MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Location: file:///C:/224BB24E/Let-music-awaken-your-imagination.htm Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" Let Music Awaken Your Imagination Press Release

PRESS RELEASE

From the Orchestra of Southern Utah

 

To Be Release= d: September 14, 2007

Contact: = Laurel Kay Dodgion, (435) 865-1492

 

Photo Cutline: Carol Ann Modesitt will perform in a special evening of Music of Fantasies, presented by the Orches= tra of Southern Utah Fall Recital Series.

 

Let Music Awaken Your Imagination

 

      Music has a way of awaking our imaginations.&nbs= p; It allows our minds’ eye to visualize drama, comedy, fantasy…all the best a story has to offer.  It takes on a journey, through epic legends and sweet fairytales of the past, as well as the best-loved stories= of our day.  Music allows us some= thing that nothing else can: the opportunity to create within our minds worlds of= our own and stories of our own.  We become the author, the illustrator, and the audience when we listen to musi= c.

      The Orchestra of Southern Utah invites you to join in this experience at their upcoming recital “Music of Fantasies.”  The recital will be held September= 18th at 7:30 pm at the St. Jude’s Episcopal Church (70 N 200 W, Cedar City).  This beautiful edifice is acoustic= al gem, according to Recital Director Sara Penny.  “The inverted ark design len= ds itself beautifully to small ensembles and voices.”

      This evening stories conveyed through music will feature several talented musici= ans from the Cedar City area, including soprano Carol= Ann Modesitt.  Modesitt has performed both nationally and internatio= nally in opera, musical theater, and recitals.&n= bsp; Her solo debut at Carnegie Hall was in March 2002, while she was tou= ring the United States.  She was the featured soloist with the Pemigewasset Choral Society in its 1993 tour of Scotlan= d and the guest soloist with the New Hampshire Friendship Chorus during its 1= 996 South American tour. Modesitt was also a regional finalist in the Carnegie International Competition in S= an Francisco in 1987.  She served as Interim Chair of the SUU Music Department in 2005-2006, a= nd is currently head of the voice area as well as the Opera/Musical Theatre Di= rector. Modesitt has directed over 40 different productions at S.U.U. including Hansel and Gretel, La Bohème, Carmen, Marriage of Fig= aro, and Susannah by Carlisle Floyd.  Modesitt will perform On This Island by Benjamin Britten= and Arittes Oubliees by Claude Debussy= .  Modesitt will by accompanied by Tr= acey Bradshaw.  On This Island envokes images of island life that, while often over-simplified by the casual onlookers, has challenges and joys all its own.  Artittes Oubliees simply means For= gotten Songs.  This French work allow= s the mind to wander down roads of the past, remembering places and people who slipped from one’s thoughts..

  =     Bradshaw will also perform Trio in D minor, = Op. 32 by Russian composer Anton Arensky with Sara Penny, violin, and Brooke MacNaughton, cello.  Th= is dramatic piano trio has all the intricacies of a great<= /span> Russian novel.  Bradshaw moved= to Cedar City last year and plays piano for SUU faculty and student performances.  She re= ceived her Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance and pedagogy from Brigham Young University.  She accompanied the BYU Singers for three years and toured with the group through Europe and the Middle East. MacNaughton is a graduate of Southern Utah University with a degree in English Literature. While attending SUU, she se= rved as principal cellist for the SUU Orchestra. She is currently in her 12= th season with the Orchestra of Southern Utah. Pen= ny currently serves as Recital Director for OSU.  She is an active member of OSU as = well as the Southern Utah String Quartet.

      Mary Anne Andersen will perform a musical selection entitled The White Peacock by Charles Tomlinson Gri= ffes.  The White Peacock is highly impressionistic, typical of a Griffes piece.  The slow, peaceful introduction brings to mind the lines of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem A Vision in a Dream: “Where Alph= , the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to= man Down to a sunless sea.”  Ande= rsen is an active piano teacher and performer.&= nbsp; She also founded and leads a public book club for the Cedar City Arts Council.

      From by Life, String Quartet in E mino= r by Czech composer Bedrich Smetana will be playe= d by the Southern Utah String Quartet.  Smetana knew Antonin Dvorak personally and the viola pa= rt was premiered by the young Dvorak.  Smetana was losing his hearing and was grieved by the death of his w= ife and daughter. He turned to music as solace.  The first theme of the piece symbo= lizes “Fate’s summons to take part in life’s combat”.  The overall movement evokes the composer’s love of music as a youth.=   The Southern Utah String Quarter features four OSU musicians and active music teachers: violinists Patty Walser and Suzanne Stewart, cellist Leah Brown, and violist Sara Penny.

      Cedar High School students Eric Lie= bhardt and Rebecca Cloward in perform Where is Love? from the musical Oliver.  The violin duet was written by Lio= nel Bart as part of the musical version of Charles Dickens’ classic Ol= iver Twist.  Both will be featu= red in the upcoming production of Fiddler = on the Roof  at Cedar High School.

      Come and awaken your imagination with an evening of musical fantasies provided by the Orchestra of Southern Utah Fall Recital Series.  The recital is open to adults and children over the age of six are welcome to attend.  OSU requests that babies and child= ren under the age of six not attend as the performance will be recorded and broadcast worldwide.  A donati= on of $5.00 per adult and $3.00 per child is suggested. 

 

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