(Above: Siri Vik performing in a recent show at The Shedd that celebrated music of the ’50s and early ’60s; photo by Paul Carter)

By Daniel Buckwalter

A bewildering past 17 months gave way to yet another puzzling moment on Thursday afternoon: What again is the etiquette for attending a concert?

All of my local pandemic-driven music offerings had come through the computer screen. Sometimes, I showered and shaved for them.

The last concert I attended in person was a Eugene Symphony Orchestra production at the Hult Center, and that was in February of 2020. You can forget some things in that span, such as turning your phone off and knowing when and when not to applaud.

Yet there I was Thursday at Jaqua Concert Hall, bearing witness to the start of The Shedd’s 30th annual Oregon Festival of American Music (OFAM), and there was Siri Vik in all her eloquence with an eight-piece band (including guest percussionist Chuck Redd) behind her.

I was near strangers and not wearing a mask. How was this happening?

It did feel disorienting at first, but as Vik’s Rendezvous: In Foreign Climes program — the lead-off musical program to OFAM’s 10-day celebration of cinematic music titled Reel Music — came to a close, I felt a familiar smile cross my face.

We may yet not know what the full scope of the “new normal” is, but I loved having a slice of my past back.

Thursday’s performance, the first of two performances for Vik at OFAM, had the soprano guiding the audience through Europe and South America in fluent French, German and Portuguese. There was not an ordained message to the program, Vik explained to the audience. Rather, she noted, it was an “eclectic” collection of her favorite works.

Vignettes, both on screen and on stage, ranged from the bossa nova — A Felicidade and Manhã de Carnaval from the 1959 film Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) — to pre-World War II cinema music and 1960s new wave work from Europe.

Some of the selected music, along with the films they represented, were gripping in their sadness, especially the older films from Europe.

Prominent among them is If I Could Wish For Something from the 1931 German film Der Mann, der seinen Moder sucht (The Man In Search Of His Murderer). It was made famous by Marlene Dietrich and is handled with grace by Vik.

There also are French love songs (of course), and a beautiful piece in the program is I Will Wait For You from the 1964 film Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), which is notable for the fact that every word in the movie is sung.

Jazz also is featured, and one of its standards is early in the program —Autumn Leaves from the 1964 French film Les Portes de la Nuit (Gates Of The Night).

Rendezvous: In Foreign Climes drew a small crowd on Thursday, but that audience was deeply in tune with Vik, eager to absorb grace and beauty after the trying last year-plus. And early in the program the soprano held back a tear while thanking everyone for coming. There was some emotion.

It was the soft opening, if you will, to this year’s OFAM, a gentle 90 minutes of joy meant to usher music enthusiasts not just to the Opening Gala later that night, but back to their feet and going to community arts events again in Lane County.

I loved having that slice of my past back.

Repeat Performance of Siri Vik and Rendezvous: In Foreign Climes

When: 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 30

Where: Jaqua Concert Hall, The Shedd, 868 High St., Eugene

Tickets: 541-434-7000 or at the ticket office

Information: theshedd.org