The premiere of "Dark Winds Rising" by Utah composer Phillip Kent Bimstein will highlight this evening's concert by the Turtle Island String Quartet at 6:30 p.m. at Red Butte Garden.

The Windham Hill recording group is composed of violinists Darol Anger and David Balakrish-nan, violist Jeremy Cohen and cellist Mark Summer. Blending jazz, blues, bluegrass, classical and other musical traditions, their performances have garnered them critical acclaim and a Grammy nomination.Inspired by the Kaibab Band of Piute Indians' rejection of a toxic-waste incinerator on their land in 1990, Bimstein's work is in four movements and at various points approximates the sounds of mesa winds, birdcalls, snakes and industrial ratchets.

Tickets, at $12, will be available at the gate. Parking is also available near the garden or in the lot south of the Huntsman Center. Shuttle buses will begin running at 5 p.m.

- THE DEER VALLEY INTERNATIONAL Chamber Music Festival continues this week with concerts this evening at the new Park City Community Church and on Thursday, Aug. 27, at the home of Larry and Marsha Hester. Starting time for each is 7:30 p.m., with tickets for tonight's program $10 ($8 students and seniors) and $25 for the house concert, or free to music students with a note from their teacher.

Performing tonight will be New York violinist Kerry McDermott and her sister, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, to be heard in Faure's A major Violin Sonata, a Purcell trio sonata and the Schumann Piano Quartet. Joining them in the last will be violist Leslie Harlow and cellist Terry King.

Another violin-and-piano duo will be featured Thursday, the husband-and-wife team of Charles Libove and Nina Lugovoy. They will be heard in Dohnanyi's Sonata in C sharp minor, a Haydn piano trio and Faure's C minor Piano Quartet, Op. 15, assisted by Harlow and cellist Julie Zumsteg.

Formerly a member of the Paganini Quartet, Libove is on the faculty of New York University, as is his wife. Together they have recorded the complete violin-and-piano works of Ravel and toured in North and South America, Europe and the Far East.

For information call 649-5309 or 1-800-472-6073.

- PERFORMANCES BY THE MEXICAN dance band Fuego Tropical and the Gomez Folkloric Dancers will conclude this year's free Mondays in the Park concert series on Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. in front of the Chase Home in Liberty Park.

Consisting of three brothers, a cousin and a sister-in-law, Fuego Tropical is the resident band at the Mexican Civic Center in Salt Lake City. Also a family group, the Gomez troupe will offer dances from the Mexican state of Jalisco, including authentic costumes.

- VIOLINIST ALISON DALTON, assisted by pianist Dian Baker, will perform Wednesday, Aug. 26, in the Temple Square Assembly Hall.

A former Utah Symphony-Deseret News "Salute to Youth" soloist, Dalton has been a member of Chicago Symphony since 1987. Next month she will become associate concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Her program Wednesday will feature her in Faure's A major Violin Sonata, Ravel's "Tzigane" and the Op. 47 "Gesangszene" of Ludwig Spohr.

Other Assembly Hall concerts this week include pianists Melissa Haney and Kalotini Latu, offering a mix of solos, concerto movements and duo-piano music of Grieg and Debussy on Friday, Aug. 28. They will be accompanied by their teacher, Irene Peery.

They will be followed on Saturday, Aug. 29, by flutist Sara Tutland, cellist Daniel Gwin and pianist Julian Ward, who will be heard in Villa-Lobos' "The Jet Whistle" for flute and cello, Faure's Sonata No. 2 for Cello and Piano and Martinu's F major Trio.

Starting time for each is 7:30 p.m., and admission is free.

- THE COOL CLASSICS recital series at Utah State University will offer an evening of piano music Wednesday, Aug. 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Chase Fine Arts Center.

Featured will be pianists LaMar Watts, Austin Chung, Scott Thompson, Gary Barnett and Marquesa Bullock in a program ranging from sonatas of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven to concertos of Rachmaninoff and Anton Rubinstein. Admission is $3 ($1.50 students/children) or $8 per family.

- MATTHIAS KUNTZSCH, who conducted "Samson et Dalila" last year at Utah Opera, returns this week to lead the Utah Symphony in its annual "Russian Blast," winding up its summer series.

Concerts will be presented Thursday, Aug. 27, at 8:15 at the SCERA Shell in Orem; Friday, Aug. 28, a 8 p.m. at Symphony Hall; Saturday, Aug. 29, at 7:30 p.m. at Deer Valley; and Sunday, Aug. 30, at 3:30 p.m. at Snowbird.

Featured at each will be the traditional "1812" Overture of Tchaikovsky, complete with live cannon fire, the same composer's "Capriccio Italien," the Overture to Kabalevsky's "Colas Breugnon" and Shostakovich's incidental music to "Hamlet."

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In addition Armenian pianist Armen Babakhanian, the silver medalist at last year's Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, will solo in Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

A native of Karlsruhe, Germany, Kuntsch studied piano with Karl Engel and conducting with Herbert von Karajan, Hermann Scherchen and Lovro von Matacic. He has served as principal conductor of the Hamburg State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera, music director of the Lubeck Opera and Symphony and the Saarbruecken Opera and Symphony.

Tickets for all performances are available at Symphony Hall or from Smith'sTix. They are priced from $12 to $18 for the Symphony Hall performance, at $15 and $30 for Deer Valley and $15 and $25 for Snowbird.

For information call 533-NOTE.

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