Arts and Culture

"My Address Is" is a Utah Public Radio series exploring Utah issues associated with how and where we live. This is part 3 of 6.

When you walk into Steve Hatch’s home your eyes are immediately drawn to the ceiling where a four-foot clear dome collects the light like a magnifying glass. Hatch lives in a small yurt he built in this tiny town near the Idaho border.

His new living space is a drastic shift from what he was used to. Just a few years ago he owned a $350,000 home and earned a comfortable living. But all that changed when he lost his job in the aerospace industry where he had worked for 36 years. On top of that he divorced and the value of his hillside home plunged when the housing bubble popped.

Unemployed and armed with what was left of his retirement, he moved into an apartment in Brigham City and quickly decided he needed to find a cheaper solution.

“I only had $60,000 to spend total on this project so I had to figure out a low cost way," he said. "I explored mobile homes but their cost would run me nearly $100,000 by the time I finished up."

He decided on a yurt — a sort of semi-permanent rounded structure with latticed walls and a domed roof held in place by a compression ring at the center.

“As you see a yurt from the outside and you walk in, I think you’re immediately impressed by how much space there is,” he said. “Living in the round is kind of a unique experience. It kind of changes the way you view a structure. It’s just a nice feeling inside. Most people that come into yurts feel that feeling.”

Hatch says his new 731-square-foot space is plenty big and it’s changed the way he thinks about a home and what goes inside it.

Internationally acclaimed composer and conductor, Bob Chilcott, will be featured at the Cache Valley Choirfest on Saturday. Over 350 youth from 11 children’s choirs from all over Utah will present a world premiere of one of his pieces, commissioned specifically for this concert.

After three years of patient waiting, the time has finally come for youth from all over Utah to have the opportunity to work with composer, conductor, and former member of the “King’s Singers,” Bob Chilcott. He is especially well known for his compositions for children’s choirs. 

"My Address Is" is a Utah Public Radio series exploring Utah issues associated with how and where we live. This is part 1 of 6.

Don Baldwin decided as a young man he wanted to be a dairy farmer, but the square mile, 600-head dairy he now owns in Lewiston began as a much smaller operation.

I grew up in Salt Lake City on the east bench. I come from a non-farm background, and we bought two heifers that had already calved, and 13 springers on Thanksgiving weekend in 1981. We originally started with just those two cows on a rented dairy, an old dilapidated dairy, it took us almost a week to get enough milk in the bottom of a very small tank that they could even measure it where the truck could pick it up.

And we just started from there. Laurie and I working together. She worked as much as I did. I helped her in the house, she helped on the farm. Lots of times we had the kids with us in a cardboard box sitting in the barn or with us in a tractor, you know that's how they grew up was with us. And the kids worked too.

Don’s job on the farm is more than just an owner and dairyman, he grows most of the food used to feed his cattle, from plowing the ground to fertilization and harvesting and mixing the ingredients together. In a given week, he is husband, father, chemist, veterinarian and mechanic.

Don’s existence is intrinsically tied to the milk his cows produce and the land. He says public perceptions about where food comes from has affected farmers.

He believes the majority of the public has lost their connection to the farm, and it affects all aspects of his life. Whether cities are encroaching on the farm and getting upset by the smell, how food is produced, or legislative issues, the American populace is separated from their food by too many generations.

Ok, right now, we are hauling manure onto our fields. It's a by-product of the dairy, and it represents a valuable source of nutrients for our cropping and crop rotations. People used to understand that was part of the game. Now, there's a hue and a cry if we start hauling manure that we are contaminating the roads, we are destroying the aesthetic value of the community because it smells.

As you open the gate of the small historic house, a colorful teepee to your right as you walk the pathway steps and music wafting as you enter the front door, you realize this is no ordinary home; it has been transformed into a haven of art and community. 

Eight years ago, Dr. Brenda Sun moved to Logan, Utah and decided to open her home as a housewarming party, which turned into something much more. 

The Utah Symphony, in concert with the Utah Office of Tourism, will be offering a series of special outdoor performances in the state’s major national parks. The performances, some of which will involve the full orchestra, are in commemoration of the Utah Symphony’s 75th anniversary.

Have you ever gone hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park and thought yourself, “This landscape would be perfectly complemented by Johann Strauss’s Voices of Spring Waltz”? Well, you weren’t the only one who thought so.

Once described as a "soap opera with excellent music," the opera department at Utah State University will present two performances this weekend of the delightful and hilarious 'The Merry Wives of Windsor" by Otto Niccolai. The new Director of Opera Studies, Dallas Heaton, has injected his own fresh, new perspective into the production. 

A native of Kaysville, Utah, Dallas Heaton assumed the position of Director of Opera Studies at Utah State University this January. He completed a Master’s in Collaborative Piano at Arizona State University, and an artist’s diploma in Opera Coaching at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. Since then, Dallas has worked professionally as a collaborative artist for several years. 

Music played a major role in World War I both in uniting soldiers in a rhythm and a march, and also in uniting a nation behind a cause. Graduate music students at Utah State University will be presenting a program this Saturday which will combine both music and research from this era. This event will commemorate the centennial anniversary of the beginning of World War I.

Irving Berlin once declared “the history of America can be traced through its music.” Graduate students from the Music History Seminar course at USU will be tracing the events that occurred in World War I through music and lecture. Their goal is to present how music reflects the complex sentiments that come with fighting a war and, in turn, how music itself influenced individuals during that time.

Held in the spring to celebrate the renewal of life, pow-wows have traditionally served as vehicles for sharing and preserving Native American culture.  The Native American Student Council at Utah State University will be hosting their annual pow-wow this weekend. Jason Brough, the president of this council, is Shoshone and part of the north-western band.  

“If you go to the pow-wow, there’s a lot of spirituality that’s out there. It’s very much a religious ceremony, so you can still get those same feelings. You start hearing the drum going and that, I find, inspires people to learn more about the culture,” Brough says.

Pow wows are rife with symbolism, from the traditional regalia or special dress, to the symbolism of the circle which the audience and drum group form. Regardless of your background, there is something there for everyone.  

Saturday evening over 300 singers will take to the stage of the Kent Concert Hall at Utah State University to perform in the American Festival Chorus’ “Night of Gospel Music.” Pastor Chantel Wright of New York City will be featured as a guest conductor.

Literally meaning “the good news,” the word “gospel” describes the very essence of this genre and tradition of choral music. Artistic Director of the American Festival Chorus and Dean of the Caine College of the Arts at Utah State University, Dr. Craig Jessop says he has developed a love-affair for this music. Referring to guest conductor Chantel Wright he said:

"We brought her out two years ago in 2012 for an 'Evening of Gospel' because I knew Chantel could give us something Logan, Utah does not have. She came and the walls are still rocking from that concert and we had tremendous requests to ‘do it again, do it again."

The Kimball Art Center located in Park City, Utah will present an unprecedented exhibit entitled “The Art of the Timepiece.” The collection owned by part-time Park City resident Karol Renau has never been shown publicly in this way.

Nearly 200 watches, clocks, and timepieces of every kind will be on display, showcasing the intimate and intricate art and science of watchmaking. Native-born Polish photographer and electrical engineer Karol Renau first began collecting, then fixing watches which introduced him to their fine inner workings.

“It is absolutely a hidden art because if you open some of these watches and look inside, it is absolutely stunning. There are such beautiful engravings and there are such artistic pictures inside. It’s absolutely amazing. For me it was almost like a discovery,” Renau said.

Morning on the desert, and the wind is blowin' free, 
And it's ours jest for the breathin', so let's fill up, you an' me.

At the National Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, the arts in all of its forms take center stage. Western rural artists understand how music, poetry and storytelling seem to communicate more intimately than by any other means. Artists such as Utah-born Jerry Brooks use this to their advantage to share both the charms and the challenges of rural living.

No more stuffy cities where you have to pay to breathe— 
Where the helpless, human creatures, strive, move, throng and seethe.

John Allen, a rural sociologist and Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Utah State University, grew up on a cattle ranch in Baker, Oregon. His unique perspective combines academic research with real-life experience to create a different take on what it means today to be a rural American.

This week, hundreds of rural and urban folk alike are coming together at the 30th National Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV. Participants are being entertained with live music and poetry recitings as well as participating in in discussions regarding issues facing those living a rural lifestyle in a modern west.

The energy in the mountain air of the small community of Elko, Nev. is palpable this time of year. Rural westerners and urban-ites are again making the yearly pilgrimage to celebrate western culture. Through art and discussion, many have said that this special event borders on spiritual.

This year’s theme “Expressing the Rural West – Into the Future,” highlights the increased focus on technology in the rural west, and the opportunities and challenges that come with that.

“We want the event to be fun, first of all, and I think people come to the event to have a good time. A lot of the theme is reflected in entertaining things and things that show off the creativity of rural westerners,” said Meg Glaser, artistic director at the Western Folklife Center in Elko.

The week-long event is open to all, even those who don’t have a rural background. 

As cars pass by Angie’s Restaurant in Logan, passengers may notice the north side of the building facing 700 North is a little blank and dull.

The restaurant’s management is hoping make the building more appealing by painting it, and they’re holding a contest to have local artists paint a mural on the north wall.

The theme for the contest is people, places and times of Cache Valley. The goal is to paint iconic Logan landmarks on the blank wall.

BransonFest Out West is coming to Mesquite, Nev. The  event runs Feb. 3-5 at the Casablanca Resort and Casino.

BransonFest features live music and entertainment from Branson, Mo., Las Vegas and elsewhere, according to the event’s website. This is BransonFest’s fifth year in Mesquite.

Sue Arko, owner of Free Spirit Vacations and Events and the event producer for BransonFest, said she was approached by the city of Mesquite to draw some mid-week business to the town.

Every few months, the Rocky Mountain Gun Show comes to Sandy’s South Towne Expo Center. In fact, you may have noticed advertisements for the show this January.  If you’re unfamiliar with what happens at a gun show, it’s mostly self-explanatory: it’s an exhibition of guns, ammunition, and other related paraphernalia.

Gun shows have become an increasingly popular way to buy and sell firearms. But they are also controversial, with gun control proponents arguing that loose regulations on sales can make it too easy for guns to end up in the wrong hands.

But as it turns out, guns shows aren’t just about guns. At the epicenter of such a hotly debated swath of our culture, could there be something for everyone?

The Uintah Basin Orchestra and Chorus will present a concert Friday, December 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Vernal Middle School Auditorium.  Conducted by Utah State University Music Department Head, Dr. James M. Bankhead, the UBOC was organized in November.

One hundred and sixty residents from Roosevelt and Vernal will perform holiday selections including Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, John Rutter’s Candelight Carol and Shepherd’s Pipe Carol, and arrangements from Mack Wilberg.

Creating an orchestra and chorus was the idea of USU’s Uintah Basin Dean Boyd Edwards and other musicians who wanted to bring music to the basin.  An increasing number of families are moving to Eastern Utah to fill positions that have opened because of the oil and gas industry surge. 

In 1913 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints became the first organization in the nation to establish boy scout troops. Tuesday night Utah’s largest religious denomination held a celebration honoring the partnership between the LDS Church and a service program that has touched the lives of millions of boys.

The LDS Church marked the centennial with a stage spectacular where members of the Boys Scouts of America repelled from the rafters of the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Rope courses and fire outlook stations were constructed to accommodate the cast.

The American Festival Chorus and Orchestra in Logan will present a first-of-its-kind show this weekend that producers say will entertain patrons young and old. Matt Jensen reports.