Utah’s “Mr. Christmas,” musician/composer Kurt Bestor, will bring back his annual holiday concerts in December, after having to cancel in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual “A Kurt Bestor Christmas” concerts — the theme this year is “Return to the Magic” — are set for Dec. 9, 10 and 11 at the Eccles Theatre, 131 S. Main St., in downtown Salt Lake City.
Tickets for the shows — 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 9, 8 p.m. on Dec. 10, and 2 and 8 p.m. on Dec. 11 — will go on sale Friday, July 16, online at LiveEccles.com, by calling 801-355-ARTS, or at ArtTix outlets. Information on pre-sale tickets, available starting Wednesday, can be found at his website, kurtbestor.com.
“I had no idea just how much I would miss the interaction between my fellow musicians, the audience and me,” Bestor said in a statement accompanying Wednesday’s announcement. “Feeling the magic that only happens in a live musical performance is sure to make this year’s Christmas concert one that we’ll always remember.”
For the past 34 years, Bestor has performed holiday shows for Utah audiences. The upcoming show will feature both a band and an orchestra, along with a guest performer. Bestor is keeping mum on who this year’s guest will be, though he said it’s someone who hasn’t performed in his Christmas shows before.
Bestor’s 2020 shows were canceled when Salt Lake County closed its four downtown Salt Lake City arts venues — Eccles, Abravanel Hall, the Capitol Theatre and the Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts — in mid-November.
Bestor was a big part of the Eccles’ first live shows back from the pandemic, acting as a producer and the musical director of a series of May concerts featuring the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
