Summit County Public Art Board, Mountain Town Music & Utah Symphony | Utah Opera Unite to Present Art Piano Pop-Up Community Concerts in Surprise Locations

The Summit County Public Art Advisory Board, Mountain Town Music and the Utah Symphony | Utah Opera are excited to present Art Pianos for All Pop-Up Community Concerts featuring artists from Utah Symphony | Utah Opera. These performances will be in surprise locations around Summit County and will be recorded and available on the Arts Council’s Facebook Live. The goal of this concert series is to bring accessible, high caliber music to our community using the Art Pianos for All program, which is managed by Summit County Public Art Board and seeks to bring back the piano as a centerpiece of music, community, art and fun in Summit County, UT, in a safe way. 

When the Deer Valley Concert Series was canceled this summer due to the impacts of COVID-19, the SCPAAB decided the annual pop-up performance was especially needed this year to create vibrancy and lift people’s spirits in a time where we have been missing and longing for live music and performance. However, the board also wanted to take into consideration social distancing and program an event that safely protected the community and the performers alike.

Paula Fowler, the Utah Symphony | Utah Opera Education and Community Outreach Director says, “Usually residents in Summit County have the opportunity all summer to gather and enjoy evening concerts in our beautiful outdoors scenery, but all of the concerts were cancelled this summer. The artists who would have performed in those concerts are feeling bereft and clueless without concerts to prepare for. Our musicians are excited to perform in a new way this year that will keep them and the audience safe.”

In the early planning stages, the Summit County Public Art Advisory Board pulled Mountain Town Music into the conversation to determine if they could incorporate an aspect of their popular Door 2 Door Tour. From this, a new Art Piano Pop-Up concert was created, one that transports the music to you, the audience! With an art piano and 3 musicians in tow, Mountain Music, SCPAAB and US | UO will activate surprise pop-up performances in random locations throughout the County. These “pop-up” events will move through Summit County on the afternoon of July 26th.  Specific locations will not be disclosed as to not to promote the gathering of crowds, but keep an eye out for these performances from 3-5pm on July 26th, and if you happen to spot the moving musicians, you’re in for a treat! The performances will also be recorded and will be broadcast on Facebook Live during the event. These “pop-up” events provide access for community members to professional musicians and music-making – and are a rewarding way for Utah Symphony musicians to be highlighted when most of their other performances were cancelled. 

The performances will feature Utah Opera Resident Artists, Tenor Addison Marlor, Baritone Brandon Bell, and Pianist Taylor Burkhardt. 

 Addison Marlor, dubbed a “sweet-toned tenor” by SF Gate, hails from Salt Lake City, Utah. He is two-time participant in the Merola Opera Program, and was praised by the San Francisco Classical Voice as having a “wonderfully warm and engaging voice and presence.” Addison holds a Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance from Utah Valley University and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Utah, where he represented the School of Music in the Graduate Vocal Quartet. Roles he performed before joining Utah Opera’s Resident Artist program include Sellem in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, the title role in Bernstein’s Candide, Ruggero in Puccini’s La Rondine, and Parîs in Saint-Saëns’ Hélène.  In fall 2018, Addison debuted with the Utah Symphony in the roles of the Archbishop and Slave Driver in Bernstein’s Candide and also with Washington Concert Opera, singing Phaon in Gounod’s Sapho. With Utah Opera as a Resident Artist from 2018-2020, Addison was featured in The Little Prince, The Magic Flute, Norma, La Traviata and Silent Night as well as in Bernstein at 100 and Women of Notes concerts in communities around the state.

Brandon Bell is a baritone hailing from Suffolk, Virginia. Before joining Utah Opera as a Resident Artist in the fall of 2019, Brandon appeared as Colline in West Bay Opera’s production of La bohème. Engagements in the 2018-19 season included a debut with West Edge Opera as Terry in Breaking the Waves, and his debut as the Corporal in La fille du régiment, as a Festival Artist with Opera Saratoga. Brandon is a proud alumnus of the Wolf Trap Opera and Chautauqua Opera studio artist programs. Additional performance highlights include Collatinus (The Rape of Lucretia) and Garibaldo (Rodelinda) with the SF Conservatory of Music; L’imperial Commisario (Madama Butterfly) and English Ambassador (Ghosts of Versailles) with Wolf Trap Opera; and Nick Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) with the Janiec Opera Company.  During Utah Opera’s 2019-2020 season, Brandon performed featured roles in La traviata, Silent Night, and The Barber of Seville in Utah Opera mainstage productions, and in Women of Notes community concerts.  He returns as a second-year Resident Artist in the 2020-21 Utah Opera season.

Taylor Burkhardt collaborates with a number of musicians as a duo partner, chamber musician, répétiteur, and coach. In the 2018-2019 season, she was involved with productions at Kentucky Opera, Virginia Opera, and Atlanta Opera, and also did song recital work in Louisville, KY and Minneapolis, MN. During summer 2019, she was a faculty member at the Utah Vocal Arts Academy Summer Opera Festival, where she coached privately and accompanied the masterclasses of Darrell Babidge and Peter Randsman. She is a graduate of the doctoral program at the University of Minnesota, where she studied with Timothy Lovelace, and is an alumna of the Music Academy of the West, where she primarily studied with Warren Jones.  She was Utah Opera’s Resident Artist pianist for the 2019-20 season, and returns for a second season in this role during 2020-21.