New musical to premier in Logan
The Mountain West Center for Regional Studies at Utah State University has been selected as a project site for the composition and premiere of a new musical work. The composition, funded by the American Composers Forum’s Continental Harmony Project, will be written about Springdale, Utah, by that community’s former mayor, alternative classical composer and songwriter Phillip Bimstein.
The work will premiere at the Mountain West Songfest at Utah State University in June 2006, followed by a Salt Lake City premiere at the Utah Arts Festival. The piece will be previewed at the Earth Day celebration in Springdale in April 2006.
Bimstein plans to write a song cycle that employs not only his trademark recorded sounds, computer sequencers and samplers, but also local folk and classical musicians from the Springdale and Salt Lake City areas.
“I envision a cycle of songs and musical portraits that draw upon the stories, voices and sounds of Zion Canyon,” Bimstein wrote on the Continental Harmony Web site (www.continentalharmony.org). “Inspired by the geology and the culture that defines this community, the work will be many-layered. The work’s texts will be a confluence of source materials (diaries, oral histories, poems, etc.) and newly composed lyrics based on these source materials. Additionally, the actual voices of community residents may be recorded, orchestrated and composed directly into the music.”
The funding from Continental Harmony allows the Mountain West Center to commission the new work and to premiere it at the Mountain West Songfest, its biennial celebration and exploration of vocal music as a universal cultural expression. Continental Harmony links communities with composers through the creation of original musical works. The program is a partnership of American Composers Forum and the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional funds provided by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Other institutions working with the Mountain West Center and Bimstein include the town of Springdale, the Utah Arts Festival, Dixie College’s Tanner Summer Series (Springdale), Zion Natural History Association, Zion Canyon Field Institute, Utah Public Radio and KRCL-FM Radio. In addition to the premieres and preview, the work will be performed in whole or in part on the radio and in Springdale schools and civic venues.
The Mountain West Center for Regional Studies was established at Utah State University in 1986 to advance the understanding of the Mountain West region through interdisciplinary studies and to link university expertise with regional needs and interests. For more information on this project or the Mountain West Songfest, contact the center at (435) 797-3630.