Highway 89

The Lower Lights are a group of rotating professional musicians that come together as often as possible to string, strum, pick, pluck, pound, and thump out folk and bluegrass-inflected arrangements of well-known (and little known) hymns. They perform in churches and concert halls, living rooms and amphitheaters, and they encourage their audiences to clap, stomp and sing along. The Lower Lights first convened in fall 2009 for five days of recording. They ended the week with 30-plus songs and a debut album! A Hymn Revival, was released in the fall of 2010, and followed up with a second installment in 2012, with the Christmas album Come Let Us Adore Him. Today’s show features: Debra Fotheringham (vocals), Dominic Moore (vocals), Cherie Call (vocals), Sarah Sample (vocals), Dustin Christensen (vocals, guitar), Pat Campbell & Darin LeSueur (percussion), Brian Hardy (piano, pump organ, celesta), Dylan Schorer (guitar); Mark Smith (mandolin, guitar), Scott Wiley (guitar, banjo), Tyler Lambourne, Colin Botts (banjo)

What began as 20 members rehearsing in a basement in 2005 has become the 92-person-strong, award-winning ensemble: The Sally Bytheway Chorale. Comprised of volunteer members from all over the state of Utah, including some former members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Eleanore Kennard Chorale, and Lex DeAzevado’s Millenium Choir, the Chorale was recently recognized with one of Utah’s Best in State awards.  Host Tim Stover chats with founder, director, and namesake Sally Bytheway Brinton about Christmas traditions, gingerbread cookie men, and music that can change your life. Sally has taught vocal technique privately and directed choirs for the past 35 years, and her musical performances have taken her as far as Jerusalem and Rome. Enjoy this Christmas-themed episode from your friends at Highway 89!  Repertoire: Our Lord Emmanuel; The Little Drummer Boy; How Great Our Joy; Comfort and joy; Hey Santa; Mary, Did You Know; Heavenly Star; Brazilian Noel; Nutcracker Jingles; Carol of the Magi; O Come, All Ye

Christmas bells are ringing today on Highway 89! Founded by Karen Eskew-Wyllie in 1993, the Utah Valley Handbell Ringers have performed in a variety of stunning venues including Salt Lake City’s Cathedral of the Madeleine, the Provo Tabernacle, and Disneyland. There are 56 bells in their collection, cast in aluminum or bronze and each tuned to a single, beautiful note.  In our interview with founder Karen Eskew-Wyllie, she demonstrates various bell-ringing techniques to host Tim Slover, including malleting, table damping, and plucking. They discuss protecting the bells, and how the music of bells touches the soul and brings the feeling of Christmas.  David Tolk is also visiting today as accompanist and solo pianist. He’s released 8 CDs, one of which reached #8 on Billboard’s New Age Chart in 2010. David frequently performs on-stage with his good friend singer/songwriter Peter Breinholt, and all of the solos he shares today are his own arrangements of Christmas favorites.  Enjoy the beautiful sound of Chris

We fit our 40 chairs and 40 singers into the studio for the pleasure of hearing the Utah Chamber Artists perform LIVE!  Based out of Salt Lake City, the choir is well-known throughout the Wasatch Front and also has a national and international reputation. They have performed with the Israel Chamber Orchestra as well as on national public radio. Barlow Bradford is the Artistic Director of the Utah chamber Artists and the Director of Choral Studies at the University of Utah. Rebecca Durham is the Executive Director.  Steven Kapp Perry chats with Barlow Bradford about his transition from organist to conductor and the caliber of the choir. The Utah Chamber Artists are: Jared Pierce (piano); and singers Ali Engebretsen; Andrew Luker; Annette Hatch Nichols; Barbara Gill; Bob Aamodt; Bob Stevens; Cami Mower; Cami Talbot; Carter Durham; Cassie Lombardi; Dallas Graham; Darin Carter; David Hansen; David Layton; Erin Gehrig; Fiona Judd; Jared Gunnerson; Joel Longhurst; John Bonner; Kent Gregory; Kristin Youngberg; La

Comprised of University of Utah faculty who wanted the opportunity to play more chamber music together, the Wasatch Trio performs in concerts all throughout the state of Utah, frequently performing at Libby Gardner Hall in Salt Lake and the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. They’ve played for the Utah Flute Association and the German American Society, and they’ve had the occasion to premiere new compositions, most recently a trio by Utah composer Crawford Gates.  The Trio’s extremely qualified members are Larry Gee, Susan Goodfellow, and Elliott Cheney. Larry Gee holds a master of Music in piano performance from Indiana University, has been a keyboardists with the Utah Symphony, Ballet West, and Utah Opera, and teaches voice and piano. Susan Goodfellow is the Director of Flute Studies at the University of Utah and holds degrees from Julliard and the University of Chicago. Shortly after finishing her master’s degree she worked as a music editor for the Encyclopedia Britannica. Elliott Cheney has been the Princi

Our special guest artist John Gunther performs with BYU’s Jazz Legacy Dixieland Band. John Gunther’s first real gigs were in high school and he’d wear a gold and pink sequined jacket and solo on “Night Train”--playing alto and tenor saxes simultaneously! Nowadays he plays with the Denver-based jazz group Convergence and is an associate professor of jazz studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He’s toured with several notable ensembles including the Woody Herman Orchestra, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and The Maria Schneider Orchestra. And is the author of the book “Playing the Saxophone Inside & Out.”  The Jazz Legacy Dixieland Band has been a BYU staple for 30 years. The ensemble plays New Orleans style jazz and concertizes throughout the United States. They have played at the Kennedy Center for the Performing arts in Washington DC and recently returned from the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Festival where they won nearly every instrumental award in the Collegiate Division.  Musicians: The Jazz Legacy

Dr. Scott Holden sometimes hosts Highway 89 as a volunteer (which we always enjoy and very much appreciate!) but today he’s our musical guest and he shares with us some phenomenal pieces for solo piano.  Dr. Holden is the Director of Keyboard Studies at BYU and a member of the American Piano Quartet. His music degrees are from the University of Michigan, the Manhattan School of Music and the Julliard School, where he was awarded the Horowitz prize. He’s won numerous piano competitions, performed in 35 states and in countries in Europe, Latin America and Asia, he spent a year studying and performing in Budapest at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music where he was a Fulbright Scholar, and all of this is just a fancy way of saying that he’s very, very good.  Dr. Holden shares with host Eric Glissmeyer insights into the life of composer Vernon Duke, also known as Vladimir Dukelsky. He also talks about memories of Paris, pianos around the world, and his new CD from Tantara Records. As always we’re so happy to have D

Organized by the Park City Chamber Music Society, the Beethoven Festival is a collection of formal and informal performances that bring musicians from across the United States and as far away as Russia, South Africa, and Belgium to the scenic venues of Park City to perform.  Festival directors Leslie and Russell Harlow join us in the studio today to play their viola and clarinet (respectively) and they brought with them their musical friends Michael Gurt, Julie Bevan and Monte Belknap. Together and individually they share with us selections from the Autumn Classics Concert Series.  In this episode host Elizabeth Hansen interviews Leslie and Michael. Leslie Harlow received her Master’s degree in viola performance from the Julliard School and is well-known in the Utah and Salt Lake Valleys where she’s taught music at Brigham Young University, served as director for the Virtuoso Series, performed with the Utah Symphony and played as Principal Violist with Ballet West. Michael Gurt heads the piano department at

Prodigious and eclectically talented, Lukas Geniušas is a Moscow-born concert pianist who started piano studies at the age of 5 at the preparatory department of F. Chopin Music College in Moscow, going on to graduate with top honours in 2008.  Lukas has been a prize winner of several international piano competitions including: the Scottish International Piano Competition, the San Marino and Pianello, Italy International Piano Competitions, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition of Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland.  Host: Steven Kapp Perry  Repertoire: HANDEL Suite in F major, HWV 427, Mvt. 2; SCHUMANN Waldszenen, Op. 82: Lonely Flowers, Carnival Scenes from Vienna, Op. 26:  Intermezzo and Finale;  CHOPIN Waltz in A minor Op. 34 No. 2, Etudes Op. 10 No. 2, 3, 4; HINDEMITH Ludas Tonailis: a couple interludes and fuges Follow Highway 89 on twitter @byuH89

The composers highlighted in this hour are a lot more recent than our usual selections! Clarinetist Jaren Hinckley, bassoonist Christian Smith, and pianists Vincent Humphries and Jeffrey Shumway all joined us in our studio today to play for us some lesser-known chamber music from 20th and 21st century composers.  Alec Templeton, who wrote the Pocket Size Sonata was born in Wales in 1909 and was blind from birth. In the 30’s and 40’s he was famous for his radio show “Alec Templeton Time” and memorized his scripts by having them read to him twenty times! A talented composer as well as a radio personality, he studied at London’s Royal Academy of Music under Lloyd Powell and Isador Goodman.  Jonathon Santore is a close friend of performers Jaren and Vincent, and wrote his piece, Adjectives, specifically for them. They premiered the piece at the International Clarinet Association’s ClarinetFest in 2011. Included on the printed score is a quote from a fortune cookie: “Only you can change your life. No one else ca

It isn’t every day that we welcome 130 singers into our radio studios—but today is the day! The Southern Utah Heritage Choir of St. George, Utah, along with founder and conductor Floyd Rigby, are gathered in our largest television studio for this taping.   The choir is a volunteer, community group that gathers each Thursday evening to practice sacred hymns and anthems, as well as a smattering of Broadway, folk and gospel tunes.  The group includes members from all faiths and walks of life and sometimes swells in size to include as many as 170 to 200 voices!  The choir has concertized across the United States, in the Czech Republic, Armenia, England, Scotland, China, Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula.  Their upcoming musical tour will be to Ireland, where they’ll perform at Christ Church in Dublin and St. Mary's Cathedral in Killarney.  Host: Don Shelline  Repertoire: "All That Life Can Be", "Fairest Lord Jesus", "Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled", "My Comfort by Day, My Song in the Night", "Who is Sylvia?

This episode of Highway 89 marks the 40th Anniversary of the Violin Making School of America (VSMA) which has been a community staple in downtown Salt Lake for decades. The school’s founder, master luthier Peter Prier, is respected throughout the USA and since founding the school in 1972 has trained hundreds of students. Today we’ll not only talk to him about making instruments but we’ll also get to hear a special trio of tonally matched instruments that he recently finished.  Becca Moench, David Park and Scott Lewis of the Utah Symphony will each play one of the instruments solo, then they’ll combine their sounds into a duet, and then a trio so we can hear the full effect.  Guest hosting is Tres Hatch, daughter of Peter Prier and experienced television chef, caterer, author, motivational speaker and food educator for the University of Utah.  Performers: Scott Lewis, viola; David Park, violin; Becca Moench, violin;  Repertoire: BACH Largo in d minor; VIVALDI Winter -- The Four Seasons, Largo; HANDEL Passa

The New Electric Sound is a surf-rock inspired band from Provo, Utah. Comprised of 5 talented musicians, they are described by Time Magazine as: "...a five-piece surf-pop-rock band that fuses simple, time-tested, ‘50s-era rock ‘n’ roll with current indie-pop styles, delivering something original, with a sweet sugar coating of nostalgic goodness. Young, handsome, and heavily cardiganed, The New Electric Sound reminds us that songs of love, innocence, and heartbreak are just as cool today as they’ve always been."  TNES recently won the Rock the River Battle of the Bands, and played Downtown Provo’s Rooftop Concert Series. This summer they filmed a music video for their song “Heartbeat,” which was nominated for Best Music Video in the 2012 International Film Festival Manhattan Awards. Having them in our studio was a grand time, and this episode showcases all of their fabulous quirkiness, catchy rhythms, and infectious musicality!  HOST: Don Shelline  PERFORMERS: Scott Vance (lead vocals, guitar); Tom Brinton

Artem Chirkov’s only been in America for 24 hours and already he’s in our studio!  He’s visiting from Russia—where he’s the Principal Double Bassist of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Symphony—and is in town to concertize and to teach a master class at BYU. Artem Chirkov was the 2010 winner of the 1st International Double Bass Solo Competition sponsored by the Bradetich Foundation after which he made his New York debut at Weill Hall. He's recorded a CD with his wife titled “Reminiscences of the 20th Century,” and is a member of the one-of-a-kind contrabass ensemble Bassiona Amorosa.  Today Bruce Seely will chat with Mr. Chirkov about his early dreams to be a world traveler and his rigorous student years when he attended two schools in two separate countries (Russia and Germany) simultaneously! Also, pianist Jayne Galloway will join Artem throughout the hour as he performs: Adagio from "The Bright Stream" - Dmitri Shostakovich; Invocation - Miloslav Gajdos; Prelude Op. 23 No. 10 - Sergei Rachmaninoff; Elegi

On this hour of Highway 89, the highway becomes a dirt road headed to a hootenanny! Imagine you’re on a porch swing, the lightning bugs are just coming out and the best old time band you have ever heard is getting ready to play.  The Folka Dots are three folksy gals and two bluesy guys that hail from Salt Lake City but dwell musically in Appalachia. “O Brother Where Art Thou” meets the Wasatch Range in this hour with The Folka Dots. Tim Slover chats with each member of the band including Corinne Gentry about her ghost story project and Bronk Onion about foraging for truffles in the desert. The Folka Dots write their own lyrics and music and started recording their first album just 20 days after coming together. Follow Highway 89 on twitter @byuH89

Today we’re spending an hour with the world’s first “lullaband.” Don Shelline chats with lead singer, Scott Shepard, about his love of language, eloquence, the art of articulation, and lyric writing.  Scott also talks about how a job at the library and listening to books on tape led to the band’s name: Book on Tape Worm.  Gavin Ryan plays a myriad of different instruments, including vibraphone, glockenspiel, and tambourine. And Ciera Black (cello) tells how the band finished an on-stage set in the dark after a power-outage.  Side note: Highway 89’s recording engineer, Mark Wait, enjoyed the band’s music so much that he made a personal copy of the show for himself—which is an extremely rare occurrence.  Follow Highway 89 on twitter @byuH89

At 15 years old, Igor and Vesna Gruppman met each other as musical rivals at the Central Special Music School in Moscow, Russia. Forty years later, they have taught on the music faculty of Brigham Young University, been co-concertmasters of the Orchestra at Temple Square, started the Gruppman International Violin Institute and recorded Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for Two Violins with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra – which won a Grammy Award.  Igor Gruppman has been the Concertmaster of the San Diego Symphony, the London Symphony Orchestra and Associate Conductor of the Florida Philharmonic, and is the current Concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.  Vesna Gruppman is a professor of violin at the Rotterdam Conservatoire and an internationally acclaimed violin and viola soloist. Her first orchestra debut was with the Belgrade Chamber Orchestra at the age of eight, after which she won the National Violin Competition of Yugoslavia six times in a row.  Their accompanist, pianist Jayne Galloway, gr

THE SPRINGVILLE WORLD FOLKFEST is one of the largest festivals of folk dance and music in the United States. It takes place each summer in Springville, Utah and has featured performers from more than 45 countries since 1986. Two bands from the folk festival perform on this episode of Highway 89: Postchnbanda of Austria and the Randellaires of Catalonia.  1\. POTSCHNBANDA: Georg Hartmann & Michael Mader (tenorhorns), Bernd Gludovatz & Gottfreid Putz (flugelhorns), Alex Pongracz & Klaus Dragositz (clarinet), Ewald Preinsberger (tuba), Franz Treiber (accordion) & a (drum player)  MUSIC: P.S. Polka, Alte Linde, Wohin Polka, Wenzel auf der Alm, Amsel Polka  2\. RANDELLAIRES: Jordi Ballesteros (accordion), Santi Llgostera (bones guitar), Ángel Giralt (flute), Miquel Grifell (guitar)  MUSIC: Contrapàs llarg de Ripoll, El mestre, Ball cerdà de matamala, El Ball de la mort del porc, Ballet de Déu, Mon diu que munde  HOST: Steven Kapp Perry  HIGHWAY 89 is a LIVE music performance program that originates in the radio

Today on Highway 89 we are showcasing the Beethoven Festival of Park City, founded in 1984. Festival Directors Leslie and Russell Harlow and special guest Doris Stevenson share with us some of the selections from the festival, as well as some information anout it and their own experienes.  Doris Stevenson is the Artist In Residence at Williams College. A talented pianist, Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky invited her to perform with them early in her career and thus began her musical journey. She's played for Piatigorsky’s master classes, been a soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra and a collaborative partner with Piatigorsky, Ruggiero Ricci, and Paul Tortelier. She’s concertized in venues such as Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Salle Pleyel in Paris, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Sala Arongo in Bogota, Columbia. In this episode she performs for us Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.  Russell Harlow is the co-director of the Park City International Music F

Comprised of four musical friends, the University of Utah Clarinet Quartet is a premiere chamber group with the best graduate and undergraduate clarinetists from the University of Utah School of Music. They recently won 3rd place in the First Annual Utah Chamber Music Competition, performed at the subsequent winners’ concert, and performed in a master class for Donald Oehler at Utah’s Clarinet Festival.  In a couple months they’ll perform at ClarinetFest in Lincoln, Nebraska but until then they’re here to share with us music from Latin America and Italy. Each of the talented performers chats with host Judith Tourney about experiences in the world of clarinet, musical friendships, and ClarinetFest!  Performers: Henry Caceres (Bb and Eb Clarinet), Nick Morandi (Bass Clarinet), Kattiusca Marin (Bb Clarinet), Milagra McGee (Bb Clarinet)  Repertoire: Navidad Negra – Jose Barros Arr. Hernan Dario Rodriquez; Four for Four – Jorge Montilla; Histoire du Tango for Clarinet Quartet – Àstor Piazzola; Largo al Factorum