The Moab Music Festival is back (and already underway!) for its 31st year. The festival brings music in concert with the landscape set against the natural backdrop of Moab’s iconic red rocks and along the Colorado river. The festival began as a much smaller event, starting with just a few concerts each year, but has grown into the musical force it is today. The idea started when Co-Founder and Artistic Director Leslie Tomkins first visited Moab 35 years ago with Music Director Michael Barrett, himself a protégé of Leonard Bernstein.
“I was utterly entranced by the red rocks,” Tomkins says. “I wanted to somehow participate in and celebrate the incredible beauty of the landscape here. As a professional violist, I thought that playing music among the rocks would be the best way to do that.”
(Moab Music Festival, sponsored) An acoustically perfect grotto becomes a concert hall for three benefit concerts on Aug 31, Sept 7 and Sept 11.
This year, the festival brings fifty-three world-class musicians, performing in twenty-three concerts, in thirteen different wilderness, outdoor and historic venues, including Pius Cheung, hailed as one of the most important percussionists of his generation. Cheung will perform the world premiere of his original composition “Samsara” at the concert titled Water World: Rivers, Bridges, Droughts, and Floods on September 3. Other performers featured in the festival’s lineup are some of the best chamber musicians playing today in addition to young up-and-coming instrumentalists.
Other concerts include: Salt Lake City’s own Hot House West Swing Orchestra on Sept 9, a wilderness hike to a natural amphitheater with a program titled “Free Voices of Eastern Europe” on Sept 10 and “The Four Seasons According to Glass and Piazzolla,” held at historic Star Hall in downtown Moab also on Sept 10.
(Moab Music Festival, sponsored) World-class artists come to Moab, Utah each year to create the festival’s signature music in concert with the landscape.
On Sept 9, Hot House West Swing Orchestra heats things up with an evening of American swing favorites at Sorrell River Ranch. This stylish, 14-member ensemble combines the timeless allure of swing rhythm with the virtuosic and soulful music of Django Reinhardt, and also incorporates western roots and American jazz. Group vocals, masterful improvisation, and a ceaseless swinging pocket keep audiences smiling. The venue’s open-sided pavilion provides comfortable seating that blends nature and music to create the festival’s signature music in concert with the landscape.
The wilderness hike “Free Voices of Eastern Europe” on Sept 10 is the second and final of this year’s musical hikes. The concert starts with the audience hiking to a secluded canyon where musicians set up to perform in an intimate and one-of-a-kind concert. The program features all string instruments and is a celebration of composers who are free from Russia or the Soviet Union. The experience of hearing these string virtuosos play in nature’s amphitheater is not to be missed.
(Moab Music Festival, sponsored) Salt Lake City's own Hot House West Swing Orchestra performs at Sorrell River Ranch on Sept 9.
Also on Sept 10, at the concert “The Four Seasons According To Glass And Piazzolla,” renowned violinist Robert McDuffie performs the Philip Glass concerto he commissioned. The program also includes a performance of “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” by some of the most exciting violinists in the country.
“We strive to make our concerts approachable and welcoming,” says Tomkins. “All of our events are informal and intimate, and you don’t have to be a classical music buff to enjoy them. We’re the only festival in the country that has this remarkable landscape,” she continues, “and we hope everyone will come and enjoy it with us.”
For tickets and additional information about the artists and pieces being performed, please visit moabmusicfest.org or call the Moab Music Festival box office at 435.259.7003.