The Board and Musicians of the Portland Chamber Orchestra are mourning the passing of our beloved Music Director/Conductor, Yaacov (Yaki) Bergman, who died on September 20, 2023. Mae West was believed to have said "You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Certainly Yaki did it right. He left us too soon, but with memories of a rich, dramatic, sweeping symphony of a life, righteous to the final movement.
Under the leadership of Maestro Bergman, PCO has become one of Portland's most progressive and daring ensembles with its mission devoted to artistic fusion and multi-arts concepts, and programs that promote cultural and social diversity.
With his innovative programming and fusion of the arts, Yaki turned the PCO into "the intimate symphony with infinite imagination.” For 21 years, Yaki has led the orchestra with passion, enthusiasm, and creative energy that mirrored his love of the music he created. He opened the portal into the history of human emotion and expression, and provided an essential framework for contemporary entertainment which will continue to fill our lives.
- Mary Bailey, PCO Board Member
On behalf of the PCO Board of Directors
photography by Bob Graves
"Magnificent - a sonic cavalcade of passion, depth and excitement" - Edmonton Journal
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"Thrilling interpretation that combined intelligence with white-hot emotion" - Colorado Springs Gazette
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"Bergman coaxed disciplined impassioned playing from the orchestra." - Tim Page, The New York Times
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"Magnificent - a sonic cavalcade of passion, depth and excitement" - Edmonton Journal • "Thrilling interpretation that combined intelligence with white-hot emotion" - Colorado Springs Gazette • "Bergman coaxed disciplined impassioned playing from the orchestra." - Tim Page, The New York Times •
Meet Yaacov Bergman
Music Director + Conductor
Born in Israel, Bergman’s early musical training began with violin and vocal studies, but he soon expressed an avid interest in composing and conducting. After graduation from the Rubin Academy of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, with majors in conducting and composition, he completed post-graduate studies at the Mannes College of Music in New York as a student of Richard Westenburg. He pursued further conducting studies under the guidance of Charles Bruck, a disciple of Pierre Monteux, as well as private study under Leonard Bernstein. In 1998 he was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Colorado Technical University.
Maestro Bergman is currently Music Director/Conductor of the Portland Chamber Orchestra, the Walla Walla Symphony, the Siletz Bay Music Festival in Lincoln City OR and the McCall SummerFest, ID. He is the former Music Director of the Colorado Springs Symphony, The New York Heritage Symphony, and the 92nd St. Y Orchestra in New York City. His versatility has led to frequent guest appearances across the globe conducting the symphonic, operatic, oratorio, balletic and pops repertoires.
Yaacov Bergman has received consistent rave notices for his interpretations of a highly varied repertoire, and has been acclaimed world-wide as an intensely communicative musician. Maestro Bergman’s interest in new music and multi-arts concepts is reflected in his programming of many new works. Under his leadership, the Portland Chamber Orchestra developed its distinctive timbre and a new focus on a fusion of art forms, while bringing to audiences World, American and Northwest Premieres. Willamette Week's annual Finder edition called the PCO "The Most Ambitious Arts Organization in Portland” and, "Punching way above its weight, under Music Director Yaacov Bergman, PCO has lately been the city's most innovative orchestra, combining music with visual arts, poetry, theater, even science and sex."
His success in Japan as conductor of the Osaka Opera Company's premiere performance of Verdi's opera Macbeth led to subsequent engagements which included La Bohem, La Traviata in Osaka and Kobe and symphonic concerts with the Osaka Symphonica. Maestro Bergman guest conducted the Denver Symphony in a collaborative production with Colorado Central Opera and Ballet, a tour with Israel’s Natanya-Kibbutz Orchestra, the New Russia State Philharmonic at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall and the Belarusian State Chamber Orchestra in Minsk. Other collaborative ventures include annual productions with Oregon's Eugene Ballet Company and the Walla Walla Symphony, and the Portland Festival Ballet Company and the PCO.
Maestro Bergman guest conducted with the New Russia Philharmonic, Belarus National Chamber Orchestra in Minsk, Osaka Symphonica, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the San Diego Symphony, the Vancouver, the Edmonton and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Canada & the West Virginia Symphony, repeat appearances with the Lodz and Bydgoszcz Philharmonics in Poland, a debut performance with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, a third appearance with the Brooklyn Philharmonic in New York and a concert tour with the Israel Sinfonietta and The Israel Kibbutz Orchestra. He recently served as principal guest conductor of the “North Atlantic Summer Music Festival” in Denmark. Maestro Bergman conducted a series of successful symphonic concerts in Cairo, Egypt in 1995 and 1996 as the first American/Israeli conductor to appear in an Arab republic.
Past guest conducting includes the Buffalo Philharmonic, the San Diego Symphony, the Philippine Philharmonic, and the Vancouver, Edmonton and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphonies in Canada.