Notable Events

Stories of Our Time

Professors Jihea Hong-Park (Associate Professor, Piano) and Steven Ricks (Professor, Composition and Theory) collaborated with their students to produce “Stories of Our Time,” a recital featuring new music about current issues that are important to students, such as environmental concerns, mental health, and issues of race. Students in the piano division and the commercial music division collaborated to compose and perform the new works. Click here to view a clip of the performance!

Untold Stories

The Untold Stories piano competition was created by BYU piano professors to promote inclusivity and diversity in piano music. Student competitors chose pieces by composers of underrepresented demographics. The purpose of the competition was to inspire students to learn new works and tell the untold stories of the composers.

Tribute to Ukraine

A few members of Men’s Chorus initiated an “all-choir sing” to support Ukraine in February, 2022. This involved members from all the BYU choirs, former missionaries who served in Ukraine, and com- munity members with connections to Ukraine. All in all, nearly 200 BYU students participated. The combined choir recorded their performance of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” in Ukrainian and shared the video across several social media platforms. In less than a week, it had over 3 million views. Click here to watch their video!

Eric Whitacre Visit

Eric Whitacre, Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor, visited the BYU choirs on March 15, 2022. The BYU Singers, Concert Choir, Women’s Chorus, and Men’s Chorus had the remarkable experience of performing 10 of Eric Whitacre’s pieces in concert as Mr. Whitacre conducted. Before the performance, the choirs had the opportunity to rehearse with Mr. Whitacre, hear the backstories of the pieces, and get to know the acclaimed conductor. The final 2 numbers were sung by all 450 students from the stage, both sides of the concert hall, and the balcony.

The Merry Widow

In October 2022, the opera department presented “The Merry Widow.” BYU has one of the longest running opera programs west of the Mississippi, according to Lawrence Vincent, former Director of Opera at BYU. Over all the years of music-making at BYU, there have been over 120 operatic performances, but the Merry Widow was the last opera performed in the Harris Fine Arts Center. Click here to learn more about the opera!

Celebration of Christmas

On December 2–3, 2022, the BYU Singers, Concert Choir, Women’s Chorus, Men’s Chorus, and Philharmonic Orchestra came together for the annual Celebration of Christmas concert, performing together for the last time in the DeJong Concert Hall. They sold out all three of their concerts and over 10,000 people tuned in to the concerts via the School of Music streaming service.

Robert McDonald Visit

On February 2–4, 2023, Robert McDonald, a faculty member of both the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music, visited the SoM piano division. Mr. McDonald is a world-renowned pianist and highly sought-after teacher. While at BYU, he mentored students in masterclasses and private lessons, gave a solo recital featuring works from Beethoven, Debussy, and others, and addressed the School of Music students, faculty, and staff in a virtual Encore! Series Lecture.

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

On February 10, 2023, the BYU Philharmonic combined with the BYU Singers, Concert Choir, Men’s Chorus, and Women’s Chorus to perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the historic Salt Lake City Tabernacle. The concert featured soloists Jennifer Youngs, Diane Reich, Isaac Hurtado, and Shea Owens, and was conducted by Kory Katseanas. Over 5,000 people viewed the performance, over 2,000 of which tuned in to the live to the stream.