The getaway, the
retreat - time out is a
necessity, but what do you
require from your trip? Allow us
to propose this brief checklist:
natural beauty, cultural
enrichment, and good company.
Now throw in an opportunity to
hear world class music,
including a Western premiere in
historic Star Hall, a fabulous
spa, some of the country's best
hiking, biking and 4X4 trails,
and charming shops and
restaurants, and you've got the
makings of the perfect
sanctuary: the MOAB MUSIC
FESTIVAL.For its
16th season, August
28 to September 13, the 2008
Festival truly presents “music
in concert with the landscape,
as many of the performances take
place in spectacular outdoor
venues along the Colorado River
and in other indoor and
spectacular outdoor sites. As
CBS Sunday Morning raved,
it's a perfect way of combining
music with the land's ancient
beauty.
In planning for the season
ahead, co-founder and Music
Director Michael Barrett is
calling upon the talents of over
30 world-class artists to
perform works ranging from the
classical masters to
contemporary surprises, from
Latin instrumentals to the magic
of the fiddle and pipes.
According to Barrett, The
quality of our artists creates a
musical experience that truly
rivals the splendor of our
surroundings. Everyone who loves
music of any kind will find
something to savor in our 16th
season.
LABOR DAY WEEKEND (August 29
- September 1):
Weekend 1 highlights include
the first of three of the
Festival's signature Colorado
River benefit concerts on
Thursday August 28, when piano
virtuoso Christopher
Taylor will perform the
mighty Vingt Regards sur
l'enfant Jésus by Olivier
Messiaen, a work which the
composer described as a joy
which is for me an ecstasy, an
intoxication in the most
liberated sense of the term.
The next night, Friday,
August 29, on the stunning
grounds of Red Cliffs Lodge on
the banks of the Colorado River,
the Festival officially opens
with an evening of chamber music
by George Frideric Handel and
Bohuslav Martinu performed by an
all-star MOAB MUSIC FESTIVAL
ensemble including violinists
Tim Fain and Karen
Gomyo, violist and Festival
co-director Leslie Tomkins,
cellist Edward Arron, and
pianist Christopher Taylor.
Red Cliffs is also the
location on Saturday, August 30,
when Latin jazz great
Paquito D'Rivera
will lead his stellar ensemble
in an exhilarating tango
concert. The weekend wraps up on
Labor Day, with a festival
favorite -- the free Rocky
Mountain Power Family Picnic
concert in Old City Park, on
Monday, September 1, where
picnickers will hear Early 20th
Century Popular Songs, piano
rags, Latin selections and more,
featuring D’Rivera and the
dazzling team of pianist
William Bolcom and
mezzo-soprano Joan
Morris.
WEEKEND II (September
4 - September 7):
The second Colorado River
Benefit concert, launching
Weekend 2 on Thursday, September
4, features Cesar Franck's
towering Quintet for Piano
and Strings f minor and the
honeyed clarinet of the
brilliant (New York Times)
Derek Bermel in
his own Thracian Sketches for
solo Clarinet and Johannes
Brahms’ Clarinet Sonata Op.
120 No. 2 in E-flat Major.
Twin concerts featuring
Pulitzer Prize-winning
composer-in-residence William
Bolcom make up the electrifying
center of the weekend. The
Western Premiere of a pair of
charming “pocket” operas in
English based on Italian farce
takes place on Friday, September
5. Lucrezia by
Bolcom and Bastianello by
Festival favorite John Musto
will be sung by an outstanding
cast of New York Festival of
Song artists: soprano
Lisa Vroman, tenor Paul Appleby,
baritone Patrick Mason, and bass
Matthew Boehler.
A lively evening on Saturday,
September 6 at the Festival Tent
at Onion Creek at the stunning
Fisher Towers features rags by
Scott Joplin, Darius Milhaud's
Saudates do Brazil and
Derek Bermel's Soul Garden
for String Sextet featuring
violist Leslie Tomkins, and
Bolcom's own Sonata No. 2 for
Violin and Piano In Memory of
Joe Venuti, and Clarinet
Concerto performed by
clarinetist Bermel. Other
artists for the weekend include
pianist David Shimoni,
violinists
Maria Bachmann and Ayano
Ninomiya, and cellists Alexis
Pia Gerlach and Tanya Tomkins.
Rounding out the weekend is
what has become a much-loved
event at the Festival, one of
our intimate House Concerts,
offering a night of luminous
chamber music with a Castle
Valley sunset for a backdrop on
Sunday, September 7, featuring
Johannes Brahms Trio in a minor
for Clarinet, Cello and Piano
and Felix Mendelssohn‘s Quintet
in A Major for Two Violins, Two
Violas and Cello for Strings
with violinists Maria
Bachmann and Ayano Ninomiya,
cellists Alexis Pia Gerlach and
Tanya Tomkins, violists Leslie
Tomkins and LP How and
clarinetist Bermel.
On Wednesday, September 10
Pianist and Professor
Paul Hersh and masterful
violinist Axel Strauss
team up at Star Hall to share
with audiences their inimitable,
in-depth insights before they
perform Beethoven’s first and
last Sonatas for Violin and
Piano
WEEKEND III (September 11 -
13):
The final weekend of the MOAB
MUSIC FESTIVAL begins with the
last of the three glorious
grotto concerts, on Thursday,
September 11. Audiences cruise
to the wilderness grotto by jet
boat and delight in the pleasure
of Ludwig van Beethoven‘s
Sonata Op. 102 in D-Major for
Cello and Piano and Maurice
Ravel‘s Trio in a minor for
Violin, Cello and Piano
performed by volinist Strauss,
cellist Tomkins and pianist Eric
Zivian
On Friday morning, September
12 at 10AM, is the sold-out
event that made its debut last
season and was a hit with
audiences -- the free Musical
Walk. Hikers will be taken down
a trail to a “secret location
concert hall and be treated to
the unaccompanied violin and
cello sonatas of Bach performed
by violinist Jesse Mills and
cellist Tanya Tomkins on
September 12 at 10am.
Completing the weekend are
two evenings at Sorrel River
Ranch Resort & Spa. Friday,
September 12 features a
rollicking evening of fine
traditional artistry with
long-time Festival favorites
fiddle player Paul Woodiel and
Christopher Layer on pipes and
flutes. And on Saturday,
September 13, watch the sun set
over the red rock landscape as
the 16th Season of
the Moab Music Festival closes
with an evening of spectacular
chamber music including Mozart's
Sonata in D Major for two
pianos, Mendelssohn’s
Piano Trio in d minor, and
Antonin Dvorak's beloved
Quintet for piano and strings
performed by
violinists Axel Strauss and
Jesse Mills, violists Paul Hersh
and Leslie Tomkins, cellist
Tanya Tomkins, and pianists
Michael Barrett and Eric Zivian.
For tickets or more
information, go to the Moab
Music Festival’s website