With the tagline “music in concert with the landscape,” the Moab Music Festival boasts a huge variety of musical genres, from classical, to jazz, to traditional native songs. However, with concerts taking place outside amid the red rock, the setting is anything but traditional.
Laura Brown is the executive director of the Moab Music Festival.
"Sometimes you get the nature sounds mixed in with it and sometimes you don’t," Brown said. "Sometimes you have to deal with the wind, occasionally some sprinkles of rain. It’s really that experience of hiking out to somewhere where not a lot of people are, or no people are besides the group, and being able to listen to the music in this very serene experience and area.”
She said some of this year’s highlights include a concert with highly acclaimed artists Chick Corea and Béla Fleck on the piano and banjo. Another concert, entitled Cruel and Unusual Instruments, will present music featuring unfamiliar instruments such as the theremin, phono-fiddle and the hurdy-gurdy.
The 23rd annual Moab Music Festival is scheduled to take place Sept. 3-14, with a musical raft trip Sept. 14-17. For further details about this year’s artist lineup, please visit their website.