The Utah State University Alumni Band opens its annual summer concert series with a performance this evening on the patio of the Taggert Student Center.
Now in their 28th year, the concerts begin at 7 p.m. and in the event of rain will be moved to the Kent Concert Hall of the Chase Fine Arts Center. Admission is free, with the USU Alumni Association serving complementary snow cones from 6 to 7 p.m.Max Dalby will conduct a program that includes music of Bach, Wagner and Suppe, along with Sousa's "Liberty Bell" and music from Richard Rodgers' "Victory at Sea." Guest vocalist for the evening is USU faculty member Betty Hammond, who will sing "My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice" from Saint-Saens' "Samson and Delilah."
This season's concerts are dedicated to the memory of Betty Marler Dalby, who died on April 12.
- THE FOUR-HAND, ONE-PIANO team of Barbara and Gerhardt Suhrstedt will perform at 7:30 this evening at the new Park City Community Church, under the auspices of the Deer Valley International Chamber Music Festival.
Their program will present the Boston-based piano duo in four-hand music of Mozart (the Sonata in C major, K. 521), Mendelssohn (the Op. 92 Allegro Brillant) and Dvorak. They will also perform Peter Warlock's piano-duet transcription of his own "Capriol Suite" and Lucien Garban's of Ravel's "La Valse."
In 1986 the Suhrstedts became the first piano duo to perform on the American Lizst Society's annual festival. Four years earlier they made their New York debut at Merkin Concert Hall.
Tickets to the concert are $10 ($8 students and senior citizens), available at the door. In addition patrons are invited to bring their own picnic dinner at 6:30 p.m. (no alcoholic beverages) or purchase one at the church. Reservations for tickets and dinners may be made by calling 1-800-472-6073.
This year's Deer Valley International Chamber Music Festival begins officially on July 15, running through August. Performers include violinists Charles Libove, Arturo Delmoni and Daniel Lewin, cellists Terry King, Gayle Smith, Maureen McDermott and Julie Zumsteg and pianists Gail Niwa, John Jensen, Nina Lugovoy and Mykola Suk.
- JAPANESE PIANIST AKIKO EBI will kick off this week's Gina Bachauer Piano Festival performances with a recital Monday, June 15, in the Temple Square Assembly Hall.
Born in Osaka, Ebi studied at Tokyo's National University of Fine Arts and Music before accepting an invitation to study at the Paris Conservatory. In Paris her teachers included Aldo Ciccolini and Louis Kentner. Later she won prizes in the Long-Thibaud, Warsaw Chopin and Bordeaux Festival competitions.
Her program Monday will consist of the Op. 25 Etudes and Op. 28 Preludes of Chopin and Ravel'S "Gaspard de la Nuit."
- Tuesday's soloist will be the distinguished young American pianist Robert Taub, who will perform sonatas of Beethoven (the "Waldstein") and Berg and the Op. 116 Piano Pieces of Brahms.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Princeton, Taub earned a doctorate from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Jacob Lateiner, has had pieces written for him by Milton Babbitt and in January 1990 took part in the world premiere of Mel Powell's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Duplicates."
(He will also perform this afternoon on the first of three private recitals being presented by the Fine Arts College Advisory Board at the University of Utah.)
- He will be followed on Wednesday, June 17, by the American Piano Quartet - Del Parkinson, Paul Pollei, Jeffrey Shumway and Mack Wilberg - also performing in the Temple Square Assembly Hall. They will be heard in virtuoso transcriptions of Liszt and Bach as well as Debussy's "Petite Suite," a trio of Percy Grainger arrangements and Wilberg's of Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever."
- Performing Thursday, June 18, will be former Gina Bachauer juror and Utah Symphony soloist Alexander Peskanov. Born in Odessa, Peskanov made his American debut with the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich. Since then he has appeared with the orchestras of St. Louis, Houston, Baltimore and London. His program Thursday will feature him in shorter pieces by Chopin, Schumann, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin along with Liszt's transcription of Bach's Prelude and Fugue in A minor.
- Pianist Chiharu Sakai will appear Friday, June 19, playing Debussy's "Suite Bergamasque" and music of Ravel, Granados and Liszt (the "Dante" Sonata). A native of Yokohama, Sakai studied with Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer in Brussels. She holds first prizes from the National Power World, Porto International and Maria Canals international piano competitions and was a finalist in the 1989 Long-Thibaud and 1991 Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians competitions.
- She will be followed on Saturday, also in the Assembly Hall, by Korea's Kyung Un Rhee. She will be heard in Franck's Prelude, Chorale and Fugue, Balakirev's "Islamey" and music of Mozart, Liszt and Mompou. Now based in New York, Rhee holds degrees from the Juilliard and Manhattan schools of music and has soloed with orchestras in New York and Venezuela.
Admission to each of the above is free but limited to those 8 and older. Starting time for each is 7:30 p.m.
For information on other Bachauer Festival programs, call 521-9200.
- MACK WILBERG will lead Brigham Young University's 140-voice Spring University Chorale in concert Tuesday, June 16, at 7:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall of BYU's Harris Fine Arts Center.
Included on the program will be Pelz's "Psalm 150" for three trumpets, timpani, chorus and organ, along with arrangements of two American folk songs, "Frog Went a' Courtin' " and "When the Saints Go Marching In." Featured in the latter will be a Dixieland combo.
Also performing this week will be faculty members Cindy Child, clarinet, and Kathy Colton, horn, on Wednesday, June 17, at 6 p.m. in the Madsen Recital Hall of the Harris Fine Arts Center. They will be heard in a selection of pieces ranging from Mendelssohn to Copland ("As It Fell Upon a Day"), accompanied by singer Martha Glissmeyer, flutist Elaine Jorgensen, clarinetist David Randall, Gaylen Hatton, horn, and pianist Mayde Taylor Robertson.
That same evening, at 7:30 in the Madsen Recital Hall, Jorgensen will lead the Sounds of Silver Flute Choir in a variety of pieces, including a collection of English folk songs as well as works of Boismortier, Bach, Haydn, Gearhardt, Handel, Quantz, Ravel, Longhurst, Grimm and Casterede.
Admission to each is free and the public is invited.
- THE AMERICAN WEST SYMPHONY AND CHORUS will perform Friday, June 19, at 8 p.m. in the Spanish Fork High School auditorium, playing and singing music popular in the West.
Part of this year's Spanish Fork Arts Festival, the concert will be preceded by a concert that same day at noon in Spanish Fork City Park by the Krueger Family Band and an artists' reception, with refreshments and chamber music, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Spanish Fork City Office.
Other events will include a noontime concert Saturday in the park featuring Chantilly Lace; an evening of music by Fire on the Mountain, at 7 p.m. Saturday, also in the park; a noontime Down Home Music concert Monday, June 22, and an appearance that night at 7:30 by Michael McLean at the high school.
In addition there will be an artists' walk daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. All events are free except the American West Symphony and Chorus Concert ($3/$2) and McLean ($5/$4). A $6 festival package buys tickets to both.
- A COMPOSERS' CONCERT IN THE PARK, sponsored by the Farmington Performing Arts Committee and the Composers Guild, will be presented Saturday, June 20, at 7:30 p.m. at Farmington's Woodland Park.
Featured will be music by seven Farmington composers, Cori Connors, Carla Eskelsen, Ruth Gatrell, Mickey Jones, Marili Nielsen, Will Schryver and Teresa Wood. Included will be popular songs, an autoharp suite, piano solos and choral pieces.
Patrons are invited to bring lawn chairs and/or blankets to this free event, or come early for a family picnic. In the event of rain, the concert will be moved to the Farmington City Hall.