By Bryce Christensen
No
doubt he had the rising of the sun in mind when J.R.R. Tolkien declared that
“Dawn is ever the hope of man.” But the
dawning of a luminous new musical career can also stir fresh hope in the hearts
of all those who witness it. Such hope
surged among the hundreds of music-lovers who gathered at the Heritage Center
on April 6th for the last of the Orchestra of Southern Utah’s 2016-17
Legacy-series concerts—the Roy L. Halversen Young Artists Concert, billed under
the theme “Youthful Legacy.”
Named
for an outstanding teacher whose decades of selfless service inspired hundreds
of aspiring young musicians at Southern Utah University and in the surrounding
community, the Halversen Concert gives rising young musical luminaries a chance
to showcase and develop their talents by performing as soloists with the
Orchestra of Southern Utah (OSU). Without question, the four young guest
soloists selected through competitive auditions to perform at this year’s
Halversen concert displayed astonishing talent, so fostering strong new hopes of
a Future Legacy in music.
In
a pre-concert lecture, Dr. James W. Harrison—former professor of German at SUU
and former percussionist with OSU and the Utah Symphony—shared his insights not
only into the music performed during this Halversen Concert but also into the
pioneering work Professor Halversen gave this area during a long and influential
career that made concerts like this one possible. Laced with memorable anecdotes and clarifying
insights, Harrison’s illuminating foray into the biographical and cultural
context of the evening’s program primed those who had attended for a rich
concert experience.
In
welcoming the hundreds who had gathered for the concert, OSU President Harold
Shirley again underscored the cultural heritage Professor Halversen had given
the region during his career and pointed to the four gifted young soloists as
worthy heirs of that heritage. Shirley
indeed marveled at the almost effortless virtuosity of these soloists—all of
whom he had heard in rehearsal—recognizing, however, the “prodigious practice”
behind this illusory effortlessness, practice sustained only with the support
of parents and the instruction of teachers.
As
the first of the evening’s young Halversen soloists, Dixie High School student Carson
Drawe performed brilliantly as the piano soloist for the Third Movement of Gershwin’s
Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra, Performing with a propulsive energy that
perfectly fused classical and jazz styles in the way that Gershwin’s
compositions demand, Drawe evinced a mastery of the instrument remarkable for a
pianist of any age, and astounding in a high schooler. Testing that mastery was the unrelenting
kineticism of this movement, which Gershwin himself identified as “an orgy of
rhythms, starting violently and keeping to the same pace throughout.” Amazed listeners will attest to Drawe’s
success in meeting this daunting test. Under
the dynamic baton of OSU assistant conductor Adam Lambert, the orchestra likewise
met the test of this frenetic number, sweeping the audience up in the ragtime
pulse of this infectious composition.
As
the second of the evening’s Halversen soloists, the thirteen-year-old Ellen Hayashi deeply impressed the audience as
the violin soloist for the First Movement of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19. From
her first tender and muted notes, this prodigy not yet even in high school
captivated her listeners. As the piece
swelled and accelerated into a tense striving toward the transcendent, that
audience hung on every exquisitely delivered note. Hayashi’s unfailing command of a challenging
composition continued as the number settled into a pensive tranquility before
finally soaring into musical thoughts accessible only to angels. Dumbfounded listeners could only wonder what
this wunderkind will do in ten or fifteen years. With OSU assistant conductor Carylee Zwang ably
taking her turn on the podium for this number, the orchestra sustained
Hayashi’s accomplishment with a carefully modulated musical backdrop of
ethereal subtlety.
As
the third of the evening’s Halversen soloists soprano SUU senior Jocelyn Taylor
sang the aria “D’Oreste D’Ajace” from Mozart’s Idomeneo. Her incandescent voice aflame with the passion of an
anguished Electra, Taylor transported her mesmerized listeners into the
wrenching drama surrounding a tormented and suicidal soul. Though opera is only rarely part of Cedar
City’s cultural life, for this unforgettable moment, Taylor brought her
audience to the very zenith of this musical art form.
After
the intermission, the fourth and last of the Halversen soloists, Cedar High
School student Sarah Sun dazzled as the piano soloist for Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18. Demonstrating
an interpretive range exceptional in such a young performer, Sun deftly
delivered the unmistakably Slavic power—regal and majestic--of the march-cadenced
early measures, the sublime grace and fluidity of melodic later interlude, and
finally the irresistible vigor of the exclamatory conclusion.
Because
of the services rendered this night by OSU’s more-than-capable assistant
directors, Adam Lambert and Carylee Zwang, listeners may have little noted before
this number the absence of OSU director Xun Sun (still on sabbatical in
China). But as their awe at his
daughter’s artistry on the keyboard grew, many listeners realized afresh how
much Cedar City owes to the transgenerational musical endowments of the Sun
family. Cedar City would have lost a still-growing
treasury of musical wealth if this family had relocated elsewhere!
Though
the spotlight for Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto rightly belonged to the gifted
young Sarah Sun, that number’s hauntingly beautiful French Horn solo by Pete
Atkins also deserves appreciative mention.
Sonorous and poignant, that solo fittingly complemented Sun’s superb
performance.
The
evening’s final number—the Overture to Rossini’s The Barber of Seville—featured no young soloists. But as assistant director Adam Lambert weaved the instrumental talents
of the entire orchestra into one colorful musical tapestry, the audience
realized that seated before them were
scores of older versions of the young Halversen guest soloists, their mature
singular talents now welded into a marvelous collective whole. To be sure, during this widely appreciated
number, soloists on oboe (Patrice Ramsey), French horn (Pete Atkin), and
clarinet (April Richardson and Sarah Solberg) did briefly stand out, their deft individual
musicianship a delight to all. But it
was the collective and seamless melding of instrumental parts—strings, woodwinds,
brass, and percussion--that most won the audience’s approval. Whether in passages of serene bliss or in passages
of percussive eruption, whether in measures taut with expectant anxiety or in measures
insouciant with buoyant joy, the entire orchestra drew listeners into Rossini’s
enchantingly comedic harmonies. And
though this concert’s Halversen soloists will bless more than a few future
listeners with their distinctive gifts as soloists, no doubt they will often step
out of the limelight, mingling those gifts with those of other musicians as
members of an orchestra (quite possibly OSU), choir, or other ensemble.
Listeners
left profoundly aware they had experienced the concert dawning of four young
musical talents who in future decades will shine both as outstanding soloists
and as members of euphonious ensembles.
Such a dawning engenders hope for many precious musical moments in the
years ahead. Departing listeners
likewise left conscious of their debt to the event’s civic-minded sponsors
(notably, the George S. and Delores Doré Eccles Foundation and the Dixie and
Anne Leavitt Foundation). With the
continued support of such sponsors, hope-inspiring dawn will break again and
again over the Heritage Center concert stage.
