At 21, in 2017, Aristo Sham was thinking about ways he could do multiple things. A decade earlier, just as he was entering his adolescent years, he already had won first prize in the Ettlingen International Piano Competition in Germany in 2006, and then the top prize in Salt Lake City at the Gina Bachauer … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company is celebrating its 60th anniversary during the 2023-24 season. This is a two-part feature, highlighting the legacy and impact of its two founders: Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury. For information about the opening Groundworks production and for a summary of the forthcoming anniversary season, click this link. There are many … Read more
Early in Tito Livas’ new play, Squeak, the main character tells the audience emphatically that they have a very active brain. “Sometimes I can’t control what I do or what I say because there’s SO MUCH GOING ON IN HERE and my feelings can be pretty big,” Squeak says. When Squeak feels overwhelmed, they imagine … Read more
URBAN ARTS The programming at the Urban Arts venue at the Utah Arts Festival focuses on fostering freedom of expression, independent identities and creativity but also to demonstrate the value and importance of respect, communal bonds and support within the community of urban and street visual artists and musicians. Since it became a part of … Read more
ALAINA NOELLE (June 24, 12:45 p.m., The Round Stage) One of the Utah Arts Festival’s Emerging Artists, Alaina Noelle is a poet from Las Vegas who specializes in freestyle forms. She answered several questions from The Utah a review by email. TUR: What were your formative influences and introductions to poetry? Who were among your … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: In addition to this centerpiece feature about the Literary Arts program at the Utah Arts Festival, see features about this year’s poetry slam competitions at this link, and features about Utah Poet Laureate Lisa Bickmore and Heather Lang-Cassera who was Clark County, Nevada poet laureate from 2019-2021 at this link. Also follow The … Read more
This week’s piano festival by the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation follows on the heels of an exceptional concert season. The three-day event will feature outstanding pianists as well as students who will be performing, along with master classes led by guest artists and educators. Guest artists and educators include Spencer Myer, an internationally acclaimed … Read more
ART YARD (June 23-25, noon-9 p.m.) ‘Let me tell you about this tree. It was a rock-solid hardwood, three feet in diameter with a trunk magnificently embossed in rich gray tones, set in deep relief with an exquisitely interconnected skin of bark that was somehow both coarse and forgiving to the hand. The ash is … Read more
For the 47th Utah Arts Festival, The Gallery at Library Square on the fourth floor of The City Library will feature Circles of Influence with works by six female artists (Sheryl Gillilan, Jaye Rieser, Kandace Steadman, Camille Wheatley, Virginia Catherall and Rebecca Klundt) who explore the natural world’s ubiquitous presence of circles in many forms. … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Utah Review begins its preview coverage today of the 46th Utah Arts Festival, which will be held June 23-25 (noon to 11 p.m. on June 23-24 and noon to 9 p.m. on June 25) on the Library Square in downtown Salt Lake City. As this is the state’s largest multidisciplinary arts and … Read more