The Utah Symphony and Ballet West are places most students wouldn’t think to take a date or go out for a night on the town, probably because the events can get very expensive. But thanks to the LDS Church, Temple Square offers free concerts almost every weekend on Fridays and/or Saturdays during the month of February.
Tickets are rarely required to these amazing performances, but in a few cases, free tickets are available to those who call ahead. The first concert of the year was on Jan. 22 and required a ticket to attend.
The performance was held in the Tabernacle building and featured Utah’s Youth Philharmonic. For those students who haven’t taken Music 1010, that would be the Utah Symphony’s Youth Orchestra.
The main focus of most classical concerts is on the classics of course. The Youth Philharmonic paid an amazing tribute to Dvořák’s Symphony no. 8 in G Major and also entertained the well sized crowd with a new work entitled “Serenade by Spring,” written by Bryan Stanley. The execution by the performers was impeccable with very few and almost completely unnoticeable mistakes which must be thanks to the Conductor, Barbara Scowcroft.
Coming up this weekend on Friday, Feb. 4, a poetry reading titled, “Church Cultural Arts Script and Poetry Submission” will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. This presentation is going to be a collection from the annual Music and Cultural Arts contest showing the theatrical and poetic pieces that were selected for the presentation.
On Feb. 19, Mitchell Sturges will be performing a program called, “Songs and Poems of Love.” This performance is meant to showcase Sturges’ amazing tenor voice with pieces by Mozart, Handel, Liszt, and Bernstein.
This time of year also brings the BYU Winterfest to Temple Square. These performances unfortunately are not free but are only $8 to view internationally acclaimed performances.
BYU’s Accapella Choir, Vocal Point, will be performing on Feb. 10 and 11. They have a variety of musical genres to choose from: rock, pop, country, and R&B, among others. The music is appropriate for all ages, and can wow anyone with the incredible sounds that the vocal chords from this group can produce.
On Feb. 18 and 19, the International Folk Dance Ensemble from BYU is prepping for their Eastern Europe tour. The tour will feature a show titled, “The Gathering.” The collection of dances from different cultures around the world will take place at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.
Like most concerts, there are a few rules and guidelines that guests are asked to observe. No one under 8 years old is admitted to the concerts. No backpacks, cameras, camcorders, etc. are allowed in the buildings, but after the concert, most performers allow pictures and talk to audience members.
Most of the events start at 7:30 p.m. and are either in the Assembly Hall or the Tabernacle Building. More information can be found at www.lds.org/events or by calling 801-240-3323.