by Bryce Christensen
For cultural-arts director Bradley Morrison, “The sounds of young musicians creating
music . . . and performing in ways that truly bring out the best in them” constitute “a
thing of beauty.” Precisely that kind of beauty thrilled the music-lovers who gathered the
evening of April 8th for the 2021 R.L. Halversen Young Artist Concert of the Orchestra
of Southern Utah (OSU) at Cedar City’s Heritage Center. Named for an educator who
devoted his life to teaching music to the area’s young people, this annual concert has
become a much-appreciated showcase for gifted young musicians, selected through
competitive auditions. Somewhere the shade of Professor Halversen must have looked
on with satisfaction as seven exceptionally talented young musicians offered concert-
goers a singular “thing of beauty” through the dazzling way they performed a remarkable
range of classical music.
In welcoming concert-goers to this final event of the season, OSU President Harold
Shirley highlighted the evening’s role as a coming-out event for budding young
musicians, musicians who had progressed in remarkably few years from their early
“wrong-note rhapsodies” to their current status as poised soloists capable of giving
listeners the heavenly experience of symphonic beauty.
Though the featured soloists referred to by Shirley were new to the Heritage Center stage,
it was a reassuringly familiar face that the audience welcomed as OSU Director Xun Sun
walked to the conductor’s platform to begin the concert. A presiding spirit with OSU for
almost two decades, Sun wielded his seasoned baton with passionate fervor this evening,
drawing brilliant performances from both the Halversen honorees and the OSU
instrumentalists who provided perfectly modulated accompaniment to their solos.
As the first of the concert's compositions--the First Movement of Antonio Vivaldi’s
Concerto for Two Trumpets--brought to the stage a pair of marvelous young trumpeters,
Ruth Howe and Will Zeller (both students at Southern Utah University [SUU]). Weaving
the penetrating brilliance of two brass voices into a single seamless evocation of
irresistible Baroque splendor, Howe and Zeller astonished an audience that relished the
unexpected transport to one of the musical high points of Italy’s 18th century.
As the evening’s second Halversen soloist, violinist Irene Hu performed the First
Movement of Dmitri Kabalevsky’s Violin Concerto in C Major. Hu’s masterful
interpretation of this kinetic number radiated a rare luminous energy, delighting listeners
who could only marvel at the mature virtuosity of such a young soloist, whose self-
confident poise in performing this challenging number might understandably have made
many doubt the veracity of a program note identifying her as a fifteen-year-old student at
Cedar High School.
Likewise evincing impressive self-possession and suavity, SUU student Meredith Draper
rendered Wolgang Amadeus Mozart’s aria “Porgi Amore” with the captivating power of
an elysian soprano voice. Her voice imbued with the profound pathos of betrayal, Draper
conveyed the deep pain assailing the Countess of Mozart’s
Marriage of Figaro as she
laments with broken heart the infidelity of her husband. Draper powerfully reminded the
audience with this vocal solo that no musical instrument makes a stronger claim on
listeners than do talented human vocal chords.
As one of the musical instruments that--in the right hands--might rival human vocal cords
in effect upon listeners, the viola sang with mesmeric enchantment as SUU student
Hannah Bradshaw soloed in the evening’s third number--the Musette and Galop
movements of Ralph Vaughan Williams’
Suite for Viola. Manifesting exceptional
musical versatility, Bradshaw gently coaxed from her alto string instrument a stream of
pensive reflections when playing the Musette movement; she then spurred that same
instrument into a dynamic new cadence as she played the Galop movement with the
spritely sportliness of an exuberant dance.
Remaining in the Interwar 20th century but moving across the Channel to France, the
concert next featured the expatriate Russian Alexander Glazunov’s
Concerto for Alto
Saxophone and String Orchestra in E-flat Major. Music historians report that Glazunov
died before hearing this particular composition performed. But if the departed spirit of
the composer heard what saxophonist Jennifer Holstead did with his number as part of
this concert, then his heavenly repose surely grew much sweeter. A student at Las
Vegas’ Ed W. Clark High school, Holstead cast a narcotic spell over her listeners as she
drew from her saxophone the redolent, polychromatic timbre that prompted Glazunov to
bring into his work an instrument not usually found in classical music. With perfect
grace, Holstead transitioned faultlessly from the mellow sonority of early passages to the
puckish effervescence of later measures. Holstead’s variegated performance gave
listeners a deep new appreciation for the saxophone as more than just a nimble
improviser in jazz ensembles; in the hands of a performer such as Holstead, it may bring
a mellifluous voice to symphonic settings.
With the evening’s next number--the First Movement of Edward Elgar’s
Cello Concerto
in E Minor--an enraptured audience moved from the Interwar Period in France to an
England in bottomless sorrow consequent to the carnage of the Somme, Ypres, the
Marne, Gallipoli, and dozens of other horrific Great War battles. As the Halversen
soloist for this hauntingly melancholy work, SUU student Chase Radmall made his cello
the conduit for all of the soul-rending grief of a compelling work of national mourning.
Deft and poignant, Radmall’s interpretation of Elgar’s anguish-laden work impressed
listeners with its tender sensitivity.
Demonstrating credulity-defying precociousness, the evening’s final soloist, Skyline
High School student David Sun delivered a pyrotechnic rendering of Franz Liszt’s
Totentanz that swept the audience into a conflagration of musical sound. Playing with
both technical precision and artistic ardor, this young pianist had mastered a piece whose
demonically feverish cadence frequently overwhelms less capable instrumentalists. His
fingers flying skillfully through passages of daunting difficulty, Sun captured all of the
musical vehemence that made Liszt a firebrand of 19th-century Hungarian Romanticism.
A true tour de force, David Sun’s achievement with this number gave indisputable
evidence that Utah can incubate truly outstanding musical talent. If the concert
audience’s eyes detected flashes of paternal pride in Maestro Sun’s eyes during this
number, their ears assured them that such pride was more than justified.
As the last echoes of David Sun’s musical firestorm died away, the audience reflected on
the evening, keenly aware that in sublime harmony--the Halversen soloists, the Orchestra
of Southern Utah, and Maestro Sun--had given them a marvelous musical gift. Indeed, in
the magnificent musical creativity of the seven Halversen soloists, listeners recognized the
kind of “thing of beauty” that Bradley Morrison has recognized and praised. In this
beautiful thing listeners discerned the promise of a future filled with many more stellar
performances by these emerging musicians. That promise fosters high hopes for future
musical experiences at the Heritage Center--and elsewhere.
All of the musical artists who melded their talents in this unforgettable concert deserve
heartfelt thanks from the audience. But so, too, do the Charles and Gloria Maxfield Parrish
Foundation, the Dixie and Anne Leavitt Foundation, and the Artisans Gallery, whose
collective philanthropy made it much easier for listeners with limited means to share in a
truly memorable “thing of beauty.”
