“The Utah Symphony will perform at or near all five of Utah’s national parks during a weeklong tour in August,” write Catherine Reese Newton and Brett Prettyman in Tuesday’s (4/15) Salt Lake Tribune. “The event, dubbed the ‘Mighty 5 Tour,’ is part of the orchestra’s 75th-anniversary celebration and a lead-up to the 2016 centennial celebration of the National Park Service. Music director Thierry Fischer will conduct the free performances, and popular Utah soprano Celena Shafer will be the soloist. Fischer said he chose shorter selections, such as Shostakovich’s ‘Festive Overture,’ the Orchestral Suite from Bizet’s ‘Carmen; and two movements from Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, because ‘we have to be flexible’ in case of weather-related delays. There will be four concerts—in Teasdale, near Capitol Reef National Park; at Red Cliffs Lodge in Moab, near Arches and Canyonlands; at Ruby’s Inn, just outside Bryce Canyon; and in Springdale, at the entrance of Zion. Fischer, an outdoor enthusiast, said the concerts are a way to ‘combine the different energies we are surrounded by. Nature creates sound, and sounds are nature.’ … The orchestra will take its stage setup from site to site. The musicians will play under an open-air canopy to maximize the audience’s view of the scenery.”
Posted April 17, 2014
