Brighten Your November and December With Uplifting Performances in the New Music Building
As fall fades into winter and Thanksgiving turns into Christmas, we look to performances hosted by the BYU School of Music to bring light and warmth into the holiday season. Come support School of Music student performing groups and enjoy a variety of musical genres as the year comes to a close.
Mountain Strings & Folk Music Ensembles: American Folk Celebration
Date & Time: November 28 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Recital Hall
Price: $6-10
Tickets: arts.byu.edu
Mountain Strings, BYU’s traditional and contemporary folk music ensemble, performs a variety of music styles from the American tradition and from the British Isles and Canada. The band consists of seven talented student musicians who play a wide variety of instruments–including fiddle, viola, guitar, bass, piano, accordion, percussion and voice. They perform and travel with BYU’s International Folk Dance Ensemble to international festivals under the United Nations’ UNESCO branch. This concert is a celebration of the long tradition of American folk music.
Faculty member Mark Geslison said that one of the goals of Mountain Strings is to “make friendships and promote peace and unity in the world.” This concert is an opportunity for audience members to enjoy the uplifting, international music of Mountain Strings right here on BYU campus. Folk music concerts are meant to be fun; we invite the audience to sing along when appropriate and to clap along as they feel so inclined.
Classical Percussion: Percussion Ensemble + Tangents Quartet
Date & Time: November 28 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Concert Hall
Price: $10-14
Tickets: arts.byu.edu
This classical percussion concert will feature the BYU Percussion Ensemble led by Matt Coleman and the BYU Tangent Percussion Quartet directed by Darren Bastian. The repertoire that is particularly special to this concert is Pat Metheny’s “First Circle,” arranged for percussion ensemble by Luis Rivera, Michael Kingan and Steve MacDonald and “José/beFORe JOHN5” by Aurél Holló.
Coleman said, “‘First Circle’ has been an immensely fun and challenging undertaking for the ensemble to learn. The piece involves mixed time signatures and soloists on vibraphone and marimba. ‘José/beFORe JOHN5’ is a challenging experimental percussion quartet that involves intensely intricate hocketed rhythms and instruments uncommon to percussion instrumentation.”
Philharmonic: Folksong and Fate
Date & Time: November 29 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Concert Hall
Price: $10-14
Tickets: arts.byu.edu
Join the BYU Philharmonic for a concert featuring American and English folk songs by Aaron Copland and Ralph Vaughan Williams. These composers worked “across the pond” from each other and will comprise the “Folksong” portion of the concert. The main piece of the evening will be Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5” which is possibly his most well known work. The Philharmonic will be using the Mahler orchestration of Beethoven’s music. Conductor Gustav Mahler added instruments, adjusted dynamics and sometimes added or removed notes all together.
According to BYU’s new director of orchestras Nathan Haines, “While it seems almost sacrilegious to change Beethoven’s music today, this was a common practice at the turn of the 20th century. Was Mahler right to add his own touch to Beethoven’s music? Come to the concert and find out.”
Before the show, Haines will host a “Pre-Concert Talk” at 6:30 p.m. where audience members can get to know him in his new position as director of orchestras.
Symphonic Band + University Band in Concert
Date & Time: November 30 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Concert Hall
Price: $6-10
Tickets: arts.byu.edu
Get into the Christmas spirit with BYU’s bands! In a special combined concert, the Symphonic Band will join forces with University Band to favor the audience with an array of Christmas classics and band favorites. The BYU Symphonic Band will premiere a wonderful multi-media, theatrical composition called “Avalanche in the Bleak Mid-Winter.” The concert will also feature special guest, School of Music faculty Mark Ammons.
Jazz Voices: A Swingin’ Christmas
Date & Time: November 30 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Recital Hall
Price: $6-10
Tickets: arts.byu.edu
There are few things that spread yuletide cheer better than vocal jazz. Come enjoy the melodies of the holiday season with BYU's Jazz Voices. The concert will feature two vocal jazz ensembles. Audiences will join in the merriment with heartwarming sing-alongs, captivating solos and lush harmonies that only Jazz Voices can deliver.
Jazz Voices director Hayley Kirkland said, “It's more than a concert—it's a Christmas experience to remember. So come, let your voice be heard, and let the spirit of Christmas resonate in every note. The halls are decked, the voices tuned and the season's joy awaits you!”
December Concerts:
Karrin Allyson 5-Time Grammy Nominee with Synthesis
Date & Time: December 1 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Concert Hall
Price: $6-10
Tickets: arts.byu.edu
BYU’s premier jazz band is joined by vocalist and five-time Grammy nominee Karrin Allyson for a feast of jazz entertainment. Allyson will be accompanied by Synthesis on some of her original songs as well as some jazz classics by composers such as Rodgers and Hammerstein.
BYU Symphony Orchestra
Date & Time: December 6 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Concert Hall
Price: $6-10
Tickets: arts.byu.edu
Experience the brilliance of BYU’s Symphony Orchestra, as they perform standards from the orchestral repertoire and introduce new favorites.
Jazz Ensemble: A Most Spirited Christmas! (Christmastime Jazz!)
Date & Time: December 14 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Concert Hall
Price: $6-10
Tickets: arts.byu.edu
Jazz Ensemble’s “A Most Spirited Christmas!” performance will feature traditional Christmas songs performed in a rhythmic, jazzy style. “Deck the Halls,” “Frosty the Snowman,” “Here We Come A-Wassailing,” “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” and “Let it Snow” are among many of the tunes sure to fill you with the spirit of the season.
In addition to holiday favorites, Jazz Ensemble will be joined by a host of singers and dancers to perform jazz and hip-hop tracks from the Christmas film “Spirited,” a modern retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic, “A Christmas Carol.”
Mark Ammons, director of Jazz Ensemble said, "This is the final concert of the Fall semester and the last Christmas concert of the BYU School of Music for 2023. What a splendid way to send everyone into the rest of the holiday season."