Biamp Portland Jazz Festival: Roger Eno

Name: Biamp Portland Jazz Festival: Roger Eno
Start: 2026-03-07T20:00:00-08:00
Location: Winningstad Theatre

Schedule

Sat, 07 Mar, 2026 at 08:00 pm

UTC-08:00

Location

Winningstad Theatre | Portland, OR

Roger Eno is a British composer and musician whose distinctive style as a recording artist has attracted a cult following. In 2020 he made his debut on Deutsche Grammophon with Mixing Colours, his first duo album with his brother, Brian, which was released to great acclaim.
Eno was born in the Suffolk market town of Woodbridge. He became immersed in music at school and bought a battered upright piano with money earned every Saturday as a butcher’s boy. His musical education continued at Colchester Institute School of Music. After a brief interlude playing jazz piano in private clubs in London, he returned to East Anglia.
As well as first collaborating with his brother Brian and Daniel Lanois in 1983 on Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, he has made over a dozen solo albums and other collaborative pieces with the likes of Peter Hammill, The Orb and his first “band”, the ambient supergroup Channel Light Vessel, whose line-up included Laraaji, Kate St. John, Bill Nelson and Japanese cellist Mayumi Tachibana. He’s also teamed up as a session musician and band member with artists as diverse as The Orb, Lou Reed, Jarvis Cocker and Beck, and not to mention his three-year stint as Musical Director for Tim Robbins and his band, The Rogues Gallery.
Known as a solo composer in both theatre and film, Roger scored Trevor Nunn’s highly acclaimed production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal at London’s National Theatre and, more recently, Nick Hornby’s Emmy winning TV series State of the Union directed by Stephen Frears. Beyond that he has contributed music to many film soundtracks over the years.
Roger Eno lives in a small town on the border of Suffolk and Norfolk. Those two rural counties, with their quiet lanes, medieval churches and waterways, have given focus and intensity to the natural introspection of his music. He has described his creative process as one of “decomposing”- improvising in his studio early in the morning to later strip away all excess from the result to reveal the essence of the piece. His approach to the world has been likened to that of a visitor to a flea market, that nothing should be ignored, that the curious can be all too easily overlooked…
Following his duo album with Brian Eno, Mixing Colours (2020), Roger released the solo albums The Turning Year (2022) and The Skies, They Shift Like Chords (2023). Roger’s latest album, Without Wind / Without Air (2025), is the most challenging work of a career that’s already lasted over forty years. Though its dozen pieces were, as is his wont, born at his piano during daily improvisations, it finds him, in collaboration with producer Christian Badzura - also his A&R at Deutsche Grammophon, with whom Eno’s worked since 2020 - venturing way beyond his comfort zone, only to discover he’s rarely been so at ease. Known best as a pianist, Eno flaunts an exhilarating curiosity, embracing complex, often disconcerting orchestral arrangements and exercising an endlessly receptive enthusiasm to cut both to the chase and the quick. As Badzura puts it, “When people get older, they usually get milder. Roger is becoming more punk.” The album was recorded at Badzura’s home in Berlin and the city’s Teldex Studio, with contributions from soprano Grace Davidson, conductor Johnathan Stockhammer, and Eno’s daughter Cecily, who also provides and designed the artwork.
On Without Wind / Without Air, Eno confirms that what once may have tantalised him is now within his grasp, producing what may be his boldest, most candid, most questioning album to date. Crucially, though, it was made without fear but still reminds us why fear exists.
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The Biamp Portland Jazz Festival, March 5-14, 2026, is a multi-venue, citywide celebration of sound and culture presented throughout Portland, Oregon. Dedicated to evolving out loud, the Festival honors America’s art form while embracing its future—bringing together legendary masters, boundary-breaking artists, and rising local talents who are redefining jazz and expanding its reach across genres and generations.