Event

Pianist Cahill Smith’s mission to bring Nikolai Medtner’s music to new audiences highlights latest NOVA Chamber Music Series’ recorded spring concert

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Pianist Cahill Smith fits nicely into the NOVA Chamber Music Series’ family, as well as the Utah State University music school in Logan. Take the following example. In two Carnegie Hall recitals, respectively in 2013 and 2015, he dedicated his performances to works by Russian composer Nikolai Medtner, a far less known contemporary of Sergei … Read more

From primal to sparkling: Utah Symphony concert highlights music by Jolivet, Beethoven

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In 1944, the 22-year-old Jean-Pierre Rampal won the Conservatoire test by performing a virtuosic threnody piece for flute by André Jolivet. Throughout his career, Rampal would include in his legendary repertoire the 16 works for the flute, written by Jolivet, one of the elite French composers of the 20th century. Again, the unique circumstances of … Read more

Salt Lake Acting Company’s video production of Audrey Cefaly’s Alabaster receives outstanding rolling world/Utah premiere

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Peculiar yet approachable, alternating between effulgent and piercing, complex and elucidating, Audrey Cefaly’s play Alabaster on paper, at first glance, might not be the ideal candidate for a filmed theatrical production, especially as part of the National New Play Network’s Rolling World Premiere program. Alabaster’s intricately woven elaborate character textures make for ideal stage pyrotechnics … Read more

Ballet West’s documentary series In The Balance: Ballet for a Lost Year set for May 7 premiere on social media

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In The Dance of The Building, the ingeniously crafted sixth episode of the In The Balance: Ballet for a Lost Year documentary series, one of the crew leaders for setting the stage of Ballet West’s performances in the Capitol Theatre in downtown Salt Lake City, explains that the real legacy of civilizations in history comprises … Read more

Utah Symphony concert of Bach, Carter, Marsalis, Wagner another example of eclectic, innovative programming

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The most recent Utah Symphony concert once again evidenced an eclectic, compact, innovative approach to programming which, in this instance, delivered the orchestra’s first performances of two works from 1998 and 2011, respectively.  The smart staging logistics made for a quick transition from Elliott Carter’s Double Trio, which the composer wrote just ahead of his … Read more

Two memorable season closing films: Repertory Dance Theatre’s Homage, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Cadence

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Two of Salt Lake City’s historically significant dance institutions — Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company — are concluding this unusual season with new concert films. Both films end on an encouraging note, signaling a hopeful return next fall to their regular performing venue in the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts. Both … Read more

Plan-B Theatre’s premiere of Matthew Ivan Bennett’s Art & Class sets new height of excellence, maximizing impact of audio production format

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One of many richly textured epiphanies in Matthew Ivan Bennett’s Art & Class, the audio-only production receiving its Plan-B Theatre world premiere, occurs shortly after Lucía confronts Mindy, the parent of a student in her art class, at a Christmas tree lot in Hyrum. Mindy is pushing for Lucía to be fired from the school … Read more

New version of SONDERimmersive’s Through Yonder Window crisp, clear, absorbing, astute contemporary interpretation of Romeo and Juliet characters

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Last year, approximately 1,000 people saw SONDERimmersive’s remarkably inventive interpretation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Through Yonder Window, in a parking garage at The Gateway complex in downtown Salt Lake City. With pandemic restrictions in place, the company meshed elements of immersive performance and theater-in-the-round in a production that effectively accommodated the difficult logistics of … Read more

More than a story of censorship: Plan-B Theatre to launch April 15 world premiere audio-only production of Matthew Ivan Bennett’s Art & Class

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In Utah, many contradictions confound in their complexities. Mormonism champions its cosmopolitan outreach through its mission service, where members proselytize about the virtues of perfection, prosperity and duty of faith. Meanwhile, while immigrants and refugees are welcomed in the state, many also feel isolated and vulnerable, seeing clearly how lip service and posturing barely mask … Read more

A splendid time to return to Abravanel Hall: Utah Symphony strings shine in concert with works by Sierra, Bartók, Mozart

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“When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer — say traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep—it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best, and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not, nor … Read more