Unique mix of music on tap at USU symposium
A new and unique musical event, the Mountain West Symposium on Song, takes place June 3, 4 and 5 at Utah State University. Sponsored by the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies and the music department, the event features three days and nights of music, workshops and lectures on a variety of topics related to song – perhaps the most common form of human communication after speech itself.
Western music star Michael Martin Murphey, who has adjunct faculty status at Utah State in the English and music departments, has been a key player in the development of the symposium. Murphey, a prolific and best-selling songwriter, sees the need for an event like this, focused on song as human expression. He will open the symposium June 3 with personal remarks and an introduction of keynote speaker Bill C. Malone, and later that night will play a concert with his son Ryan at his side. Also appearing on stage that evening will be Navajo singer-songwriter Geraldine Barney.
Malone is considered the foremost expert on the history of country music and its roots in the folk music of the American South. His book “Country Music U.S.A.,” published in 1968, is a landmark study. In addition to giving the keynote address, he will work with early bluegrass pioneers the Lilly Mountaineers, who will headline the Friday night concert and also give a workshop on their music.
The Salt Lake-based Beehive Band will open the Friday night concert with its Utah roots music. Fiddler Mark Jardine and his band mates have researched British Isles and Scandinavian folk music, searching for the beginnings of Mormon and other music found on the Utah frontier.
Saturday evening’s concert will feature Quetzalcóatl, a dynamic and highly accomplished group of musicians from Mexicali, Mexico. The group plays music from Mexico and Latin America, using more than 30 different instruments. The Cache County 4-H Mexican Dance Group, consisting of about two dozen young dancers in colorful costumes, will perform with Quetzalcóatl.
Other musicians participating in the symposium include local favorites Deanna Edwards and Elizabeth York, as well as southern Utah’s Blue Haiku, contemporary art song composer Gene Scheer, and the Calvary Baptist Church Choir of Salt Lake City with the Reverend France Davis. National Cowboy Poetry Gathering founder Hal Cannon, Utah ethnomusicologist Larry Shumway and Utah composer Phillip Bimstein will provide scholarly content.
For ticket information, contact the Utah State University ticket office in the Smith Spectrum at (435) 797-0305 or (888) 878-2831. Program information is available from the Mountain West Center, (435) 797-3630.