Top student vocal talent from Brigham Young University’s School of Music will perform a variety of works by well-known composers during “Opera Scenes” Wednesday through Saturday, Feb. 18-21, at 7:30 p.m. in the Madsen Recital Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center.

The 30th Annual Brigham Young University Jazz Festival will take place Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 12-14, with performances by BYU’s Jazz Legacy Dixieland Band with guest artist Bryan Shaw, and Synthesis with guest artist Anthony Wilson.

The most recorded mezzo-soprano of all time, Jennifer Larmore, will appear in recital at Brigham Young University Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center.

The Brigham Young University Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Kory Katseanes, will perform Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” and Georg Druschetzky’s Concerto for Oboe and Tympani featuring faculty artists Geralyn Giovannetti and Ronald Brough Tuesday, Feb. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center.

Associate professor of clarinet Jaren Hinckley will present “Brazen Theft!” a light-hearted evening of music originally written for flute, oboe, saxophone, violin, viola and bass, Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 7:30 p.m. at Brigham Young University’s Madsen Recital Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center.

The Book of Jer3miah is a groundbreaking web series and Alternate Reality Game created by 2 professors and 30 college students at Brigham Young University, with a budget of only $6,000. Dubbed “a spiritual thriller” by its creators, it is the first university-sponsored web series, as well as the first Latter-day Saint themed web series. Merging short films, video blogs, social media and an interactive mystery, “The Book of Jer3miah” provides viewers a fully immersive transmedia experience. All of this revolves around Mormon college student Jeremiah Whitney, who reluctantly accepts a charge to protect a mysterious Meso-American box, making him the target of a terrifying conspiracy. Source: CFAC Website

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, artists flocked to the American Southwest captivated by its rugged, unspoiled landscape and the native people who had been there for hundreds of years. The artistic visions of this land and its people captured in vivid hues and bold colors on the canvases of these painters continue to resonate today as museums and collectors compete with increasing enthusiasm to build collections of Southwest art. “Visions of the Southwest from the Diane and Sam Stewart Art Collection,” a new exhibition at the BYU Museum of Art opening Friday, Feb. 13, will feature 124 works of art from the private collection of Diane and Sam Stewart, Utah art collectors and friends of the museum. It will be on view in the Marian Adelaide Morris Cannon Gallery on the museum’s main level through July 3, and admission is free. The Museum of Art will host an opening reception for this exhibition on Thursday, Feb. 12, from 7 to 9 p.m. The Stewarts and museum staff will be available to answer questions about the works in this exhibition during this time. There will also be live music and light refreshments. This reception is free and open to the public. The oil paintings, works on paper, and sculpture in this collection were created by many of the master artists of Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico – including Oscar E. Berninghaus, Bert Phillips, E. Martin Hennings, Joseph Henry Sharp, Georgia O’Keeffe, Conrad Buff, and Freemont Ellis – as well as their contemporaries in California, Utah, and other Western states. Native American baskets, pots, and rugs from the Stewart’s collection and furniture from the Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe will complement a number of the works in the exhibition. “The Stewarts belong to a tradition of collecting Southwest art,” said Museum of Art Curator Paul Anderson. “This art has thrilled people for more than 100 years. And many have come to see the works produced by these artists as truly American because they relate us to our roots and connect us to the unspoiled land of the West.” Anglo artists discovered Taos and other Pueblo settlements around the rugged Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the late 19th century. By the early years of the new century, artists’ colonies were thriving at Taos and Santa Fe. Enthralled with the stunning scenic vistas that surrounded them, the painters were drawn even more by the local cultures that had coexisted in peaceful serenity over the centuries. These artists, who had mostly trained in Europe and the best Eastern schools, saw the Southwest landscape and people as fresh subject matter for a distinctly American art form. They saw the Pueblo culture as a perfect example of a people gaining strength from lives lived in harmony with nature, a striking contrast to the fast paced, competitive, industrial culture coming to dominate the rest of the country. The generation of artists who arrived before the end of World War I, including Berninghaus, Phillips, Hennings, and Sharp, generally worked in traditional, representational styles they had mastered in their earlier studies. But these Taos artists were impelled to employ new techniques to effectively render the open, arid vistas and hard, white brightness of the high desert terrain. They often used brighter, more intense colors and broader brushstrokes than they had previously employed in their landscapes and figures. Many artists who arrived after 1918, including O’Keeffe, Buff, and Ellis, produced works that were often more influenced by modernist trends that stressed the elemental shapes and the core ideas underlying the dramatic scenery and exotic local culture. “The Stewarts have created a harmonious setting for these works of art in their rambling Southwest-style home in Palm Springs, California. The paintings are displayed together with collections of pottery, baskets, and other objects from Native American and Hispanic artists and artisans of the Southwest,” Anderson said. “We wanted the museum’s exhibition of this superb collection to give visitors a small taste of what it would be like to visit the Stewarts in Palm Springs, surrounded by beautiful art and fine craftsmanship.” A cell phone tour will be available for this exhibition. MP3 players pre-loaded with the audio tour will also be available to check out for free from the Information Desk on the main level. Free docent-led tours will be conducted during regular museum hours and must be scheduled at least one week in advance. Tours usually last about one hour. Call (801) 422-1140 to schedule a tour. For more information about the museum, visitors can call (801) 422-8287 or visit moa.byu.edu. Source: BYU News

The American Piano Duo, composed of Brigham Young University faculty artist Jeffrey Shumway and guest artist Del Parkinson, will perform an evening of 20th-century American music Saturday, Feb. 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Madsen Recital Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center.

by Marissa Ballantyne

Husband-and-wife piano duo Ning Lu and Jie Lu will appear in a guest artist recital Thursday, Feb. 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the Madsen Recital Hall at Brigham Young University. The recital is free, and tickets are not required. Guest artist Kelly Clark Parkinson, violin, and faculty artist Laurence Lowe, horn, will also perform. Ning Lu and Jie Lu will perform Brahms’ “Variations on a Theme by Haydn,” a set of nine variations of Haydn’s “St. Anthony Chorale” arranged for two pianos. Parkinson and Lowe will join Ning Lu for Brahms’ Trio for Piano, Violin and Horn in E flat. Making his professional debut at the age of 9, Ning Lu spent nine years studying at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. He is currently an associate professor of piano at the University of Utah. Jie Lu graduated with top honors from the Wuhan Conservatory of Music in China, before pursuing university studies in the United States, where she is on the piano faculty at the University of Utah. BYU alumna Kelly Clark Parkinson has performed throughout North America, Europe and Israel in addition to extensive studio recordings, including the score for Steven Spielberg’s film “Survivors of the Shoah.” BYU faculty member Laurence Lowe studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Eastman School of Music. He has made five solo appearances at International Horn Society workshops, in addition to his orchestral and chamber assignments in Europe, Asia, Brazil and Carnegie Hall. Source: BYU News

At the BYU Museum of Art:

More than 60 Brigham Young University School of Music students and faculty will take the stage to celebrate the 200th birthday of Felix Mendelssohn in “The Mendelssohn Project,” a marathon concert of all 49 of his “Lieder ohne Worte,” or “Songs without Words,” Tuesday, Feb. 3, from 5:30-9:30 p.m. in the Madsen Recital Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center.