The Salon Series at Ascension

12/17/2025

We had a delightful time this evening at our Regency Salon for Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday! We had a wonderful audience, and it was a joy to share so much music from Jane Austen’s life and times! Thank you so much to everybody who attended, and everyone who supported us in preparing and presenting this concert!

12/16/2025

So excited that our concert was featured in The Oregonian today!
A Regency Salon for Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday with
Emma Mildred Cowell
Jocelyn Claire Thomas

Don your bonnets, today is Jane Austen day in Oregon.

12/16/2025

Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen! All year, people all over the world have been celebrating the way she transformed literature. Tonight, we will celebrate with our salon concert inspired by her life and her music library!

A Regency Salon for Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday
December 16 | 7 PM
Ascension Parish
1823 SW Spring Street, Portland
https://www.ascensionepiscopalparish.org/calendar-of-events/2025/12/16/a-regency-salon-for-jane-austens-250th-birthday

12/15/2025

Among the handwritten music manuscripts in the collection of the Jane Austen House museum is this set of variations on the Welsh new year carol “Nos galan,” a tune better known in the USA as “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly.” This delightful piece is transcribed in Jane Austen’s own handwriting - she probably copied it from a friend’s music collection to add to her own library of piano music to play!

We’ll be playing this anonymous piece (which are not likely to hear anywhere else) at A Regency Salon for Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday!

many thanks to the Jane Austen House Museum for access to their wonderful scanned collection of Austen family music manuscripts!

12/10/2025

We’re delighted that our upcoming concert is featured on this week’s episode of All Classical’s Northwest Previews with Andrea Murray! Tune in to Northwest Previews on All Classical Radio this Friday at 8AM to hear a Salon Series director Emma Mildred Cowell chat with Andrea Murray about Dec. 16’s Regency Salon for Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday!

12/06/2025

Admission to our Dec. 16 concert is free (with donations accepted at the event) but reservations are requests and there are only 15 spots left! Our venue has limited space, so if you’d like to join us, make sure to register soon! Link in bio!

11/25/2025

All of the music in our upcoming concert, “A Regency Salon for Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday,” was published for the home music market. On a December evening in regency England, home music making was a great way to while away the hours with friends and family! We’ll recreate that warm atmosphere at our concert as we gather around the piano with music from Jane Austen’s personal collection.

11/19/2025

Meet the artists of our Dec. 16 concert, A Regency Salon for Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday! And come back tomorrow for Emma’s Austen Fan Interview!

Emma Mildred Cowell is a soprano, accompanist, and music historian specializing in art song, early music, and sacred music. Ms. Cowell holds degrees in Voice Performance (B.A., Geneva College) and Music History (M.M., Youngstown State University) and serves on the Voice faculty of Willamette University. Ms. Cowell is Co-Artistic Director of Ensemble Boulanger, a Portland-based chamber collaboration dedicated to crafting engaging lecture-recitals of music by women. She is also Minister of Music at Ascension Episcopal Parish, and a soprano with Cantores in Ecclesia. Ms. Cowell has appeared as soloist with The Bach Cantata Choir and The Oregon Chorale, and performed roles in several Gilbert & Sullivan operas with Light Opera of Portland. She has also appeared with Portland Opera in the Park, Trinity Music, and Portland Opera on Tap. Recent favorite projects include her portrayal of Enlightenment harpsichordist Sara Levy in The Musical Salon of Sara Levy, a concert and theater performance by the Bach Cantata Choir and Orchestra for which Ms. Cowell also served as musicological consultant and scriptwriter. As an accompanist, Ms. Cowell’s recent projects include collaborations with Ping & Woof Opera, OrpheusPDX, and the Deutsche Sommerschule am Pazifik.

www.emmamildred.com

IG: .mildred.soprano

11/15/2025

Did you do the Jane Austen and Ludwig van Beethoven share a birthday… Sort of?
The exact date of Beethoven’s birth wasn’t recorded, but we know he was baptized on December 17, 1770, which has led scholars to suspect that he was born on December 16. Jane Austen was born on Dec. 16, 1775, making the two figures close contemporaries. While Jane Austen was revolutionizing fiction in England, Beethoven was revolutionizing music in Germany!

Beethoven will be a special guest at our concert, A Regency Salon for Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday, with two of Beethoven’s beautiful British folk song arrangements.

Austen

11/12/2025

Meet the artists for our next concert: A Regency Salon for Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday on Dec. 16!

Soprano Jocelyn Claire Thomas is a great fan of Jane Austen and is excited to share her favorite songs from Jane Austen’s life and times!

We asked Jocelyn to tell us more about her Jane Austen favorites!

Favorite Austen Movie - 1995 BBC Pride & Prejudice
Favorite Book - Pride & Prejudice
Favorite Character - Elizabeth Bennet
Favorite Quote - “There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” - Elizabeth Bennet, Chapter 31

Visit the link in our bio to learn more about our concert on Dec. 16, Jane Austen’s birthday!