our consistency quality even if it’s been unpredictable, but also the commercial world likes repetition, and with well over 1,000 different pieces of music in the repertoire, that hasn’t left a lot of room for repetition!
SW: How many people have passed through the group over the years?
DJ: At least hundreds. A couple of years there when we did over 100 performances a year, we were processing 100-plus 1099s per year, which included merch people, production people, special guests, etc., but still.
SW: Can you share a highlight of playing with PCP over the years?
DJ: I’ll never forget our first national tour — 2008 or 2009? We had toured before that with Buckethead but just here in the PNW for a week, but this was a month playing everything from punk rock clubs to symphony halls — totally different every night and for six weeks! We were in Fargo, North Dakota, at Dempsey’s Aquarium (punk rock venue) and it’s like 1am, and we’re just a cello quartet there — no drums, etc. — and it’s a wild crowd. We played Manuel de Falla’s “Danza del Fuego,” which is the fiery Spanish piece, and there’s a point where you play col legno, which just means you hit the strings with the wood part of the bow. And we get to that part, and front and center, someone calls out, full of inebriated slurred words, “Woo hoo! Col legno!” I guess it was at that point that I realized the group might have staying power.
SW: I noticed your website just says The Cello Project now? Have you officially dropped Portland?
DJ: We’re just trying to be mysterious and make some more contemporary branding. Some places prefer us being The Cello Project, some Portland Cello Project, some PCP. We don’t actually have a preference. When we’re in Bend, we’re the Bend Cello Project, trying to do things we have learned that the audience in Bend loves. Your community always welcomes us so warmly, and it’s an honor to return year after year.
This article appears in Source Weekly April 17, 2025.
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