SW Band: Winter Concert & Cookie Exchange
[November 10, 2026]
Submitted by Wade Wisler for the Southwest Portland Community Band
Winter 2026 Concert & Cookie Exchange
5 pm Saturday, December 12, 2026
Multnomah Arts Center
Now in its eleventh year, the Southwest Portland Community Band (SWPCB) is excited to announce its winter 2026 concert. Admission is free, and donations are appreciated. Pizza, salad and beverages will be available, including microbrews, wine and sparkling water.
Clarinetist Kristin Rencher founded the ensemble with the goal of helping people of all ages to discover—or rediscover—the joy and healing power of music. The non-profit band was also an opportunity for lapsed musicians in the community to come back to instruments they played years ago.
Founded in collaboration with current director Nick Caldwell, who also leads the band program at Ida B. Wells High School, SWCPB now boasts more than 50 players.
The band uses its two annual concerts, spring and winter, to raise funds for the Wells music program, primarily for the purchase of new instruments. Some of the percussion instruments at Wells are as old as the school itself (69 years) and are in need of replacement.
Three years ago, the band purchased a new set of chimes, and last year they replaced the old vibraphone. This year the fundraising goal is instruments (both wind and percussion) as well as funds to cover the cost of professional musicians to help the young players at Wells with technical development and musicianship.
The 2026 winter concert program features several challenging, exuberant works, including “Exultate” by Samuel Hazo, with furiously fast woodwind passages, “Gravitas” by Soon Hee Newbold, a modern, cinematic work with complex rhythms, and “Albanian Dance” by Shelley Hanson, a raucous Middle Eastern folk dance. Many in the audience will recognize the “Folk Suite for Military Band” by renowned twentieth-century English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Part of the core literature for band, this three-movement work draws on a number of beautiful English folk melodies. The program also includes “Yuletide Riptide,” with creative variations on popular Christmas carols, and “From Ould Inishowen,” a lovely and meditative setting of two Irish folk tunes.
