After arriving safely in Hamburg, the tour performances started first thing that next morning at an elementary school. The group started by performing for 20 minutes for the children. Many of them recognized the first piece they played since they had studied it in their music classes. After the performance, the group split up into instrument groups at different stations throughout the school. The children rotated and listened to each music group and filled out a form about what the instrument sounded like, such as what kind of weather does the tuba sound like.

The American Piano Duo, featuring Brigham Young University faculty pianist Jeffrey Shumway and Del Parkinson from Boise State University, will perform works by impressionist composers Saturday, April 28, at 7:30 p.m. in the Madsen Recital Hall. The concert is sponsored by BYU’s School of Music, and admission is free. Numbers to be performed during the concert include 'En blanc et noir' and the 'Nocturnes' by Claude Debussy as well as Maurice Ravel's 'Daphnis et Chloé.' Shumway and Parkinson, who have performed together since 1984, met while attending the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. They have since performed throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe. For more information, contact Jeffrey Shumway at (801) 422-4922.

Monday, April 30, 2012 PROVO, Utah

The Young Ambassadors met Tuesday morning at 5:30 am at the Richards building and then made their way to the airport for their traveling adventure. They flew from SLC to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to Johannesburg, South Africa for their 15 hour marathon flight.

The Folk Dance Ensemble boarded their bus at 10:00 am this morning to start their performance tour to the southern USA. The first state they will visit while on tour is New Mexico with shows this week in Farmington and Alamogordo. On May 2, the group will travel to Texas to perform in El Paso, Odessa, and Corpus Christi. In preparation for this tour, the group added folk dances from Mexico and a southern waltz from the Civil War era, highlighting cultures widespread in Texas and the South.

The BYU Singers embarked on their 3-week tour to England and Wales, first of the BYU groups this year to leave, on April 22nd, and flew from Salt Lake City to London. The following morning they began their United Kingdom experience properly by visiting Buckingham Palace and watching the famous changing of the guard, complete with 2 regiments, and 2 regimental bands participating in the event. Their first concert was held that evening in the northern city of Milton Keynes, as a benefit performance for the Willen Hospice, a local care center. In this location where choral music is so well known and appreciated, the BYU group was complimented warmly by enthusiastic applause and a call for two encores.

The Young DanceMakers of Brigham Young University will present their annual 'Evening of Dance' titled “Come Dream with Me” Friday and Saturday, May 4-5, at 7:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center.

Come wish the Brigham Young University Singers “bon voyage” during a free pre-tour concert Saturday, April 21, at 6:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall.

This spring the Young Ambassadors will travel to South Africa, Botswana, and Swaziland for a three-week performance tour. For their first visit to these countries since 1998, the Young Ambassadors will feature their newest song-and-dance show, Harmony: The Music of Life. With performances in major cities in like Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town in South Africa and Gaborone in Botswana and Mbabane in Swaziland, the Young Ambassadors will have a full tour itinerary.

Light suits to be used in ballroom dance concert this weekend Last summer engineering professor Aaron Hawkins saw a performance during an episode of America’s Got Talent that caught his eye. A group of dancers were performing in the dark, wearing suits that lit up in sync with the music. “I thought, why can’t we do that too?” Hawkins said. “Especially with the world-class dancers we have on campus.” Less than a year later, with financial support from L3 Communications, Hawkins and a team of electrical engineering students and faculty have created fully-functioning, eye-catching light suits that flash to music. The suits will be worn this weekend by members of the BYU Ballroom Dance Company during a number in their annual concert. See the suits in action at the BDC Concert, April 6-7, 7:30 p.m. in the Marriott Center. There is also a 2 p.m. matinee on April 7. The light suits are equipped with 16 light channels that turn on and off in sync with a musical number. A master computer plays the music which is synched with signals that are sent wirelessly to a box on the back of each of the four suits. The phonebook-sized boxes hold battery packs and a circuit board, with an antenna to receive the signals. Once the signals are received, a microcomputer in the box translates the instructions to the strands of electroluminescent wire on the suits. The result is a flashy routine where dancers appear, disappear and reappear in lines of red, white, and blue light. “The hardest part was making reliable circuitry on the boxes,” said student James Mackie. “It’s one thing just to have the circuitry turn things on and off, but it’s another thing to make it work on a moving person. If the wires bend too much as the dancers move, we can get a short that turns off the entire suit.” Guided by their faculty advisors, Mackie and his fellow students built the entire system as part of a senior-level design class. They had to perfect everything from the circuit boards to how the lights attached to the fabric of the costumes. A good dose of computer programming was also necessary. Get a close-up look at the light suits and see other electrical and computer engineering projects April 11, 1-3 p.m., at the Wilkinson Student Center Garden Court. Details here. Ballroom Dance Company Director Lee Wakefield saw the potential for a “definite upgrade” to something he had tried a dozen years before with light strips, so he welcomed the light-suit proposition from Hawkins and his team. “We jumped at the idea and just thought it was wonderful,” Wakefield said. “The piece is really fun and works well in our show since we like to appeal to a wide audience — kids love anything that glows in the dark.” The ballroom team already had a black light routine anyway, so the project fit right into their program. “Though they’ve certainly added an element or two of sophistication — like coordinating the lights to the music,” Wakefield added. The Ballroom Dance Company is one of the most prestigious ballroom teams in the world, winning the British Formation Championships 19 times and winning national championships nearly 30 times over the last 50 years. The light suits have already been used in a couple of the ballroom team’s performances and will be used throughout the summer. Thanks to the collaboration, one of the engineering students has even joined the technical crew for the dance team and will be traveling with them through the summer. “At first we thought combining engineering and dance students was really going to be a strange mix, but, in the end, it has been a very fruitful, cooperative effort,” Hawkins said. “We’ve grown to truly appreciate each other and some real friendships have developed.” Added Mackie: “Some of the dancers were actually very knowledgeable about what we were doing and we appreciate that they are helping to show off our work. It makes us feel like we are doing something that really matters and excites people. It’s been a great experience.” Source: BYU News

Brigham Young University’s non-auditioned University Chorale will perform in concert Saturday, April 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall.

Come spend your lunch break at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art on Wednesday, April 4. Museum curator Marian Wardle will be talking with guests about The Weir Family, 1820-1920: Expanding the Traditions of American Art. The guided tour will start at noon and end at 1 p.m. Art Breaks are held on select Wednesdays from 12:00 pm-1:00 pm and are free and open to the public.