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Micah Fletcher, a survivor in the 2017 MAX train stabbings, teamed up with Oregon musicians for a poetic and musical collaboration Friday night. The performance, titled “I Spat in the Face of Hate and Lived,” was held at the Old Church concert venue and organized by the 45^th Parallel Universe chamber series.

Joseph Bologne (Chevalier de Saint Georges), Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price, and Daniel Bernard Roumain. None of these composers are household names but all are finally starting to get the attention they deserve. On Friday, in celebration of Black History Month, 45^th Parallel Universe presents Sons of the Soil, a concert featuring music by these black composers performed by the all female string quartet mousai REMIX.

When the classical music organization 45^th Parallel reached its 10th birthday this season, it expanded its ranks and artistic vision. Renamed 45^th Parallel Universe, it completed its evolution from an artistic director-driven model, led by founder and violinist Greg Ewer, to a collectively run umbrella organization comprising five ensembles.

This year, 45^th Parallel goes through a double shift, as the Portland-based classical music organization enters its 10th season and adds “Universe” to its appellation, reflecting a broadening of its roster and repertoire. This happens just as founder and long-time artistic director Greg Ewer passes the reins to his old pal and fellow Oregon Symphony violinist, former Third Angle artistic director Ron Blessinger, now 45^th Parallel interim executive director.

…as in the composer’s other works, melodic and harmonic elements play less of a role than do rhythmic elements. Much of the music’s interest derives from the shifting metric foundation that undergirds a stream of simple melodic patterns built on arpeggios. But the 1991 work also is endowed with a many beautiful melodic gestures, played expressively by violinist Ruby Chen and Ron Blessinger, violist Charles Noble and cellist Marilyn de Oliveira.

An homage to the Marquis de Sade, New York composer John Zorn’s Cat o’ Nine Tails plucks my guts every time the players pick at their stringed instrument. The churning tickly sensation in my abdomen stops after three minutes.

It started as a typical internet flame war. Writer criticizes something. Target reacts with inflammatory defensiveness. Comment thread explodes, grows simultaneously nastier and less relevant to the original subject. Site moderator cuts off comments to avoid alienating disgusted readers.

We’ve all seen this way too many times. A sharp review, words are exchanged online, things get personal. And the next thing you know everyone’s typing in all caps, using death’s head emojis and … well, it's just getting out of hand. We love a good art feud as much as anyone, but usually nothing much comes of them.