Just a quick glance of Troy Lennerd’s music output reveals a 21st century composer who sees audiences and music listeners not as a sign of artistic weakness, of surrendering to temptations of commercialization but as a worthwhile instrument for making accessible music that is as significant as any abstract avant-garde exploration of new sounds. The … Read more
Many artists at the Utah Arts Festival’s Artists Marketplace are increasingly finding that any material, which might have been discarded previously or considered an afterthought, is worth converting into appealing art forms. Jennifer Lashbrook from Dallas, who won this year’s People’s Choice Award in the Artist Marketplace, creates portraits from paint swatches she gathers from … Read more
Harper and Midwest Kind, June 29, 2 p.m., Art Yard stage; 4:30 p.m., City-County Building Stage, and 9 p.m. Park Stage For someone born in the United Kingdom and who spent his formative years in Perth Australia and whose early musical experience included playing trumpet and euphonium in brass bands, Peter D. Harper has become one … Read more
The director and producer from one of the 65 short films which are being screened this year at Fear No Film in the Utah Arts Festival are demonstrating in enlightening and heartening ways the best creative impulses that drive the ‘Boundaries’ theme for this year’s cinematic program. Oguzhan Kaya, 30, who directed the short film, ‘A … Read more
Two years ago, Sergiusz Wiaderny applied to be in the Artists Marketplace at the Utah Arts Festival and was rejected. This year, when the Salt Lake City photographer artist (Booth 55) – who works full time at his business Pumpco (small aggregate concrete pump business) – was accepted, he says in an interview with … Read more
Josiel Perez and The AC Jazz Project, June 28, 9:45 p.m., Park Stage There is a phenomenally talented generation of Cuban musicians, including some who have not yet reached the age of 30, who are demonstrating to the world the truest, most dynamic elements of Cuban music that are far, far away from the nostalgic … Read more
Mountain Heart, June 28, 9:50 p.m., Festival Stage Capping an unprecedented day of Utah Arts Festival activities and performances showcasing the Intermountain Acoustic Music Association and top national performers in folk, bluegrass, and various acoustic musical styles will be two examples of the industry’s best: John McCutcheon (already featured here) and Mountain Heart – a … Read more
More than 100 artists in this year’s Utah Arts Festival Artists Marketplace come from outside of Utah. One is Lisa Gastelum of Portland, Oregon, who weaves by hand beads from durable nylon beading thread that are wound around a wood core. She adds these colorful beads to hand-crafted metal work, made from nickel-free sterling, copper … Read more
Twice each evening during the Utah Arts Festival with a soundtrack that includes musical excerpts from Mozart to swing, four performers will act out a universally approachable timeless story of a boy and girl in romance, expressing love, loss, jealousy and joy. However, the quartet of performers will be dancing, flirting and adding comic gestures while atop … Read more
Music sometimes builds the most emotionally appropriate bridges, as we contemplate the fragile nature of our humanity. In the 1990s, Vedran Smailović, a cellist from Bosnia and Herzegovina who now lives in northern Ireland, played music among the ruins during the siege of Sarajevo in the Balkan War. His musical gesture inspired a solo work … Read more