Photo by Michael G. Handley. BYU Arts, the umbrella organization in the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications that produces and presents live performances, finished its 2013-2014 season on June 14 with final showings of The Selfish Giant, a play featuring extensive puppetry work, and The Elixir of Love, an Italian opera. The total number of individual music, theatre and dance performances presented during the season numbered more than 460. Each year, BYU Arts makes hundreds of performances available to BYU and local audiences. These include shows put on by students and staff, as well as visiting professionals. Jeffrey Martin, producer of the BRAVO! guest artist series, said the performances from this last season wouldn’t be possible without collaborative efforts by those on stage and behind the scenes. “Everyone works so hard. The choirs and orchestras rehearse multiple times each week, students involved in theatre, dance or opera performances rehearse all semester, but people don’t usually hear about that,” Martin said. “It really does take a lot of people and resources to put these programs together. We couldn’t do it without everybody’s support and participation.” Students performed in several notable productions, including BYU Theatre Ballet’s full-length production of Swan Lake, the Department of Theatre and Media Arts’ new staging of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and the BYU Philharmonic’s concert with acclaimed guest pianist Marc-André Hamelin. In addition to the student performances, BRAVO! brought more than a dozen professional artists to campus to perform and instruct students. Audiences enjoyed shows by Broadway performer Audra McDonald, Grammy-nominated composer Frank Wildhorn, and TV and filmstar John Lithgow. OFF THE MAP: BYU International Theatre Festivalalso made its debut, receiving extremely positive reviews from attendees. Martin mentioned how visiting performers prove to be invaluable in their contributions to the lives of CFAC students. “We want our students to interact with professionals who are at the highest level in their careers right now,” Martin said. “I want our students to experience them live in performance and in workshops, so they can ask questions, get to know them and be inspired to do great work themselves.” Martin shared how the arts and the gospel are intertwined with BYU’s aims and mission. “It’s the fundamental beliefs of how to create art that inspires and brings light to the world,” Martin said. “We hope that is always reflected in our performances themselves. We’re constantly looking at how we can train our students to be the very best in their disciplines, but bring the light of the gospel into their work.” As the Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center celebrates its 50th anniversary next season,BYU Arts programming will help celebrate BYU accomplishments in the arts. “We’ll have special performances, exhibitions and lectures all throughout the year, focusing on the legacy of those who got us here and how we’re going to move forward in the future,” Martin said. “I think this new season will provide even more artistic development in our students than the last.”

The Wall Street Journal

BYU Campus Education Week presents a variety of performances on the evenings of August 19, 20, 21, 22. Performances take place in the Harris Fine Arts Center (HFAC). Tickets are on sale Monday, June 23, 2014. Be entertained by LDS performing artists, see a play, or attend the concert of a captivating pianist and composer.

The Living Legends' two week stay in Nauvoo came to an end much too quickly! The students fell in love with the people, the historical sites, and the spirit of this remarkable city.

Contemporary Dance Theatre and Synthesis departed this morning for Nauvoo, IL.They will spend two weeks performing in Nauvoo and surrounding communities.

With more than 1,000 entries from 20 different countries, five BYU design students have defied the odds and have reached the semifinals in the 14th annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards.“The Adobe Design Achievement Awards feature work from some of the most innovative and talented students around the world. We are privileged to honor such incredible talents and to help launch their careers,” said Tacy Trowbridge, worldwide manager of Education Programs, Adobe. “Congratulations to all the students for their creative accomplishments!”

Conlan Miller, an alumnus of the BYU School of Music, will compete in the Bachauer Piano Competition this month with 36 other participants from 14 nations.

This week the BYU School of Music will perform The Elixir of Love (L’eliisr d’amore),a comedic Italian opera portraying and exploring the light-hearted side of love and romance. Lawrence Vincent, professor of voice, along with the cast of students, have been preparing for months to make the opera as powerful as possible.

Following a long day of travel, the Living Legends arrived in Nauvoo at 9 PM on Monday June 2nd and ended their day with an ice cream social at the Nauvoo mission home with President and Sister Gibbons. On Tuesday, after a morning rehearsing their show and spacing dances on both the indoor and outdoor stages, the group visited the historic Nauvoo Temple. Due to violent Midwestern thunderstorms and even threats of tornadoes, the first show moved to the indoor theater in the Visitors Center where the group received a warm reception in spite of the storms outside.

LOS ANGELES – Fifteen student filmmakers from around the world were honored with Academy Awards on Saturday night in a preview of the showbiz excitement that likely awaits them in the years ahead. Previous winners have gone on to receive 46 Oscar nominations and have won eight statuettes.

Amanda Jane Jones, a 2009 graduate from the BYU Department of Visual Arts (DVA), is the lead designer for Kinfolk, a quarterly publication that recently received national attention from a review in the New York Times.

Interview by Nicole Vance of the Department of Visual Arts This month, Andrew Zundel, an Illustrator student and Wheatly scholarship recipient, answered questions about his experiences in New York City. How did you find your your work with Peter de Seve and your weekend work helping at Brooklyn galleries? Honestly it is all about putting yourself out there. Bethanne Andersen asked me in an internship meeting last December who I would like to work with, and when I told her Peter de Seve. We called him right up and asked. As for my work with the gallery, I contacted everyone I knew in New York asking for advice about city living and work experience, and gallery director and non-profit founder Jason Andrew generously offered to mentor me through several projects and events in his art circles. What is it like working for one of your favorite illustrators? Typical days working with Peter are very exciting, enriching and inspiring. There are some simple chores I perform, like organizing artwork and filing it, but that has been very enriching and inspiring on its own. Peter also has me scan in current drawings and characters he is working on, cleaning up the images in photoshop and tweaking some of the levels to punch out the color and contrast, and then get them ready to send to the different studios he is working for. And then I would get to sit down and have lunch with him, picking his brain about obstacles and triumphs that have shaped his career, ideas he has for me to strengthen my work, and just hilarious occurrences that he has come across as a professional. What is it like working in NYC galleries? As for working with Jason Andrew, I have been plunged headlong into the fine art world. On a typical day I sit in one of his galleries, helping people who come in learn about the shows going on, and occasionally selling artwork and catalogs. I was also put in charge of running all of their social media accounts; updating Twitter feeds, Facebook accounts, and their websites; adding new subscribers to their mailing list, and keeping orders and requests organized. I also have been helping in collaboration books between artists and authors. They give me their respective work, images, poetry, or literary works, and I work with them to create layouts for their books. What is your favorite part of living in NYC? Honestly it’s the food. Any delectable flavor, style, ethnicity, or quantity of food you like can be found. And it’s everywhere! Also I love the museums! There are so many, and they are all stuffed full of outrageously awesome stuff. If there is ever a time you feel uninspired, or are in a creative rut, a couple hours in any of the museums here can spark the imagination and fill you with great ideas.