Preview

Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation’s on-demand concert series closes with pianist Steven Mayer, violinist Igor Pikayzen with Franck violin sonata, transcriptions of Gottschalk, Bizet’s Carmen

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Pick a short program of music to celebrate the effusive spirit of spring in May and it would be hard to top the combination of a rousing mix of Latin tropical dance rhythms, the pyrotechnics of an adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen and a violin sonata composed as a wedding gift. The Gina Bachauer International Piano … 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

Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation’s next virtual concert features Utah premiere of Koji Attwood’s transcription of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden string quartet

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Near the end of his life, pianist Vladimir Horowitz told New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini that one of his greatest regrets was never having played Franz Liszt’s transcriptions of the Beethoven symphonies in public. “For me, the piano is the orchestra,” Horowitz said. “I don’t like the sound of a piano as a … Read more

Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation launches spring season of virtual concerts, starting with 2006 Bachauer gold medalist Stephen Beus

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Having a good number of world-class pianists within arm’s reach in the Intermountain West makes for a great spring season of virtual solo concerts that begin tomorrow. The Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation’s series launches tomorrow (March 4) at 7:30 p.m. with Lyrical Landscapes featuring Stephen Beus, the 2006 Bachauer gold medalist, in a concert … Read more

Where the audience has the voting power: Repertory Dance Theatre’s Regalia available this week in virtual format, as 4 choreographers set their sights on commission prize

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Unquestionably, dance companies in Salt Lake City have done a remarkably good job in keeping their presence active during the last year. Last year, less than two weeks before the pandemic brought live performances to a halt everywhere, Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) held its annual Regalia, the company’s largest fundraiser. The event always has been … Read more

For 30th anniversary, Plan-B Theatre’s unprecedented audio-only season set to premiere Julie Jensen’s P.G. Anon

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In a December 2020 interview with The Washington Post, Alexis McGill Johnson, the newly installed president of Planned Parenthood, recalled speaking with a woman who told the story about her mother as a college student discovering that she was pregnant and how afraid she was to tell her parents. “Her brother was a flight attendant, … Read more

Ririe-Woodbury’s Home Run promises to be briskly paced miniature dance film festival, with live, real-time elements, world premieres

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What appears to be a genuinely holistic appreciation of the potential of home in all of its meta dynamics will anchor the forthcoming premiere of Home Run by the internationally renowned Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. It is worth thinking about this hour-long concert as a documentary shorts program one might see at a film festival. Set … Read more

Sundance 2021: Four documentaries, one narrative highlight Utah connections to festival slate; Tumbleweeds for Kids selections

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Part II summarizes the films and programs from Sundance 2021 that are part of The Utah Review coverage. For Part I which is an overview of the state of the film industry in Utah, see here. Films premiering this week at Sundance include documentaries about one of the greatest American choreographers of the … Read more

Sundance 2021: Utah film industry weathers pandemic with resilience, resourceful risk taking

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EDITOR’S NOTE:  Part I is an overview of the Utah film industry in the current moment. Part II (tomorrow) will offer a summary preview of the Sundance 2021 feature-length and short films, which The Utah Review will cover. In several hopeful signs, given its size, Utah’s film industry has weathered the pandemic with enough resilience … Read more

Pearls in three world premieres slated for Plan-B Theatre’s audio-only 30th anniversary season

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Pearls are the gift for the 30th anniversary. In its three decades, Plan-B Theatre has strung together many strands of luminescent pearls. The company has produced an impressive canon of original work by Utah playwrights. It has put weight behind the words of committing to bring new, diverse and historically suppressed voices to the stage. … Read more