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Engaging With Portland’s Music Scenes

Portland Music Scenes, a course taught by Associate Professor of Music Kaley Mason, allows our students to engage with the city and its residents while learning the tools of ethnomusicology. Students recently took a field trip to the Portland Japanese Garden, where students watched Yumi Torimaru, instructor in shamisen, perform as part of the duo Takohachi X.

  • Students walking in the Japanese Garden surrounded by green trees and moss.
    Students in the Portland Music Scenes class, taught by Associate Professor of Music Kaley Mason, were able to learn outside of the classroom on a field trip to the renowned Portland Japanese Garden.
  • Three students have some fun while touring the Japanese Garden, which sits in the hills of
    Washington Park, overlooking the city.
  • Yumi Torimaru, instructor of shamisen, regularly performs in the garden’s Cathy Rudd Cultural Corner.
  • The garden encompasses 12.5 acres with eight separate garden styles, and includes an authentic Japanese Tea House.
  • Students listen attentively to the live performance, making connections to what they’ve learned
    in class.
  • Torimaru, a music instructor and performer, has a rich background in traditional Japanese music.
  • Torimaru founded Takohachi, a nonprofit organization in Portland, Oregon, dedicated to showcasing Japanese culture through music.
  • Professor Mason and his students, along with members of the general public, enjoy Torimaru’s performance.
  • After the performance, students were able to talk with Torimaru.
  • Students and a faculty member walking out of a building with the sun shining behind them.
    Professor Mason and his students head off campus to the Japanese Garden, one of several Portland “music scenes” explored in the class.
  • Professor Mason is also the area coordinator for world music. His work is broadly concerned with how music serves as a vehicle for cultural dignity and how performers, in turn, shape movements for social change.
  • Students share a laugh in class. Portland Music Scenes focuses on connecting students with the city and its music while they learn the basics of ethnomusicology (the historical study of music and culture).
  • The course attracts students from a wide variety of disciplines across campus, including music, sociology and anthropology, history, and rhetoric and media studies.
  • Torimaru visited the class and spoke about her role in the local Japanese music scene.
  • Torimaru talks about her instrument and the culture behind the music.
  • A student performed alongside Torimaru.
  • Two performers in front of a group of students in a classroom.
    Hands-on learning, in and out of the classroom, is instrumental to a Lewis & Clark education.