Event

Four excellent November programs: NOVA Chamber Music Series’ Britten and Shostakovich, Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation’s Andrey Gugnin, Repertory Dance Theatre’s Sojourn, Spy Hop’s 20th anniversary PitchNic

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November has been packed with concerts and presentations by numerous local performing arts and culture organizations. Four are reviewed in this roundup. This week, many organizations are in the midst of various end-of-the-year fundraising efforts and holiday season promotions for gift giving. Also, many local groups will be participating in the National Giving Tuesday (#GivingTuesday), … Read more

Four Utah Museum of Contemporary Art exhibitions cover range of expressions on cultural identities, community, isolation, racism, social practices

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Four current exhibitions at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art comprise a broad segment of expressions about cultural identities, community, isolation, racism and social practices. Each of these are discussed below. The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) also received two grants totaling $140,000 from The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts and VIA Art … Read more

Repertory Dance Theatre’s Sojourn will feature world premiere of 2022 Regalia commission winner, newly acquired repertoire work, reprises of two recent commissions

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A choreographic journey of spiritual, social and natural connections, Sojourn, Repertory Dance Theatre’s (RDT) forthcoming concert, will feature a world premiere by the 2022 winner of the company’s Regalia commission competition and a newly acquired work from 2012 by an internationally acclaimed choreographer, along with reprises of two RDT commissioned pieces in recent years.  Three … Read more

A fine ode to motherhood and theatre in world premiere performance at Pygmalion Theatre Company of Julie Jensen’s Mother, Mother: The Many Mothers of Maude

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When a play’s story arises from events or figures of Utah history, playwright Julie Jensen, whose works have been produced outside of Utah more frequently than any other local playwright, always succeeds in crafting a credible fictional narrative with a scrupulous eye toward framing the script’s framework with historical accuracy. In her award-winning play, Two-Headed, … Read more

Superb acting, design, directing mark world premiere Plan-B Theatre production of Morag Shepherd’s My Brother Was A Vampire

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In Morag Shepherd’s two-hander My Brother Was A Vampire, the banter between siblings of Callum and Skype is often crisp, tart and sardonic but the music, lighting and sound design in the play are the elements that truly bring forth the darkness, vulnerability and brutality underlying their story. There is nothing milquetoast in the outstanding … Read more

Ballet West’s Rodeo underscores alchemy of good artistic programming for profoundly moving evening

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Utah Review is pleased to present this review by guest writer Chris Myers of Argyle Arts. Good artistic programming can result in a performance that is more meaningful than the sum of its already formidable parts. Paired properly, works interact with one another, providing new perspectives and highlighting themes that might otherwise … Read more

Andrey Gugnin, 2014 gold medalist in Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation competition, returns to SLC Nov. 11 with Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Ravel works

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Russian pianist Andrey Gugnin has good reasons to love Rachmaninoff. At the age of 28, in 2014, Gugnin took the gold medal at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation Competition in 2014, with his performance of the composer’s Third Piano Concerto. Two years later, after winning the gold media at the Sydney International Piano Competition, … Read more

Reviews roundup: Bachauer’s Schubert piano sonatas, NOVA Chamber Music Series’ Connect with Beauty, Westminster College Performing Arts’ Pushing Boundaries, Ebola Cherries’ Digital Drag Is Dead

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Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation: Kuok-Wai Lio The 2022-23 concert series of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation opened with a masterly display of holistic musical emotion in Kuok-Wai Lio’s presentation of Schubert’s final three piano sonatas. A 2005 Bachauer gold medalist, Kuok-Wai delivered a memorable valedictory performance of these works, showing his profound admiration … Read more

Popping every kernel of song, dance and comedy perfectly, Broadway-bound Shucked receives a splendid world premiere at Pioneer Theatre Company

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There has been a smattering of musicals on and off Broadway which not only had stories based in rural America but also had country music and songs as part of the book and score. They include rousing shows such as Pump Boys and Dinettes, Floyd Collins, Smoke on the Mountain and A Good Old Fashioned … Read more

Pygmalion Theatre Company set to open 2022-23 season with world premiere of Julie Jensen’s Mother, Mother: The Many Mothers of Maude

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In the summer of 1914, The Green Book Magazine, then a widely followed periodical about the American theater, published installments by Annie Adams Kiskadden, who wrote about her life as an actor in Utah and in New York City. But, the real draw of these autobiographical installments was her daughter, the more famous performer of … Read more