Hexagon, a New York-based ensemble of five winds and piano, will perform this evening at the Museum of Fine Arts on the University of Utah campus.
Presented by the Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City, the 8 p.m. concert will feature the group in four pieces - Mozart's Quintet in E flat for winds and piano, Barber's "Summer Music" for wind quintet, the Poulenc "Sextour" and the "Sextour" of contemporary Dutch composer Leo Smit.Hexagon won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions six months after its founding in 1988. The group made its New York debut in 1989 and, in 1993, its first tour of Japan. It is composed of Susan Rotholz, flute; Mathew Dine, oboe; Alan Kay, clarinet; Michael Finn, bassoon; Victoria Eisen, horn; and David Korevaar, piano.
Admission is $15 ($5 students), available at the door.
- BALLET WEST takes its production of "Alice in Wonderland" to Ogden on Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 20-21, with performances in Weber State University's Browning Center for the Performing Arts. Curtain is at 7:30 each evening, with tickets available at the door or through the Ogden Symphony-Ballet Association, 2580 Jefferson St. (399-9214).
The choreography for "Alice" is by Ben Stevenson, artistic director of Houston Ballet. The original musical score is by Joseph Horovitz, to be performed by the Utah Chamber Orchestra, Terence Kern conducting. Costumes and scenes designed by Nadine Baylis are on loan from Houston Ballet, with lighting design by M. Kay Barrell.
- PUCCINI'S "LA BOHEME" concludes its run at Cedar City's Southern Utah University with a 7:30 p.m. performance Monday, Feb. 20, in the SUU auditorium.
The cast is led by Carol Ann Modesitt, head of the opera program at SUU, as Mimi, and George Dyer, a frequent performer with Utah Opera, as Rodolfo. A student cast sings supporting roles. Tickets are $8, available at the auditorium box office.
- BARLOW BRADFORD will lead the Utah Chamber Artists in their third concert of the season Monday, Feb. 20, at 8 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, South Temple and C streets.
The program will consist of two works, Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 and the Faure Requiem. Soloing in the Faure will be soprano Martha Glissmeyer and baritone Eric Glissmeyer.
Tickets are $10 ($7 students and senior citizens), available at the door or by calling 255-2233. Free parking is available at the Chase-Manhattan Building, directly south of the church, and the IBM Building parking lots.
- VIOLINIST JOHN THOMPSON, double bass player Daniel Gwin and pianist Bonnie Bennett will present a joint recital Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the Temple Square Assembly Hall.
All three Utah Symphony-affiliated artists will be heard in Bottesini's "Grand Duo Concertant." Also on the program: Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 2 and four pieces for double bass and piano by Gliere. Admission is free but limited to those 8 and older.
- PERCUSSIONISTS from Utah State University, Cache Valley and surrounding areas will perform Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kent Concert Hall of USU's Chase Fine Arts Center.
Featured will be the USU Percussion Ensemble and Marimba Ensemble, performing everything from Mozart to ragtime; the Cache Valley Percussion Ensemble, including high, middle and elementary school students from Cache Valley and Box Elder County, performing Mendelssohn's "Tarantella" and the Mexican song "Cieleto Lindo."
Admission is $2, with proceeds supporting the USU percussion program.
- UTAH BALLET, resident troupe at the University of Utah, opens its 1995 season with three world premieres and a revival of "Bolero." Performances in the Marriott Center for Dance will be Thursdays through Saturdays, Feb. 23-25 and March 2-4, at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday matinees at 2 p.m.
Premiere works include "Viva Vivaldi" by Victoria Morgan, a spoof set to a Vivaldi Two-Violin Concerto. "Inextricably Linked" by Jacque Lynn Bell involves 23 dancers in a combination of ballet and modern dance, with music by Laurie Anderson and Henryk Gorecki. Both women are U. alumnae and national award-winning choreographers.
From artistic director Attila Ficzere comes a tarantella pas de deux, "Napolitana," with music by Helsted and Paulli, and costume design by Marina Harris. Ficzere's setting of Ravel's "Bolero" concludes the program.
Tickets at $7 ($4 students/staff and senior citizens) are available at the Olpin Union information desk, Dancewear Unlimited and at the door. Free parking is nearby.
Utah Ballet will tour this program on the Utah Arts Council's Performing Arts Tour to Kanab High School on March 8 at 7 p.m. and to Panguitch High School on March 9 at 7:30 p.m.
- THE SONI VENTORUM woodwind quintet will perform Thursday, Feb. 23, at 7:30 p.m. in the Madsen Recital Hall of Brigham Young University's Harris Fine Arts Center.
Formed in 1961 when Pablo Casals invited its members to become the woodwind faculty of his newly founded Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, Soni Ventorum has been at the University of Washington since 1968. It is composed of flutist Felix Skowronek, oboist Alex Klein, clarinetist William McColl, bassoonist Arthur Grossman and David Kappy, horn.
The group has made more than 25 recordings, its repertoire ranging from Mozart to Schoenberg. Tickets, at $9 ($8 senior citizens, $7 students), are available through the fine arts ticket office (378-4322).
- THE YING QUARTET comes to Logan this week for a three-day residency, Feb. 21-23, at Logan High School and a concert Thursday, Feb. 23, at 8 p.m. at USU's Eccles Conference Center.
The program, presented by the Chamber Music Society of Logan, will feature the group in string quartets of Mozart (the "Hunt" Quartet), Schubert ("Death and the Maiden") and Ralph Shapey. Tickets are $14 ($4 students, $3 if purchased in advance), available at the USU ticket office.
All siblings of Chinese-American descent, the Yings - Timothy, Janet, Phillip and David - grew up in a Chicago suburb and went on to study at the Eastman School of Music, where the quartet was formed in 1988. The following year the group won the International Cleveland Quartet Competition and, in 1993, the Naumburg Chamber Music Award.
Mildred Johnson will give a free pre-concert lecture at 7 p.m.
- "FIVE CONDUCTORS," a program honoring Utah choral-music "giants" Newell B. Weight and Bernell W. Hales, will be presented by the Utah Symphony Chorus and University of Utah A Cappella Choir on Friday, Feb. 24, in the Temple Square Assembly Hall.
Besides Weight and Hales, conducting duties will be shared by Mormon Tabernacle Choir director Jerold Ottley and Utah Symphony Chorus conductors Ed Thompson and Michael Huff. Both Ottley and Thompson were students and assistant conductors under Weight and Hales at the U. Weight founded the A Cappella Choir in 1962 and Hales the U. Chamber Choir.
Selections will range from choral music of Victoria, Verdi, Durufle and Rutter to Rodgers and Hammerstein ("If I Loved You" from "Carousel"). Admission is free, with a starting time of 7:30 p.m.
- THE AMERICAN WEST SYMPHONY will perform Friday, Feb. 24, at 8 p.m. at Sandy's Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 8585 S. 700 East.
Under music director Joel Rosenberg, the concert will feature three of the orchestra's members as soloists - Leslie Torchio in the Rondo from the Weber Bassoon Concerto, Angie Klunker in the first movement of Bruch's G minor Violin Concerto and Janet Zarbock in the first movement of the MacDowell Second Piano Concerto. Also on the program: Copland's "Outdoor Overture," the Intermezzo from "Cavalleria Rusticana" and the Albinoni Adagio.
General admission is $6 ($5 seniors, $4 children). In addition the same program will be repeated free of charge March 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the Temple Square Assembly Hall.
- GERMAN CONDUCTOR Matthias Kuntzsch returns to conduct the Utah Symphony in a trio of concerts Friday and Saturday, Feb. 24 and 25, at 8 p.m. at Abravanel Hall and Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 7:30 p.m. at Brigham Young University's Harris Fine Arts Center.
Kuntzsch has previously led the orchestra on its summer concert series as well as at Utah Opera. He has served as general music director of the Saarbruecken State Opera, principal guest conductor of the Basque National Symphony and musical assistant to Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner at Bayreuth.
On this engagement his program will consist of two Viennese symphonies - Schubert's Eighth (the "Unfinished" Symphony) and Bruckner's Ninth, as it happens, also unfinished at the time of the composer's death.
Tickets to the Friday and Saturday concerts are priced from $12 to $33. In addition the same program will be presented as an open dress rehearsal Friday morning at 11, following light refreshments in the lobby. Tickets to this are $6.
For information call 533-NOTE.
- THE BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY Concert Choir, Mack Wilberg directing, will perform Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Temple Square Assembly Hall. Accompanied by the BYU Chamber Orchestra, the choir will be heard in Brahms' "Naenie" and the Persichetti Te Deum, among other works. Admission is free.
- THE BYU INTERNATIONAL Folk Dance Ensemble will perform Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Bingham High School auditorium. The event is the first to be sponsored by the newly formed South Jordan Arts Council.
The 36-member ensemble is supervised by artistic director Edwin Austin and assistants Delynne Peay and Peggy Sue Wright. Its members are selected from some 200 folk-dance-team members who perform a wide variety of dances from around the world, with authentic costumes and music.
Tickets at $3 single or $10 per family are available at South Jordan city offices, Draper Bank or at the door.
- THE WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY Winter Choirfest will be presented on Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Ogden school's Browning Center for the Performing Arts.
Taking part will be the Weber State Singers, Concert Choir, Chamber Choir and Cold Fusion, in a program that will embrace everything from Bruckner and Copland to vocal jazz and a medley from the Broadway musical "Grease."
Tickets are $4 ($3 students/seniors), available at the Dee Events Center or at the door. For information call 626-8500.
- THE MURRAY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA will perform Saturday, Feb. 25, at 8 p.m. at Hillcrest Junior High School, 126 E. 5300 South.
The program will include the Overture to Rossini's "The Barber of Seville," Smetana's "The Moldau," Wagner's "Rienzi" Overture, the fourth movement of the Brahms First Symphony and Barber's "Adagio for Strings."
Tickets are $5 ($3 children 16 and under) or $10 per family. They are available at the Fashion Place and Cottonwood mall information booths, Day Murray Music and Summerhays Music or at the door.