Nova Chamber Music Series’ new year concert contemplates the beyond

Resolutions in the New Year are as difficult to keep as they are to make in realistic terms. However, how should we respond to the invitation for spiritual renewal and contemplation? Music becomes an ideal platform, as evidenced in the forthcoming program of the Nova Chamber Music Series aptly titled ‘Contemplation of the Beyond.’ With … Read more

Utah Symphony’s Vivace Group Makes Classical Music Fun

The Utah Symphony takes a bow at Abravanel Hall.

The problem with the symphony is it has a reputation for being a boring, stuffy event designed for the elderly. Luckily, there is an answer to that problem.  And the answer is Vivace. Utah Symphony’s Vivace is an everyone-is-invited group of classical music enthusiasts (including both genre experts and novices) that attend the symphony together … Read more

NOVA Chamber Music Series’ opening concert to set joyful, lyrical mood in music from Leipzig to Provo

nova bach hicks mendelssohn

The 5,300 miles which separates Leipzig from Provo will evaporate immediately when the NOVA Chamber Music Series opens its season Oct. 26 with a program featuring works by two of Leipzig’s greatest music figures, Bach and Mendelssohn, and two pieces by composer Michael Hicks who is on the music faculty at Brigham Young University. A … Read more

Utah composer Troy Lennerd’s music proves fruitful in global ways

Just a quick glance of Troy Lennerd’s music output reveals a 21st century composer who sees audiences and music listeners not as a sign of artistic weakness, of surrendering to temptations of commercialization but as a worthwhile instrument for making accessible music that is as significant as any abstract avant-garde exploration of new sounds. The … Read more

Making new art, supporting community in the ‘Rose Exposed: Home’

For six enterprising small performing arts companies, the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in downtown Salt Lake City is more than a residence for their creative work. It is the home for experimentation in humanity. It is the place for creating and performing new works of art. As Daniel Siepmann wrote recently at NewMusicBox, “Newness … Read more

2014 summer concerts at Deer Valley Resort

Deer Valley Music Festival at dusk

The world-class offerings available at Deer Valley Resort are no doubt outstanding in the wintertime but the resort also features some amazing summertime activities as well. Multiple times a week, the sounds of live music fills the air. From classical to country to rock and roll, the lineup of singers, songwriters and musicians who will … Read more

Saturday’s Voyeur 2014 depicts Utah for the Gentile

Saturday's Voyeur Salt Lake Acting Company

Salt Lake Acting Company’s Saturday’s Voyeur might be considered the “airing of the grievances” by the Gentile (non-member) citizens of the Beehive State. Set in the church office building (COB) in downtown SLC, this year’s installment of Saturday’s Voyeur, running through August 31, tackles issues familiar to those in the city of salt. LGBT rights … Read more

“Wicked” good entertainment arrives in Salt Lake

Wicked, Salt Lake City, Broadway in Utah

Broadway blockbuster “Wicked” returns to Salt Lake City for an extended third run through August 24 at Capitol Theatre. The musical is the adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked—The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” which takes the well-known and well-loved story of “The Wizard of Oz” and turns it … Read more

Backstage at Utah Arts Festival 2014: Harper and Midwest Kind, MarchFourth Marching Band to close out festival on soulful, rousing notes

Peter Harper

Harper and Midwest Kind, June 29, 2 p.m., Art Yard stage; 4:30 p.m., City-County Building Stage, and 9 p.m. Park Stage For someone born in the United Kingdom and who spent his formative years in Perth Australia and whose early musical experience included playing trumpet and euphonium in brass bands, Peter D. Harper has become one … Read more

Backstage at Utah Arts Festival 2014: Josiel Perez, AC Jazz Project bring sizzling timba in first Utah performance

Josiel Perez, trumpeter and bandleader, AC Jazz

Josiel Perez and The AC Jazz Project, June 28, 9:45 p.m., Park Stage There is a phenomenally talented generation of Cuban musicians, including some who have not yet reached the age of 30, who are demonstrating to the world the truest, most dynamic elements of Cuban music that are far, far away from the nostalgic … Read more