Eugene

Extract

City in Oregon (pop. 156,000; 2010 US Census). Founded in 1846 by Eugene Skinner, it is located at the junction of the McKenzie and Willamette Rivers and has adopted the slogan “A Great City for the Arts and Outdoors.” Its band and choral traditions date to the 1870s; among its 20th-century institutions are the Eugene Symphony Orchestra (founded 1965), the Oregon Bach Festival (1970), the Eugene Concert Choir (1975), the Eugene Opera (1976), the Oregon Mozart Players (1982), and the Shedd Institute (1992). A plethora of smaller musical groups incorporate the sounds of many ethnicities and subcultures.

The University of Oregon provides many of the musicians and much of the ongoing music-making. The university has one of the oldest schools of music on the West Coast (founded as a department in the 1886 and made a school in 1900...