Member Login

In Residence

Artists. Authors. Musicians. In Conversation with You.

The University Club’s In-Residence Programs bring working artists, authors, and musicians into the rhythm of Club life. These are not one-time appearances. They are ongoing relationships that invite members into the creative process itself.

Each Resident shares more than finished work. They share drafts, ideas, performances, and perspective. Members experience intimate readings, studio talks, lectures, exhibitions, and performances that unfold in real time. The result is something rare: direct access to the people shaping today’s cultural landscape.

Rooted in our commitment to enrichment and intellectual exchange, the In-Residence Programs strengthen the Club’s role as a place where ideas are explored, artistry is supported, and meaningful dialogue continues long after the event ends.

Photo: Supersession 11 - 2026 UC Artist-in-Residence Garrick Arnold

The University Club of Portland’s Artist-in-Residence program was established in 2008 to enrich the University Club membership experience and to provide an opportunity to Northwest artists to reach new audiences. Such programs are rare in private clubs across the country. Each year a Board-approved professional artist establishes a program in the University Club. Club members have the unique opportunity to enjoy the artist’s work installed at the Club, to engage in enrichment and educational programs with the artist, and to observe the artist at work.

In addition to enriching the membership experience, the Artist-in-Residence program enhances the art collection of the University Club for present members and future generations. Each resident artist is required to donate a work to the permanent collection.


The University Club of Portland’s Musician-in-Residence program was established in 2019. It began due to the success of the Club’s Piano Bar, which has brought local musicians and vocalists into the Club monthly for intimate performances.

The Musician-in-Residence program enriches the membership experience and allows local performers to reach out to new audiences. Each year one Board-approved local musician establishes a residency at the Club. They are offered one year of dues free Membership and have the opportunity to create programming for our Members.

If you are interested in a residency, please contact our Front Desk Concierge at [email protected] or (503) 223-6237.

Musicians

Artist-In-Residence

Application & Submission Process

Submission Deadline: Saturday, October 31, 2026

Submissions are now open for the University Club of Portland’s 2027 Artist-in-Residence program. Professional artists and curators living in Oregon and Southwest Washington are invited to apply. Proximity to Portland is essential, as active participation and engagement with Club members are central to the Residency experience.

Submission Requirements

Applicants are asked to submit the following materials:

  • A current résumé or curriculum vitae

  • A brief biography suitable for publication

  • An artist statement outlining creative practice and conceptual focus

  • A statement of intent describing proposed engagement with Club members

  • A digital portfolio of recent work, including an image list and descriptions

Artists working in painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, mixed media, sculpture, and related visual disciplines will be considered.

Submission Instructions

All application materials must be submitted by Saturday, October 31, 2026, to:

Alex Sowerby
Communications & Engagement Director
University Club of Portland
[email protected]

Selection Process

All submissions will be reviewed by the Artist-in-Residence Committee throughout November 2026. Selected finalists may be invited to present their work and vision in person as part of the evaluation process.

Following the Committee's review, its recommendation will be submitted to the University Club's Board of Directors for final approval. Board approval and official notification of acceptance are anticipated in early December 2026, with a public announcement to follow.

The selected Artist-in-Residence should be prepared to begin their yearlong residency on January 1, 2027.

Selection Process

Submissions for the University Club of Portland’s 2027 Artist-in-Residence program are now open, with applications due Saturday, October 31, 2026.

The Residency is open to professional artists and curators living in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Proximity to Portland is essential, as active participation and engagement with Club members are central to the Residency experience.

Artists and curators working in painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, mixed media, sculpture, and related visual disciplines are encouraged to apply.

Applications will be reviewed by the Artist-in-Residence Committee throughout November, with selected finalists potentially invited to present their work and vision in person. Final selections are subject to Board of Directors approval, with official acceptance anticipated in early December. The selected artist should be prepared to begin their residency on January 1, 2027.

To apply, submit your application materials by October 31, 2026 to Alex Sowerby, Communications & Engagement Director, at [email protected].

Benefits to University Club Members

The Artist-in-Residence program gives University Club members a personal connection to Portland’s creative community, with opportunities to get to know the artists, explore their creative process, and experience art beyond the gallery setting. Through intimate conversations, hands-on workshops, artist-led experiences, and shared cultural outings, members gain new perspectives, discover common interests, and build friendships around a shared appreciation for the arts. Rotating exhibitions bring fresh energy to the clubhouse throughout the year, with opportunities to acquire original works and support local artists. More than an exhibition program, the Residency makes art an active part of Club life, creating experiences and connections members might not otherwise encounter.

Benefits to Artists

Founded in 1898, the University Club of Portland is a private social club with a membership of approximately 550 professionals, business owners, artists, authors, and leaders across business, government, education, and the arts. The Artist-in-Residence program offers a unique opportunity to become part of this community, build meaningful relationships, expand professional visibility, and share one's creative practice with an engaged and curious audience.

The selected artist receives:

  • Honorary Club Membership: A complimentary yearlong membership to the University Club of Portland, including access to the Club's dining, social events, amenities, and member programming.

  • Worldwide Reciprocal Privileges: Access to the Club's network of reciprocal clubs, subject to each participating club's policies.

  • Dedicated Studio Space: Approximately 200 square feet of studio space within the historic clubhouse, offering a creative home base and opportunities for interaction with members.

  • Exhibition Opportunities: Prominent display of original artwork or curator-selected pieces throughout the clubhouse, including opening and closing exhibitions and receptions.

  • Commission-Free Artwork Sales: The freedom to establish pricing and sell exhibited work directly to interested members and guests, with no commission retained by the University Club.

  • Professional Exposure and Connections: Opportunities to build relationships with members from a wide range of professional and creative backgrounds, fostering potential collaborations, commissions, and lasting connections.

  • Creative Programming Opportunities: A platform to lead artist talks, demonstrations, workshops, fee-based classes, and cultural experiences that introduce members to the artist's practice and perspective.

  • A Lasting Artistic Legacy: At the conclusion of the residency, the artist will donate a mutually agreed-upon work to the University Club's permanent collection, subject to recommendation by the Artist-in-Residence Committee and approval by the Board of Directors.

The Residency is designed to be a mutually enriching experience, giving the artist a place within the Club's community while bringing new creative perspectives, conversations, and experiences into the everyday life of its membership.

Sales

All sales of Artist-in-Residence work exhibited at the University Club are commission-free, excepting existing commission agreements with the artist’s representative or gallery. The artist’s works are fully insured while on display at the University Club. Current works or selections by the Artist-in-Residence will be displayed throughout the University Club during the year of residency; these works will be available for sale to members and guests of the University Club. As works are sold they will be replaced by other current works by the Artist-In-Residence. The University Club requests that the artist or curator has a minimum of 10 works available for display and sale at all times.

Artist

 

Artist

2026 UC Artist-in-Residence: Garrick Arnold
As both a lifelong artist and entrepreneur, Portland, Oregon-based abstract expressionist painter Garrick Arnold brings decades of creative experience to his work on canvas. Before focusing fully on painting, Garrick enjoyed many years of success as a graphic designer, art director, and brand builder, developing a strong visual language rooted in clarity, intuition, and bold expression.

Garrick’s wide-ranging interests, spanning science, pop culture, and Buddhism, 
inform both the philosophy and energy behind his work. These influences surface not as literal references, but as underlying currents that shape how his paintings explore perception, awareness, and the nature of reality.

Working primarily in acrylics, Garrick seeks to reveal the intersection of reality as it is lived, imagined, and internally experienced. His paintings are driven by movement and momentum, collisions of color and form that radiate outward, filling space with urgency and presence. The result is work that feels both spontaneous and intentional, inviting viewers to pause, reflect, and bring their own 
consciousness into the conversation.

View Garrick's work: www.artbygarrick.com
2024-2025 UC Artist-in-Residence: Tristan Perrotti

Tristan Perrotti is a Portland-based artist, originally from rural Oregon, where he grew up alongside horse ranches and small family farms. In addition to his artistic practice, Tristan works as a political consultant and non-profit organizer. As a painter, his work focuses on expressionist portraiture and figures, incorporating surreal and abstract forms. His art explores classical themes and compositions, emphasizing bold colors and expressions informed by his personal experiences and emotional states at the time of creation.

Tristan’s work is fundamentally diaristic, aiming to pull viewers into his own head. He conveys the emotionality of his life without necessarily providing didactic context, focusing instead on emotional immediacy, impact, and intensity. His use of loose and abstracted bodies and faces creates a tension of motion, crafted through an intentional and intuitive rapid process. Tristan’s paintings are made quickly, with rapid decisions and rarely any redoing or undoing, deriving joy from prompting viewers to question the context or meaning of the work.

He emphasizes the transitional nature of emotions and how they impact his creative process. Through built-up figural movements, Tristan’s work conveys a center for experiencing his art, much like the eye of a storm. He aims to pull the audience into the feelings, both emotional and physical, of his subjects. With a strong sense of color and vibrancy, Tristan brings intensity to his paintings and offers a nuanced engagement, immersing viewers in the emotional and physical experiences of his art.

View his work at https://www.tristanperrottiart.com/

2022-2023 UC Artist-in-Residence: Diana LoMeiHing

Diana LoMeiHing’s creative journey spans from Hong Kong to Milan to Portland. She’s exhibited in solo and collective exhibitions in galleries in Italy and many other countries around the world since 1978, when she graduated with high honors from Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. 

She has written several Chinese cookbooks, including, in 1983, the popular cookbook The Joy of Chinese Cooking. 

Along with writing screenplays, articles, reviews, and poems, she has led numerous lectures, spoken at conferences, provided on-screen narration in documentaries, and designed a line of silk ties for Tessitura Serica Molinelli, exclusively sold at Mark & Spencer. She has been an illustrator for publishers and taught courses at Universities. To top it all off, she is also a professional photographer who’s prints are featured in exhibitions in Milan and Portland. 

In recent years,  Diana curated an exhibit supporting Asian Elephants at the Museum of Natural History of Milan, was Artist-in-Residence at the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing, China, gave a major presentation on Chinese Culture at Expo Milan 2017, and currently commences artistic activities between Italy and the United States. In addition to all of Diana’s successes, she is thrilled that her new book, Breathing Tao was released in 2022. 

View her work at https://lomeihingportfolio.com/

2020-2021 UC Artist-in-Residence: Harley Cowan

Harley Cowan is a photographer and practicing architect based in Portland. His interest in large format photography led to a research fellowship in heritage documentation where he photographed Cloud Cap Inn (built 1889) on Mount Hood and B Reactor (1944) at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park at Hanford, Washington. Earlier this year, Harley was inducted into the Atomic Photographers Guild, an international collective of photographers founded in 1987, dedicated to making visible all aspects of the nuclear age. He is its 38th member.

Harley has had solo exhibitions at Camerawork Gallery in Portland, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park visitor center, and Allied Arts in Richland, Washington. His work was featured in the 2018-19 Pacific Northwest Viewing Drawers at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland and Photolucida’s Critical Mass. Juries selected photographs for the “Life In Analog” national exhibition of film photography at Fort Works Art in Fort Worth, Texas, the “Lyceum Portland” exhibit of silver gelatin and alternative process at Jailhouse Studios in Portland, and “PDX 30” at LightBox Gallery in Astoria.

In 2018, Harley was the Artist-in-Residence at Oregon Caves National Monument, won the Access Award from the Vernacular Architecture Forum, and was a speaker at the Portland Art Museum for the Photography Council’s Brown Bag Lecture Series. He lectured before University of Oregon’s Historic Preservation Program, DoCoMoMo Oregon, the Pacific Northwest Preservation Field School, and the Society of Architectural Historians at their 2017 conference in Victoria, B.C. His work is published online in Archipedia, an encyclopedia of historic sites, and in print with the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation quarterly magazine This Place, Washington State University’s alumni quarterly Washington State Magazine, and the Atomic Heritage Foundation’s publication A Guide to the Manhattan Project in Washington State.

A graduate of Washington State University, for eight years, Harley was a member of the Professional Advisory Board for its School of Design & Construction. Early in his career, he spent six years in nuclear industry. His studies also took him to Far Eastern State Technical University in Vladivostok, Russia where he was the first and only western student to attend.   

2018-2019 UC Artist-in-Residence: Aja Ngo

Aja Ngo is a glass mosaic artist, visiting teacher, exhibition organizer and a community artist. She was introduced to mosaic art as a part of her everyday surrounding, growing up among medieval buildings in her native Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic. Mosaic art came up again later in life as an introduction to a stepping stone project which she worked on with her son, and she never looked back. 

What drew her to mosaic art was the skills required to make a good artist: patience, perseverance, and attention to detail. Her favorite works are texturally intricate pieces that have somewhat bold impression at first glance and begin to reveal a number of hidden details upon a closer look. Her pieces primarily use glass, texture glass, confetti glass, tempered glass, glass beads, porcelain, precious stones, corals, and found objects. Apart from study in her native Czech Republic, she has also studied in Russia, England, Vietnam, China and Peru.

She become a member of the Society of American Mosaic Artist (SAMA) in 2014 and holds graduate degrees in World History, Russian Language and Literature, and Acupuncture. When she is not working on a mosaic she maintains her practice at Portland Traditional Acupuncture in SW Portland, and spends time with her husband and two sons. She enjoys cooking, reading, paddle boarding, hiking, biking, practicing bikram yoga, dancing Argentine tango and sitting in silence in Hoyt Arboretum.

2017-2018 UC Artist-in-Residence: Michael Orwick

As a native Oregonian, Michael Orwick cannot separate his art from his love of the Pacific Northwest. The coast, mountains, and meadows inspire him; each infused with mysterious light and atmosphere, weave narratives into their settings.  

Michael Orwick earned a Fine Arts degree in Illustration from the Pacific Northwest College of Art and immediately took on an internship with Will Vinton Studios (now Laika Studio), while beginning to focus on children’s book illustrations. While he enjoyed illustrating, his true passion as an oil painter prevailed, and he began a career as a full-time oil painter. He has been blessed with a nearly immediate collector base that found something in his work that resonated. 

Last year, he, with his wife and daughter, took the year off from “real life” to travel the world. They visited twenty-one countries and painted with over 500 inspiring children from various orphanages and schools as part of their cause, called Studio Everywhere.  This year he hopes to reflect on that trip and create works of art that celebrate that special chapter of his life.

Michael Orwick currently shows in eight galleries across the country. He enjoys working on personal projects for the galleries, as well as on commissioned paintings for clients. On a typical day, you can find him working in his home studio or outside painting Plein-air in a beautiful location.

2016-2017 UC Artist-in-Residence: Robin Damore
Robin shares this personal story...
“Recently, I was juried into a program at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City to study and copy paintings by the Old Masters. I was permitted to paint directly from Rembrandt’s original self-portrait in one of the exhibition halls of the gallery – it was scary and exciting because anyone visiting that wing could watch. And yet, it was also an amazing learning experience because, well, I was painting from an original Rembrandt!

One day, as I was painting, a woman looked at my copy in progress and said something that I will always treasure. She said, “I’m not a painter, but I am an art historian here at the Met, and I just have one thing to say to you. Rembrandt better watch out!”
Robin is constantly working to improve her craft and build unique artistry into her work. She is known for her ability to capture a person’s likeness in her portraits and, in fact, offers the guarantee to clients who commission a portrait that they “must be delighted with the painting and the likeness, or they can’t have it!”

She started her artistic career with photography over 30 years ago photographing people in the US and Europe, including recognizable celebrities. She began drawing and painting in the late 1990’s, studying with Russian master portrait artist, Leonid Gervits. Now her practice continues as a mix of photography, drawing, and painting, especially children. She also teaches drawing and painting. Her work is in collections around the country. In the South, she is represented by Linda Burnside.

Robin has a BS in Chemistry. Starting in 1982 and continuing over the next 18 years, she and three business partners built the marketing communications agency, CMD, and grew it from 10 people to 150. In 2000, the partners sold the agency to Jeld-Wen, and Robin left CMD to work full-time as an artist/photographer.
“Do one thing everyday that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
 
Favorite Quotes:
“There are things you do because they feel right, and they may make no sense and they may make no money and it may be the real reason we are here, to love each other, to eat each other’s cooking and to say it was good.” – Brian Andreas
"To Think is to Create” – Tom Willhite
“Be yourself, everyone else is taken” – Oscar Wilde
“Racism isn’t born folks, its taught. I have a 2 yr old son, you know what he hates? - Naps - enough said.” – Dennis Leary
“There’s a million things I haven’t done, but just you wait, just you wait.” - Lin Manuel Miranda – from Hamilton, the musical
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas M
 
2015-2016 UC Artist-in-Residence: Aimee Erickson

Aimee Erickson speaks French, held a summer job at a missile subsystems manufacturer, climbs trees, would like to own a pair of pants with a plastic sled built into the bottom, and has bicycled across America twice (well, almost twice). Favorite sport: soccer. Favorite chocolate: dark. Spirit animal: seahorse. She prefers analog, loves salt, and makes a mean crepe; she pieces by machine but quilts by hand, can juggle while unicycling but was never inclined to join the circus, and, like most humans, started painting at the age of three.

She was born in Paris to American parents; her father was working at the linear accelerator in Orsay. In May of 1968 during the height of les evenements—the student uprising—the family left for England, buying hoarded gasoline from the dentist and spending the night in their ’66 Volkswagen before catching the first air ferry across the Channel.

Growing up in Silicon Valley, the second of five children, she played the cello in a youth symphony under Art Barnes, who to her delight once paired the “Star Wars” theme with “La Forza del Destino” in the same concert. She cut her family’s hair from about the age of nine onward, and every Christmas made an elaborate gingerbread house from scratch, even going so far as to make stained-candy windows and wire a tiny light bulb inside to light them.

The pinnacle of her talent-show appearances was a skit wherein she sang the praises of Weight Watchers while her friend nodded and ate a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. Parties at her house are animated by songs around the player piano, often with her friends celebrated in original lyrics to popular melodies.

She turned pro after an office-job interview brought a moment of honest reflection. She rented an art studio in the Pearl; her second-ever portrait commission was the official gubernatorial portrait of Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts, which hangs in the Capitol in Salem. The pages of her sketchbooks hold drawings of people at bus stops, art museums, and cafes from Orkney to New Orleans. She earned a BFA in Visual Communication Design and has since studied at the Art Students League of New York and the Florence Academy of Art, as well as with various well-known artists. She lives in Portland and carries a sketchbook.
www.aimeeerickson.com 

2014-2015 UC Artist-in-Residence: Ray Bidegain

After a long commercial career working as a black and white photographer, I discovered the beauty of the platinum print and began to teach myself this art over 14 years ago. I was drawn to the older alternative photo processes because of the hand made nature of the work and its inherent beauty. I find peace in my photographs, and mostly photograph things that present themselves voluntarily into my life. The images serve as visual reminders of moments and feelings I have experienced, signifying both the passage of time and the reverberation of consistency in all of our lives.
Ten years ago I began sharing my passion for platinum printing by teaching small workshops and found that I very much enjoyed the personal interaction that teaching offers. I strive to fill my students with excitement for this work, and to ensure their success in mastering the process.

Finding Beauty
Confessions of a photo romantic:

  • I believe in the soothing nature of beautiful things

  • I like making things with my hands and the inherent beauty of hand crafted platinum prints

  • I am a purist

  • I believe that artists have an important role in society

  • For me, the act of photographing and the process of making prints is a deliberate, contemplative experience

  • The process is as much a part of the resulting image as the subject itself

  • I believe that beauty is in everything and every person

  • I endeavor to reveal the beauty in ordinary things

  • My work is important to me – it is an important part of me

  • I get comfort out of knowing that other people view my work and make it part of their lives


Ray Bidegain

2013-2014 UC Artist-in-Residence: Shawn Demarest

A native of Boulder, Colorado Shawn Demarest lives in SE Portland, Oregon. She received a BFA from the University of Colorado with a focus on printmaking and painting. Her plein air painting skills were developed in Taos, NM, Colorado, and Lacoste, France. Demarest paints from observation and in the studio. Currently, this work explores Portland street views painted in oil.

In 2012 Demarest received a Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC) Project Grant and two of her paintings were selected to join RACC's Portable Works Collection. Also in 2012 Demarest received a 4-week visual arts residency fellowship to Playa in Summer Lake, OR.

Reflecting her immediate surroundings by noticing and interpreting moments of beauty is the backbone of Demarest’s work. In Portland, this might mean headlights reflecting on a wet street, the deep blue evening sky reflected on the side of a car, or a string of cars receding into the distance along Burnside.

For more information view her website.

2012-2013 UC Artist-in-Residence: Eduardo Fernandez

Eduardo Fernandez is a northwest artist working in the realist tradition and his primary modes of expression are drawing and oil painting.

Eduardo was commissioned by the Capitol Foundation to paint the official portrait of the Governor of Oregon Ted Kulongoski and by the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs to paint the portraits of Medal of Honor Recipient Lt Cl Stan Adams and his wife Jean. The recently completed community center at The Veterans Home in The Dalles was named in their honor.

He is also a past recipient of an artist grant by The Celebration Foundation which supports Oregon artists basedon their creative vision. Eduardo has exhibited in several venues in the Northwest and has taught at the Portland Art Museum, Multnomah Arts Center as well as privately. While Eduardo’s focus is portraiture he is also enthusiastic about landscape and still-life painting.

Eduardo and his wife Alice live in NE Portland and are both looking forward to his residency at UC.

For more information about Mr. Fernandez please visit his website, please also view his blog: A Visual Diary of My Year as Artist-in-Residence at the University Club.

2011-2012 UC Artist-in-Residence: Thomas Jefferson Kitts

Thomas Jefferson Kitts is a native Oregonian, who, after earning his BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1984, returned home to paint en plein air in the Pacific Northwest. Thomas is both inspired and exhilarated by the way light plays across the landscape and he has devoted 27 years to capturing it in oil. Thomas prefers to work directly from life for its honesty and immediacy, using alla prima methods and techniques of traditional oil painters such as Sargent, Sorolla, and Zorn. While Thomas lives in Portland, he is an active member of the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, the California Art Club, the Oil Painters of America, and the American Impressionist Society. Thomas travels nationally and maintains an active and distinguished exhibition history – which notably includes the Laguna Art Museum, Oil Painters of America’s National & Regional Shows, and the New York Art Expo. His work has been purchased by such entities as the Mariott Corporation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and the Kaiser-Permanente Collection and his paintings may be found in many private Portland collections. From 1990 to 2000, Thomas taught painting, drawing, and illustration at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. He currently offers individual and group workshops for the beginner to master-class painter.

For more information about Mr. Kitts please visit his website.

2010-2011 UC Artist-in-Residence: Lisa Caballero

Lisa Caballero grew up in San Diego and took her first drawing class as a senior at Yale College. She continued her studies at the Art Student’s League of New York and the National Academy of Design School.

The paintings exhibited throughout the University Club show the variety of Ms. Caballero’s subject matter: from roses and traditional still lifes to people, seascapes, plastic bags and the decaying urban landscape. She paints her closely observed works from life, and says that realism involves “attending to a subject.” Her paintings demonstrate a contemporary sensibility, yet remain firmly rooted in the European painting tradition.

Ms. Caballero has exhibited in New York City and Portland, and was featured on the OPB program Oregon Art Beat. She is represented by The Sovereign Gallery and the Rental Sales Gallery of the Portland Art Museum.

She enjoys playing the violin and gardening.

For information about Ms. Caballero please visit her website or her blog.

2008-2009 UC Artist-in-Residence: Eric Jacobsen

Eric Jacobsen, a resident of Glenwood, Washington, was born and raised in New England, and studied at Gordon College (Wenham, MA) and at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts. He has received numerous awards, including the “Yankee Magazine Robb Sagendorph Memorial Award” from the Copley Society in Boston, MA and was honored as one of the “Top 16 Emerging Artists” of 2001 by Arts & Antiques Magazine.

Jacobsen finds his inspiration directly from nature, being descibed as a "Plein Air" painter. Most of his oil paintings are started and completed on site, outside, until light or weather conditions change.

One of the great honors of having an artist in house is the ability to offer one-on-one painting lessons to Members. Jacobsen offered several on site oil painting classes at Sauvie Island while he was tenured with the UC. Jacobsen's work, which was promenitely featured throughout the Clubhouse, is available for Member purchase. If you are interested in any of the artwork around the Club, or visible on Jacobsen's website, be sure to inquire. Find out more information about the artist and his work at www.jacobsenstudio.com.

Author-in-Residence

Applications/Submission Process

Now accepting submissions for the 2026-2027 Author-in-Residence through July 27, 2026. 

Applicants should submit the following materials for consideration:

Letter of Interest, including:

  • Contact information
  • Professional biography
  • List of published works
  • Statement of interest
  • Two to three proposed residency activities or programs

Résumé or Curriculum Vitae, including:

  • Relevant publications
  • Awards and honors
  • Teaching experience
  • Speaking engagements
  • Other professional accomplishments

Authors should demonstrate a sustained commitment to their craft, a record of publication, and a desire to engage in thoughtful public dialogue. The residency is designed to be interactive and participatory, with readings, moderated conversations, workshops, and member discussions woven throughout the term.

Applications will be reviewed by the Author-in-Residence Committee. Following an initial review process, selected finalists will be invited to participate in interviews between August 4 and August 7, 2026.

The Committee's recommended candidate will be presented to the University Club Board of Directors on August 27, 2026. Following Board approval, the selected Author-in-Residence will be notified directly, and all applicants will be informed of the final decision. The 2026–2027 Author-in-Residence term will begin September 1, 2026.

Selection Process

The Author-in-Residence program is open to professional writers residing in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Proximity to Portland is important, as active participation and ongoing engagement are central to the residency experience.

Submissions for the 2026–2027 Author-in-Residence are now open and will be accepted through July 27, 2026.

Writers working across genres are encouraged to apply, including fiction, nonfiction, memoir, poetry, journalism, and literary scholarship.

Applicants should demonstrate a record of publication, a strong body of work, and a commitment to literary and public engagement. The selected Author-in-Residence will participate in readings, moderated conversations, member discussions, and other literary programming throughout the residency term.

Applications will be reviewed by the Author-in-Residence Committee. Selected finalists will be invited to interview with the Committee in early August. The Committee's recommendation will then be presented to the Board of Directors for final approval. The selected Author-in-Residence will be announced following Board confirmation.

Benefit to Authors

The University Club's Author-in-Residence receives a range of professional, promotional, and membership benefits designed to support their work and expand their audience.

Residency benefits include:

  • Complimentary University Club membership for the duration of the residency
  • Access to the Club's dining rooms, lounges, library, and member amenities
  • Access to Club social events, lectures, performances, wine tastings, and educational programs
  • Access to the Club's network of reciprocal clubs throughout the United States and abroad
  • Featured placement in the Club's cultural and literary programming calendar
  • Dedicated opportunities to present readings, discussions, workshops, and other public programs
  • Promotion through the Club's website, newsletters, social media channels, and member communications
  • Opportunities for book sales and author signings at residency events
  • Access to private meeting and event spaces
  • Direct engagement with an active membership of readers, professionals, educators, civic leaders, and arts supporters
  • Opportunities to collaborate with local arts, education, and cultural organizations through the Club's community partnerships
  • A prominent platform within one of Portland's oldest and most respected institutions

The residency is designed to provide authors with both a welcoming home base and a meaningful platform for literary engagement, professional visibility, and community connection.

Benefits to University Club Members

The Author-in-Residence program brings a living literary presence into the life of the University Club, enriching the cultural and intellectual experience of membership throughout the year.

Unlike a single lecture or guest appearance, the residency creates an ongoing relationship between members and a professional writer. Through readings, discussions, workshops, and informal gatherings, members gain sustained access to an accomplished author and the ideas, experiences, and perspectives they bring.

The residency enhances Club life by:

  • Expanding the Club's arts, education, and cultural programming
  • Creating unique opportunities for meaningful engagement with contemporary writers
  • Providing members with behind-the-scenes insight into the creative process, publishing industry, and literary craft
  • Fostering thoughtful conversations about literature, culture, history, current events, and the human experience
  • Connecting members to Oregon and Southwest Washington's vibrant literary community
  • Supporting the Club's mission of lifelong learning, intellectual curiosity, and cultural enrichment
  • Creating opportunities for interdisciplinary dialogue among members, authors, artists, educators, and community leaders
  • Strengthening the University Club's role as a gathering place for ideas, creativity, and civic engagement

At its core, the Author-in-Residence program reflects the University Club's belief that great communities are built around the exchange of ideas. By welcoming distinguished writers into the life of the Club, the residency creates opportunities for discovery, conversation, and connection that benefit the entire membership.

Authors

Authors

2025-2026 UC Authors-in-Residence: Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn are the first married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. They won the prize for their coverage of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement and subsequent crackdown in The New York Times, and Nick won a second Pulitzer for his coverage of the Darfur genocide. Nick later served as editor of the Sunday editions of The New York Times and is now a columnist for the paper.

Sheryl left The Times after a career as a correspondent and editor and is co-founder of FullSky Partners, advising for-profit ventures with a social mission in technology and healthcare. FullSky drives smart philanthropic funding into innovative cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, including pediatric brain tumors. She also serves on several corporate and nonprofit boards, including BayFirst Financial Corp., Harvard University and Oregon Public Broadcasting. They are authors of five best-selling books together, including the No. 1 best-seller Half the Sky, and have made a number of PBS documentaries.

After attending schools in Yamhill, Nick graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard and studied law at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. His latest book is a memoir, Chasing Hope. Sheryl grew up in Manhattan and attended Cornell, Princeton and Harvard Business School. Newsweek listed her as one of 150 “women who shake the world.”
They live on the Kristof family farm where Nick grew up, near Yamhill, Oregon, and produce prize-winning hard cider and wine from their estate apples and grapes, available through KristofFarms.com.
2024-2025 UC Author-in-Residence: Stephen Dow Beckham
Stephen Dow Beckham is a graduate of the University of Oregon and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. at UCLA. He taught college students for forty-two years and is the Pamplin Professor of History, Emeritus, Lewis & Clark College.

Beckham is the author of fourteen books, numerous articles and consulting reports, museums and interpretive centers, and television scripts. His panel copy educates tens of thousands of visitors at the Oregon Trail Center in Baker City, Gorge Discovery Center in The Dalles, Gorge Interpretive Center in Stevenson, Cape Disappointment Visitors Center, Ilwaco, Yaquina Head Interpretive Center, Agate Beach, and the Tillamook State Forest Center in the Coast Range.

Over the past half-century Beckham has served as an expert witness in forty-two court cases on navigability and public access to rivers and lakes and issues involving twenty-three Indian tribes from Connecticut to Oklahoma, California, Oregon, and Washington. He has served as a witness in tribal cases in the U.S. Court of Claims, fee-to-trust land conversions, reservation tax issues and boundaries, and treaty rights on Puget Sound and the Columbia River.

Beckham is a former “Oregon Professor of the Year, recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award of the American Historical Association, the McMath Award for Oregon Historic Preservation, and the Earle M. Chiles Award from The High Desert Museum. He is currently a member of the board of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. He has written several National Register nominations and has served four terms on the Oregon Committee on Historic Preservation.

Prof. Beckham and his wife, Patti, reside in Lake Oswego. They have two children and six grandchildren.
2023-2024 UC Author-in-Residence: Juhea Kim

Juhea Kim was born in Incheon, Korea, and moved to Portland, Oregon, at age nine. She graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Art and Archaeology and a certificate in French. Her debut novel Beasts of a Little Land, a finalist for the 2022 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and an Indie Bestseller, was published by Ecco in December 2021. It is being published around the world. Beasts of a Little Land also has been optioned for a TV series, for which she is serving as an executive producer.  

Her writing has been published in Granta, Slice, Zyzzyva, Catapult, Times Literary Supplement, Joyland, Shenandoah, Guernica, Sierra Magazine, The Massachusetts Review, The Independent, Portland Monthly, and Dispatches from Annares anthology (Nov 2021, Forest Avenue Press). Her translation of Yi Sang Award-winning author Choi In-Ho was published in Granta. 

Juhea is the founder and editor of Peaceful Dumpling, an online magazine covering sustainable lifestyle and ecological literature. She has received fellowships from Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference, Regional Arts & Culture Council, and Arizona State University, where she taught a class on ecological fiction as a 2020 Desert Nights Rising Stars Fellow. She has given lectures and workshops at Seoul National University, Yonsei University, Portland Book Festival, Seoul Women's University, Keimyung University, and more. She's also spoken about her sustainability entrepreneurship at Princeton University, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Athleta.  

She is donating a portion of the worldwide proceeds of Beasts of a Little Land to the Phoenix Fund, a Siberian tiger and Amur leopard conservation nonprofit based in Vladivostok, Russia. She serves as a goodwill ambassador for the Korean Leopard Conservation Fund.  Juhea has been an ethical vegan since the age of 19. 

She advocates for plant-based eating, composting, low-waste and low-plastic footprint, #adoptdontshop, and other compassionate and eco-friendly ways of living. She lives with three adorable rescue cats: Zeus, Kili (Achilles), and Ody (Odysseus). 

Learn more about Juhea Kim on her website: https://www.juheakim.com/

2019-2021 UC Author-in-Residence: Leni Zumas

Leni Zumas won the 2019 Oregon Book Award (Ken Kesey Award for Fiction) for her national bestselling novel Red Clocks, which was also a finalist for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and Dartmouth’s Neukom Prize for Speculative Fiction. Red Clocks was selected as a New York Times Editors’ Choice and named a Best Book of 2018 by The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and the New York Public Library. Vulture called it one of the 100 Most Important Books of the 21st Century So Far.

Zumas is also the author of Farewell Navigator: Stories and the novel The Listeners. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Granta, The Times Literary Supplement, Guernica, The Cut, Portland Monthly, Tin House, and elsewhere. Her work has received support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the Regional Arts & Culture Council, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. 

Born and raised in Washington, DC, she now lives in Oregon and directs the creative writing program at Portland State University.

2018-2019 & 2022 UC Author-in-Residence: Phillip Margolin

Phillip Margolin grew up in New York City and Levittown, New York.  In 1965, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia, West Africa and shortly after graduated from the New York University School of Law. As an appellate attorney he has appeared before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Oregon Supreme Court and the Oregon Court of Appeals. He was the first Oregon attorney to use the Battered Women's Syndrome to defend a battered woman accused of murdering her spouse. 

In 1996, Phillip Margolin  began writing full time.  All of his novels have been on the bestseller list. Heartstone was nominated for an Edgar for best original paperback mystery of 1978 by the Mystery Writers of America. The Last Innocent Man, was made into an HBO movie. Gone, But Not Forgotten has been sold to more than 25 foreign publishers and was made into a mini-series starring Brooke Shields. It was also the Main Selection of the Literary Guild. After Dark was a Book of the Month Club selection. The Burning Man was the Main Selection of the Literary Guild and a Reader's Digest condensed book. The Undertaker's Widow was a Book of the Month Club selection. Wild Justice was a Main Selection of the Literary Guild, a selection of the Book of the Month Club and was nominated for an Oregon Book Award. Lost Lake was nominated for an Oregon Book Award. Executive Privilege  was awarded the Spotted Owl Award for the Best Northwest Mystery. Willamette Writers awarded Phillip Margolin the 2009 Distinguished Northwest Writers Award.

From 1996 to 2009 Phillip Margolin was the President and Chairman of the Board of Chess for Success. He is still heavily involved in the program and returned to the Board after a one year absence in 2010. Chess for Success is a non-profit charity that uses chess to teach elementary and middle school children in Title I schools study skills. He has also served on the Board of Literary Arts, which sponsors the Oregon Book Awards, The Writers in the Schools program and Portland Arts and Lectures.

2017 UC Author-in-Residence: Lidia Yuknavitch

The University Club is happy to announce its 2017-2018 Author-in-Residence, Lidia Yuknavitch. Lidia is the winner of the 2016 Oregon Book Award's Ken Kesey Award for Fiction, and the Reader's Choice Award winner for her National Bestselling novel, The Small Backs of Children. She has written a number of works including; the novel Dora: A Headcase, three books of short fictions – Her Other Mouths, Liberty's Excess, and Real TO Reel - and a critical book on war and narrative, Allegories Of Violence. Her widely acclaimed memoir The Chronology of Water was a finalist for a PEN Center USA award for creative nonfiction, winner of a PNBA Award, and winner of the Oregon Book Award Reader's Choice. Her novel The Book of Joan was released in April, and she is currently working on a book based on her recent TED Talk, The Misfit's Manifesto.

Her writing has appeared in publications including Guernica Magazine, Ms., The Iowa Review, Zyzzyva, Another Chicago Magazine, The Sun, Exquisite Corpse, TANK, and in the anthologies Life As We Show It, Wreckage of Reason, Forms at War, Feminaissance, and Representing Bisexualities, and online at The Rumpus.

She founded the workshop series ‘Corporeal Writing’ in Portland Oregon, where she teaches both in person and online.  She received her doctorate in Literature from the University of Oregon. She lives in Oregon with her husband Andy Mingo and their renaissance man son, Miles. She is a very good swimmer.

2016 UC Author-in-Residence: Chelsea Cain

Growing up in the shadow of the Green River Killer in Bellingham, Washington made Chelsea Cain keenly aware of the underbelly of humanity and she has harnessed that into career of writing “gory thrillers. These include the New York Times bestselling Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell series: Heartsick, Sweetheart, Evil at Heart, The Night Season, Kill You Twice, and Let Me Go; and her more recent thriller series: One Kick, and Kick Back. Along with her thrillers, she has written humor books, a memoir, and a Marvel comic book series on the character Mockingbird. Her Portland-based thrillers have been published in over thirty languages, and are in development as TV shows. Stephen King included two of her books in his top ten favorite books of the year, and NPR named Heartsick one of the best 100 thrillers ever written. According to Booklist, “Popular entertainment just doesn’t get much better than this." She attended UC-Irvine and the University of Iowa’s School of Journalism.

2015 UC Author-in-Residence: Cheryl Strayed

Cheryl Strayed is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Wild, the bestselling advice essay collection Tiny Beautiful Things, the novel Torch, and the quotes collection, Brave Enough. Her books have been translated into forty languages around the world. Wild stayed on the NYT Bestseller list for 126 weeks, won the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, the Oregon Book Award, and was chosen by Oprah Winfrey to be featured as her first selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. The Oscar-nominated movie adaptation of Wild stars Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl and Laura Dern as Cheryl’s mother, Bobbi. Strayed’s essays have been published in The Best American Essays, the New York Times, the Washington Post Magazine, Vogue, Salon, The Sun, Tin House, and elsewhere. Strayed is the co-host, along with Steve Almond, of the WBUR podcast Dear Sugar Radio, which originated with her popular Dear Sugar advice column on The Rumpus. Strayed holds an MFA in fiction writing from Syracuse University and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Minnesota.

2013-2014 UC Author-in-Residence: Emily Chenoweth

Emily Chenoweth is the author of the novel Hello Goodbye, a novel that mirrors her experience of losing her mother to brain cancer. It was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and was named one of the top ten Northwest books of 2009 by The Oregonian. As a ghostwriter, she has penned seven young adult novels, one of which was a #1 New York Times bestseller. She has coauthored three books with James Patterson under the pen name Emily Raymond: First Love, The Lost, and Little Black Dress. A former English teacher in Iowa and book reviews editor in New York City, Emily moved to Portland in 2005, where she has taught fiction workshops at Portland State University and Literary Arts.

2012-2013 UC Author-in-Residence: Jean Auel

International best-selling author, Jean M. Auel, was married at 18, had five children by 25, and at 28 started night courses while working full time at an electronics firm. She entered an MBA program at the University of Portland and was granted the degree in 1976. Then in 1977, after quitting her job, she had an idea to write a story about a young woman who lived during the Ice Age. A love of reading, an insatiable curiosity, and a penchant for research led to hours with books from the library, which resulted in a long first draft for a novel that became, instead, an outline for a series. Additional library research, supplemented by field courses that included making stone tools, building a snow cave, and brain-tanning buckskin, plus travel to both western and eastern Europe, have helped to flesh out the details for the Earth’s Children® series: The Clan Of The Cave Bear, The Valley Of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters, The Plains Of Passage, The Shelters Of Stone, and The Land Of Painted Caves. Since the first book’s publication in 1980, the series has sold over 34 million copies worldwide. In October 2008, Auel was named an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture and Communication.

2011 UC Author-in-Residence: Judtih Barrington

Judith Barrington is a poet and memoirist who has published three collections of poetry, a prize-winning memoir, and a text on writing literary memoir, used across the United States and in Australia and Europe. Her memoir, Lifesaving, won the Lambda Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir. Her most recent book of poems, Horses and the Human Soul, was selected by The Oregon State Library to be listed on “150 Books for the Sesquicentennial.” In 2013, she was awarded the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize. Judith was a faculty member of the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at the University of Alaska at Anchorage. She currently offers workshops at many conferences and writing events around the world. She grew up in England and moved to Portland in 1976, where she has lived for more than thirty years with her partner, Ruth Gundle and their dog, Yofi.

2010 UC Author-in-Residence: Lee Montgomery

Lee Montgomery is the author of The Things Between Us, Whose World Is This?, and Searching for Emily. The Things Between Us received the 2007 Oregon Book Award in creative nonfiction, and Whose World Is This? won the 2007 John Simmons Iowa Short Fiction Award. Her stories and essays have appeared in numerous publications including, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, the Antioch Review, the London Telegraph Sunday Magazine, and Tin House. Ms. Montgomery has been the editor of the Iowa Review and the Santa Monica Review, as well as the anthologies; Transgressions: The Iowa Anthology of Innovative Fiction, Absolute Disaster: Fiction from Los Angeles, and Woof!: Writers on Dogs. She currently is the editorial director of Tin House Books and the executive editor for Tin House magazine.

2009 UC Author-in-Residence: Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula Le Guin is an American author of novels, children's books, and short stories. Her short stories have been published in The Western Humanities Review, Fantastic Stories of imagination, Threshold, Millennial Women, and Amazing Stories. First published in the 1960s, her work has often depicted futuristic or imaginary alternative worlds in politics, the natural environment, gender, religion, sexuality and ethnography. She influenced such authors as Salman Rushdie, David Mitchell, Neil Gaiman, and Iain Banks. Her books, Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, both won the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, making her the first to win both awards for each book. She has also won the Locus Award, and the World Fantasy Award, each more than once. Le Guin, along with Ken Kesey, Brian Booth, and William Stafford, founded the Oregon Institute of Literary Arts, now known as Literary Arts, Inc. in Portland, Oregon. In 2014, she was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

2008 UC Author-in-Residence: Elizabeth Burnett

In 2008, Elizabeth Burnett was Executive Director of Literary Arts, Inc., a community-based nonprofit literary center located in downtown Portland. Literary Arts runs the Portland Arts & Lectures series, the Writers in the Schools program, the Oregon Literary Fellowships and other programs. She was Executive Director for three years and was with the organization for seven years. Burnett came to Portland after getting an MFA at the University of Montana and ran the Writers in the Schools program for four years prior the becoming Executive Director. Elizabeth Burnett currently resides in Stockbridge, Massachusetts as Vice President of Development at Kripalu, a center for Yoga & Health.

2006-2007 UC Author-in-Residence: Scott Poole

Scott Poole is the author of three books of poetry; The Sliding Glass Door, The Cheap Seats, and Hiding from Salesmen. He broadcasts regularly on PBS’s show Live Wire!, which brings the intimacy of the theater and the power of the airways together to inspire and engage audiences. He is also the founding director of both: Get Lit!, a Spokane, WA book festival celebrating reading, writing and storytelling; and Wordstock, a Portland, OR book festival put on by Literary Arts. Currently, he is a software developer in Portland, OR.

2005 UC Author-in-Residence: Larry Colton

Larry's first book, Idol Time, took a look at the Portland Trail Blazers after their 1977 NBA Championship. In 1993, his second book, Goat Brothers, became a main selection of the Book of the Month Club and was described by Entertainment Weekly as ‘engaging’ and ‘compulsively readable.’ His third book, Counting Coup, was published in September 2000 and immediately became the International eBook Foundation’s Non-Fiction Book of the Year. It was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. As a freelance writer, Larry has written over 250 feature stories for magazines such as Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ladies Home Journal, and The New York Times Magazine. Larry works as Project Director of the Community of Writers, a non-profit organization in Portland dedicated to improving the quality of writing instruction in Oregon's public schools.

2004 UC Author-in-Residence: Kim Stafford

The author of more than a dozen books, Stafford writes in multiple genres. His poems, collected in many volumes, have been published in national magazines as well as etched into local public art projects. His essay collection, Having Everything Right, won a Western States Book Award citation. In 1986 he penned a memoir of his father, Poet William Stafford, titled Early Morning, which created an intimate portrait of father and son. Stafford’s range as a writer is exemplified by the half-dozen Oregon Book Award nominations he has garnered—-in more categories than any other writer. He has his PhD in Medieval Literature from University of Oregon. He is the founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute, and the co-director of the Documentary Studies Certificate Program, both of which are at Lewis & Clark College, in Portland.

Musician-in-Residence

Applications/Submission Process

Applications open annually and are available to professional musicians and ensembles working across genres, including classical, jazz, contemporary, chamber, folk, global traditions, and interdisciplinary performance. The selection for the 2026 Musician-in-Residence is in progress. 

Applicants are invited to submit:

  • A professional biography and artistic statement

  • Work samples (audio or video recordings)

  • A proposal outlining how they would engage members through performance and conversation

Musicians are encouraged to think beyond concerts. We are especially interested in artists who are eager to share process, inspiration, and craft in meaningful, personal ways.

Selection Process

The Musician-in-Residence program is open to professional musicians living in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Proximity to Portland is important, as active participation and ongoing engagement are central to the Residency experience.

Submissions for the 2027 Musician-in-Residence will open in Summer 2026. Additional details will be announced in advance of the application period.

Musicians working across genres will be considered, including classical, jazz, contemporary, chamber, folk, global traditions, and interdisciplinary performance.

Applicants should demonstrate a record of professional performance, a strong artistic portfolio, and a commitment to public musical engagement. The selected Musician-in-Residence will participate in performances, moderated conversations, member discussions, and other musical programming throughout the term.

Selections are recommended by the Entertainment Committee and approved by the Board of Directors. Finalists may be invited to provide performance samples, a statement of intent, and participate in an in-person conversation as part of the review process.

Benefits to University Club Members

The Musician-in-Residence program offers members something rare: proximity to artistry. Through private and small-scale performances, salon-style evenings, and thoughtful conversations, members gain access to the creative process behind the music. They experience rehearsals, stories of composition, interpretation, and inspiration, and the exchange that happens when artist and audience sit in the same room.

This is not a ticketed concert experience. It is cultural engagement in an intimate setting. The program strengthens the Club’s identity as a place where the arts are lived and shared, deepening connection between members and enriching the civic and cultural life of downtown Portland.

Benefit to Musicians

For musicians, the residency offers time, space, and community. It provides a home base for performance and creative development within a thoughtful and engaged membership. The Club offers an audience that values conversation as much as craft, along with promotional support and visibility within Portland’s civic and professional networks.

The Musician-in-Residence gains meaningful opportunities to refine work, experiment in an intimate setting, collaborate across disciplines, and build relationships that extend beyond a single performance.

Musicians

Musician-in-Residence

2020-2021 UC Musician-in-Residence: Mike Horsfall

Mike Horsfall has enjoyed a successful and diverse musical career for over 40 years, serving as a concert soloist, accompanist, musical director, educator, composer, arranger, and recording artist on both piano and vibraphone. He was educated at Central Washington University, the University of Washington, and Marylhurst University.   

Mike is probably best known for his work with the vibes-­‐bass-­‐drums trio named Tall Jazz, a group he co-­‐founded in 1989. In 2010, after more than two decades of performances, recordings, and clinics, Tall Jazz was voted into the Oregon Jazz Society's Hall of Fame. 

Currently Mike performs as leader or sideman at many of the jazz clubs in Portland, OR.  He also directs two jazz vespers series, one at St. James Lutheran in Portland, and one at St. Luke's ~ San Lucas Episcopal Church in Vancouver, WA. These services feature guest artists backed by his trio. 

Currently Mike performs as leader or sideman at many of the jazz clubs in Portland, OR.  He also directs two jazz vespers series, one at St. James Lutheran in Portland, and one at St. Luke's ~ San Lucas Episcopal Church in Vancouver, WA. These services feature guest artists backed by his trio. 

Mike has performed and/or recorded with a large number of world class musicians, including Chuck Redd, Karla Harris, Marilyn Keller, Randy Porter, and Todd Strait.  At jazz festivals, he has performed with Anat Cohen, Kurt Elling, Janis Siegel, Terrill Stafford, Holly Hofman, and Storm Large, among others.   

In addition to performing, Mike is an avid music educator, serving on the faculties at Willamette University, Mt. Hood Community College, Clark College and Oregon Episcopal School.