The premiere of one of the two works in the upcoming NOVA Chamber Music Series subscription concert, the second of its 40th anniversary season, took place in the unheated barracks of a Stalag prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz, Germany during World War II. The other, composed in the 1750s, was premiered by Bohemian cellist Ignaz Mara … Read more
In spirit, creative passion and his life experiences, William ‘Bill’ Evans epitomizes that beloved family member who occasionally returns home to reconnect, celebrate and nourish the memories of wonderful times and to exchange stories about how the family came together to turn the most challenging moments into a new expression of love and learning. At … Read more
In a 2003 lecture sponsored by the U.S. Library of Congress, Harold Bloom, the American literary critic, said Hamlet, Shakespeare’s quintessential tragedy for the theater, still is “the most experimental play ever written.” He added, “You can make of the play ‘Hamlet’ and the protagonist pretty much what you will, whether you are playgoer or … Read more
Carmina Burana has long been the most requested non-full-length work of Ballet West. It was first staged by Ballet West’s founder Willam Christensen in 1974. Since then, the collection of 24 poems set to music by Carl Orff has been performed by Ballet West more than 100 times. So, on the opening of Artist Director … Read more
In occupied France during World War II, writers and intellectuals did not approach the moral dilemma of collaboration and accommodation in a unifying response. A leading figure of the Resistance from the outset, Albert Camus edited an underground newspaper. But, Jean-Paul Sartre and André Malraux, while sympathetic to the Resistance efforts and contributing anti-Nazi content, … Read more
In 1991, a very young Carlton Vickers was one of the featured musicians on a Salt Lake City performance of Composition for Four Instruments, a prescient work American composer Milton Babbitt (1916-2011) wrote in 1948 that foreshadowed the New Complexity School, one of the most significant developments in music over the last half century. Babbitt, … Read more
A dozen Utah teen filmmakers working on four short films for Spy Hop Productions’ 15th annual PitchNic program experienced many of the same barriers and problems professionals in the movie industry confront continuously in their projects. A group producing the program’s first murder mystery not only had to tell its story without representing violence on … Read more
A newly commissioned short piece for brass quintet by a young composer, along with a short composition for flute and piano by his father and works by two of the greatest French composers will mark the first subscription concert of NOVA Chamber Music Series’ 40th anniversary season. Black Wind by Nicolas Chuaqui is a short … Read more
Shortly before the 2008 presidential election that put the first American black president into office, Jeff Deutchman used social networks to ask amateur and professional independent filmmakers to document experiences of voters and campaign volunteers on the day of national voting. “It was an experiment in crowd-sourcing footage and material for a documentary film about … Read more
Two local masters of minimalistic theater are staging plays about children this fall — though stark contrasts in treatment. One is a macabre junk opera take on old German stories about children who misbehave or refuse to follow sound advice. The other is a new play about two siblings grieving over the loss of their … Read more