Event

NOVA Chamber Music Series’ biggest concert of the year: Grammy-Award-winning composer Jessie Montgomery set to perform, with music by her, Bartók and Okpebholo

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NOVA Chamber Music Series has scored a major coup in securing Grammy-Award-winning composer Jessie Montgomery, not only for her music but also her performance as a violinist on the March 9 concert (3 p.m.) in Libby Gardner Hall.  In 2024.she won the Grammy for best contemporary classical composition, with Rounds, a 15-minute work for piano … Read more

February roundup: UtahPresents, NOVA Chamber Music Series, Westminster Concert Series, Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company

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February was a busy month for the performing arts scene in Salt Lake City. Among the top events were the following: Christian McBride and Ursa Major: UtahPresents  A perfect end to UtahPresents’ inaugural jazz concert series for the 2024-25 season, Christian McBride and Ursa Major wowed the Kingsbury Hall crowd on Feb. 22, with plenty … Read more

PYGmalion Theatre Company’s world premiere of Morag Shepherd’s The Big Quiet is superb two-hander

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In  Morag Shepherd’s  superb two-hander The Big Quiet, two Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sister missionaries could not be more different. But, by the end of the play, they are closer to each other than either could ever have imagined. In their respective ways, they realize that women in the Mormon community literally … Read more

An extraordinary chapter in the life of Spy Hop: A look back at Kasandra VerBrugghen’s stewardship at the helm of the nationally known youth media arts organization

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In well-established nonprofit institutions, the ideal leading administrative figure is a visionary leader who by encompassing every dimension of that organization creates the right conditions for fundraising success that ensures the institution’s long-term viability. In 2018, when Spy Hop Productions was poised to announce the largest capital fundraising campaign in its history to build its … Read more

Pianist Stephen Beus’ imaginative take on Nocturnes and Nightmares set for Feb. 28 Bachauer concert

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As a theme for programming recitals, the subject of dreams will always be a winner for performers and audiences. The universe of available music for this theme is vast enough for an equally wide scope of permutations. For Nocturnes and Nightmares, the theme of his upcoming solo concert, pianist Stephen Beus has taken a unique, … Read more

Salt Lake Acting Company world premiere of Kathleen Cahill’s The Robertassey propelled by quartet of solid actors

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In The Will to Power, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “Perhaps I know best why man is the only animal that laughs: he alone suffers so excruciatingly that he was compelled to invent laughter. The unhappiest and most melancholy animal is, as might have been expected, the most cheerful.” That quote captures the harmonizing of two polar … Read more

LFO exhibition at Material Gallery is superb collaboration, with Andrew Rease Shaw’s music, Mary Toscano’s quilts

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The late composer Pauline Oliveros said deep listening was central in her creative process.  “As a musician, I am interested in the sensual nature of sound, its power of synchronization, coordination, release, and change,” she wrote. More recently, Polygonia, DJ and producer of ambient music, added, “It’s the little details which make the timbre of each … Read more

Full throttle excellence in roof-raising performances: Pioneer Theatre Company’s Beautiful: The Carole King Musical continues through March 1

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… I’d like to know that your love Is a love I can be sure of So tell me now, and I won’t ask again Will you still love me tomorrow? (Gerry Goffin and Carole King) In 1960, Gerry Goffin and Carole King posed the question in the lyric, “Will you still love me tomorrow?,” … Read more

Closing reception this weekend for four Utah Museum of Contemporary Art shows, including In Memory and Atis Rezistans

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Four exhibitions at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) are set to close this weekend (Feb. 22). The museum will hold a closing reception for the quartet of shows on Friday, Feb. 21, from 6 to 9 p.m. In Memory, Milad Mozari: Language of Movement, Atis Rezistans | Ghetto Biennale, and Antra Sinha: The … Read more

PYGmalion Theatre Company set to premiere Morag Shepherd’s The Big Quiet, about two LDS sister missionaries

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While there have been plenty of stories about male missionaries in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rendered in film, television and theater, there has been a dearth in stories about Mormon sister missionaries. However, last year’s release of Heretic, a horror film about a pair of sister Mormon missionaries who hope to … Read more