October 9, 2012

The Soul Yearns for Beautiful, Uplifting Music

Are you a music addict like me?

I have music playing around me pretty much all day long.
While I get ready in the morning, in the car, at work, at lunch, at home in the evenings, while I work out...
Sometimes it's for an energy pick-me-up, or a little background sound to help me focus, or because I just don't like the quiet.

My musical tastes are varied, but often it's current pop or rock or country that I listen to.

Which is why I was excited to get an invitation to a free concert by the Utah Chamber Artists at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in downtown Salt Lake City on Sept 17th.
The concert was called "Shadows & Light", and I was impressed with the creative use of lighting and locations throughout the performance.
Not only did the orchestra and choir play in the front and back, but smaller groups played from darkened alcoves, behind that front screen in the picture above, and up in the back balcony next to the organ pipes (in the picture below).
During songs, they played with the lighting, including raising the lights on certain paintings or areas of the building during crescendos in the music. I found it all to be beautifully done in creating not just a concert, but an experience.

The song selections included classical pieces by Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Brahms, and Handel, along with more-contemporary and less-known (to me, at least) composers like Kaminsky, Dvorak, Piazzolla, Barnum, Hundley, Janacek, and Bradford.

Free performances of this excellent quality are few and far between.
Which is why I will gladly pay for a ticket or tickets to their Christmas concert on December 3rd.

Who wants to join me?

1 comment:

  1. I've never heard of the Utah Chamber Artists, but we did sing at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Chamber Choir back in high school. It was an amazing, inspiring place to perform.

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