NOVA Chamber Music Series sets outstanding Utah Symphony soloists for works by CPE Bach, Messiaen

The premiere of one of the two works in the upcoming NOVA Chamber Music Series subscription concert, the second of its 40th anniversary season, took place in the unheated barracks of a Stalag prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz, Germany during World War II. The other, composed in the 1750s, was premiered by Bohemian cellist Ignaz Mara … Read more

Repertory Dance Theatre’s Top Bill promises a holiday homecoming celebration of dance

In spirit, creative passion and his life experiences, William ‘Bill’ Evans epitomizes that beloved family member who occasionally returns home to reconnect, celebrate and nourish the memories of wonderful times and to exchange stories about how the family came together to turn the most challenging moments into a new expression of love and learning. At … Read more

Sackerson’s new Ten Deaths of Hamlet challenges 1 actor to play 16 characters in Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy

In a 2003 lecture sponsored by the U.S. Library of Congress, Harold Bloom, the American literary critic, said Hamlet, Shakespeare’s quintessential tragedy for the theater, still is “the most experimental play ever written.” He added, “You can make of the play ‘Hamlet’ and the protagonist pretty much what you will, whether you are playgoer or … Read more

Moral dilemma of collaboration, accommodation ignites upcoming Plan-B Theatre’s premiere of Eric Samuelsen’s The Ice Front

In occupied France during World War II, writers and intellectuals did not approach the moral dilemma of collaboration and accommodation in a unifying response. A leading figure of the Resistance from the outset, Albert Camus edited an underground newspaper. But, Jean-Paul Sartre and André Malraux, while sympathetic to the Resistance efforts and contributing anti-Nazi content, … Read more

Spy Hop Productions’ 15th annual PitchNic premieres slated for Nov. 2

A dozen Utah teen filmmakers working on four short films for Spy Hop Productions’ 15th annual PitchNic program experienced many of the same barriers and problems professionals in the movie industry confront continuously in their projects. A group producing the program’s first murder mystery not only had to tell its story without representing violence on … Read more

Works by father and son composers with Utah roots, chamber music gems of French composers mark NOVA Chamber Music Series concert

A newly commissioned short piece for brass quintet by a young composer, along with a short composition for flute and piano by his father and works by two of the greatest French composers will mark the first subscription concert of NOVA Chamber Music Series’ 40th anniversary season. Black Wind by Nicolas Chuaqui is a short … Read more

Utah Film Center to screen 11/8/16, impressive time capsule of a day in American politics

Shortly before the 2008 presidential election that put the first American black president into office, Jeff Deutchman used social networks to ask amateur and professional independent filmmakers to document experiences of voters and campaign volunteers on the day of national voting. “It was an experiment in crowd-sourcing footage and material for a documentary film about … Read more

Plan-B Theatre’s newest play, River. Swamp. Cave. Mountain., slated for Utah schools fall tour

Why does it have to get dark? Why can’t the day always stay? Let’s say goodbye to the night time, Goodbye. Let’s send the dark time away. Fred Rogers, Mister Rogers Neighborhood, Some Things I Don’t Understand, 1968 In a 1970 episode of his legendary public television series Mister Rogers Neighborhood, Fred Rogers reflected on … Read more

Sackerson to present regional premiere of deliciously devilish Shockheaded Peter

A young German physician in the 1840s, Heinrich Hoffman, disappointed that he could not find a suitable children’s book for his three-year-old son, decided to write his own as a Christmas present. The following year, Zacharias Löwenthal, a German publisher, read Hoffman’s work and decided to publish it under the pen name of Reimerich Kinderlieb. … Read more

NOVA’s 40th anniversary season to open with Fry Street String Quartet in unique UMFA art gallery setting

NOVA Chamber Music Series’ 40th anniversary is filled with every distinctive element that has made its programming brand unique in the Intermountain West region. There will be numerous soloists from Utah’s deep bench of outstanding musicians, six commissions of new music and performances of music that should be heard more frequently than is the usual … Read more