February Brings You a Wide Variety of Concerts By Some of the Top Ensembles in the School of Music
Looking for a way to embrace the month of love? Whether you’re celebrating romantic, platonic or self love this February, the School of Music’s vast array of concerts has something for the occasion. Take your pick of classical, choral or jazz, with special concerts happening Valentine’s Day week.
BYU Blast!
Date & Time: February 3 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Concert Hall
Price: $5-14
Tickets: Available online at BYU Tickets
BYU School of Music announces a new concert experience, “BYU Blast!” This collage concert, which is a faculty and student collaboration, will feature over 20 various ensembles and soloists who will perform short, exciting works in quick succession.
The audience can expect to see the BYU Wind Symphony, BYU Symphony Orchestra, BYU Jazz Ensemble, Harp Ensemble, Bassoon Ensemble, Mountain Strings, Cello Choir, Trumpet Ensemble, Clarinet Choir, BYU Jazz Legacy Band, BYU Faculty Harp Quartet, Orpheus Winds, Orchestral Brass Ensemble, Tangents Percussion Quartet, Honors Brass Quintet, Zion’s Brass Quintet, Flute Choir, Viola Ensemble and multiple student and faculty soloists.
BYU Singers and Concert Choir: Fauré Requiem
Date & Time: February 8 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Concert Hall
Price: $10-14
Tickets: Available online at BYU Tickets
2024 marks the 100-year anniversary of Gabriel Fauré’s death, and to commemorate this famed French composer, BYU Singers and Concert Choir will perform his most celebrated work for chorus, soloists and orchestra: “Requiem.” Faculty members Shea Owens and Jennifer Young will sing on several movements of the Requiem, and student soloists will precede the “Requiem” by singing some of Fauré’s short art songs on secular poetry, accompanied by orchestra.
Concert Choir director Brent Wells said, “We wanted to do a large combined choral and orchestral concert this semester and felt that the 100-year anniversary of Fauré’s death was the perfect opportunity to do his ‘Requiem.’ This concert also provides a great opportunity to highlight our student soloists.”
Joseph Alessi with BYU Wind Symphony
Date & Time: February 2 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Concert Hall
Price: $10-14
Tickets: Available online at BYU Tickets
The BYU Wind Symphony is joined by world-renowned trombonist Joseph Alessi in a performance of “Concerto for Trombone.” The concerto was written by legendary jazz pianist and Grammy Award-winner Chick Corea specifically for Alessi, and it was Corea’s final work before his death in 2021.
Alessi is the longtime principal trombonist of the New York Philharmonic and works as a faculty member at the Juilliard School. He has performed with the world’s top orchestras and conductors. The Wind Symphony feels honored to be performing alongside one of the best trombone soloists in the world.
Wind Symphony director Shawn Smith said, “I am thrilled to have the BYU Wind Symphony share the stage with Joseph Alessi. Having a world-class musician of this caliber solo with us is a testament to the excellence of our School of Music and to the talent and hard work of our students. There are very few university students in the nation that get to have an opportunity like this.”
Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Voices: L.O.V.E.
Date & Time: February 13 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Concert Hall
Price: $6-10
Tickets: Available online at BYU Tickets
Love is in the air! Bring your valentine, friends or come yourself to enjoy a night of loud music and tight harmonies with Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Voices. This concert combines big band and vocal jazz music for an energetic concert.
Hayley Kirkland, director of Jazz Voices, said, “This concert is a highlight of ours each year. There's a certain kind of magic when a big band and vocal jazz ensemble come together. The energy is electrifying. Come join us as we celebrate love with some of the best music and the finest people around! And if you want to dance, we won’t stop you!”
BYU Philharmonic: A Night of Romance
Date and Time: February 14 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Concert Hall
Price: $10-14
Tickets: Available online at BYU Tickets
A night at the symphony is a wonderful way to spend Valentine’s Day. At BYU Philharmonic’s “A Night of Romance,” audiences will enjoy romantic and stirring classics from “West Side Story,” “Carmen” and Tchaikovsky's “Romeo and Juliet.”
BYU Symphonic Band: Love is in the Air
Date & Time: February 15 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Concert Hall
Price: $6-10
Tickets: Available online at BYU Tickets
The Symphonic Band will pay homage to all those who love and are loved in this special Valentine’s Day concert. The concert will include favorites such as Bernstein’s “West Side Story” and John Philip Sousa’s “Fairest of the Fair.” Special guest Andrew Crane, conductor of BYU Singers, will be a featured vocalist on Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma.”
Symphonic Band director Nate Seamons said, “The BYU Symphonic Band will present a concert of wonderful songs, anthems and celebrations of love. This concert is sure to leave people with hope and love.”
Essentially Ellington Regional Jazz Festival Featuring Synthesis
Date & Time: February 17 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Music Building Concert Hall
Price: $10-14
Tickets: Available online at BYU Tickets
Join BYU’s award-winning big band for a feast of jazz entertainment! Synthesis will close out the annual Essentially Ellington Regional Jazz Festival for high school jazz bands with this exciting concert featuring music by Duke Ellington and John Coltrane. Synthesis will be joined by a special guest, the legendary Jerry Bergonzi, who plays saxophone in the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
Symphony Orchestra Concerto Night
Date & Time: February 21 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: MB Concert Hall
Price: $10-14
Tickets: Available online at BYU Tickets
This concert will feature concerto performances of up-and-coming students from the BYU School of Music. For the annual Concerto Night, BYU Symphony Orchestra will feature six student soloists, all of who are winners of the annual concerto competition for first and second-year students. The audience will have the chance to enjoy the talents of some of the School of Music’s finest music majors as they play works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, Reinecke, Debussy, Saint-Saens and Prokofiev.
Symphony Orchestra director Chris Smith said, “It is always a pleasure for the orchestra to collaborate with such gifted musicians.”