ad tendo: with Oregon Symphony Artist in Residence Simone Porter
Join us for a solo violin performance and talk by Oregon Symphony 2025/26 Artist-in-Residence, Simone Porter. Porter’s presentation is inspired by the works of philosopher Simone Weil, and Weil’s insight that “Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer… Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.”
The Latin root of the word “attention,” ad tendo translated means “I stretch toward.” The solo violin works in this presentation, and on Porter’s most recent album, animate this “stretch” by calling upon one another to hear and understand how attention can yield the possibility for greater spiritual alignment. In Porter’s words, “This idea resonates so deeply with a feeling that I seek out and cherish, in which an experience of total absorption offers a kind of deliverance. Weil’s words electrified my thoughts about what the focus of practice and performance could unlock in a culture where human attention is treated like a commodity.”
Violinist Simone Porter has been recognized as an emerging artist of impassioned energy, interpretive integrity, and vibrant communication. She has debuted with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle and Pittsburgh Symphonies and with a number of renowned conductors, including Stéphane Denève, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Nicholas McGegan, Ludovic Morlot, Donald Runnicles, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Manfred Honeck, Louis Langrée and David Danzmayr. Simone made her professional solo debut at age 10 with the Seattle Symphony and her international debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London at age 13. In March 2015, Simone was named a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Porter’s recent seasons include extensive US touring with debuts and return visits to orchestras such as Colorado, North Carolina, St. Louis, Oregon, Nashville, Baltimore, Hawaii, Grand Rapids, Arkansas, Omaha, Quebec, Jacksonville and Westchester symphonies, Erie Philharmonic, Florida Orchestra and many more. After a busy summer of festival performances at Methow Valley, Bellingham, Bowdoin, Charlottesville and Britt Festival, 25/26 season begins with a return to Oregon Symphony marking the first year of Porter’s Artist in residence with the orchestra, a title she will hold through 27/28 season. In the spring of 2027 she will return to Buffalo Philharmonic and embark on a tour with the orchestra to Florida performing Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy under the baton of JoAnn Falletta. Internationally, Simone has performed with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra with Gustavo Dudamel; the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira in Rio de Janeiro; the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica; the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong; the Royal Northern Sinfonia; the Milton Keynes City Orchestra in the United Kingdom; Orquesta Clasica Santa Cecilia de la Fundacion Excelentia in Madrid; the Opera de Marseille and at the Edinburgh Festival performing Barber under the direction of Stéphane Denève.
In January 2026 Porter will lead a side-by-side project with New Century Chamber Orchestra and students of San Francisco Conservatory, presented in San Francisco and at Stanford Live. Recent recital highlights include a tour in Spain with pianist Pallavi Mahidhara and debuts at Celebrity Series in Boston and NY92, both of which featured the newly commissioned piece by composer Reena Esmail. An avid chamber musician, Porter has appeared at festivals such as La Jolla Summerfest, Bay Chamber Music, Moab Music Festival, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival and many more. Together with her colleagues violinist Blake Pouliot and pianist Hsin-I Huang, Porter presented a program at Cliburn Foundation in Fort Worth, TX and Broad Stage in Santa Monica, CA in spring of 2025.
February 2025 marked the release of her highly acclaim first solo album ad tendo on Bright Shiny Things label, featuring pieces by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Reena Esmail, Andrew Norman, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber and Hildegard von Bingen. At the invitation of Salonen, Porter performed his work ‘Lachen verlernt’ (‘Laughing Unlearnt’), at the New York Philharmonic’s “Foreign Bodies,” a multi-sensory celebration of the work of the composer and conductor. Simone made her Carnegie Zankel Hall debut on the Emmy Award-winning TV show From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall followed in November 2016 by her debut in Stern Auditorium. She will return to Carnegie in December of 2024 together with cellist Joshua Roman as a part of their Well-Being Concert. In June 2016, her featured performance of music from Schindler’s List with Maestro Gustavo Dudamel and members of the American Youth Symphony was broadcast nationally on the TNT Network as part of the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award: A Tribute to John Williams.
Raised in Seattle, Washington, Simone studied with Margaret Pressley as a recipient of the Dorothy Richard Starling Scholarship, and was then admitted into the studio of the renowned pedagogue Robert Lipsett, with whom she studied at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles. Summer studies have included many years at the Aspen Music Festival, Indiana University’s Summer String Academy, and the Schlern International Music Festival in Italy.
Simone Porter performs on a 1740 Carlo Bergonzi violin made in Cremona Italy on generous loan from The Master’s University, Santa Clarita, California.
