Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble and Third Rail Repertory Theatre present the concert production of D’Zama: The Musical Vagabond
On Friday, May 3rd, Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble (PJCE) and Third Rail Repertory Theatre (TRRT) will present the concert production of D’Zama: The Musical Vagabond at the Mt. Hood Jazz Festival. Inspired by the life of the free-spirited and pioneering spirit of the little-known Oregon musician D’Zama Murielle, the concert production will feature the TRRT cast alongside PJCE’s 12-member ensemble. Tickets for the Mt. Hood Jazz Festival can be found here.
In 2022, Portland writer Sarah Smith and her husband, conductor Raul Gomez Rojas, were offered a dozen boxes of what they assumed were a collection of musical scores. What they discovered instead was an estate’s worth of manuscripts and collectibles, including the self-published autobiography of D’Zama Murielle (1901 – 1985), an Oregon woman who lived an extraordinary life.
Murielle studied conducting under Toscanini. She led the Portland Women’s Symphony Orchestra at a time when women were hardly afforded the opportunity to play in professional orchestras, let alone conduct them. She hopped trains to apply for distant conducting jobs and once biked to Chicago. She toured across the states and throughout Europe with a collection of musical instruments from around the world, teaching students music history and how to play.
She was wildly prolific and clearly ahead of her time. Smith wondered, “ Why wasn’t D’Zama Murielle a heralded figure? Why hadn’t she made a lasting mark or become a notable figure in Oregon history?” Smith and a team of collaborators from PJCE and TRRT — composer Owen Broder, lyricist Ben Tissell, music director Ryan Meagher, and director Isaac Lamb — set out to create a new jazz musical that would probe these questions and consider the legacies we leave, and those we lose.
The May 3rd concert production of D’Zama serves as a preview to an upcoming multi-week run of a full production of the musical by TRRT and PJCE. Dates for the 24-25 Season will be announced soon.
Event Details
Friday, May 3rd 7:30 PM; 7 PM Doors
Mt. Hood Community College on the College Theatre Stage
Tickets can be found here, $30-60.
Further information here. Mt. Hood Jazz Festival details here.
About PJCE
Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create original jazz music that engages and supports our community’s diverse artists, cultures and place. In operation since 2008, PJCE is the only organization dedicated to commissioning and performing original music by Portland musicians, building a broad audience through unique, collaborative and community-oriented programming that builds bridges between communities in this vibrant city. Learn more at pjce.org.
The May 3rd concert production of D’Zama serves as a preview to an upcoming multi-week run of a full production of the musical by TRRT and PJCE. Dates for the 24-25 Season will be announced soon.