Oasis offers some cultural refreshment

The Oasis Ensemble will kick off its 2024-2025 season at Newport’s Pacific Maritime Heritage Center this Saturday, Nov. 16, and the Lincoln City Cultural Center on Sunday, Nov. 17.

The ensemble consists of Dawn Weiss, soloist and former principal flutist of the Oregon Symphony; Louis Lowenstein, former cellist with the Chicago and Pittsburgh symphonies; and Andrew Cannestra, award-winning pianist and recording artist.

Based in Eugene, the trio regularly performs in a wide variety of venues across Oregon to audiences of all ages and musical backgrounds to foster and cultivate the arts, providing a cultural and artistic oasis of inspiration, meaning and fulfillment for local and statewide communities.

In these first concerts of the season, the ensemble will present female composer Mel Bonis’s “Soir et Matin” which is in the French romantic/impressionist style, Bohuslav Martinu’s charming, high-energy Czech neo-classical “Trio #1" and Felix Mendelssohn’s lush Germanic classical/romantic “Trio in D minor, op. 49." Future concerts will include a wide variety of compositions from classical to romantic, impressionistic to jazz influenced and contemporary styles. Some programs will include exciting newly commissioned works by local and national composers.

The Saturday concert begins at 7:30 pm at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center, located at 333 SE Bay Blvd. in Newport. The Sunday concert begins at 2 pm at Lincoln City Cultural Center, located at 540 NE Hwy. 101. Tickets are $20 for adults and discounted for students. For more information, go to oasisensemble.com.