City Weekly – The Essential A&E Picks for FEB 15 – 21

by City Weekly Staff

As much as symphony fans love hearing the classic works of the great masters, it would be foolish to think that orchestral music no longer has great practitioners creating fascinating new work. Utah Symphony has set out to make that point in its 2023-2024 season, debuting not one, not two, but three brand-new compositions, showing local audiences that contemporary work belongs on programs with work from centuries past.

Following on the heels of last month’s world premiere of Sir Stephen Hough’s First Piano Concerto, Utah Symphony presents a program featuring the world premiere of composer Quinn Mason’s trombone concerto Sonorous, written specifically for the talents of Utah Symphony principal trombonist Mark Davidson (pictured) and intended to shift perspective on the instrument associated with marching bands to a different quality. “Quinn Mason is such a prominent composer,” says Davidson via press release. “[His composition] has such a sonar, singing quality to it and Quinn is making that a priority to bring that out in the instrument.” Sonorous will share the evening’s program with Strauss’s Don Juan, Haydn’s Symphony No. 88, and Barber’s Symphony No. 1; the third world-premiere comes later this month with Swiss composer Michael Jarrell’s Émergences-Résurgences on Feb. 23-24.

Utah Symphony’s program featuring Sonorous comes to Abravanel Hall (123 W. South Temple) Feb. 16-17 at 7:30 p.m., with tickets beginning at $21; an additional performance takes place at Utah Valley University’s Noorda Concert Hall Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m. Visit utahsymphony.org for tickets and additional event information. (SR)

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