Songfest returns to USU with world premiere
The Mountain West Songfest, an event that originated two years ago as the Mountain West Symposium on Song, is returning to Utah State University with an exciting mixture of cultures and their music, said co-director Elaine Thatcher. The event features four evening concerts, including the world premiere of a new song cycle by Utah composer Phillip Bimstein, and a performance of traditional Native American music.
Additional concerts feature the Canadian group Cowboy Celtic and singer-songwriter Sarah Sample. In addition, there will be two days of public lectures and discussions about song in various cultures. A class on Native American music will be taught by UCLA ethnomusicologist Charlotte Heth (Oklahoma Cherokee).
Sponsored by the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies and the music department at USU, the event focuses on song – perhaps the most common form of human communication after speech itself.
The first of the four concerts is Wednesday, June 14, with local favorite singer-songwriter Sarah Sample, who is returning from her current home in Austin, Texas, to share her evocative music in the Morgan Theatre on the USU campus. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.
The world premiere of “Red Rock Rondo” by Phillip Bimstein takes place Thursday, June 15, in the Morgan Theatre. Concert time is 7:30 p.m.
The Mountain West Songfest received a grant from the American Composers Forum to commission Bimstein to write the work, a cycle of folk-like songs based on the history and people of Zion Canyon and Springdale in southern Utah, where Bimstein served two terms as mayor. The concert will also feature some of Bimstein’s earlier “alternative classical” works, including “Half Moon at Checkerboard Mesa” and “Refuge,” based on the book by Terry Tempest Williams and the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. The performers of the alternative classical pieces will include the Fry Street Quartet, Logan Canyon Winds and AirFare. The ensemble performing “Red Rock Rondo” features folksinger Kate MacLeod and traditional musician Hal Cannon, performing with Bimstein’s own group, “blue haiku.”
Native American musicians from the Interior West will perform in concert on Friday, June 16, at the American West Heritage Center at 7:30 p.m. The Todà Neesh Zheé Singers of Kayenta, Ariz., is a popular group in the Navajo Nation, performing lively social dance music known as skip dance and two-step. The Shoshone Snake River Singers, from Fort Hall, Idaho, sing northern Plains style pow wow music, driven by a powerful drumbeat. Providing a soft counterpoint to the other two groups, Ute flute player Aldean Ketchum will also perform in the outdoor venue with a view of the Wellsville mountains.
The Canadian group Cowboy Celtic rounds out the evening concerts with a 7:30 p.m. appearance at the American West Heritage Center Saturday, June 17. Virtuoso mandolin player David Wilkie, who formerly played with Ian Tyson’s band, has devoted much of his time for the past 10 years to one of his favorite passions – seeking out the Celtic origins of traditional cowboy music. In 1986, he traveled to Scotland and noticed that many of the songs he knew as cowboy songs were traditional ballads in Scotland and Ireland.
“I’d hear a song like ‘When the Work’s All Done This Fall,’ and in Scotland it would be known as ‘The Humour’s On Me Now,'” he said. “Their music ranges from hauntingly beautiful to foot-stompin’ lively.”
As noted, all four concerts begin at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets for all concerts are available at the Cache Valley Center for the Arts, the American West Heritage Center and the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies at USU (Old Main room 303). Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (435) 752-0026 or online at www.centerforthearts.us. Admission to the Sarah Sample concert is $8, and $11 for all other concerts. Senior citizen and package discounts are available.
The Songfest also features a symposium Friday and Saturday, June 16 and 17, with lectures and discussions on song and songmaking in different cultures. The symposium is held in the Chase Fine Arts Center on Friday and at the American West Heritage Center on Saturday. While symposium tickets are required for most of these daytime events, visitors to the American West Heritage Center on Saturday can enjoy a discussion on traditional Mormon music at 10:45 a.m., followed by a participatory Native American dance at noon.
Two free noon concerts will be offered in the Bullen Center in Logan (43 S. Main), co-sponsored by the Mountain West Songfest and the Cache Valley Center for the Arts. On Thursday, June 15, Phillip Bimstein will present a short preview concert of several “Red Rock Rondo” songs. On Friday, June 16, Sarah Sample will perform. Audience members are invited to bring a (quiet) sack lunch and enjoy the noon-hour concerts.
The Native American music course will be available for undergraduate or graduate credit, or no credit, and takes place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 12, 13, 14, and 15. Class attendees will be required to attend all concerts and symposium events during the week. Senior citizens enrolled in the Summer Citizens program at USU will also be able to take courses in cowboy poetry and music, taught by Hal Cannon, founder of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nev., and a world authority on the arts of American ranching culture.
Funding for the Mountain West Songfest is provided in part by grants from the American Composers Forum, the Utah Humanities Council, the Utah Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
More information can be found by visiting www.usu.edu/mountainwest or by phoning (435) 797-3630.