Great news for the arts in Utah Valley

Last updated on: November 13, 2018 at 11:40 pm by Dan Peterson

Great news for the arts in Utah Valley 2018-11-13T23:40:47-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Soon to be transformed into the art museum of Utah Valley University
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)

It’s been a good day for the arts in Utah Valley, and both of the events that I’m going to mention have links to Utah Valley University, which is located just a few blocks from my house — considerably closer than is Brigham Young University, where I work.

I think that it’s now okay to publicly mention the fact that the very large and beautiful home of our late friend (and former Relief Society president) Melanie Bastian is to be transformed into the art museum of Utah Valley University. (Before she built her vastly larger home, when we first moved into ours, she lived just a few doors from us on our same street. She was the first person to bring us a plate of cookies and to welcome us into the neighborhood. We miss her very much.)

The gift of this home to become an art museum is a remarkably generous act on the part of her four sons, and it’s a very fitting tribute to their mother. Furthermore, it will be a major asset to the community, a real gem.

The reason that I can mention it today is that there was a reception at her home this evening for people in the immediate community. So this upcoming transformation — the museum will probably open in mid-2020 — is no longer a secret.

It will be very fun for my wife and me to have an art museum literally just around the corner.

***

We were unable to attend the reception tonight, though, because there was another competing event at the home of our friends Jeri and Stephen Covey.

They hosted a salon featuring a string quartet made up of four principal players from the Utah Symphony. The occasion was to call attention to the fact that the Utah Symphony will soon take up part-time residence at the new Noorda Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Utah Valley University, which will be more or less open in January but which will evidently open formally in March with (among other things) an inaugural performance by the Symphony. As the president and CEO of Utah Symphony/Utah Opera, Paul Meecham, put it tonight, they’re trying to make the community aware that they will now be a “regular presence” in Utah Valley, performing six annual concerts in the new facility.

Accordingly, people like Richard Brunst, the mayor of Orem, and Andy Noorda were there tonight, as was Astrid Tuminez, the new president of UVU (whom I first met when she was a student at BYU). So was Thierry Fischer, the French-Swiss music director of the Utah Symphony, who offered a brief account of his coming to Utah, including a tribute to the late Maurice Abravanel and to Utah’s powder snow.

It was a pleasure to hear such a fine string quartet — two of them originally from Texas, one from Oklahoma, and the fourth from Paris, France — in the kind of environment for which string quartets and the music they typically play were created: namely, a home. (Incidentally, one of them, their cellist, got off a good joke: He’s not only a cellist himself but he’s married to a professional cellist, and, he said, such people who marry within the same section of an orchestra are called homosectionals.)

They began with the first movement of an unfinished Schubert symphony, and then continued with the second movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 2. After that, they performed a quartet by the famed operatic composer Puccini, a real tear-jerker, following that up with a return to the fourth movement of that same Beethoven piece. After sustained applause, they offered a little musical bonbon, as they called it, of which I never heard the name.

Anyhow, the music was excellent, the refreshments were marvelous — the bread pudding was, as the saying goes, “to die for” — and I very pleased that Utah Valley (in fact, to be fully accurate, virtually our back yard) will shortly be receiving both a new art museum and the part-time but regular residence of a fine professional symphony orchestra.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

November 12, 2018

“We’re not making much money on this business, are we?”

Next Post

November 14, 2018 Join the Cause! A Note on the Power of Cumulative Effort

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What vision did Daniel have of four beasts representing empires?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Ox, ram, goat, lion Lion, bear, leopard, terrifying beast Horse, eagle, serpent, leopard Four dragons