About Portland Cello Project
Since the group's inception in late 2007, the Portland Cello Project (or, PCP, as their fans affectionately call them), has wowed audiences all over the country with extravagant performances, everywhere from Prairie Home Companion, to that punk rock club in the part of town your grandma warns you not to go to after dark. The group has built a reputation mixing genres and blurring musical lines and perceptions wherever they go.
No two shows are alike, with a repertoire now numbering over 800 pieces of music you wouldn't normally hear coming out of a cello. The Cello Project's stage setup ranges from the very simple (4-6 cellos), to the all out epic (which has included 12 cellos playing with full choirs, winds, horns, and numerous percussion players).
The Cello Project's mission is three-fold:
1: To bring the cello to places you wouldn't normally hear it. (Everywhere from nightclubs to symphony halls, from sports bars to loading docks, from libraries to halftime at Portland Trailblazers games...)
2: To play music on the cello you wouldn't normally hear played on the instrument. (Everything from Bach to Kanye to Pantera...)
3: To build bridges across all musical communities by bringing a diverse assortment of musical collaborators on stage with them. (Everyone from the Dandy Warhols to Peter Yarrow to Ben Sollee to Mirah to Garrison Keillor...)
"If you could see how crazy everyone around here gets whenever the PCP cello-izes a new hip-hop or pop hit (which is a lot), you'd understand why their Thing is the best Thing going in Portland," - IFC's Portlandia Blog
"It doesn't get much more genre-crossing than this," - MTV.com
"This indie orchestra gives classical music a jolt of energy," - Spin Magazine
"PCP has come to epitomize Portland's offbeat music scene, one where boundaries are blurred and cellos are in abundance." - The Strad
"A group of cello-wielding maniacs" - Spacelab Magazine
"An ace group of rotating cellists who take on everything from Britney's "Toxic" to the Dandy Warhols and postmodern Estonian composer Arvo Pärt in their one-off performances" - Entertainment Weekly
