Monday, April 12, 2021

A Thing of Beauty: The 2021 Halversen Concert

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.”

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