DAN FROOT & COMPANY’s
Stories of Guns and Their People
BASED ON THE ORAL HISTORIES OF, AND CREATED IN CONSULTATION WITH (in program order):
Wilkins and Kennedy Robles (MIAMI)
Daniel Carlson-Strom (BOZEMAN)
“Patricia” (MIAMI)
Leslie McCaddon (LOS ANGELES)
Ryan Cooney (HELENA)
Jessica Huerta (SAN DIEGO)
PRODUCED, WRITTEN, AND DIRECTED BY: Dan Froot
IN COLLABORATION WITH:
Justin Alston
Sola Bamis
Natalie Camunas
Krysta Gonzales
Bobby Gordon
Donna Simone Johnson
Anthony Rey Perez
Christopher Rivas
Tula B. Strong
PERFORMED BY:
ACTORS: Mark Antony Howard, Donna Simone Johnson, Anthony Rey Perez, and special guest artist Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin
MUSICIANS: Tom Moose (guitar), Isaac “el Rabioso” Rodriguez (percussion), Julian Gomez (bass)
SOUND EFFECTS: Dan Froot
LIGHTING DESIGN: Antony Gutierrez
SOUND DESIGN: Duncan Woodbury
SOUND ENGINEER: Adam Sperry, C.A.S.
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Ursula Collins-Laine
COMPOSER: Julio Montero
DRAMATURGE: Bobby Gordon
SET DESIGN: Marcus Kuiland-Nazario
ORAL HISTORIANS: Jordan Rogers, Tula B. Strong, Jose “Rufio” Vasquez
RECORDED MUSICIANS: Tom Moose, Julian Gomez, Isaac Rodriguez
DF&Co GENERAL MANAGER: Rachel Park
PROGRAM
- Introduction
- Rich & Dave
- Gabriel
- Patricia
- June
- Aaron
- Tiffany
- The Kitchen Table
Over the course of 2021 and 2022, Dan Froot & Company created six book-length oral histories of families around the country whose lives were in one way or another shaped by guns. We collaborated with each family to devise the live audio dramas that comprise Arms Around America.
This production contains material of a sensitive nature, including frank discussions of suicide. Please care for yourself and others accordingly.
As guests in this place, Dan Froot & Company honor and offer gratitude to the traditional caretakers and stewards of the ancestral land in and around the Salt Lake Valley, including the Shoshone, Goshute, Ute, and Paiute Tribes.
The Kitchen Table:
A central component of each performance is a moderated discussion (envisioned as a conversation around a kitchen table) bringing together stakeholders from diverse communities and perspectives whose work sits at the intersection of gun violence, law, public health, and civic life. The goal is to foster thoughtful, productive dialogue among local community partners and leaders who may hold differing views, while sharing a commitment to reducing gun violence and respecting citizens’ rights.
Learn more about the participants below.
Kitchen Table Participants:
Aaron Fisher, Thursday Moderator
Dr. Fischer is a Professor of school psychology in the College of Education, adjunct professor of pediatrics, and adjunct professor of psychiatry at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the University of Utah. He serves as director of the U-TTEC Lab and co-director of the Utah School Mental Health Collaborative, which partners with numerous school districts across Utah to provide technical assistance, training, and direct behavior and mental health support for effective integration of behavior health in education settings. His research centers around technology applications in those settings including Telehealth, teleconsultation and virtual learning environments. Dr. Fischer is a Licensed Psychologist and Licensed Board Certified Behavior Analyst who has worked over 20 years to improve the wellbeing of students, educators, and caregivers.
Dr. Kurt Michael, Friday Moderator
Dr. Kurt Michael is Vice President, Prevention & Crisis Response Consulting at The Jed (JED) Foundation, a national suicide prevention non-profit. Kurt is a licensed clinical psychologist and suicidologist with deep expertise in research, rural mental health, and the prevention of firearm suicides. Before JED, Kurt was the Stanley R. Aeschleman Distinguished Professor and Assistant Chair of Psychology at Appalachian State University (now Emeritus). There, he established a nationally recognized program of funded research and has published over 85 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters on mental health and suicide prevention. Kurt is also Adjunct Professor at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute, University of Utah Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Child Psychiatry Division.
Clark Aposhian
Clark Aposhian is a firearm law consultant and expert witness with over 30 years of experience advising Utah’s legislative, executive, and legal bodies on firearm and use-of-force legislation. He currently serves as the Chairman and Utah State Registered Lobbyist for the Utah Shooting Sports Council, as well as a Contract Lobbyist for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Additionally, he is a member of the Utah School Safety Commission and the Utah Suicide Prevention Coalition. He looks forward to bringing these perspectives to our discussion.
Evan Goldstein
Evan V. Goldstein is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Utah’s Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine. Dr. Goldstein is a health policy researcher and population health scientist. Among other things, his research examines how state-level public policy and healthcare systems can help prevent firearm injury and suicide deaths involving firearms in American communities. As a Principal Investigator, Dr. Goldstein’s research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research & Education. His work has been published in high-impact journals, including Health Affairs, Psychiatric Services, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Medical Care, and JAMA Network Open. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Goldstein worked in community healthcare, overseeing community engagement, government affairs, and non-clinical program operations for a Federally Qualified Health Center system in Cleveland, Ohio.
Reps from The Gun Violence Prevention Center
The Gun Violence Prevention Center (GVPC) of Utah was chartered in 2001 by a group of concerned citizens, who believed that we need to and can do more to protect society from gun violence. GVPC is a non-partisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to prevent the tragedy of gun violence through education, awareness, prevention initiatives and advocacy for policies proven to make communities safer. GVPC’s policy education is evidence-based and data driven from peer-reviewed articles of reputable sources and data tracked over time focused on outcome measured research. From this data, GVPC advocates for reasonable regulations of firearms like universal background checks, safe storage, and crisis intervention protective orders that have been shown to significantly reduce gun violence in states that have adopted them. These are policies that the courts continue to uphold as consistent with our 2nd Amendment rights. GVPC works with the majority of gun owners who believe that with rights comes responsibility; that training, knowledge of gun laws and safe practices should be incumbent on every gun owner. GVPC publishes a biennial Utah–specific gun violence report and hosts annual vigils and memorials for victims of gun violence in Utah. Through initiatives like GunSafe Families and Guns To Gardens, GVPC works to foster a culture of safety and responsibility across the state.
Sinia Maile
Sinia Maile is a graduate student at the University of Utah studying Public Administration. She currently works at The Gault Center with a mission to reform juvenile justice after working at the Utah Juvenile Defender Attorneys. These experiences combined with her Community Health Worker with the Pacific Islander Knowledge 2 Action and Resources have shaped her advocacy for youth and marginalized communities. She currently serves as Miss Salt Lake Valley in the Miss Utah scholarship competition, representing the West Side of Salt Lake and has chosen to address this issue in her community as part of her service. After losing her own cousin to gun violence, she sits at an interesting intersection in which she recognizes the harm done by guns while also defending the rights of young people to protect themselves.
Dan Froot PRODUCER, WRITER, DIRECTOR, LIVE SOUND EFFECTS
Dan Froot’s work has toured internationally since 1983. Awards include a Bessie (New York Dance & Performance Award), a City of Los Angeles Artist Fellowship, a Foundation for Jewish Culture Playwriting Fellowship, and is a recipient of many grants including several from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project grant. He has collaborated with Dan Hurlin, Yoshiko Chuma, Ping Chong, David Dorfman, Mabou Mines, Ralph Lemon, Cornerstone Theater Company, and Victoria Marks, among others, and has been a resident fellow at the MacDowell Colony and the Bogliasco Foundation. He was on the faculty of UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance from 2000 to 2024. www.danfroot.com
Mark Antony Howard, ACTOR
Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Mark Antony Howard received his BFA in Musical Theatre from Wright State University, and promptly moved to Los Angeles where he continued his training under various ensembles and instructors, including The Wallis Annenberg Studio Ensemble, Dr. Budi Miller and the Encompass Collective, and the 23'-24' Screen Acting Cohort of Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab. Now based in NYC, he continues his theatre training as a mentee in The Actor’s Center Mentorship Program.
Onstage he’s worked with numerous theatres from coast to coast, helping develop new works at IAMA Theatre (LA) and the National Black Theatre (NY). His most recent stage roles earned him Broadway World Award nominations for ‘Best Performer in a Play’ as Shawn in King James by Rajiv Joseph and ‘Best Performer in a Musical’ as Andre in Ain’t Misbehavin’ dir. by Ken Page.
Onscreen, Mark Antony has acted in various commercials and short films and he recently made his feature film debut acting opposite Josh O’Connor as David, in Kelly Reichardt’s Canne’s Selected film The Mastermind. @mah.himself
Donna Simone Johnson ACTOR, COLLABORATOR, PERFORMER
Donna Simone Johnson is a two-time NAACP Award-winning actor, director, choreographer, and educator. In addition to her work with Dan Froot & Co. on Pang! and now Arms Around America, she can be seen (and heard) in a wide range of commercials and audiobooks. Some regional theater credits include Power of Sail (The Geffen Playhouse), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (NY Resident Acting Company), and performances at La Mama, The Guthrie, Virginia Stage Company, Portland Center Stage, The Road Theatre Company, and The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where she is a proud company member. She also serves as Co-Artistic Director of Watts Village Theater Company, which nurtures and produces diaspora-driven work while celebrating the rich history and cultural diversity of South LA. Johnson holds an MA in Dance from NYU and an MFA in Acting from CalArts—and carries with her a deep sense of gratitude.
Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin ACTOR
Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin became an actor to tell stories. To see herself reflected in those stories. To provoke thought, spark ideas, tell the truth as she sees it and, most importantly, to heal. Art has the ability to be a balm, a salve, and a poultice for the wounds that life thrusts upon us. Once you open yourself to hearing the story, the responsibility becomes yours. Art changes you. Art should leave you wanting. Want is the beginning of change. Be Open. Be Present. Past acting credits include The Roommate, Whitelisted, Passing Strange, and Mercury; regional credits include Footloose, Dance Nation, The Clean Up Project, Caroline or Change, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Third Crossing, The Overwhelming, Fences, [title of show], 1940's Radio Hour, Women of Lockerbie, Lady Day at Emerson Bar and Grill, and for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf; Film: The Housewives of the North Pole, Love Across Time, and Olympus Dale: The Ghost of Valkyrie. Dee-Dee has recently turned her gift for giving excellent advice into a wellness coaching practice. Find her at info@symcounseling.com or follow her on Instagram @deedeedarbyduffin.
Anthony Rey Perez ACTOR, COLLABORATOR, PERFORMER
Anthony Rey Perez is originally from Miami. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Florida State’s conservatory-style theater program. Over the years in Los Angeles and New York he has worked in various film, television, and commercial projects, appearing Off Broadway as well as significant voice over work, he was just nominated for a SOVA and AUDIE award. He most recently played a young Andy Garcia in the new Latine-centered Father Of the Bride. Perez, the son of immigrants (and loving Husband of one), doesn’t take lightly the opportunity to represent a fuller, more rich representation of Americans in the mainstream narrative for the next generation, including his beautiful daughter Luna.
Julian Gomez MUSICIAN
Julian Gomez is a bassist/multi-instrumentalist currently performing and teaching throughout Southern California. Growing up in Baldwin Park, Los Angeles, he studied music and bass performance at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, Colburn School, and Pasadena City College, where he became immersed in the multitude of styles within jazz and Latin music. During this time, he received the Shelly Manne Memorial New Talent Award from the Los Angeles Jazz Society and also toured Houston and New York with the Thelonious Monk Institute’s Peer-to-Peer Jazz Education Initiative, performing and taking part in jazz education workshops alongside world-renowned saxophonists Antonio Hart and Don Braden. Aside from live performances and recording sessions, he has worked as a freelance producer and composer for various groups and independent projects. He is a member of the group Coras, a Cumbia/soul band, and the mambo revival big band, Los Chicos Del Mambo.
Tom Moose MUSICIAN
Tom Moose is a Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and composer. A classically trained violinist, he holds a B.A. in Music and Theater Performance. He was nominated for a Horton award for his work as a composer for dance. He performs a variety of music, including bluegrass (his band, Ikes Creek, won the 2019 Topanga Fiddle Festival), alternative South American folk (Cuñao), classical, jazz (cool beat borscht), Django jazz, neo soul, and klezmer (mostly Kosher). Moose has performed at REDCAT’s NOW Festival, Highways, UCLA, Disneyland (and -world) and The Golden Globes. @tommoosemusic
Isaac Rodriguez MUSICIAN
Isaac “El Rabioso” Rodríguez is a multi-instrumentalist, born and raised in Puerto Rico, who discovered his passion for music at a very early age. He studied at the InterAmerican University of PR to become a music teacher and for many years enjoyed teaching children and adults to play various instruments, but he also worked as a roadie and stage manager for several artists on the island. Music has taken Rodríguez to innumerable stages, including renowned festivals, around Latin America and the USA. His experience is based on countless projects, recordings and live performances, spanning multiple musical genres, including World Music, Funk and Country. And, in addition to many local artists from every city he has lived, Rodríguez has also worked with renowned international artists like: Wisin & Yandel, Carlos Baute, Vicente García, Bersuit Vergarabat, Shadmehr Aghili, Sie7e, and El Twanguero. He currently works with Corazón Entertainment, Dendê Entertainment, and Q Productions, three of the most innovative entertainment companies in Las Vegas, Nevada. @isaxito
Julio Montero COMPOSER
Julio Montero was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, but grew up in New York City. He has collaborated with choreographers Alexx Shilling, Cheng Chieh Yu, Sarah Jacobs, DaEun Jung, Richard Rivera’s Physual, Wilfried Souly’s Souly Dance Arts, and Rayven Armijo/cuerva urban folklorico, and others, to compose original scores. He was founder and songwriter for Latin Alternative Folk band Cuñao. Cuñao was commissioned by The Wooden Floor Artistic Director Melanie Rios-Glaser to compose new original music for the piece Playground & Playground II, performed by The Wooden Floor students at The Irvine Barclay Theatre (Irvine, CA). In 2018, Montero and Cuñao performed Cancion Del Inmigrante, a multimedia folk opera in collaboration with alexx makes dances and One Grain of Sand Puppet Theater, at the Bowers Museum. Currently residing in Freehold, NJ, he is an audio production technician at Princeton Univeristy’s Richardson Auditorium, a freelance podcast editor, and always working on new music. Montero holds a Master of Professional Studies in Arts and Cultural Management from Pratt.
Bobby Gordon DRAMATURGE, COLLABORATOR
Bobby Gordon is a poet, performance maker, and Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner with an M.A. in Applied Theatre Arts from the University of Southern California (USC). He is a co-founder of the Melrose Poetry Bureau, teaches at UCLA in the Department of World Arts & Cultures/Dance, and has created work with ensembles across the Americas and in South Africa.
Marcus Kuiland-Nazario SET DESIGNER
Marcus Kuiland-Nazario is an interdisciplinary artist, producer, and curator. His practice spans sculpture, video installation, social practice, performance, and design. His installations and performances have been featured in museums in the United States and abroad. Kuiland-Nazario is the 2024 inaugural recipient of the Jacki Apple Award in Performance. He is a recipient of the Santa Monica Artist Fellowship award and an Artist At Work Fellowship. Kuiland-Nazario is a founding artist of the 18th Street Arts Center, where he is currently an Artist in Residence.
Duncan Woodbury SOUND DESIGNER
Duncan Woodbury is a sound designer and composer based in Los Angeles working on a range of creative projects including music, theater, dance, installation, and podcasting. Woodbury currently serves as Associate Technical Director of the UCLA Nimoy Theater. His previous collaborators include Lars Jan/Early Morning Opera, Andrew Schneider, Zoe Aja Moore, and Milka Djorjevich, among others. He is a graduate of Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts in Music Technology.
Antony Gutierrez LIGHTING DESIGNER
Antony Gutierrez is very excited to be a part of Arms Around America. His work has been seen in many productions at UCLA, where he serves as the Lighting Supervisor for Royce Hall. Recent credits include: All In Podcast Summit, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s anniversary gala, Angel City Chorale, and Omar Offendum’s Little Syria.
Ursula Collins-Laine PRODUCTION MANAGER
Ursula Collins-Laine is a manager of many things and is thrilled to be the production manager for Arms Across America in Salt Lake City. Since getting a master’s from USC with a focus on character driven narratives in South Korean reality television, she has designed escape rooms internationally, taught circus camps, and run teambuilding events. Her recent production management credits include Brassroots District LA ’74 and Outside In Theater’s California Story among others.
Very special thanks to: Chloe Jones, Melissa Salguero, Severin Sargent-Catterton, Aja Vogelman, Rosemary Jones, Sheri Jardine, Dennis Busch, David Braithwaite, James Padilla, Jason Hogue, Juniper Taylor, Michael Dallum, John Armstrong, and the entire staff of Utah Presents; to Clark Aposhian (Utah Shooting Sports Council), Terri Marshall Gilfillan (Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah), Jerry Rapier (Plan B Theater Company), Avery Holton (University of Utah Communications), Evan Goldstein (University of Utah Department of Population Health Sciences), Becky Zarate (Huntsman Mental Health Institute), Kurt Michael (Huntsman Mental Health Institute), Gretchen Case (University of Utah Medical Humanities), Matt DeLong (University of Utah Pistol Club), Sonia Salari (University of Utah Sociology Department), Alexandra Harbold (University of Utah Theatre Department), Samantha Briggs (University of Utah Theater Department, and the Enough Project); to the staff and advisors of The National Theater Project: Quita Sullivan, Derek Schwartz, Leilani Ricardo, Daniel Banks, Candace Feldman, Claudia Alick, Torange Yeghiazarian; to the beautiful children who have lit up our rehearsals: Luna Perez, Coltrane Johson-Irvin, River Alston, Sula Bamishigbin; and to the narrators who generously shared their stories: Daniel Carlson-Strom, Ryan Cooney, Jessica Huerta, “Patricia,” Leslie McCaddon, and Wilkins and Kennedy Robles.
Dan Froot & Company thank the following individuals for their support: Alberto Denis, Amy Denio, Angelia Leung, Brian Selznick, Courtney Bell, Cristina Fernandez, Dana Cuff/Kevin Daly, Ken Froot, David Gere, Eve Beglarian, Gayle Kouklis, Hana van der Kolk, Ilaan Mazzini, Jackie Lopez, Jason Samuel, Jeff Griffin, Jeff Kahane, Jost Rhodius, Juliana Irizarry, Karla Christian-Irizarry, Katie Pfeifer, Kenneth Foster, Lili Flores, Mari Kornhauser, Maria Gillespie, Marike Splint, Marla Berns, Mathew Sandoval, Nan Friedman, Jessica Stern, Oliver Trager, Pat Turner, Paul Bonin-Rodriguez, Robert Flynt, Ryan Jones Talmadge, Tom Keegan.
THANKS TO OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS:
- MIAMI
- Colleen Adams of Empowered Youth
- Natalie Lewis Schere of PATH to Hip Hop
- Dr. Keshia Abraham
- LOS ANGELES
- Emily Ives of UCLA Veteran Resource Center
- Tess Barragan Banko of US Vets
- Dr. Sharon Birman and the Mayor’s Challenge to Prevent Suicide
- Roberto Álvarez and the Office of Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger
- James Zenner and the LA County Department of Mental Health Veteran Peer Access Network (VPAN)
- Cuco Rodriguez and Brian Malte of The Hope and Heal Fund
- MONTANA
- Project for Alternative Learning (Helena)
- University of Montana Department of Native American Studies (Bozeman)
- NATIONAL
- Patrick O’Neil of Stop the Bleed
- Ben Cohen of TourScout
Arms Around America is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by The Myrna Loy, Miami Light Project, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: npnweb.org. This program is made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and additional support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and by grants from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, UCLA’s Office of Research and Creative Activities Acceleration Grant Program, the Chancellor’s Council on the Arts (UCLA), and the National Endowment for the Arts.
If you enjoyed this show, please check out the Arms Around America podcast. It’s a companion work to what you have seen this evening, with different material in every episode. New episodes coming soon! Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Want to discuss the show? Tell us about it on TourScout, the world's largest community platform for rating and reviewing live performances. Connect with other fans and the performers you've just seen on stage. Your feedback helps others discover great events and supports the work of artists like Dan Froot & Company. Every voice matters -- your insights could inspire someone's next night out or help an artist refine their craft. Help shape the future of live entertainment! Scan here and join the conversation on TourScout. https://tourscout.com/artist?id=261
Donations to the continuation of Arms Around America and the work of Dan Froot & Company are gratefully accepted and are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law. Via Paypal: danfroot@me.com
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SAMARA JOY
Few figures in jazz history have experienced the kind of meteoric rise that vocalist Samara Joy has enjoyed—especially at such a young age. At just 25, her career is nothing short of sensational.
With six GRAMMY Awards already to her name, including Best New Artist, as well as an NAACP Image Award, Joy has achieved the kind of profile typically reserved for pop celebrities. Her visibility has made her a steady presence on network television and a favorite among younger music fans, particularly on platforms like TikTok, where she has helped introduce timeless American music to new generations. Her performance history reads like a who’s who of the world’s most legendary venues and festivals, with appearances at the Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, and Montreal International Jazz Festival, as well as iconic stages including the Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, the Village Vanguard, and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Joy’s rise has been accompanied by rave reviews. DownBeat called her breakout Verve Records debut Linger Awhile “a beautiful recording,” hailing her as “a silky-voiced star,” while The New York Times described her as a “rising star,” and NPR referred to her as a “classic jazz singer from a new generation.” With each performance, she has earned a reputation as a masterful interpreter of jazz standards, drawing comparisons to legendary vocalists including Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, and Carmen McRae.
A native of the Bronx’s Castle Hill neighborhood, Joy grew up surrounded by music. Her family’s musical legacy runs deep: her grandparents led the Philadelphia gospel group the Savettes, and her father, musician and songwriter Antonio McLendon, toured with Andraé Crouch and recorded his own work. As a child, Joy was captivated by classic R&B and honed her singing in her church’s gospel choir. Her journey into jazz began in her teens while attending Fordham High School for the Arts, where she won Best Vocalist at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s prestigious Essentially Ellington program.
After graduating as valedictorian, Joy studied jazz at SUNY Purchase, where she met a group of instrumentalists who would become key collaborators. While still in college, she won the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, a victory that catapulted her into the spotlight and marked the beginning of her professional career.
In 2021, Joy released her self-titled debut album on the Whirlwind label, impressing critics with her deeply expressive approach to jazz standards and her remarkable musical sensitivity. Her follow-up, Linger Awhile (2022), showcased her exceptional interpretive ability across a diverse repertoire, including Ronnell Bright’s “Sweet Pumpkin” and Fats Navarro’s “Nostalgia.” That same year, she won the GRAMMY Award for Best New Artist, elevating her public profile to new heights, with appearances on The Tonight Show, The Late Show, and Today.
In late 2023, Joy embraced her roots with the release of A Joyful Holiday, an EP featuring updated renditions of holiday classics alongside her musical family. The release was followed by successful holiday tours in 2023 and 2024, culminating in two GRAMMY Awards in 2025—Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best Jazz Performance—at the 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards.
Just a year after her Best New Artist win, Joy also released the inspirational track “Why I’m Here,” co-written with PJ Morton, which was featured in the acclaimed Shirley Chisholm biopic Shirley on Netflix, starring Regina King.
In 2024, Joy’s artistic growth continued with the release of her album Portrait, co-produced with GRAMMY-winning trumpeter Brian Lynch. Reflecting her evolution as a musician and bandleader and showcasing her deep rapport with her touring band, the project earned Joy the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album in 2025 and the GRAMMY Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album at the 69th Annual GRAMMY Awards in 2026. The album features her own lyrical compositions, including “Reincarnation of a Lovebird (Pursuit of a Dream),” a meditation on love and ambition built around a tune by Charles Mingus, as well as reimagined standards such as “You Stepped Out of a Dream” and “Autumn Nocturne.”
“I’m still very much a student,” Joy says. “So this is only the beginning—there is much, much more to come.”
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Thank you to all our donors of $25 or above from January 2025 to January 2026.
UtahPresents Staff
Chloe Jones
Executive Director
John Armstrong
Event Manager
David Braithwaite
Technical Director
Michael Dallum
Finance Manager
Dennis Busch
Content Manager
Jason Hogue
Marketing Intern
Sheri Jardine
Content Manager
Rosemary Lisa Jones
Production Manager
Patricia Madsen
Box Office Manager
Malynn Nelson
Assistant Box Office Manager
James Padilla
Lighting Supervisor
Melissa Salguero
Community Engagement Manager
Severin Sargent-Catterton
Admin & Artist Services Coordinator
Juniper Taylor
Development Coordinator
Aja Vogelman
Operations Director
UtahPresents Advisory Board
Tiana Hood, Chair
Rainey Cornaby, Vice Chair
Eric Aragon
Michael Billings
Johna Devey Brems
Annie Davis
Rebecca Dowdell
Metta Driscoll
Rahul Fernandez
Becca Green
Laurie Hofmann
Dan John
Lydia Scott Martinez
Melissa Michie
John W. Scheib
Sallie Dean Shatz
Ann Marie Sturm
Elizabeth Menlove Thomas
Mark Trenchard
Anima Varma
Cindy Williams
Founder & Artistic Director MOSES PENDLETON
Associate Director CYNTHIA QUINN
with
NATHANIEL DAVIS, MADELINE DWYER, DEREK ELLIOTT JR., AURELIE
GARCIA, OKSANA HORBAN, JADE PRIMICIAS, AND ADAM ROSS
MOMIX
PO Box 1035 Washington, Connecticut 06793
1-860-868-7545 I info@momix.com I www.momix.com
REPRESENTATION
Margaret Selby - Selby Artists/Management
262 West 38th Street, Suite 1701 New York, NY 10018
1-212-382-3260 I mselby@selbyartistsmgmt.com I SelbyArtistsMgmt.com
Instagram @MomixOfficial | Facebook @OfficialMomix | X @Momix #MOMIXALICE
Alice PROGRAM NOTE
Travel down the rabbit hole, MOMIX-style, with Moses Pendleton’s newest creation, ALICE, inspired by Alice in Wonderland. As Alice’s body grows and shrinks and grows again, MOMIX dancers extend themselves by means of props, ropes, and other dancers.
“We don’t intend to retell the whole Alice story,” he says, “but to use it as a taking-off point for invention. I’m curious to see what will emerge, and I’m getting curiouser and curiouser the more I learn about Lewis Caroll. I share his passion for photography and his proclivity for puns”.
The Alice story is full of imagery and absurd logic – before there was Surrealism, there was Alice. Alice is an invitation to invent, to let the imagination run wild. “Go Ask Alice”, sang Grace Slick in “White Rabbit” – she also said, “Feed your head”.
Pendleton continues, “You can see why I think Alice is a natural fit for MOMIX and an opportunity for us to extend our reach. We want to take this show into places we haven’t been before in terms of the fusion of dance, lighting, music, costumes, and projected imagery. Our puns are visual, not verbal. It’s not modern dance, it’s Momix – under the spell of Lewis Carroll, who was under the spell of Alice – who was still learning to spell.”
As with every MOMIX production, you never quite know what you are going to get. Hopefully, audiences will be taken on a journey that is both magical, mysterious, fun, eccentric, and much more. As Alice falls down the rabbit hole and experiences every kind of transformation, we invite you to follow her.
We see Alice as an invitation to invent, to dream, to alter the way we perceive the world,
to open it to new possibilities. The stage is our rabbit hole; we welcome you to drop in!
-- Moses Pendleton, Artistic Director
Conceived and Directed by:
MOSES PENDLETON
Associate Director:
CYNTHIA QUINN
Assisted by:
ANTHONY BOCCONI, BEAU CAMPBELL, JENNIFER CHICHEPORTICHE,
SAMANTHA CHIESA, HEATHER CONN, GREGORY DE ARMOND,
JONATHAN EDEN, MATT GIORDANO, SEAH HAGAN, HANNAH KLINKMAN,
SEAN LANGFORD, HEATHER MAGEE, SARAH NACHBAUER, JADE PRIMICIAS,
REBECCA RASMUSSEN, COLTON WALL, and JASON WILLIAMS
Production Manager & Lighting Supervisor:
WOODROW F. DICK III
Production Stage Manager /FOH Engineer:
COLIN NEUKIRCH
Production Electrician:
ALEXA DENNEY
Lead Carpenter/Rigger:
AUSTIN DOWNS
Lighting Design:
MICHAEL KORSCH
Music Collage:
MOSES PENDLETON
Music Editing:
ANDREW HANSON
Video Design:
WOODROW F. DICK, III
Spider Puppet Design:
MICHAEL CURRY
Costume Design:
PHOEBE KATZIN
Costume Construction:
PHOEBE KATZIN & BERYL TAYLOR
Ballet Mistress:
VICTORIA MAZZARELLI
Research Consultant:
PHILIP HOLLAND
Communications Manager:
QUINN PENDLETON
Company Manager:
PAULA BUDETTI BURNS
This production of Alice has been funded, in part, by a contribution from Next Move Dance.
‘Would you tell me, please. which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
“I don’t much care where -”
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
- Lewis Carroll
Down the Rabbit Hole
A Summer Day
Alice Down the Rabbit Hole
Pool of Tears
A Trip of Rabbits
The Tweedles
The Cheshire Cat
Advice from a Blue Caterpillar
The Lobster Quadrille
Mad Hatters
The Queen of Diamonds
The Queen of Clubs Versus The Queen of Spades
The Mad Queen of Hearts
Cracked Mirrors
Through the Looking Glass
There is Another Shore
Into the Woods
The Wolf-Spied-Her
Looking Through Stained Glass
Garden of Molar Bears & Other Creatures
The Mock Turtle Deflated
Trial of the Fallen Cards
Bed of Roses
Go Ask Alice
Alice Soundtrack
Des Chapeaux dans les Lapins by Odezenne - Alix Calliet, Jacques Cormary, and Matthia Lucchini, SDRM; Cracked Mirrors and Stopped Clocks, Womb Duvet by Origamibiro -Tom Hill, Andy Tytherleigh, and The Joy of Box, Two Thousand and Eleven Ribbon Music; Faster and Faster by Tony Kinsey, KMP LTD; Fortress of Doors, Fungiferous Flora, Skool Daze, Falling Down the Rabbit Hole by Chris Vrenna & Mark Blasquez, Almo/Pink Lava; Taal Se Taal by Alka Yagnik & Udit Narayan - A.R. Rahman & Anand Bakshi, Tips Industry Music Publishing; The Cheshire Cat by Danny Elfman, Wonderland Music Company; Restless by Sounds from the Ground - Nick Woolfson & Eliot Jones from the Waveform Release Brightwhitelight; The Lobster Quadrille by Franz Ferdinand - Alexander Huntley, Nick McCarthy, Paul Thompson, and Robert Hardy, Universal Polygram Intl.; Mexicali, Jacquadi by Polo and Pan - Paul Armand-Delille & Alexandre Grynszpan, EOS; 1977 by Ana Tijoux, BMG; Don't Worry, We'll Be Watching You, Smoke and Mirrors by Gotye - Wouter De Backer, Songs of Kobalt Music.; Prologue/Cherry Ripe by Richard Hartley, He Pro Tunes, Inc.; The Sea by Joey Pecoraro, Rough Trade Songs; Divine Moments of Truth by Shpongle - Simon James Posford & Raja Ram, Twisted Music LTD; Requiem by House Made of Dawn, Arcane Creative Publishing; 2 Songar (Two Songs) II Vogguvis (Lullaby) by Jon Leifs, Iceland Music Information Center; Indifferent Universe, Liminalidad, Espera by Lucrecia Dalt, RVNG Intl.; White Rabbit Written by Grace Slick, Published by Mole Music (BMI) All rights reserved, (used by permission); Perpetuum Mobile by Simon Jeffes, Daniel Myer, Barbara Thompson, and Dejan Samardzic, Editions Penguin Cafe LTD.
MOMIX, a company of dancer-illusionists founded and directed by Moses Pendleton, has been presenting work of exceptional inventiveness and physical beauty for more than 40 years. From its base in Washington, Connecticut, the company has developed a devoted worldwide following. In addition to stage performances, MOMIX has also worked in film and television, as well as corporate advertising, with national commercials for Hanes and Target, and presentations for Mercedes-Benz, Fiat, and Pirelli. With performances on PBS’s “Dance in America” series, France’s Antenne II, and Italian RAI television, the company’s repertory has been beamed to 55 countries. The Rhombus Media film of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition with MOMIX and the Montreal Symphony was the winner of an International Emmy for Best Performing Arts Special. MOMIX was also featured in IMAGINE, one of the first 3-D IMAX films released in IMAX theaters worldwide. MOMIX dancers Cynthia Quinn and Karl Baumann, under Moses Pendleton’s direction, played the role of “Bluey” in the feature film F/X2, and White Widow, co-choreographed by Pendleton and Quinn, was featured in Robert Altman’s movie The Company. With nothing more than light, shadow, fabric, props, and the human body, MOMIX continues to astonish and delight audiences on five continents.
MOSES PENDLETON (Artistic Director) has been one of America’s most innovative and widely performed choreographers and directors for over 50 years. He co-founded the ground-breaking Pilobolus Dance Theater in 1971 while still a student at Dartmouth College. Pilobolus shot to fame in the 1970s. By the end of the decade, he had begun to work outside of Pilobolus, performing in and serving as principal choreographer for the Paris Opera’s Intégrale Erik Satie in 1979 and choreographing the Closing Ceremony of the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980.
In that same year, he created MOMIX, with Alison Chase, which rapidly established an international reputation for inventive and often illusionistic choreography that pushes physical boundaries and defies imagination. The troupe has now been creating new work under his direction and touring worldwide for over four decades. Mr. Pendleton has also been active as a performer and choreographer for other companies. He has worked extensively in film, TV, and opera, and as a choreographer for ballet companies and special events. He staged Picabia’s Dadaist ballet Relâche for the Paris Opera Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet, and Tutuguri, based on the writings of Artaud, for the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He created the role of the Fool for Yuri Lyubimov’s production of Mussorgsky’s Khovanschina at La Scala, choreographed Rameau’s Platée for the U.S. Spoleto Festival, and contributed choreography to Lina Wertmuller’s production of Carmen at the Munich State Opera. Mr. Pendleton has created new works for the Arizona Ballet and the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, and he teamed up with Danny Ezralow and David Parsons, both former MOMIX dancers, to choreograph AEROS with the Romanian National Gymnastics Team. Mr. Pendleton choreographed The Doves of Peace, featuring Diana Vishneva and 50 Russian ballerinas, for the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi.
Film and television work includes the feature film F/X2 with Cynthia Quinn, Moses Pendleton Presents Moses Pendleton for ABC ARTS cable (winner of a CINE Golden Eagle award), and Pictures at an Exhibition with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony, which received an International Emmy for Best Performing Arts Special in 1991. He has also made music videos with Prince, Julian Lennon, and Cathy Dennis, among others.
Mr. Pendleton is also an avid photographer whose work has been presented in Rome, Milan, Florence, and Aspen. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1977, a recipient of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts Governor’s Award in 1998, received the Positano Choreographic Award in 1999, and the 2002 American Choreography Award for his contributions to choreography for film and television. In 2010, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts (HDFA) from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he delivered the commencement address. In 2021, Mr. Pendleton received the Doctor of Arts, honoris causa, from Dartmouth College for his lifetime contributions to the arts. Most recently (June 2024), he was the recipient of the prestigious Taobuk Award — a recognition given annually to intellectuals and artists who have left a remarkable cultural message on the global scene. In 2025, Pendleton was honored with the Richard Brettell Award in the Arts by the University of Texas at Dallas.
CYNTHIA QUINN (Associate Director) grew up in Southern California, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California at Riverside, then continued on as an Associate in Dance for five years. As a member of Pilobolus in the 1980s, she performed on Broadway and throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Israel, and Japan. Ms. Quinn began performing with MOMIX in 1983 and has toured worldwide with the company. She has appeared in television programs, films, and music videos, and has assisted Moses Pendleton in the choreography on numerous projects. She has also appeared as a guest artist with the Ballet Théâtre Française de Nancy, the Deutsche Oper Berlin Ballet, and the Munich State Opera, as well as international galas in Italy, France, and Japan. Ms. Quinn is a board member of the Nutmeg Conservatory in Torrington, Conn., and is on the advisory board of Torrington’s Susan B. Anthony Project. She was featured with Ru Paul and k.d. lang for M.A.C. Cosmetics’ “Fashion Cares” benefit in Toronto and Vancouver. More recently, she co-choreographed The Doves of Peace, featuring Diana Vishneva, for the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Her most rewarding and challenging role, however, has been as a mother to her daughter, Quinn Elisabeth.
NATHANIEL DAVIS (Dancer) was born in Toronto, Canada. He started training at the age of seventeen and attended the New World School of the Arts college, graduating cum laude in 2015 with a BFA in dance. He has worked with the Peter London Dance Company in Miami, Florida, and Artichoke Dance Company in Brooklyn, New York. He has performed works by Robert Battle, Daniel Ulbricht, George Balanchine, Jose Limon, Kyle Abraham, Bill T. Jones, and Darshan Bueller. Nathaniel joined MOMIX in 2017.
MADELINE DWYER (Dancer) is a NYC-based dancer and artist. She began training at Stowe Dance Academy in Vermont and later at the Boston Ballet School Pre-Professional Program under Margaret Tracey. She has studied with the School of American Ballet, the Martha Graham School, and GALLIM. A summa cum laude graduate of the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program in New York, Madeline performed original works there by Brice Mousset, Darshan Bhuller, Joanna Kotze, Natalie Lamonte, and Jacqulyn Buglisi. She has also performed works by Young Soon Kim, Alec Knight, and Jesse Obremski, and has danced at the Boston Opera House in Mikko Nissinen's The Nutcracker. Madeline is the resident choreographer at Hudson River Opera and a company dancer with White Wave Dance. Madeline joined MOMIX in 2024.
DEREK ELLIOTT JR. (Dancer) is a performing artist residing in Pennsylvania. He received his BA in Dance and a BA in Theatre with a Concentration in Musical Theatre Performance from DeSales University. He has been performing in musicals since the age of thirteen. While in college, he had the privilege of training with Dance Artists Trinette Singleton, Timothy Cowart, Julia A. Mayo, Derek Crisenti, Steven Casey, and Angela Sigley Grossman. He has performed excerpts from Paul Taylor's Cloven Kingdom, restaged by Annmaria Mazzini, and A Chorus Line directed, choreographed, and restaged by Luis Villabon as an Offstage Cover/Swing at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. In addition to dancing, acting, and singing, Derek holds a Black Belt in traditional Karate, Jeet Kune Do, and Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu. He also holds an International Parkour Coaching Certification and has additional Parkour professional development training in Strength Training for Movement. Derek joined MOMIX in 2022.
AURELIE GARCIA (dancer) is a dancer, dance teacher, and choreographer. She grew up in the South of France, where she first started dancing at a local dance school. At eighteen, she moved to New York City to attend The Ailey School, graduating from their scholarship program in 2018. She has performed works by Ray Mercer, Elizabeth Roxas, Tracy Inman, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Talley Beatty, Anabelle Lopez Ochoa, Eduardo Vilaro, Michelle Manzanalez, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Pedro Ruiz, and Alvin Ailey. Since moving to New York to pursue her dance career, Aurelie has performed with companies such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Hispanico, and Ntrinsik Movement, Bloodline Dance Theater, Ann Nuo Spiritual Dance Art, VLDC, OCA Dance, and ACBD. Aurelie joined MOMIX in 2019.
OKSANA HORBAN (Dancer) is originally from Kyiv, Ukraine. In Kyiv, she studied Pantomime at the Academy of Circus and Variety Arts, where she graduated with honors, and also worked with Bingo Circus-Theatre and artist Mykola Baranov. In 2017, she moved to California to pursue dance and became part of the NCA cheerleading team at Palomar College. She graduated from Montclair State University in New Jersey in 2022 with a BFA in Dance. She has performed works by Alexander Anderson, Ohad Naharin, Paul Taylor, Bradley Shelver, Larry Keigwin, Maxine Steinman, Fredrick Earl Mosley, and Romeo Castellucci. Oksana has performed with Streb Extreme Action Company in Brooklyn and Yara Arts Group at La Mama Theatre in New York, and has presented her choreography at the Koresh Artist Showcase. Oksana joined MOMIX in 2023.
JADE PRIMICIAS (Dancer) leapt into the rabbit hole in 2018, joining MOMIX for the thrilling creation of Alice. In addition to touring with the company, Jade enjoys teaching dance and English and performs as a guest artist with Pilobolus, Connecticut Theater Dance Company, and Tennessee Ballet Theater. As Associate Creative Director of Tennessee Ballet Theater from 2015 to 2018, Jade collaborated with Artistic Director Erin Walter to produce site-specific performances retelling Memphis history through dance. Funded by the Jim Wayne Miller and Beverly Veenker Foundations, Jade established an artistic residency in Grantham, England in 2013. This culminated in a series of performances and research-based publications on contemporary dance improvisation in the UK and USA. Jade graduated summa cum laude from the Mahurin Honors College at Western Kentucky University with a dual degree in Dance and English after having grown her love of the arts in small-town Kentucky studios. Jade has since studied Limón technique and pedagogy under Colin Connor, Debra Noble, Risa Steinberg, and Dante Puleio. Jade joined MOMIX in 2018.
ADAM ROSS (Dancer) began training at a young age in Chesapeake, VA. He went on to compete in regional and national dance competitions throughout the East Coast. As a teen, he attended the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, VA, where he focused on Ballet and Modern technique. Adam earned his BFA in Contemporary Dance from the Conservatory at Berklee in 2023, where he performed works from Paul Taylor, Erick Hawkins, Martha Graham, Murray Louis, and Gabrielle Lamb, as well as multiple creations from faculty, students, and alumni from the Conservatory. Dance Intensives and workshops include Point Park University, Milwaukee Ballet, RUBBERBANDance Group, and CoMotion. Adam joined MOMIX in 2022.
PHOEBE KATZIN (Costume Designer) After graduating from Endicott College’s fashion design program, Phoebe worked for Kitty Daly, building dance costumes and dressmaking. For several years, she lived in New York making costumes for Kitty Leach, Greg Barnes, and Allison Conner, among others. Phoebe has been instrumental in designing and constructing costumes for MOMIX and Pilobolus for more than 20 years.
MICHAEL KORSCH (Lighting Designer) is a lighting and scenic designer based in Philadelphia. He has worked with numerous directors and choreographers, creating visual designs for dance and theatre throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Michael has been the resident lighting/scenic designer and technical director for Complexions Contemporary Ballet since 1998, and the resident lighting designer for Ballet Arizona since 2001. In addition, he has created original designs for companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Aspen/ Santa Fe Ballet, BalletMet, BalletX, Carolina Ballet, Cleveland Play House, DanceBrazil, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Daytona Contemporary Dance Company, Disney Creative Entertainment, English National Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Oakland Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Sacramento Ballet, Staatsballett Berlin and Washington Ballet, and has worked with MOMIX on several shows.
WOODROW F. DICK III (Production Manager & Lighting Supervisor) is MOMIX’s go-to guy for anything and everything production-related. He has worked on numerous productions, both big and small. Woody joined MOMIX in 2005.
VICTORIA MAZZARELLI (Ballet Mistress). Following an impressive and extensive professional international ballet career, Mazzarelli returned to her roots at the Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory in Torrington, Conn., where she serves as Artistic Director, training the next generation of dancers.
Carolyn Abravanel
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Kristin Anderson
Zana Anderson
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The B.W. Bastian Foundation
Trey and Erin Bean
Jennifer Bell
Craig and Martha Berghahn
Klaus Bielefeldt
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Calvin and Laura Boardman
Boeing
Prathusha Boppana
Paula and Glen Bowman
Johna Brems
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Chris Busch
Dennis Busch
Patricia Callahan
Robert Carney
Rick Carter
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Charities Aid Foundation America
Jasmin Charles
Mary Cheney
Lee Chew
Jane Cole
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Rebecca Dowdell
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Metta Driscoll
James Egan
Eric and Shellie Eide
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Stephanie Finley
Kathryn and Gene Fitzgerald
Joseph Fleming
Christine Fuller
Dallin and Emilee Fyffe
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Hampton Inn
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Sally Jones and Bill Knowles
Warren Jones
Page and Don Juliano
Safia and Lester Keller
Carolyn and James Kelley
Kenworth Sales Company
Ron Ketelsen and Mary Mooers
Keolanani Kinghorn
Elyssa Kirkham
Glen and Regan Knudson
Carolyn and Pete Kowalchik
Andrea Krogue
Alan and Pam Lakomski
Randall Lalonde and Patricia Homer
Jaryn Larsen
Billie Larson
Elizabeth Leckie
Howard and Nancy Lemcke
Renee Leta and Richard Mrazik
Edward Lieskovan and Siwen Hu-Lieskovan
Steven and Rae Louie
Tory and James Magleby
Jennifer Majersik
Ashwini Manjunath
Mark Miller Subaru
Nancy Peery Marriott
Mike Martin
Sarah McCarthey
Tom and Mary McCarthey
John and Christine McCollough
Wendy McGeehan
Nick Mckinney
Mexicano Latino Institute of Utah, Inc.
James R. and Nanette S. Michie Foundation
Terry Miya and Jeffrey Orth
Toni Montrone
Mountain America Credit Union
National Philanthropic Trust
Anne Neeley
Emily Nelson
Neuman Family Foundation
Tennery Norton
Rick Oliver
Marie and Michael Otto
Manish Parashar
Jeffrey Paris and Alexas Lucero
Mark Passey
Dinesh and Kalpana Patel
Allison Peterson
Lee Phillips-Diamond and John Diamond
Susan and T. Flint Porter
John and Marica Price Family Foundation
Derek Rasmussen
Carolyn Rich-Denson
Larry and Annette Richie
Paul Ricketts
Leena Rinne
Bicknell Robbins
Hal Robins
Melbourne and Karen Romney
Salt Lake City Arts Council
Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks
Bretleigh Sandorf
Kim Sargent and Earl Catterton
Stacey Schrank
Brian Sevy
Natalie and Kiumars Shahrokh
Sallie Shatz
Maureen Shields and Darrel Gerard
Steven Shubella and Lori Zuti
Arin Slogar
Shelly Smith
Susan Snow
Tricia Snow
Beverley Taylor Sorenson Foundation
Carol Steffens
Alice and Kevin Steiner
Ramona and John Stromness
Regina Rosenthal and Don Stromquist
Annie and Cory Strupp
Ann Marie Sturm
Barbara Svee
Neal Tate
Paul Taylor
Herta Teitelbaum
Elizabeth Thomas
Tyler Thomas
David Thompson
Nancy and Ervin Trapa
Paula Trater
Kyle Treadway and Greg Pedroza
Philip and Melissa Urofsky
Visit Salt Lake
Tamara and Louis Vitela
Ofelia Wade
Bret Watts
Leonard and Verla Whippen
Von and Virginia Whitby
Sarah Wiley
Bonnie and Scott Williams
Cindy Williams
Bruce Wilson
Melinda Wilson and Michael Mejia
Kelly Woodland
Arriann Woolf
Julie and John Wright-Costa
Rachel Yeager
Roy D. Youngblood
Lihong Yu
Jean Zancanella and Richard Frerichs
Tony Zani
Thank you to all our donors of $25 or above from January 2025 to January 2026.
UtahPresents Staff
Chloe Jones
Executive Director
John Armstrong
Event Manager
David Braithwaite
Technical Director
Michael Dallum
Finance Manager
Dennis Busch
Content Manager
Jason Hogue
Marketing Intern
Sheri Jardine
Content Manager
Rosemary Lisa Jones
Production Manager
Patricia Madsen
Box Office Manager
Malynn Nelson
Assistant Box Office Manager
James Padilla
Lighting Supervisor
Melissa Salguero
Community Engagement Manager
Severin Sargent-Catterton
Admin & Artist Services Coordinator
Juniper Taylor
Development Coordinator
Aja Vogelman
Operations Director
UtahPresents Advisory Board
Tiana Hood, Chair
Rainey Cornaby, Vice Chair
Eric Aragon
Michael Billings
Johna Devey Brems
Annie Davis
Rebecca Dowdell
Metta Driscoll
Rahul Fernandez
Becca Green
Laurie Hofmann
Dan John
Lydia Scott Martinez
Melissa Michie
John W. Scheib
Sallie Dean Shatz
Ann Marie Sturm
Elizabeth Menlove Thomas
Mark Trenchard
Anima Varma
Cindy Williams
YOuth Theatre at the U: Imaginary

IMAGINARY
PERFORMED BY YOUTH THEATRE AT THE U
Friday, March 20, 7:00PM
Saturday, March 21, 11:00AM
IMAGINARY Young@Part®
Book & Lyrics by TIMOTHY KNAPMAN
Music & Lyrics by STUART MATTHEW PRICE
Commissioned and produced by National Youth Music Theatre and first performed 9 August 2017 at The Other Palace, London.
IMAGINARY Young@Part® is presented through special arrangement with and all authorized performance materials are supplied by Theatrical Rights Worldwide
1180 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 640, New York, NY 10036. www.theatricalrights.com
Directed and Choreographed by Penelope Caywood and Hannah Keating
Music Direction Kaden Conrad
Scenic Design James Padilla
Lighting Design Duncan Van Hecke
Costume Design (University) Aubrey Riggs
Costume Design (Youth) Lauren Carn
Wigs/Hair/Makeup Designer Laynne Thompson
Stage Manager Isabel Moss
1st Asst. Stage Manager Claire Mila
2nd Asst. Stage Manager Juan Gomez
Production Assistant Ashley Rodriguez
Youth Theatre Intern Nora Bartel
VISIT YOUTH THEATRE AT THE U'S SITE
TO VIEW MORE INFORMATION
ABOUT TONIGHT'S PERFORMANCE
FROM THE PUBLISHER: "NOTE: The names of the Composer, Lyricist, and Bookwriter shall be equal in size, type, coloring, boldness, and prominence. No billing shall appear in type larger or more prominent than the billing to the Authors except for the title of the play. The credit to the producer shall appear in a type size of no less than eight (8) point."
Carolyn Abravanel
Karen Acker
Frederick Adler and Anne Collopy
Kevin and Jo Aldridge
Scott and Kathie Amann
America First Credit Union
Kristin Anderson
Zana Anderson
Brent and Cheri Andrus
Eric and Dominique Aragon
Janice Aramaki
Amanda Bailey
Ballard Miller Foundation
Caroline and Thomas Barman
Jill and Lonnie Baskett
The B.W. Bastian Foundation
Trey and Erin Bean
Jennifer Bell
Craig and Martha Berghahn
Klaus Bielefeldt
Phillip Bimstein and Charlotte Bell
Calvin and Laura Boardman
Boeing
Prathusha Boppana
Paula and Glen Bowman
Johna Brems
Nancy Bricker
Rebecca and Steven Burt
Chris Busch
Dennis Busch
Patricia Callahan
Robert Carney
Rick Carter
John and Judith Catlett
Chamber Music America
Amy Chandler
Charities Aid Foundation America
Jasmin Charles
Mary Cheney
Lee Chew
Jane Cole
Creative West
Thom Dancy
Annie and Jahn Davis
Derna DeMaggio
David Goldsmith and Kara DiOrio
Linda Doll
Rebecca Dowdell
Denise Dragoo and Craig Anderson
Metta Driscoll
James Egan
Eric and Shellie Eide
Robyn Ensor
Amanda Evans
Bethany Everett
Stephanie Finley
Kathryn and Gene Fitzgerald
Joseph Fleming
Christine Fuller
Dallin and Emilee Fyffe
Robert George
Bob and Mary Gilchrist
Margaret Gillie
Josanne Glass and Patrick Casey
David Goldenberg
Goldman Sachs
Carrie Goodwin
Cory and Tamra Gray
MJ Gregoire and Daniel Sommers
Jason Hagey
George and Mary Hall
Hampton Inn
Gordon and Connie Hanks
Justin Harman
Katie Hartman
Barbara Hay
Christy Hepworth
James and Lynne Herron
Steve Hewson
Laurie Hofmann
Kristen Hogan
Lee and Audrey Hollaar
Tiana Hood and Steven Morales
Jennifer and Seth Horowitz
Charlie and Linda Huebner
Brenda Hughston
David Hulet
Elizabeth Hunter
Marian Iwasaki
Susie and Tom Jackson
Sheri Jardine
Ashlee and Niko Jensen
Dan John and Erica Lemke
Amy Johnson
Sally Jones and Bill Knowles
Warren Jones
Page and Don Juliano
Safia and Lester Keller
Carolyn and James Kelley
Kenworth Sales Company
Ron Ketelsen and Mary Mooers
Keolanani Kinghorn
Elyssa Kirkham
Glen and Regan Knudson
Carolyn and Pete Kowalchik
Andrea Krogue
Alan and Pam Lakomski
Randall Lalonde and Patricia Homer
Jaryn Larsen
Billie Larson
Elizabeth Leckie
Howard and Nancy Lemcke
Renee Leta and Richard Mrazik
Edward Lieskovan and Siwen Hu-Lieskovan
Steven and Rae Louie
Tory and James Magleby
Jennifer Majersik
Ashwini Manjunath
Mark Miller Subaru
Nancy Peery Marriott
Mike Martin
Sarah McCarthey
Tom and Mary McCarthey
John and Christine McCollough
Wendy McGeehan
Nick Mckinney
Mexicano Latino Institute of Utah, Inc.
James R. and Nanette S. Michie Foundation
Terry Miya and Jeffrey Orth
Toni Montrone
Mountain America Credit Union
National Philanthropic Trust
Anne Neeley
Emily Nelson
Neuman Family Foundation
Tennery Norton
Rick Oliver
Marie and Michael Otto
Manish Parashar
Jeffrey Paris and Alexas Lucero
Mark Passey
Dinesh and Kalpana Patel
Allison Peterson
Lee Phillips-Diamond and John Diamond
Susan and T. Flint Porter
John and Marica Price Family Foundation
Derek Rasmussen
Carolyn Rich-Denson
Larry and Annette Richie
Paul Ricketts
Leena Rinne
Bicknell Robbins
Hal Robins
Melbourne and Karen Romney
Salt Lake City Arts Council
Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks
Bretleigh Sandorf
Kim Sargent and Earl Catterton
Stacey Schrank
Brian Sevy
Natalie and Kiumars Shahrokh
Sallie Shatz
Maureen Shields and Darrel Gerard
Steven Shubella and Lori Zuti
Arin Slogar
Shelly Smith
Susan Snow
Tricia Snow
Beverley Taylor Sorenson Foundation
Carol Steffens
Alice and Kevin Steiner
Ramona and John Stromness
Regina Rosenthal and Don Stromquist
Annie and Cory Strupp
Ann Marie Sturm
Barbara Svee
Neal Tate
Paul Taylor
Herta Teitelbaum
Elizabeth Thomas
Tyler Thomas
David Thompson
Nancy and Ervin Trapa
Paula Trater
Kyle Treadway and Greg Pedroza
Philip and Melissa Urofsky
Visit Salt Lake
Tamara and Louis Vitela
Ofelia Wade
Bret Watts
Leonard and Verla Whippen
Von and Virginia Whitby
Sarah Wiley
Bonnie and Scott Williams
Cindy Williams
Bruce Wilson
Melinda Wilson and Michael Mejia
Kelly Woodland
Arriann Woolf
Julie and John Wright-Costa
Rachel Yeager
Roy D. Youngblood
Lihong Yu
Jean Zancanella and Richard Frerichs
Tony Zani
Thank you to all our donors of $25 or above from January 2025 to January 2026.
UtahPresents Staff
Chloe Jones
Executive Director
John Armstrong
Event Manager
David Braithwaite
Technical Director
Michael Dallum
Finance Manager
Dennis Busch
Content Manager
Jason Hogue
Marketing Intern
Sheri Jardine
Content Manager
Rosemary Lisa Jones
Production Manager
Patricia Madsen
Box Office Manager
Malynn Nelson
Assistant Box Office Manager
James Padilla
Lighting Supervisor
Melissa Salguero
Community Engagement Manager
Severin Sargent-Catterton
Admin & Artist Services Coordinator
Juniper Taylor
Development Coordinator
Aja Vogelman
Operations Director
UtahPresents Advisory Board
Tiana Hood, Chair
Rainey Cornaby, Vice Chair
Eric Aragon
Michael Billings
Johna Devey Brems
Annie Davis
Rebecca Dowdell
Metta Driscoll
Rahul Fernandez
Becca Green
Laurie Hofmann
Dan John
Lydia Scott Martinez
Melissa Michie
John W. Scheib
Sallie Dean Shatz
Ann Marie Sturm
Elizabeth Menlove Thomas
Mark Trenchard
Anima Varma
Cindy Williams
EMMET COHEN
MILES & COLTRANE AT 100
Thursday, March 12, 7:30PM
Emmet Cohen - Piano
Reuben Rogers - Bass
Joe Farnsworth - Drums
Tivon Pennicott - Tenor Saxophone
Jeremy Pelt - Trumpet
Multifaceted American jazz pianist and composer Emmet Cohen has emerged as one of his generation's pivotal figures in music and the related arts. A recognized prodigy, Cohen began Suzuki method piano instruction at age three, and his playing quickly became a mature melding of musicality, technique, and concept. Downbeat observed that his "nimble touch, measured stride and warm harmonic vocabulary indicate he's above any convoluted technical showmanship." In the same spirit, Cohen himself has noted that playing jazz is "about communicating the deepest levels of humanity and individuality; it's essentially about connections," both among musicians and with audiences. He leads his namesake ensemble, the "Emmet Cohen Trio," is a vibrant solo performer, and is in constant demand as a sideman. Possessing a fluid technique, an innovative tonal palette, and an extensive repertoire, Cohen plays with the command of a seasoned veteran and the passion of an artist fully devoted to his medium.
Emmet Cohen is committed to the intergenerational transfer of artistic knowledge, history, and traditions. His signature professional undertaking is the "Masters Legacy Series," a celebratory set of recordings and interviews honoring legendary jazz musicians. He serves as both producer and pianist for each album in the series. The goal of this landmark, ongoing project is to provide musicians of multiple generations a forum to transfer the unwritten folklore that is America's unique musical idiom. Cohen has observed that playing jazz "is enriched immeasurably by connecting and studying with jazz masters, forging backward to the very creation of the art form." Volume one of the "Masters Legacy Series" features drummer Jimmy Cobb, and volume two spotlights bassist Ron Carter. Future "Masters Legacy Series" releases will include Cohen's recordings with Benny Golson, Tootie Heath, and George Coleman.
Emmet Cohen's exacting keyboard artistry has garnered numerous accolades from the international jazz community. He placed first in both the American Jazz Pianists competition (2014) and the Phillips Piano Competition at the University of West Florida (2011). He was a finalist in the prestigious American Piano Award’s Cole Porter Fellowship (2015, 2011) and the Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition (2011).
Cohen has appeared in world-renowned jazz events, including the Newport, Monterey, North Sea, Bern, Edinburgh, Detroit, and Jerusalem jazz festivals, as well as the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. He has also performed at the Village Vanguard, the Blue Note, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Birdland, Jazz Standard, London's Ronnie Scott's, Jazzhaus Montmartre in Copenhagen, Lincoln Center's Rose Hall, the Cotton Club in Tokyo, and the Kennedy Center, and was received in the Oval Office by President Obama. He is currently Hammond B-3 organist-in-residence at Harlem's SMOKE jazz club.
Besides leading the "Emmet Cohen Trio," Cohen has appeared regularly with Ron Carter, Benny Golson, Jimmy Cobb, George Coleman, Jimmy Heath, Tootie Heath, Houston Person, Kurt Elling, Billy Hart, and Brian Lynch, among others. Cohen is also a member of Christian McBride's trio "Tip City," the "Herlin Riley Quartet," and the "Ali Jackson Trio," and serves as pianist and music director for jazz vocalist and television personality Lea DeLaria. His recordings include "Masters Legacy Series featuring Ron Carter" (2018); "Masters Legacy Series featuring Jimmy Cobb" (2017); "New Directions" (2016) with Herlin Riley; "Questioned Answer" (2014), co-produced with Brian Lynch; "Infinity" (2013), featuring his Italian Trio; and his acclaimed debut CD "In the Element" (2011), with bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Rodney Green.
Carolyn Abravanel
Karen Acker
Frederick Adler and Anne Collopy
Kevin and Jo Aldridge
Scott and Kathie Amann
America First Credit Union
Kristin Anderson
Zana Anderson
Brent and Cheri Andrus
Eric and Dominique Aragon
Janice Aramaki
Amanda Bailey
Ballard Miller Foundation
Caroline and Thomas Barman
Jill and Lonnie Baskett
The B.W. Bastian Foundation
Trey and Erin Bean
Jennifer Bell
Craig and Martha Berghahn
Klaus Bielefeldt
Phillip Bimstein and Charlotte Bell
Calvin and Laura Boardman
Boeing
Prathusha Boppana
Paula and Glen Bowman
Johna Brems
Nancy Bricker
Rebecca and Steven Burt
Chris Busch
Dennis Busch
Patricia Callahan
Robert Carney
Rick Carter
John and Judith Catlett
Chamber Music America
Amy Chandler
Charities Aid Foundation America
Jasmin Charles
Mary Cheney
Lee Chew
Jane Cole
Creative West
Thom Dancy
Annie and Jahn Davis
Derna DeMaggio
David Goldsmith and Kara DiOrio
Linda Doll
Rebecca Dowdell
Denise Dragoo and Craig Anderson
Metta Driscoll
James Egan
Eric and Shellie Eide
Robyn Ensor
Amanda Evans
Bethany Everett
Stephanie Finley
Kathryn and Gene Fitzgerald
Joseph Fleming
Christine Fuller
Dallin and Emilee Fyffe
Robert George
Bob and Mary Gilchrist
Margaret Gillie
Josanne Glass and Patrick Casey
David Goldenberg
Goldman Sachs
Carrie Goodwin
Cory and Tamra Gray
MJ Gregoire and Daniel Sommers
Jason Hagey
George and Mary Hall
Hampton Inn
Gordon and Connie Hanks
Justin Harman
Katie Hartman
Barbara Hay
Christy Hepworth
James and Lynne Herron
Steve Hewson
Laurie Hofmann
Kristen Hogan
Lee and Audrey Hollaar
Tiana Hood and Steven Morales
Jennifer and Seth Horowitz
Charlie and Linda Huebner
Brenda Hughston
David Hulet
Elizabeth Hunter
Marian Iwasaki
Susie and Tom Jackson
Sheri Jardine
Ashlee and Niko Jensen
Dan John and Erica Lemke
Amy Johnson
Sally Jones and Bill Knowles
Warren Jones
Page and Don Juliano
Safia and Lester Keller
Carolyn and James Kelley
Kenworth Sales Company
Ron Ketelsen and Mary Mooers
Keolanani Kinghorn
Elyssa Kirkham
Glen and Regan Knudson
Carolyn and Pete Kowalchik
Andrea Krogue
Alan and Pam Lakomski
Randall Lalonde and Patricia Homer
Jaryn Larsen
Billie Larson
Elizabeth Leckie
Howard and Nancy Lemcke
Renee Leta and Richard Mrazik
Edward Lieskovan and Siwen Hu-Lieskovan
Steven and Rae Louie
Tory and James Magleby
Jennifer Majersik
Ashwini Manjunath
Mark Miller Subaru
Nancy Peery Marriott
Mike Martin
Sarah McCarthey
Tom and Mary McCarthey
John and Christine McCollough
Wendy McGeehan
Nick Mckinney
Mexicano Latino Institute of Utah, Inc.
James R. and Nanette S. Michie Foundation
Terry Miya and Jeffrey Orth
Toni Montrone
Mountain America Credit Union
National Philanthropic Trust
Anne Neeley
Emily Nelson
Neuman Family Foundation
Tennery Norton
Rick Oliver
Marie and Michael Otto
Manish Parashar
Jeffrey Paris and Alexas Lucero
Mark Passey
Dinesh and Kalpana Patel
Allison Peterson
Lee Phillips-Diamond and John Diamond
Susan and T. Flint Porter
John and Marica Price Family Foundation
Derek Rasmussen
Carolyn Rich-Denson
Larry and Annette Richie
Paul Ricketts
Leena Rinne
Bicknell Robbins
Hal Robins
Melbourne and Karen Romney
Salt Lake City Arts Council
Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks
Bretleigh Sandorf
Kim Sargent and Earl Catterton
Stacey Schrank
Brian Sevy
Natalie and Kiumars Shahrokh
Sallie Shatz
Maureen Shields and Darrel Gerard
Steven Shubella and Lori Zuti
Arin Slogar
Shelly Smith
Susan Snow
Tricia Snow
Beverley Taylor Sorenson Foundation
Carol Steffens
Alice and Kevin Steiner
Ramona and John Stromness
Regina Rosenthal and Don Stromquist
Annie and Cory Strupp
Ann Marie Sturm
Barbara Svee
Neal Tate
Paul Taylor
Herta Teitelbaum
Elizabeth Thomas
Tyler Thomas
David Thompson
Nancy and Ervin Trapa
Paula Trater
Kyle Treadway and Greg Pedroza
Philip and Melissa Urofsky
Visit Salt Lake
Tamara and Louis Vitela
Ofelia Wade
Bret Watts
Leonard and Verla Whippen
Von and Virginia Whitby
Sarah Wiley
Bonnie and Scott Williams
Cindy Williams
Bruce Wilson
Melinda Wilson and Michael Mejia
Kelly Woodland
Arriann Woolf
Julie and John Wright-Costa
Rachel Yeager
Roy D. Youngblood
Lihong Yu
Jean Zancanella and Richard Frerichs
Tony Zani
Thank you to all our donors of $25 or above from January 2025 to January 2026.
UtahPresents Staff
Chloe Jones
Executive Director
John Armstrong
Event Manager
David Braithwaite
Technical Director
Michael Dallum
Finance Manager
Dennis Busch
Content Manager
Jason Hogue
Marketing Intern
Sheri Jardine
Content Manager
Rosemary Lisa Jones
Production Manager
Patricia Madsen
Box Office Manager
Malynn Nelson
Assistant Box Office Manager
James Padilla
Lighting Supervisor
Melissa Salguero
Community Engagement Manager
Severin Sargent-Catterton
Admin & Artist Services Coordinator
Juniper Taylor
Development Coordinator
Aja Vogelman
Operations Director
UtahPresents Advisory Board
Tiana Hood, Chair
Rainey Cornaby, Vice Chair
Eric Aragon
Michael Billings
Johna Devey Brems
Annie Davis
Rebecca Dowdell
Metta Driscoll
Rahul Fernandez
Becca Green
Laurie Hofmann
Dan John
Lydia Scott Martinez
Melissa Michie
John W. Scheib
Sallie Dean Shatz
Ann Marie Sturm
Elizabeth Menlove Thomas
Mark Trenchard
Anima Varma
Cindy Williams
Banff Mountain Film Festival
BANFF MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL WORLD TOUR
PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
CAMPUS RECREATION SERVICES OUTDOOR ADVENTURES
Saturday, March 7 Film Lineup
| Icefall | |
| Film | Runtime |
| Part 1 | 72 |
| Intro video | 7 |
| Rogatkin | 15 |
| A Sense of Fight | 2 |
| The Finisher FM Intro | 1 |
| The Finisher: Jasmin Paris and the Barkley Marathons (repeat) | 47 |
| Part 2 | 56 |
| Contest | 2 |
| That One Friend (repeat) | 9 |
| The Book of George | 15 |
| Arctic Alchemy FM Intro | 1 |
| Arctic Alchemy | 29 |
| Total | 128 |
Carolyn Abravanel
Karen Acker
Frederick Adler and Anne Collopy
Kevin and Jo Aldridge
Scott and Kathie Amann
America First Credit Union
Kristin Anderson
Zana Anderson
Brent and Cheri Andrus
Eric and Dominique Aragon
Janice Aramaki
Amanda Bailey
Ballard Miller Foundation
Caroline and Thomas Barman
Jill and Lonnie Baskett
The B.W. Bastian Foundation
Trey and Erin Bean
Jennifer Bell
Craig and Martha Berghahn
Klaus Bielefeldt
Phillip Bimstein and Charlotte Bell
Calvin and Laura Boardman
Boeing
Prathusha Boppana
Paula and Glen Bowman
Johna Brems
Nancy Bricker
Rebecca and Steven Burt
Chris Busch
Dennis Busch
Patricia Callahan
Robert Carney
Rick Carter
John and Judith Catlett
Chamber Music America
Amy Chandler
Charities Aid Foundation America
Jasmin Charles
Mary Cheney
Lee Chew
Jane Cole
Creative West
Thom Dancy
Annie and Jahn Davis
Derna DeMaggio
David Goldsmith and Kara DiOrio
Linda Doll
Rebecca Dowdell
Denise Dragoo and Craig Anderson
Metta Driscoll
James Egan
Eric and Shellie Eide
Robyn Ensor
Amanda Evans
Bethany Everett
Stephanie Finley
Kathryn and Gene Fitzgerald
Joseph Fleming
Christine Fuller
Dallin and Emilee Fyffe
Robert George
Bob and Mary Gilchrist
Margaret Gillie
Josanne Glass and Patrick Casey
David Goldenberg
Goldman Sachs
Carrie Goodwin
Cory and Tamra Gray
MJ Gregoire and Daniel Sommers
Jason Hagey
George and Mary Hall
Hampton Inn
Gordon and Connie Hanks
Justin Harman
Katie Hartman
Barbara Hay
Christy Hepworth
James and Lynne Herron
Steve Hewson
Laurie Hofmann
Kristen Hogan
Lee and Audrey Hollaar
Tiana Hood and Steven Morales
Jennifer and Seth Horowitz
Charlie and Linda Huebner
Brenda Hughston
David Hulet
Elizabeth Hunter
Marian Iwasaki
Susie and Tom Jackson
Sheri Jardine
Ashlee and Niko Jensen
Dan John and Erica Lemke
Amy Johnson
Sally Jones and Bill Knowles
Warren Jones
Page and Don Juliano
Safia and Lester Keller
Carolyn and James Kelley
Kenworth Sales Company
Ron Ketelsen and Mary Mooers
Keolanani Kinghorn
Elyssa Kirkham
Glen and Regan Knudson
Carolyn and Pete Kowalchik
Andrea Krogue
Alan and Pam Lakomski
Randall Lalonde and Patricia Homer
Jaryn Larsen
Billie Larson
Elizabeth Leckie
Howard and Nancy Lemcke
Renee Leta and Richard Mrazik
Edward Lieskovan and Siwen Hu-Lieskovan
Steven and Rae Louie
Tory and James Magleby
Jennifer Majersik
Ashwini Manjunath
Mark Miller Subaru
Nancy Peery Marriott
Mike Martin
Sarah McCarthey
Tom and Mary McCarthey
John and Christine McCollough
Wendy McGeehan
Nick Mckinney
Mexicano Latino Institute of Utah, Inc.
James R. and Nanette S. Michie Foundation
Terry Miya and Jeffrey Orth
Toni Montrone
Mountain America Credit Union
National Philanthropic Trust
Anne Neeley
Emily Nelson
Neuman Family Foundation
Tennery Norton
Rick Oliver
Marie and Michael Otto
Manish Parashar
Jeffrey Paris and Alexas Lucero
Mark Passey
Dinesh and Kalpana Patel
Allison Peterson
Lee Phillips-Diamond and John Diamond
Susan and T. Flint Porter
John and Marica Price Family Foundation
Derek Rasmussen
Carolyn Rich-Denson
Larry and Annette Richie
Paul Ricketts
Leena Rinne
Bicknell Robbins
Hal Robins
Melbourne and Karen Romney
Salt Lake City Arts Council
Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks
Bretleigh Sandorf
Kim Sargent and Earl Catterton
Stacey Schrank
Brian Sevy
Natalie and Kiumars Shahrokh
Sallie Shatz
Maureen Shields and Darrel Gerard
Steven Shubella and Lori Zuti
Arin Slogar
Shelly Smith
Susan Snow
Tricia Snow
Beverley Taylor Sorenson Foundation
Carol Steffens
Alice and Kevin Steiner
Ramona and John Stromness
Regina Rosenthal and Don Stromquist
Annie and Cory Strupp
Ann Marie Sturm
Barbara Svee
Neal Tate
Paul Taylor
Herta Teitelbaum
Elizabeth Thomas
Tyler Thomas
David Thompson
Nancy and Ervin Trapa
Paula Trater
Kyle Treadway and Greg Pedroza
Philip and Melissa Urofsky
Visit Salt Lake
Tamara and Louis Vitela
Ofelia Wade
Bret Watts
Leonard and Verla Whippen
Von and Virginia Whitby
Sarah Wiley
Bonnie and Scott Williams
Cindy Williams
Bruce Wilson
Melinda Wilson and Michael Mejia
Kelly Woodland
Arriann Woolf
Julie and John Wright-Costa
Rachel Yeager
Roy D. Youngblood
Lihong Yu
Jean Zancanella and Richard Frerichs
Tony Zani
Thank you to all our donors of $25 or above from January 2025 to January 2026.
UtahPresents Staff
Chloe Jones
Executive Director
John Armstrong
Event Manager
David Braithwaite
Technical Director
Michael Dallum
Finance Manager
Dennis Busch
Content Manager
Jason Hogue
Marketing Intern
Sheri Jardine
Content Manager
Rosemary Lisa Jones
Production Manager
Patricia Madsen
Box Office Manager
Malynn Nelson
Assistant Box Office Manager
James Padilla
Lighting Supervisor
Melissa Salguero
Community Engagement Manager
Severin Sargent-Catterton
Admin & Artist Services Coordinator
Juniper Taylor
Development Coordinator
Aja Vogelman
Operations Director
UtahPresents Advisory Board
Tiana Hood, Chair
Rainey Cornaby, Vice Chair
Eric Aragon
Michael Billings
Johna Devey Brems
Annie Davis
Rebecca Dowdell
Metta Driscoll
Rahul Fernandez
Becca Green
Laurie Hofmann
Dan John
Lydia Scott Martinez
Melissa Michie
John W. Scheib
Sallie Dean Shatz
Ann Marie Sturm
Elizabeth Menlove Thomas
Mark Trenchard
Anima Varma
Cindy Williams
HEALTHCARE STORIES: TOGETHER
PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
THE CENTER FOR HEALTH ETHICS, ARTS AND HUMANITIES AND THE RESILIENCY CENTER
Tonight's Storytellers
Steve Cho, Student
Leisha Nolen, Epidemiologist
Van Aston, Physician Assistant
Annie Frazier, Education Manager
Nancy Langman-Axtell, MSW Intern, Program Coordinator
Lindsay Thompson, Senior Manager
Jess Carey, Pharmacist
Our MC for the evening is Iván Vazquez, storyteller from 2023.
Production Team
Gretchen Case, Director
Megan Call, Producer
Betsy Holm, Program Manager
Bethany Burtch, Marketing Manager
Storyteller Bios
Steve Cho likes to say he grew up in “New England.” This is false. Steve, in fact, grew up in South Korea, Toronto, and Connecticut, but most strongly identifies with the state he went to college in: Maine. After earning an A.B. in Music Theory & Composition and Marine Biology at Bowdoin College, he worked at Boston Children’s Hospital studying cures for pediatric blindness. It was there that Steve realized that a career as a composer-pianist-marine biologist-physician-scientist was impractical and decided upon just the latter two. Now an MD-PhD student at the University of Utah, Steve (mostly) focuses on evolutionary genetics, but often finds his mind wandering to the Utah Medical Orchestra (where he is president and co-founder) and other liberal art-sy endeavours.
Leisha Nolen thrives on exploring the world—a passion that aligns perfectly with her career in public health. Whether she is skiing and hiking through new landscapes or partnering with communities to eradicate disease, Leisha is driven by a love for meeting new people and solving complex, meaningful problems.
Van Aston is a Physician Assistant and Medical Director at the Fourth Street Clinic in downtown Salt Lake City. He lives in Salt Lake but considers Ogden his hometown. Mountain activities are his main stress relief with his partner Kate, along with road trips to other outdoor recreation spots around the West. He has 2 daughters that he absolutely adores. He's spent his entire career in Community Health Centers, with the last decade focused on patients experiencing homelessness. Connecting with people on a human level is what continues to drive him every day.
Annie Frazier oversees the Education work at PBS Utah. She holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Human Development & Social Policy. She has dedicated her life to educating young children and supporting families. Outside of work, she loves being with her husband and children—walking their dogs, riding bikes, skiing, exploring museums, and sitting around the fire pit discussing everything wonderfully right and wildly confusing about the human experience. Annie believes everything is better with soup, A&W Zero Sugar Root Beer, snuggles and laughter!
Nancy Langman Axtell is a 2026 MSW graduate from the University of Utah, a wife, a proud mom of two boys, and has had many roles over her 28 years in healthcare. She brings big energy and deep compassion to substance-use treatment in primary care. After losing her brothers to overdose, Nancy found purpose and drive in this work, especially through her time with the SPARC clinic. Her dream of expanding Collaborative Care for Substance Use in Primary Careas a part of Behavioral Health Integration Team is already in motion, and she’s just getting started.
Lindsay Thompson was born and raised in Utah and learned early the strength of family after losing her dad at a young age. A former collegiate athlete and All‑American Softball player, she carries that same determination into her passion for patient care, genuine connection, and ensuring everyone feels included. Lindsay has worked at the University of Utah Hospitals since 2004, dedicating more than two decades to supporting patients, teams, and community. She loves spending time with her wife, their four‑legged Chihuahua “fur baby,” and her close-knit family, and she especially adores being an aunt to six nieces and three nephews. Solar‑powered at heart, Lindsay thrives in sunshine and enjoys gardening, yard work, painting, building things, and a good cup of coffee. Her hero is her mom—the strongest and most caring woman she knows.
Jess Carey with Matti Graves Jess Carey is a pharmacist, and Matti Graves is a certified ASL interpreter. Outside of their careers, both are avid outdoorswomen who share a love for rock climbing, a deep appreciation for Deaf education, and a genuine adoration for Deaf children. Their lives became intertwined when Jess’s journey as a mother to her Deaf son led her to Matti and her expertise in sign language. What began as a professional connection quickly grew into a lasting friendship. Now, Matti is honored to help interpret Jess’s powerful story of becoming a parent to a Deaf child and the transformative journey that followed.
Production Team Bios
Gretchen Case is the Director of the University of Utah Center for Health Ethics, Arts, and Humanities, an associate professor in the Department of Theatre, and associate professor (adjunct) in the Department of Internal Medicine. A performer, scholar, and storyteller, she is passionate about the importance of interdisciplinary and interprofessional collaboration and the impact of the arts in health and healthcare.
Megan Call is the Associate Chief Wellness Officer for University of Utah. As a psychologist and a health educator, she knows how sharing stories is transformative for both the storyteller and the listener. She especially loves when space is created for the dialectic, where two conflicting ideas or experiences are true at the same time.
Bethany Joy Burtch is the Marketing & Communications Manager for the Osher Center for Integrative Health. But she likes to think of herself as the resident storyteller. From small-town Utah, she moved to Manhattan at 18 to attend NYU, study books, and become a writer. While in New York, she became a filmmaker, too, so she moved to California for film school. She later finished her Master of Fine Arts at the U and became a storytelling educator. Two years ago, she married her high school sweetheart in their hometown after being separated for fifteen years – and that’s her favorite story.
Betsy Holm is a Program Specialist at the University of Utah’s Resiliency Center. A Utah native, Betsy is passionate about the human connection made through storytelling. Her favorite part of storytelling is honoring the Hero’s Journey. As the hero of her own journey, Betsy’s proudest accomplishments include losing 200 pounds and being able to convince her Prince Charming to give her a second chance after she stood him up on the first date.
Carolyn Abravanel
Karen Acker
Frederick Adler and Anne Collopy
Kevin and Jo Aldridge
Scott and Kathie Amann
America First Credit Union
Kristin Anderson
Zana Anderson
Brent and Cheri Andrus
Eric and Dominique Aragon
Janice Aramaki
Amanda Bailey
Ballard Miller Foundation
Caroline and Thomas Barman
Jill and Lonnie Baskett
The B.W. Bastian Foundation
Trey and Erin Bean
Jennifer Bell
Craig and Martha Berghahn
Klaus Bielefeldt
Phillip Bimstein and Charlotte Bell
Calvin and Laura Boardman
Boeing
Prathusha Boppana
Paula and Glen Bowman
Johna Brems
Nancy Bricker
Rebecca and Steven Burt
Chris Busch
Dennis Busch
Patricia Callahan
Robert Carney
Rick Carter
John and Judith Catlett
Chamber Music America
Amy Chandler
Charities Aid Foundation America
Jasmin Charles
Mary Cheney
Lee Chew
Jane Cole
Creative West
Thom Dancy
Annie and Jahn Davis
Derna DeMaggio
David Goldsmith and Kara DiOrio
Linda Doll
Rebecca Dowdell
Denise Dragoo and Craig Anderson
Metta Driscoll
James Egan
Eric and Shellie Eide
Robyn Ensor
Amanda Evans
Bethany Everett
Stephanie Finley
Kathryn and Gene Fitzgerald
Joseph Fleming
Christine Fuller
Dallin and Emilee Fyffe
Robert George
Bob and Mary Gilchrist
Margaret Gillie
Josanne Glass and Patrick Casey
David Goldenberg
Goldman Sachs
Carrie Goodwin
Cory and Tamra Gray
MJ Gregoire and Daniel Sommers
Jason Hagey
George and Mary Hall
Hampton Inn
Gordon and Connie Hanks
Justin Harman
Katie Hartman
Barbara Hay
Christy Hepworth
James and Lynne Herron
Steve Hewson
Laurie Hofmann
Kristen Hogan
Lee and Audrey Hollaar
Tiana Hood and Steven Morales
Jennifer and Seth Horowitz
Charlie and Linda Huebner
Brenda Hughston
David Hulet
Elizabeth Hunter
Marian Iwasaki
Susie and Tom Jackson
Sheri Jardine
Ashlee and Niko Jensen
Dan John and Erica Lemke
Amy Johnson
Sally Jones and Bill Knowles
Warren Jones
Page and Don Juliano
Safia and Lester Keller
Carolyn and James Kelley
Kenworth Sales Company
Ron Ketelsen and Mary Mooers
Keolanani Kinghorn
Elyssa Kirkham
Glen and Regan Knudson
Carolyn and Pete Kowalchik
Andrea Krogue
Alan and Pam Lakomski
Randall Lalonde and Patricia Homer
Jaryn Larsen
Billie Larson
Elizabeth Leckie
Howard and Nancy Lemcke
Renee Leta and Richard Mrazik
Edward Lieskovan and Siwen Hu-Lieskovan
Steven and Rae Louie
Tory and James Magleby
Jennifer Majersik
Ashwini Manjunath
Mark Miller Subaru
Nancy Peery Marriott
Mike Martin
Sarah McCarthey
Tom and Mary McCarthey
John and Christine McCollough
Wendy McGeehan
Nick Mckinney
Mexicano Latino Institute of Utah, Inc.
James R. and Nanette S. Michie Foundation
Terry Miya and Jeffrey Orth
Toni Montrone
Mountain America Credit Union
National Philanthropic Trust
Anne Neeley
Emily Nelson
Neuman Family Foundation
Tennery Norton
Rick Oliver
Marie and Michael Otto
Manish Parashar
Jeffrey Paris and Alexas Lucero
Mark Passey
Dinesh and Kalpana Patel
Allison Peterson
Lee Phillips-Diamond and John Diamond
Susan and T. Flint Porter
John and Marica Price Family Foundation
Derek Rasmussen
Carolyn Rich-Denson
Larry and Annette Richie
Paul Ricketts
Leena Rinne
Bicknell Robbins
Hal Robins
Melbourne and Karen Romney
Salt Lake City Arts Council
Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks
Bretleigh Sandorf
Kim Sargent and Earl Catterton
Stacey Schrank
Brian Sevy
Natalie and Kiumars Shahrokh
Sallie Shatz
Maureen Shields and Darrel Gerard
Steven Shubella and Lori Zuti
Arin Slogar
Shelly Smith
Susan Snow
Tricia Snow
Beverley Taylor Sorenson Foundation
Carol Steffens
Alice and Kevin Steiner
Ramona and John Stromness
Regina Rosenthal and Don Stromquist
Annie and Cory Strupp
Ann Marie Sturm
Barbara Svee
Neal Tate
Paul Taylor
Herta Teitelbaum
Elizabeth Thomas
Tyler Thomas
David Thompson
Nancy and Ervin Trapa
Paula Trater
Kyle Treadway and Greg Pedroza
Philip and Melissa Urofsky
Visit Salt Lake
Tamara and Louis Vitela
Ofelia Wade
Bret Watts
Leonard and Verla Whippen
Von and Virginia Whitby
Sarah Wiley
Bonnie and Scott Williams
Cindy Williams
Bruce Wilson
Melinda Wilson and Michael Mejia
Kelly Woodland
Arriann Woolf
Julie and John Wright-Costa
Rachel Yeager
Roy D. Youngblood
Lihong Yu
Jean Zancanella and Richard Frerichs
Tony Zani
Thank you to all our donors of $25 or above from January 2025 to January 2026.
UtahPresents Staff
Chloe Jones
Executive Director
John Armstrong
Event Manager
David Braithwaite
Technical Director
Michael Dallum
Finance Manager
Dennis Busch
Content Manager
Jason Hogue
Marketing Intern
Sheri Jardine
Content Manager
Rosemary Lisa Jones
Production Manager
Patricia Madsen
Box Office Manager
Malynn Nelson
Assistant Box Office Manager
James Padilla
Lighting Supervisor
Melissa Salguero
Community Engagement Manager
Severin Sargent-Catterton
Admin & Artist Services Coordinator
Juniper Taylor
Development Coordinator
Aja Vogelman
Operations Director
UtahPresents Advisory Board
Tiana Hood, Chair
Rainey Cornaby, Vice Chair
Eric Aragon
Michael Billings
Johna Devey Brems
Annie Davis
Rebecca Dowdell
Metta Driscoll
Rahul Fernandez
Becca Green
Laurie Hofmann
Dan John
Lydia Scott Martinez
Melissa Michie
John W. Scheib
Sallie Dean Shatz
Ann Marie Sturm
Elizabeth Menlove Thomas
Mark Trenchard
Anima Varma
Cindy Williams
Punto de Inflexión - What Have We Lost?
What Have We Lost?
Punto de Inflexión | @de_inflexion
This immersive interdisciplinary performance explores humanity's current condition and reflects on what remains in the aftermath of catastrophe.
Concept and Creation
Stephanie García & Peter Hay
Movement Artists & Co-creators
Leslie Jara | @lesliejara64
Fausto Rivera | @faustation
Kellie St.Pierre | @klstpierre
Stephanie García | @stephgarmar
Performer
Peter Hay or Emily Zinn
Collaborator
Emily Zinn | @emziin
Installations, Sculptures
Peter Hay | @p_g_hay
Texts
Collective creation based on García’s drafts
Video Work
“Waking Helen” & “A Burning Hope” by Collin Bradford | @bradford_collin
Final video by Stephanie García | @stephgarmar
Sound Design
Manuel Estrella Chi | @mm.m.mmmmm.mx
Costume Design
Al Mendoza - Santa Elisa | @almendoza.presenta
Lighting Design
William Peterson | @petruvsyn
Stage Manager
VAMP Productions, Samijo Kougioulis | @samijokougioulis
Production
UtahPresents @utahpresents
Guggenheim Fellowship @guggfellows
loveDANCEmore @lovedancemore
Salt Lake City Arts Council @slcartscouncil
Visit!
www.deinflexion.com
https://www.collinbradford.art/
* All handles are for Instagram.
Carolyn Abravanel
Karen Acker
Frederick Adler and Anne Collopy
Kevin and Jo Aldridge
Scott and Kathie Amann
America First Credit Union
Kristin Anderson
Zana Anderson
Brent and Cheri Andrus
Eric and Dominique Aragon
Janice Aramaki
Amanda Bailey
Ballard Miller Foundation
Caroline and Thomas Barman
Jill and Lonnie Baskett
The B.W. Bastian Foundation
Trey and Erin Bean
Jennifer Bell
Craig and Martha Berghahn
Klaus Bielefeldt
Phillip Bimstein and Charlotte Bell
Calvin and Laura Boardman
Boeing
Prathusha Boppana
Paula and Glen Bowman
Johna Brems
Nancy Bricker
Rebecca and Steven Burt
Chris Busch
Dennis Busch
Patricia Callahan
Robert Carney
Rick Carter
John and Judith Catlett
Chamber Music America
Amy Chandler
Charities Aid Foundation America
Jasmin Charles
Mary Cheney
Lee Chew
Jane Cole
Creative West
Thom Dancy
Annie and Jahn Davis
Derna DeMaggio
David Goldsmith and Kara DiOrio
Linda Doll
Rebecca Dowdell
Denise Dragoo and Craig Anderson
Metta Driscoll
James Egan
Eric and Shellie Eide
Robyn Ensor
Amanda Evans
Bethany Everett
Stephanie Finley
Kathryn and Gene Fitzgerald
Joseph Fleming
Christine Fuller
Dallin and Emilee Fyffe
Robert George
Bob and Mary Gilchrist
Margaret Gillie
Josanne Glass and Patrick Casey
David Goldenberg
Goldman Sachs
Carrie Goodwin
Cory and Tamra Gray
MJ Gregoire and Daniel Sommers
Jason Hagey
George and Mary Hall
Hampton Inn
Gordon and Connie Hanks
Justin Harman
Katie Hartman
Barbara Hay
Christy Hepworth
James and Lynne Herron
Steve Hewson
Laurie Hofmann
Kristen Hogan
Lee and Audrey Hollaar
Tiana Hood and Steven Morales
Jennifer and Seth Horowitz
Charlie and Linda Huebner
Brenda Hughston
David Hulet
Elizabeth Hunter
Marian Iwasaki
Susie and Tom Jackson
Sheri Jardine
Ashlee and Niko Jensen
Dan John and Erica Lemke
Amy Johnson
Sally Jones and Bill Knowles
Warren Jones
Page and Don Juliano
Safia and Lester Keller
Carolyn and James Kelley
Kenworth Sales Company
Ron Ketelsen and Mary Mooers
Keolanani Kinghorn
Elyssa Kirkham
Glen and Regan Knudson
Carolyn and Pete Kowalchik
Andrea Krogue
Alan and Pam Lakomski
Randall Lalonde and Patricia Homer
Jaryn Larsen
Billie Larson
Elizabeth Leckie
Howard and Nancy Lemcke
Renee Leta and Richard Mrazik
Edward Lieskovan and Siwen Hu-Lieskovan
Steven and Rae Louie
Tory and James Magleby
Jennifer Majersik
Ashwini Manjunath
Mark Miller Subaru
Nancy Peery Marriott
Mike Martin
Sarah McCarthey
Tom and Mary McCarthey
John and Christine McCollough
Wendy McGeehan
Nick Mckinney
Mexicano Latino Institute of Utah, Inc.
James R. and Nanette S. Michie Foundation
Terry Miya and Jeffrey Orth
Toni Montrone
Mountain America Credit Union
National Philanthropic Trust
Anne Neeley
Emily Nelson
Neuman Family Foundation
Tennery Norton
Rick Oliver
Marie and Michael Otto
Manish Parashar
Jeffrey Paris and Alexas Lucero
Mark Passey
Dinesh and Kalpana Patel
Allison Peterson
Lee Phillips-Diamond and John Diamond
Susan and T. Flint Porter
John and Marica Price Family Foundation
Derek Rasmussen
Carolyn Rich-Denson
Larry and Annette Richie
Paul Ricketts
Leena Rinne
Bicknell Robbins
Hal Robins
Melbourne and Karen Romney
Salt Lake City Arts Council
Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks
Bretleigh Sandorf
Kim Sargent and Earl Catterton
Stacey Schrank
Brian Sevy
Natalie and Kiumars Shahrokh
Sallie Shatz
Maureen Shields and Darrel Gerard
Steven Shubella and Lori Zuti
Arin Slogar
Shelly Smith
Susan Snow
Tricia Snow
Beverley Taylor Sorenson Foundation
Carol Steffens
Alice and Kevin Steiner
Ramona and John Stromness
Regina Rosenthal and Don Stromquist
Annie and Cory Strupp
Ann Marie Sturm
Barbara Svee
Neal Tate
Paul Taylor
Herta Teitelbaum
Elizabeth Thomas
Tyler Thomas
David Thompson
Nancy and Ervin Trapa
Paula Trater
Kyle Treadway and Greg Pedroza
Philip and Melissa Urofsky
Visit Salt Lake
Tamara and Louis Vitela
Ofelia Wade
Bret Watts
Leonard and Verla Whippen
Von and Virginia Whitby
Sarah Wiley
Bonnie and Scott Williams
Cindy Williams
Bruce Wilson
Melinda Wilson and Michael Mejia
Kelly Woodland
Arriann Woolf
Julie and John Wright-Costa
Rachel Yeager
Roy D. Youngblood
Lihong Yu
Jean Zancanella and Richard Frerichs
Tony Zani
Thank you to all our donors of $25 or above from January 2025 to January 2026.
UtahPresents Staff
Chloe Jones
Executive Director
John Armstrong
Event Manager
David Braithwaite
Technical Director
Michael Dallum
Finance Manager
Dennis Busch
Content Manager
Jason Hogue
Marketing Intern
Sheri Jardine
Content Manager
Rosemary Lisa Jones
Production Manager
Patricia Madsen
Box Office Manager
Malynn Nelson
Assistant Box Office Manager
James Padilla
Lighting Supervisor
Melissa Salguero
Community Engagement Manager
Severin Sargent-Catterton
Admin & Artist Services Coordinator
Juniper Taylor
Development Coordinator
Aja Vogelman
Operations Director
UtahPresents Advisory Board
Tiana Hood, Chair
Rainey Cornaby, Vice Chair
Eric Aragon
Michael Billings
Johna Devey Brems
Annie Davis
Rebecca Dowdell
Metta Driscoll
Rahul Fernandez
Becca Green
Laurie Hofmann
Dan John
Lydia Scott Martinez
Melissa Michie
John W. Scheib
Sallie Dean Shatz
Ann Marie Sturm
Elizabeth Menlove Thomas
Mark Trenchard
Anima Varma
Cindy Williams
ALFREDO RODRIGUEZ AND PEDRITO MARTINEZ
Alfredo Rodríguez
Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, Rodriguez’s world was confined by the numerous restrictions imposed by his country. With limited options, his parents enrolled him in a classical conservatory, but he was quickly shut down by his first teacher who declared him devoid of talent. Despite pushback, his love for piano grew so strong that he wasn’t even deterred by not having a piano to practice on at home; instead, he painted piano keys on his parents' dinner table so he could run his scales.
In 2006, at age 19, he received an invitation to represent Cuba at the Montreux Jazz Festival in the International Solo Piano Competition. After applying and auditioning as a composer, alongside twelve of the top pianists in the world, he was accepted and made his way to Switzerland, where he ended up being invited to festival founder Claude Nobs’ chalet to play for the guests, one of whom happened to be legendary producer Quincy Jones.
Upon Jones’ return to Los Angeles, he couldn’t get Alfredo out of his mind. He called his VP, Adam Fell, and explained that Alfredo was one of the best pianists he had ever seen and they needed to work with him. Little did they know, Alfredo had only received permission to travel to Switzerland to play in the competition - as it was difficult for Cubans to obtain a travel visa - and also learned it would be illegal to work with him due to the Cuban embargo.
Cubans were not allowed to work in the U.S., and could only arrive at U.S. border stations to seek political asylum, meaning that Alfredo would have to relinquish his Cuban citizenship and jeopardize his ability to return home until he obtained a green card. After a year and a half of contemplating, he mustered up the courage and made the difficult decision to leave his family behind for a country that could offer him the platform he needed to share the broader message of his music with more people.
It’s evident the journey was worth it because not only has Alfredo earned frequent appearances on prestigious stages around the world such as the Playboy Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Jazz in Marciac, Umbria Jazz and Jazz A Vienne, but additionally, Rodriguez was nominated for a Grammy® in the category of “Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella,” for the track “Guantanamera,” from his album, The Invasion Parade.
Additionally, during his first tour in China, Rodriguez was asked to work with Tan Dun, Siedah Garrett, and Quincy Jones to compose the English version of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo theme song, becoming the first non-Chinese artist to be bestowed this honor. He’s also been featured over the years by All Things Considered, Downbeat, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal among many others, and performed for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert.
Rodriguez continues to share his music along with his impactful message of perseverance and cross culturalization on an international tour, while sharing a variety of viral social media videos in which he plays well-known compositions in a Cuban timba style. These videos have garnered tens of millions of views and directly inspired the recording of his new album, ¡Take Cover!, released on January 23, 2026, which includes collaborations with longtime creative partner Pedrito Martínez.
Pedrito Martínez
Born in Havana, Cuba, Pedro Pablo “Pedrito” Martínez grew up in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood, a place where rumba is not an event but a way of life, heard and lived every day. Immersed from childhood in Afro-Cuban Yoruba traditions, Pedrito began his musical journey at the age of 11, absorbing rhythm through singing, drumming, and dance long before stepping onto international stages.
In the fall of 1998, Pedrito relocated to New York City, where his singular mastery of Afro-Cuban folkloric music quickly set him apart. A consummate batá drummer and widely regarded as the world’s first-call rumbero, he became known for his rare ability to play, sing, and dance with deep authenticity across dozens of Cuban rumba ensembles. His reputation led to collaborations and performances with an extraordinary range of artists, including Paul Simon, Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D’Rivera, Bruce Springsteen, Rubén Blades, Eddie Palmieri, Dave Matthews, and Sting, and contributions to more than 75 albums.
Pedrito was also a founding member of the highly successful Afro-Cuban/Afro-Beat band Yerba Buena, with whom he recorded two albums and toured internationally in the mid-to-late 1990s, helping introduce Afro-Cuban rhythms to new audiences around the world.
His career as a leader began in 2005 with the formation of The Pedrito Martínez Group in New York City. Since then, he has released four albums as a bandleader, beginning with a debut that earned a Grammy® nomination in 2013 and was selected among NPR’s Favorite Albums of the Year as well as The Boston Globe’s Top Ten Albums. His work as a leader solidified his status as both a tradition bearer and an innovator, bridging folkloric roots with contemporary composition and performance.
In February 2019, Pedrito released Duologue, a duo album with Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez, executive produced by Quincy Jones, which received widespread critical acclaim. That same year, he collaborated with Eric Clapton on a newly arranged version of “My Father’s Eyes” for his album Acertijos (Riddles). The two later performed the song together at Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. Released in early 2021, Acertijos, featuring original compositions and guests such as Gilberto Santa Rosa, Eric Clapton, and Issac Delgado, went on to receive a Latin Grammy® nomination for Best Contemporary Tropical Album.
Throughout 2020 and beyond, Pedrito remained a vital creative force, participating in streamed projects including Play On for CBS with Jon Batiste and the NEA Awards at SFJAZZ. His peers consistently recognized his impact, naming him Jazz Percussionist of the Year multiple times by the Jazz Journalists Association, as well as Percussionist of the Year by the JazzTimes Critics Poll.
In recent years, Pedrito has continued to expand his reach, performing and recording with artists such as Camila Cabello, appearing at landmark events including International Jazz Day, and selling out prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. In 2026, he received a Latin Grammy® nomination for Best Contemporary Tropical Album for Ilusión Óptica, further cementing his role as a leading voice in contemporary Afro-Cuban music. That same year, he brought his unmistakable rhythmic presence to a national audience with a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, alongside Bill Murray.
Carolyn Abravanel
Karen Acker
Frederick Adler and Anne Collopy
Kevin and Jo Aldridge
Scott and Kathie Amann
America First Credit Union
Kristin Anderson
Zana Anderson
Brent and Cheri Andrus
Eric and Dominique Aragon
Janice Aramaki
Amanda Bailey
Ballard Miller Foundation
Caroline and Thomas Barman
Jill and Lonnie Baskett
The B.W. Bastian Foundation
Trey and Erin Bean
Jennifer Bell
Craig and Martha Berghahn
Klaus Bielefeldt
Phillip Bimstein and Charlotte Bell
Calvin and Laura Boardman
Boeing
Prathusha Boppana
Paula and Glen Bowman
Johna Brems
Nancy Bricker
Rebecca and Steven Burt
Chris Busch
Dennis Busch
Patricia Callahan
Robert Carney
Rick Carter
John and Judith Catlett
Chamber Music America
Amy Chandler
Charities Aid Foundation America
Jasmin Charles
Mary Cheney
Lee Chew
Jane Cole
Creative West
Thom Dancy
Annie and Jahn Davis
Derna DeMaggio
David Goldsmith and Kara DiOrio
Linda Doll
Rebecca Dowdell
Denise Dragoo and Craig Anderson
Metta Driscoll
James Egan
Eric and Shellie Eide
Robyn Ensor
Amanda Evans
Bethany Everett
Stephanie Finley
Kathryn and Gene Fitzgerald
Joseph Fleming
Christine Fuller
Dallin and Emilee Fyffe
Robert George
Bob and Mary Gilchrist
Margaret Gillie
Josanne Glass and Patrick Casey
David Goldenberg
Goldman Sachs
Carrie Goodwin
Cory and Tamra Gray
MJ Gregoire and Daniel Sommers
Jason Hagey
George and Mary Hall
Hampton Inn
Gordon and Connie Hanks
Justin Harman
Katie Hartman
Barbara Hay
Christy Hepworth
James and Lynne Herron
Steve Hewson
Laurie Hofmann
Kristen Hogan
Lee and Audrey Hollaar
Tiana Hood and Steven Morales
Jennifer and Seth Horowitz
Charlie and Linda Huebner
Brenda Hughston
David Hulet
Elizabeth Hunter
Marian Iwasaki
Susie and Tom Jackson
Sheri Jardine
Ashlee and Niko Jensen
Dan John and Erica Lemke
Amy Johnson
Sally Jones and Bill Knowles
Warren Jones
Page and Don Juliano
Safia and Lester Keller
Carolyn and James Kelley
Kenworth Sales Company
Ron Ketelsen and Mary Mooers
Keolanani Kinghorn
Elyssa Kirkham
Glen and Regan Knudson
Carolyn and Pete Kowalchik
Andrea Krogue
Alan and Pam Lakomski
Randall Lalonde and Patricia Homer
Jaryn Larsen
Billie Larson
Elizabeth Leckie
Howard and Nancy Lemcke
Renee Leta and Richard Mrazik
Edward Lieskovan and Siwen Hu-Lieskovan
Steven and Rae Louie
Tory and James Magleby
Jennifer Majersik
Ashwini Manjunath
Mark Miller Subaru
Nancy Peery Marriott
Mike Martin
Sarah McCarthey
Tom and Mary McCarthey
John and Christine McCollough
Wendy McGeehan
Nick Mckinney
Mexicano Latino Institute of Utah, Inc.
James R. and Nanette S. Michie Foundation
Terry Miya and Jeffrey Orth
Toni Montrone
Mountain America Credit Union
National Philanthropic Trust
Anne Neeley
Emily Nelson
Neuman Family Foundation
Tennery Norton
Rick Oliver
Marie and Michael Otto
Manish Parashar
Jeffrey Paris and Alexas Lucero
Mark Passey
Dinesh and Kalpana Patel
Allison Peterson
Lee Phillips-Diamond and John Diamond
Susan and T. Flint Porter
John and Marica Price Family Foundation
Derek Rasmussen
Carolyn Rich-Denson
Larry and Annette Richie
Paul Ricketts
Leena Rinne
Bicknell Robbins
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AILEY II
MONDAY, January 19, 2026
KINGSBURY HALL
PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE University of Utah’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Week
Francesca Harper, Artistic Director
Sylvia Waters, Artistic Director Emerita
Alvin Ailey, Founder
Company Members
Kamani Abu, Jada Ammons, Carley Cruzat Brooks, Meredith Brown,
Christian Butts, Jennifer M. Gerken, Xavier Logan, Xhosa Scott,
Adanna Smalls, Darion Turner, Eric J. Vidaña, Jordyn White
Shay Bland, Rehearsal Director
Apprentices
Vic E. Davis, Jaydin J. De Jesús, Naia Neal, Michelle Osanya
Alicia Graf Mack, Artistic Director of AILEY
Bennett Rink, Executive Director of AILEY
Ailey II gratefully acknowledges the generous support provided by
The Glorya Kaufman Dance Foundation.
The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment
of any kind during performances is strictly prohibited.
Programming and casting subject to change.
IN SESSION
(2025)
Choreography by Rena Butler
Music by Darryl J. Hoffman*
Costume design by Katie Chihaby
Lighting design by Aja M. Jackson
The Company
Rena Butler, a Chicago native, trained at The Chicago Academy for the Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts, and SUNY Purchase (BFA). She performed with Hubbard Street, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, and Gibney. A Princess Grace, Isadora Duncan, and Ferradini Grander Award recipient, Butler has choreographed for Het Nationale Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, San Francisco Opera, Hubbard Street, and more. Her works span opera, ballet, film, and museums across the U.S. and Europe. Her practice weaves storytelling, identity, and the reclamation of traditional narratives through interdisciplinary performance and film.
The creation of In Session is supported by Robert A. Press M.D.
* “HIDE N SEEK” written by Jaylah Hickmon, Kalon Berry, Michael Hernandez and “STANKA POOH” written by Devin Williams, Jaylah Hickmon, Kalon Berry, and Miles Franklin, courtesy of Universal Music Publishing and Warner – Tamerlane Publishing.
“BLOOM” written by Jayda Love, Jaylah Hickmon, Matthew Hawkins, and Xavier Beard, courtesy of Say Zay Publishing and Universal Music Publishing.
“Doechii: Alligator Bites Never Heal, "DENIAL IS A RIVER", & Hip-Hop Traditions, from Apple Music”. “NISSAN ALTIMA” written by Jaylah Hickmon and Randle Markus Alandrus, courtesy of Universal Music Publishing and Childish Major Music.
“Nosebleeds” written by Jaylah Hickmon and Jonas Jeberg courtesy of Jonas Jeberg Publishing and Universal Music Publishing
“BOOM BAP” written by Darhyl Camper, DIXSON, and Jaylah Hickmon courtesy of Universal Music Publishing.
-INTERMISSION-
THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW
(2025)
Choreography by My’Kal Stromile
Music by Various Artists*
Costume design by Ezra Lovesky
Lighting design by Brandon Stirling Baker
Carley Cruzat Brooks, Xavier Logan, Eric J. Vidaña
My’Kal Stromile received his BFA from The Juilliard School under the direction of Larry Rhodes, following training with Kim Abel, Ceyhun Ozsoy, Dereque Whiturs, and Anna-Marie Holmes at The School at Jacob’s Pillow. A 2014 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, an honor awarded by President Barack Obama, he has performed works by William Forsythe, Aszure Barton, Crystal Pite, Dwight Rhoden, and Jerome Robbins, and danced with Bruce Wood Dance, Disney Productions, and Boston Ballet (2018–2024), where he became a Princess Grace Award nominee. Stromile has choreographed for Boston Ballet, The Juilliard School, the Joyce Theater’s UNITE Ballet Festival, and Vail Dance Festival, among others. In 2024, he choreographed Word for Word for the Paris Opera Ballet in collaboration with CHANEL and participated in the New York Choreographic Institute. He is the recipient of Juilliard’s Hector Zaraspe Prize in Choreography and was recognized with Choreographic Honors three consecutive years. Upcoming commissions include Juilliard’s New Dances and Boston Ballet (2026).
* “Magnets” (feat. Alan Thompson, 5hekwoaga, & Butler Knowles) by Elijah Fox courtesy of Universal Music Group.
“Nothing Can Stop Us” performed by The Vernon Spring, written by Sam Beste.
“Strength Of A Young Man” performed by The Vernon Spring, written by Sam Beste courtesy of BMG Rights Management.
“Cashew” performed by FKJ, written by Vincent Fenton.
“Meeting Again in the Void” performed by FKJ, written by Vincent Fenton.
“TUI” performed and written FKJ.
“Lying Together- Interlude” performed by FKJ, written by Vincent Fenton.
-Pause-
LIKES VS LIFE
(2025)
Choreography by Renée I. McDonald
Music by Various Artists*
Costume design by Heather Craig
Lighting design by Harrison Hoffert
Meredith Brown, Darion Turner, Jordyn White
Renée I. McDonald is a Jamaican choreographer, dancer, photographer, and attorney-at-law. She trained at the Tony Wilson School of Modern Dance in Kingston and danced with the Company Dance Theatre for 12 years, serving 5 years as Rehearsal Director. Since beginning her journey with choreography in 2008, she has become one of Jamaica’s most in-demand choreographers, creating critically acclaimed and award-winning works for companies, schools, artistes, and major events. Renée is the first choreographer from Jamaica to set a piece (Breaking Point) on Ailey II. She is currently the Associate Artistic Director of CDT Jamaica and practices law full-time.
* “Overture of Conclave,” “Arrival,” and “Soon Enough,” composed by Volker Bertelmann.
“The Night King,” written by Ramin Djawadi, courtesy of Universal Music Publishing.
-INTERMISSION-
REVELATIONS
(1960)
Choreography by Alvin Ailey
Music: Traditional
Décor and costumes by Ves Harper
Costumes for “Rocka My Soul” redesigned by Barbara Forbes
Lighting by Nicola Cernovitch
Pilgrim of Sorrow
I Been 'Buked................... The Company
Music arranged by Hall Johnson*
Didn't My Lord
Deliver Daniel................... Xavier Logan, Adanna Smalls, Meredith Brown
Music arranged by James Miller+
Fix Me, Jesus..................... Jordyn White, Christian Butts
Music arranged by Hall Johnson*
Take Me to the Water
Processional/Honor,
Honor................................. Eric J. Vidaña, Jada Ammons, Kamani Abu, Xavier Logan
Music adapted and arranged by Howard A. Roberts
Wade in the Water........... Carley Cruzat Brooks, Darion Turner, Adanna Smalls
Music adapted and arranged by Howard A. Roberts
“Wade in the Water” sequence by Ella Jenkins.
“A Man Went Down to the River” is an original composition by Ella Jenkins.
I Wanna Be Ready............. Xhosa Scott
Music arranged by James Miller+
Move, Members, Move
Sinner Man......................... Christian Butts, Xavier Logan, Eric J. Vidaña
Music adapted and arranged by Howard A. Roberts
The Day is Past
and Gone............................. The Company
Music arranged by Howard A. Roberts and Brother John Sellers
You May Run On................. The Company
Music arranged by Howard A. Roberts and Brother John Sellers
Rocka My Soul in the
Bosom of Abraham............ The Company
Music adapted and arranged by Howard A. Roberts
* Used by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc., publisher and copyright owner.
+ Used by special arrangement with Galaxy Music Corporation, New York City.
All performances of Revelations are permanently endowed by a generous gift
from Donald L. Jonas in celebration of the birthday of his wife, Barbara,
and her deep commitment to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Ailey II—The Next Generation of Dance—is AILEY’s second company.
Founded in 1974 as the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, Ailey II has advanced Alvin Ailey’s vision by giving early-career dancers the vital experience of transitioning from training as a student to becoming a professional dancer. Ailey II dancers bring their technical mastery and emotional depth to works by the most daring established and emerging choreographers. Just as Mr. Ailey envisioned, the company continues to expand the audience for dance through global touring and community-based performances.
Sylvia Waters, the company’s first artistic director, was personally chosen by Mr. Ailey and led the company for 38 seasons. In September 2021, Francesca Harper became artistic director. Ms. Harper—a former student at The Ailey School who has choreographed for both AILEY companies—guides Ailey II with her unique perspective, paying homage to Mr. Ailey’s legacy while taking the company in bold, new directions.
Under Ms. Harper’s direction, Ailey II is forging a new path for modern dance—one that’s inclusive, experimental, and transformative.
AILEY II PRODUCTION CREDITS
Francesca Harper................... Artistic Director
Sylvia Waters.......................... Artistic Director Emerita
Shay Bland.............................. Rehearsal Director
Eric D. Wright.......................... General Manager
Isabelle Mezin......................... Director of Company Business Affairs
Sumaya Jackson...................... Company Manager
Maragret Caradona................Stage Manager
Harrison Hoffert..................... Lighting and Sound Supervisor
Heather Craig.......................... Wardrobe Supervisor
Jennifer Fyall............................. Associate Director of Marketing
Tracy Severe............................. Associate Director of Public Relations
TOURING CONTACT
OPUS 3 ARTISTS: 212-584-7500 / www.opus3artists.com
AILEY.org/AileyII
Follow us on Instagram – @AileyII
Like us on Facebook – www.facebook.com/AileyII
FRANCESCA HARPER, Artistic Director
Francesca Harper began her professional dance career with Dance Theatre of Harlem. She was also a member of Ballett Frankfurt from 1991-1999 under the direction of William Forsythe, and she has performed on Broadway in productions including Fosse, All Shook Up, The Color Purple, Sweet Charity, and Sophisticated Ladies, and was nominated for Best Actress in a Musical by Broadway.com for her role as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. Ms. Harper created her first play, 50 minutes with Harriet and Phillis, produced by Anna Deavere Smith, with her aunt, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Margo Jefferson, and Paul Miller, a.k.a DJ Spooky. In 2014, she debuted her critically acclaimed one-woman show, The Look of Feeling, as a writer, actor, dancer, and vocalist. She is also the writer, producer, composer, and narrator of the documentary film To Lillian (2021). Ms. Harper has choreographed works for companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Dance Theater of Harlem, Hubbard Street II, and Tanz Graz, as well as The Francesca Harper Project, which she had founded in 2005. Her television and film credits include appearances on Boardwalk Empire, Late Night with David Letterman, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. She served as ballet consultant for the motion picture Black Swan and was featured in Zinnias – The Life of Clementine Hunter, directed by Robert Wilson. In 2013, Ms. Harper received a Living History Award during Black History Month from Long Island University and the Innovation and Technology Award for her choreography for Fashion Week with designer Louis Vuitton. She also served as co-director and choreographer for the musical Rose’s War and as movement director for Tommy Hilfiger and Zendaya for their fashion show at the Apollo Theater in 2019. Ms. Harper was the creator and directorial consultant for 16 world premiere virtual films. Her latest works include a new creation for Wendy Whelan, Associate Artistic Director of New York City Ballet, and poet Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Currently, Ms. Harper is engaged as Executive Producer with Sony Pictures on a series in development, and recently she received her Masters of Fine Arts degree from Goddard College.
SYLVIA WATERS, Artistic Director Emerita, Ailey II
Sylvia Waters was personally selected by Alvin Ailey in 1974 as Artistic Director of Ailey II and led the company for 38 years. She attended The Juilliard School, where she worked with Donald McKayle’s company, and with a young Hava Kohav –who later became an actress and Academy Award nominee— performing very often to widely populated audiences of the entire New York Dance community at the YMHA. After receiving her B.S. from Juilliard, she moved to Paris, where she appeared regularly on television. She toured in the European company of Black Nativity and worked with Michel Descombey, then director of the Paris Opera Ballet, as well as Milko Šparembleck. She also performed in Donald McKayle's European production of Black New World and worked with Maurice Béjart’s company performing in Brussels and at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City. In 1968, Ms. Waters joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and toured with the Company until assuming leadership of Ailey II. She has received honorary doctorates from the State University of New York at Oswego and The Juilliard School, and she has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. Ms. Waters is a recipient of the Legacy Award as part of the 20th Annual IABD Festival, Syracuse University’s Women of Distinction Award, a Dance Magazine Award, and a “Bessie” Award.
SHAY BLAND, Rehearsal Director
Shay Bland is from Englewood, NJ. She began her formal dance training at The Ailey School in 2007 where she was a scholarship student in the Junior Division. She is a graduate of the Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS), and has danced with several companies including Ailey II, Elisa Monte Dance, Nimbus Dance Theater, Von Howard Project, Francesca Harper Project, Ray Mercer Collective, Kachal Dance, and The Metropolitan Opera Ballet. Ms. Bland has worked on projects on and off-Broadway including The Visitor (off-Broadway) as associate choreographer, and as assistant choreographer for the 13-time nominated Broadway show Hell’s Kitchen. She was also lead choreographer for Nebraska High School Theater Academy (NHSTA) in conjunction with Omaha Performing Arts. As an educator, Ms. Bland serves as a faculty member at Pace University, The Ailey School, Manhattan Youth Ballet, and Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts (EMIA).
AILEY II WHO’S WHO
KAMANI ABU (New Castle, DE) began his dance training at the age of 16 at a local studio in his hometown. He also trained in the summer intensive at BalletX. He is a recent graduate of the Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance program, and has worked with choreographers including Jennifer Archibald, Tracy Inman, Darshan Bhuller, Gregory Dawson, and Maleek Washington. In 2023, Abu performed in Geoffrey Holder’s Dougla with Dance Theatre of Harlem and in Alvin Ailey’s Memoria during Ailey’s New York City Center season. This is his first season with Ailey II.
JADA AMMONS (Los Angeles, CA) began her dance training at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy. She earned her BFA in Dance from Point Park University in 2022 and graduated from The Ailey School’s Certificate Program in 2025. Ammons also trained in the School’s Summer Intensive where she was the recipient of the Oprah Winfrey Foundation Scholarship. She has performed works by choreographers Debbie Allen, Renee Robinson, Ray Mercer, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Christopher L. Huggins, Ronald K. Brown, Branndi Lewis, and Freddie Moore. This is Ammons’ first season with Ailey II.
CARLEY CRUZAT BROOKS (Chicago, IL) received her training at TDA Prep under the direction of Preston Miller and Jacqueline Green. Her studies include summer dance intensives with Jacob's Pillow, Nederlands Dans Theater, and Dance Theatre of Harlem. Brooks graduated from the Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance program, class of 2025. She has performed works by Alvin Ailey, Jiří Kylián, Ronald K. Brown, Hope Boykin, Marco Goecke, Jennifer Archibald, and Christopher L. Huggins. Her performance highlights include Geoffrey Holder’s Dougla with Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey’s Memoria during Ailey’s New York City Center season in 2023. This is Brooks’ second season with Ailey II.
MEREDITH BROWN (Asheville, NC) began her dance training at a local studio in her hometown. She studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and she is a recent graduate of the Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance program, where she performed in Alvin Ailey’s Festa Barroca and Memoria during Ailey’s 2022 and 2023 New York City Center seasons. Brown also danced in Hope Boykin’s Chasing the Spirit at Jazz at Lincoln Center. She worked with Madison Hicks’ “The Moving Forward Collective,” and she is an alumnus of the Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Program, where she worked with Sidra Bell, Rena Butler, and Antoine Vereecken. This is Ms. Brown’s second season with Ailey II.
CHRISTIAN BUTTS (Atlanta, GA) began his dance training at Dancemakers of Atlanta under the direction of Lynise Heard and Denise Heard-Latimer. He also trained in the summer intensive programs at GALLIM School of Movement with Andrea Miller and A.I.M by Kyle Abraham. He has worked and performed pieces by Linda Celeste Sims and Glenn Allen Sims, Nattie Trogdon and Hollis Bartlett, Seán Curran, Michelle Thompson-Ulerich, and Kevin Wynn. In 2025, he graduated from SUNY Purchase receiving a BFA in Dance with a concentration in composition. This is his first season with Ailey II.
JENNIFER M. GERKEN (Houston, TX) began her dance training at age six. In 2016, she was accepted into Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. In 2019, Gerken received the Mary Martha Lappe Dance Scholarship and performed in an excerpt of Appalachian Spring by Martha Graham in the roles of the Bride and Follower. She was a student in the Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance program where she graduated in 2023. Gerken has performed works by William Forsythe, Mark Caserta, Ethan Colangelo, José Limón, and Paul Taylor. This is her second season with Ailey II.
XAVIER LOGAN (Atlanta, GA) trained at Dancemakers of Atlanta. He is a recent graduate of The Juilliard School and has worked with choreographers Medhi Walkerski, Tom Weinberger, Sharon Eyal, Jamar Roberts, Bobbi Jene Smith, and Or Schraiber, amongst others. Logan has been featured on The Vampire Diaries, Dance Moms, and So You Think You Can Dance. In 2023, his work Welcome To The J(U) premiered as the first ever hip-hop dance to appear on Juilliard’s mainstage, and he was named one of Teen Vogue & GLAAD’s “20 Under 20” rising stars. This is Logan’s second season with Ailey II.
XHOSA SCOTT (Richmond, VA) was raised in Virginia where he began dancing with The School of Richmond Ballet’s outreach program, Minds in Motion. He continued training at Baltimore School for the Arts, and attended summer intensives including the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and The Juilliard School. After graduating high school under the School of American Ballet, Scott attended The University of Virginia where he majored in Art History with a minor in Anthropology. While at The Ailey School in the Scholarship Program, he performed works by choreographers including Ronald K Brown, Amy Hall Garner, Ray Mercer, and Darrell Grand Moultrie. This is Scott’s second season with Ailey II.
ADANNA SMALLS (Brooklyn, NY) began her formal dance training at the Abrons Arts Center/Henry Street Settlement. A 2021 graduate of the Professional Performing Arts School with a concentration in dance, she went on to complete the Certificate Program at The Ailey School. That same year, she performed in Bird Lives! and Memoria during Ailey’s New York City Center season. Smalls had the opportunity to work with renowned choreographers including Clifton Brown, Norbert De La Cruz III, and Ronald K. Brown, and she previously served as an apprentice with Evidence, A Dance Company. This is her first season with Ailey II.
DARION TURNER (Clayton County, GA) began his dance training at AileyCamp Atlanta and attended Martha Ellen Stilwell School of the Arts. He studied as a scholarship student at Atlanta Ballet and Eagles Landing Dance Center. Turner is a graduate of the Certificate Program at The Ailey School and worked with choreographers Darrell Grand Moultrie, Christopher L. Huggins Anthony Burrell, Amy Hall Garner, Ronald K. Brown, Norbert De La Cruz, Brandi Lewis, Houston Thomas, and Baye & Asa. He also performed works by Robert Battle, Geoffrey Holder, and danced in Alvin Ailey’s Memoria during AILEY’s 2022 New York City Center season. This is Turner’s second season with Ailey II.
ERIC J. VIDAÑA (Las Vegas, NV) is a graduate of the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts. He received his early dance training from The Nevada Ballet Theatre and continued studying at West Las Vegas Arts Center and Contemporary West Dance Theatre’s Conservatory, under the direction of Bernard Gaddis and Avree Walker. Vidaña furthered his dance education as a Scholarship student at The Ailey School. He has performed works by choreographers including Alvin Ailey, Hope Boykin, Donald Byrd, Michelle Manzanales, Tommie Waheed Evans, Milton Myers, Jeneane Huggins, Don Bellamy, Rennie Harris, Ronald K. Brown, and Christopher L. Huggins. This is his second season with Ailey II.
JORDYN WHITE (West Palm Beach, FL) graduated from Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts high school. She began her dance training at Raskin Dance Studio in Florida and attended summer intensives at Joffrey Ballet School, Modas Dance, and The Ailey School. White has performed works by choreographers Houston Thomas, George Balanchine, Judith Jamison, and Ronald K. Brown, and danced in Alvin Ailey’s Memoria during Ailey’s 2022 and 2023 New York City Center seasons. She is a recent graduate of The Ailey School’s Certificate Program, and the University of Florida with a BA in Psychology. This is White’s second season with Ailey II.
APPRENTICES
VIC E. DAVIS (Atlanta, GA) is originally from Gaffney, South Carolina. He began his formal dance training at South Gwinnett High School in Atlanta, where he graduated with honors. He continued studying as a scholarship student at Gwinnett School of Dance, Northeast Atlanta Ballet, and Atlanta Dance Connection. Davis is currently a student at The Ailey School where he trains on scholarship and has performed works by choreographers including Christopher L. Huggins, Maleek Washington, and Clifford Williams. This is his first season as an apprentice with Ailey II.
JAYDIN J. DE JESÚS (West Hartford, CT) is a current senior in the Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance program. He received his early dance training at Studio 860 and continued his studies at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts high school. He has performed works by Alvin Ailey, Takehiro Ueyama, Martha Graham, Christopher L. Huggins, Pedro Ruiz, and Ray Mercer. This is De Jesús’ first season as an apprentice with Ailey II.
NAIA NEAL (Aptos, CA) began her dance training at the age of seven at Dancenter, a local dance school in her hometown. She is a graduate from the Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance program, where she received the 2023 Denise Jefferson Memorial Scholarship. Neal has performed works by choreographers Christopher L. Huggins, Hope Boykin, Jonathan Lee, PeiJu Chien-Pott, Clifford Williams, Darshan Singh Bhuller, and Ephrat Asherie. She also danced in Alvin Ailey’s Memoria during Ailey’s 2023 New York City Center season and at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) in 2024. This is Neal’s second season as an apprentice with Ailey II.
MICHELLE OSANYA (Ames, IA) began her dance training at Robert Thomas Dancenter. She also attended summer intensives with LINES Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and TDA Prep with Preston Miller and Jacqueline Green. Osanya is currently a junior in the Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance program and has performed works by Adam Barruch, Burr Johnson, Adrienne Hurd, and Judith Jamison. In 2024, Osanya performed in Harrison Guy’s Can We Know the Sound of Forgiveness at Carnegie Hall, and recently, she worked with choreographer Kyle Abraham and slowdanger at Springboard Danse. This is her first season as an apprentice with Ailey II.
ALVIN AILEY DANCE FOUNDATION
Recipient of a National Medal of Arts
Bennett Rink, Executive Director
ALVIN AILEY DANCE FOUNDATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Chairman
Daria L. Wallach
President
Anthony S. Kendall
Jolen V. Anderson, Eleanor S. Applewhaite, Esi Eggleston Bracey, Janice Brathwaite, Laura D. Corb,
Georgette C. Dixon, Markus Green, Esq., Jaileah X. Huddleston, Vickee Jordan Adams, Jaishri Kapoor,
Suzan Kereere, Kristin LaRoche, Anthony A. Lewis, Alicia Graf Mack, Johnbull Okpara, Jack Pitts,
Paula Price, Muhammad Qubbaj, Lata N. Reddy, Bennett Rink, Oti Roberts, Cara Robinson,
Danielle M. Robinson, PhD, Tara L. Smith, Joan H. Weill, Jean-Rene Zetrenne, Pamela D. Zilly
Chairmen Emeriti
Philip Laskawy, Stanley Plesent, Esq.,* Joan H. Weill
President Emeriti
Debra L. Lee, Henry McGee
*In Memoriam
Thank you to the Touring Dance Series Sponsor
Neuman Family Foundation
And to tonight's performance sponsor
R. Harold Burton Foundation
Carolyn Abravanel
Karen Acker
Frederick Adler and Anne Collopy
Kevin and Jo Aldridge
Scott and Kathie Amann
America First Credit Union
Kristin Anderson
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Eric and Dominique Aragon
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Jennifer Bell
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Salt Lake City Arts Council
Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks
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Arin Slogar
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Beverley Taylor Sorenson Foundation
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Paula Trater
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Visit Salt Lake
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Bonnie and Scott Williams
Cindy Williams
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Rachel Yeager
Roy D. Youngblood
Lihong Yu
Jean Zancanella and Richard Frerichs
Tony Zani
Thank you to all our donors of $25 or above from January 2025 to January 2026.
UtahPresents Staff
Chloe Jones
Executive Director
John Armstrong
Event Manager
David Braithwaite
Technical Director
Michael Dallum
Finance Manager
Dennis Busch
Content Manager
Jason Hogue
Marketing Intern
Sheri Jardine
Content Manager
Patricia Madsen
Box Office Manager
Malynn Nelson
Assistant Box Office Manager
Rosemary Lisa Jones
Production Manager
James Padilla
Lighting Supervisor
Melissa Salguero
Community Engagement Manager
Severin Sargent-Catterton
Admin & Artist Services Coordinator
Juniper Taylor
Development Coordinator
Aja Vogelman
Operations Director
UtahPresents Advisory Board
Tiana Hood, Chair
Rainey Cornaby, Vice Chair
Eric Aragon
Michael Billings
Johna Devey Brems
Annie Davis
Metta Driscoll
Becca Green
Laurie Hofmann
Dan John
Lydia Scott Martinez
Melissa Michie
John W. Scheib
Sallie Dean Shatz
Ann Marie Sturm
Elizabeth Menlove Thomas
Anima Varma
Cindy Williams
4+9 was written for the Sō Percussion Summer Institute 2017. The piece explores all of the ways that a bar of 9/4 can be subdivided: There are 36 sixteenth notes in the bar (9 beats x 4 sixteenth notes per beat) - and 36 can be divided evenly by 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, and 18. The various combinations of different overlapping divisions in the bar make the underlying groupings of 16th notes constantly sound different. I used this basic idea in a piece for So Percussion’s project ‘A Gun Show’ in 2016, but Four and Nine explores simply the pure process of hearing each possible combination in turn.
Notes by Eric Cha-Beach
Dear Readers, here are a few things to know about Strange and Artificial Echoes ahead of time:
It lasts about 25 minutes.
Feel free to daydream.
The rocks came from my backyard.
It is not in sonata form.
For avid readers of program notes, here are a few more things one could know:
Around 1623, Francis Bacon was writing an unusual utopian novel, New Atlantis, which was left unpublished until his death a few years later. One passage depicts imaginary Sound Houses: “We have also diverse strange and Artificiall Eccho's Reflecting the Voice many times, and as it were tossing it: And some that give backe the Voice Lowder than it came, some shriller and some Deeper.” About three hundred years later, sound artist Celeste Oram pinned this passage to the door of her studio in the BBC building in London, where she was experimenting with tape and electronics while engineering sounds for Samuel Beckett’s first radio plays in the 1950s. A decade later, in another radio house (WBAI New York), composers John Cage and Morton Feldman recorded four open-ended conversations from 1966 to 1967, musing on radio waves, telepathic messages, and “what a sound is.” Unrelated to any of this is a 2013 performance in a high school auditorium on 24th Street in New York, during which I heard the Ebene Quartet play Mozart’s “Dissonance” and I wept during the second movement.
The spoken voices on the cassettes are Celeste Oram (BBC 1969) and John Cage in conversation with Morton Feldman (WBAI 1966-67). The singing/humming voice on the cassettes is my own. The other music on the tapes includes fragments of Mozart K465 (Guarneri) and rehearsals with Sō. The opening moment of the piece is inspired by my friend, the composer Andrea Mazzariello, who mused in conversation once that he just wanted to hear someone simply hit two rocks together.
Writing “Strange and Artificial Echoes” for my longtime friends in Sō Percussion has been one of the deepest musical experiences of my life, and one of my most challenging joys. Thank you to Carnegie Hall and The Concertgebouw for commissioning these echoes. I hope they resonate with you in some strange way.
Notes by Caroline Shaw
Kendall K. Williams’ new quartet, Panorama for Mallet Quartet, features the configuration of two marimbas and two vibraphones. We asked Kendall to write for us in the style of the instrumental pieces of the steel band competition called Panorama. In 2020, just before COVID arrived, Sō Percussion traveled to Trinidad to perform in the Skiffle Steel Orchestra during Panorama finals. Kendall was arranging for the band at that time.
One of the striking features of playing in a steel band is that the music is taught by rote through oral instruction and demonstration. When we performed with Skiffle, our skills in reading music were useless – the musicians in Trinidad were much faster at picking up the music by ear than we were.
When we asked Kendall to write this piece, we prompted him to recreate this process for us. For almost four years, we convened periodically with Kendall so that he could teach it to us note-by-note. The value in this experiment, impractical as it was, was that it gave Kendall ample time to compose along the way. He had no idea how the piece was going to end when we were learning the first notes.
Panorama pieces, like sonata forms, have standard sections that are expected by listeners. Kendall would often refer to “the minor section” or “the jam” as a shorthand for things that he knew would eventually exist in the piece, even if he didn’t yet know how we were going to get there. Something that all Panorama pieces have in common is that they are based on a theme from a popular song, but this Panorama is composed from scratch.
Steel bands have two main types of instruments: the melodic steel pans and the “engine room,” which consists of drums, congas, metal brake drums, shakers, and other non-pitched instruments. Naturally, performers play one or the other. In Sō’s Panorama quartet, Kendall assigns the engine room to our feet, so that we play hi-hats, bass drums, and even cowbells simultaneously with our melodic mallet instruments. This is a particular kind of virtuosic challenge, because marimba and vibraphones are usually meant to be played from a stable standing position (and the vibraphone has a pedal). In a nod to the percussion quartet tradition, we also break out occasionally to play tin cans.
Although this steel pan world would seem to come from beyond our shores, the genre has become important in the USA, particularly among the large Trinidadian population in Brooklyn, who celebrate their own massive Panorama festival during Labor Day (in Trinidad the festival corresponds with Lent and Carnival). Kendall represents a cohort of American-born pan masters whose style and sensibility is heavily influenced by New York.
Notes by Adam Sliwinski
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
- Max Ehrmann’s “Desiderata”
Jason Treuting’s Amid the Noise began as a soundtrack, which morphed into our third album and then into a flexible set of live music. Now it is a communal music-making project that can occur with a flexible number of musicians in almost any combination. Go Placidly with Haste grew out of this same concept.
The musical ideas are abstract: drones, melodies, rhythms, textures, patterns. Originally, Sō Percussion orchestrated them on the instruments we had in our studio, but we’ve since discovered that accordion, organ, or tuba might play a satisfying drone as well as bowed vibraphone! Like Terry Riley’s In C, this work maintains its identity and integrity even through wildly different realizations.
This modular concept allows us to conduct residencies that reach beyond percussion departments. Many kinds of students at a music school or conservatory can participate in Amid the Noise: vocalists, string quartets, wind and brass players, guitarists, and of course percussionists.
Notes by Jason Treuting
For 25 years and counting, Grammy-winning percussion quartet Sō Percussion has redefined chamber music for the 21st century through an “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam” (The New Yorker). They are celebrated by audiences and presenters for a dazzling range of work: for live performances in which “telepathic powers of communication” (The New York Times) bring to life the vibrant percussion repertoire; for an extravagant array of collaborations in classical music, pop, indie rock, contemporary dance, and theater; and for their work in education and community-building, seeking to explore the immense possibility of art in our time.
To celebrate its 25th anniversary season, Sō Percussion releases 25x25 on Cantaloupe Music in September 2025, an 8-disc box set featuring 500 minutes of entirely new and previously unreleased recordings of 21st century music, each piece written for, in collaboration with, and premiered by Sō Percussion. 25x25 includes works by Bora Yoon, Kendall K. Williams, Vân-Ánh Võ, Dan Trueman, Jason Treuting, Olivier Tarpaga, Shodekeh Talifero, Caroline Shaw. Juri Seo, claire rousay, Tristan Perich, Angélica Negrón, Andrea Mazzariello, Steven Mackey, Michael J. Love, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Nathalie Joachim, Robyn Jacob, Vijay Iyer, Suzanne Farrin, Cenk Ergün, Donnacha Dennehy, Dan Deacon, Eric Cha-Beach – and Sō Percussion as a writing group!
Recent highlights include a headlining series of concerts and collaborations at Bang on a Can’s LOUD Weekend at MASS MoCA, leading a festival-opening of Steve Reich’s Drumming with the composer in the audience; a two-week residency at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in two programs, including collaborations with Helado Negro and Kate Stables (This is the Kit) and with Caroline Shaw featuring Ringdown performing a program highlighting their GRAMMY-winning Nonesuch album, Rectangles and Circumstance (Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance, 2025). Sō has performed concerts at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Big Ears, Cal Performances, the BOZAR in Brussels, 92NY, at the Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Penn Live Arts in Philadelphia, the Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa, the Library of Congress; toured Benin and Burkina Faso with Olivier Tarpaga - and elsewhere.
Along with 25x25, Sō has a catalog of more than thirty albums featuring landmark recordings of works by David Lang, Steve Reich, Julia Wolfe, Caroline Shaw, Steven Mackey, Bobby Previte, Matmos, and many others.
Rooted in the belief that music is an elemental form of human communication, and galvanized by forces for social change, Sō enthusiastically pursues a range of social and community outreach through their nonprofit umbrella, including an ongoing partnership with Pan in Motion; the Sō Laboratories concert series; a studio residency program in Brooklyn; and the Sō Percussion Summer Institute, an intensive two-week chamber music seminar for percussionists and composers they have led annually since 2009. The members of Sō Percussion are the Edward T. Cone Performers-in-Residence at Princeton University - a role they’ve held for more than a decade.
Sō Percussion is Jason Treuting, Adam Sliwinski, Josh Quillen, and Eric Cha-Beach.
Sō Percussion uses:
Pearl/Adams Instruments
Vic Firth Drumsticks and Mallets
Zildjian Cymbals
Blackswamp Accessories
Remo Drumheads
Estey Organs
Kyle Dunleavy Steel Pans
MalletMan Steel Drum Mallets
Sō Percussion would like to thank these companies for their generous support and donations.
Percussion students performing tonight:
-
Davis Fowers
-
Nathan Montoya
-
Ella Prawitt
-
Peter Hill
-
Jake Harker
-
Rebekah Hall
-
Zach Anderson
-
Conner Johnson
-
Kaitlynn Steff
-
Alex Kent
-
Jordan McMillan
-
Tim Petersen
-
Ellie Foote
-
Jaxon Howes
-
Eillot Mohlman
-
Evelyn Williams
-
Sawyner Nutall
-
Ian Miller
-
Drew Fallon
Upcoming Percussion Events (click the links for more info):
Evening of Percussion with John Psathas, guest artist / composer
Exclusive Percussion-Only Patron List
The University of Utah School of Music has developed an exclusive percussion-only patron list and would be happy to keep you informed of upcoming Percussion Concerts at the U. Please click this link and fill out contact information to be added to this list.
University of Utah Percussion Faculty
Michael Sammons, D.M.A., Percussion Area Head
Mason Aeschbacher, Global Music Ensemble
Keith Carrick, Orchestral Percussion
Danny Soulier, Timpani
Kelly Wallis, Drum-set / Jazz Vibraphone
Heath Wolf, Music Education / Percussion Methods
Douglas Wolf, Professor Emeritus
Carolyn Abravanel
Karen Acker
Scott and Kathleen Amann
America First Credit Union
Zana Anderson
Anonymous
Eric and Dominique Aragon
Ballard Miller Foundation
Mary and Dee Bangerter
William Barnett and Bernard Simbari
The B.W. Bastian Foundation
Margaret Battin
Sandi Behnken
The Benevity Community Impact Fund
Craig and Martha Berghahn
Nate Bowler
Johna Brems
Matthew Bryan and Jason Taylor
Corey Bullough
R. Harold Burton Foundation
Darryl and Ann Butt
Patricia Callahan
John Catlett
Sage Chodosh
Joel and Colleen Clark
Havilah Clarke-Zeller
Mary Ellen Cologero
Rainey Cornaby
R. Corona & Associates Tax Services LLC
Peter and Amy Corroon
D.A. Davidson & Co.
Carolynn Davies-Shatz
Annie and Jahn Davis
Missy Dawson
Anne Decker
Natalie Divino and Eric Stander
Denise Dragoo and Craig Anderson
Metta Driscoll
Eric and Shellie Eide
Janet and Patrick Frasier
Frances Friedrich and Louise Knauer
Dallin Fyffe
Brian Gadoury and Tammy Smith
Michael Lara Galindo
Julie Ganz
Robert and Mary Gilchrist
Darla Gill and Pieter Unema
Josanne Glass and Patrick Casey
Goldman Sachs
Kristina and Steve Goldsmith
David Goldsmith and Kara DiOrio
MJ Gregoire and Daniel Sommers
Nicholas and Michal Hales
Hampton Inn
Gordon and Connie Hanks
Gregory Hatch and Terry Kogan
Jennifer Hewson and Chris Scardelletti
Laurie Hofmann
Lee Hollaar
Tiana Hood and Steven Morales
Meghan Horner
Tyler Horton
Jean Howard and Joseph Virde
Marian Ingham
Bruce and Rhonda Irvine
Hilary Jacobs and Daniel Schelling
Sterling and Lisa Jardine
Dan John and Eric Lemke
Amy Johnson
Page and Don Juliano
Annette Kerbs
Sarah Kurrus
Steven Labrum
Alan and Pam Lakomski
Randall Lalonde
Jill and Matthew Leonelli
Kathryn Lindquist and James Moore
Adam Lindsay
Janet Lindsley and Stuart Vandel
Steven Louie
Ashwini Manjunath
Markosian Auto
Cory and Larry Maxfield
Tom and Mary McCarthey
Sarah McCarthey
Lori McDonald
Herbert I. and Elsa B. Michael Foundation
Toni Montrone and Robert Johnston
Mark and Polly Mottonen
The Neuman Family Foundation
Anthony Nichols
Cynthia and Gary Nicolaysen
David Nimkin
Rick Oliver
Janet Osborne
Janet Owens and Gregory Floor
Manish Parashar
Dinesh and Kalpana Patel
Peder Pedersen and Mary Domeier
PepsiCo Denver
William Peterson and Ann McCall
John and Marcia Price Family Foundation
Monica Ray
Barbara and John Reid
John Roberts
Hal Robins
Madilyn Rockwood
Kim Sargent and Earl Catterton
Sallie Shatz
Annabel Sheinberg and David Turok
Tammy Smith and Brian Gadoury
Carol Steffens
Alice and Kevin Steiner
Steiner Foundation Inc.
Ann Marie Sturm
Summerhays Music of Orem
Sondra and Stephen Swindle
Joanna Tarantola
Paul Taylor
Bill and Cindy Thomas
Elizabeth Thomas
Gregory and Karen Thompson
Nancy and Ervin Trapa
Kyle Treadway and Greg Pedroza
Melissa and Philip Urofsky
Utah Humanities Council
Von and Virginia Whitby
Rachel White
Bruce Wilson
Frank and Betty Yanowitz
Roy D. Youngblood
Zions Bancorporation
Thank you to all our donors of $100 or above from July 2024 to the present.
UtahPresents Staff
Chloe Jones
Executive Director
John Armstrong
Event Manager
David Braithwaite
Technical Director
Michael Dallum
Finance Manager
Dennis Busch
Content Manager
Jason Hogue
Marketing Intern
Sheri Jardine
Content Manager
Patricia Madsen
Box Office Manager
Malynn Nelson
Assistant Box Office Manager
Rosemary Lisa Jones
Production Manager
James Padilla
Lighting Supervisor
Melissa Salguero
Community Engagement Manager
Severin Sargent-Catterton
Admin & Artist Services Coordinator
Juniper Taylor
Development Coordinator
Aja Vogelman
Operations Director
UtahPresents Advisory Board
Tiana Hood, Chair
Rainey Cornaby, Vice Chair
Eric Aragon
Michael Billings
Johna Devey Brems
Annie Davis
Metta Driscoll
Becca Green
Laurie Hofmann
Dan John
Lydia Scott Martinez
Melissa Michie
John W. Scheib
Sallie Dean Shatz
Ann Marie Sturm
Elizabeth Menlove Thomas
Anima Varma
Cindy Williams
THE LOWER LIGHTS CHRISTMAS CONCERTS
The Lower Lights Musicians:
Aaron Anderson: Drums, Percussion
Colin Botts: Banjo, Octave Mandolin, Electric Guitar, Concertina
Marie Bradshaw: Vocals
Cherie Call: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Dustin Christensen: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Debra Fotheringham: Vocals, Guitar
Brian Hardy: Keyboards
Paul Jacobsen: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Tyler Lambourne: Bass
Darin LeSueur: Drums, Percussion
Dominic Moore: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Megan Nay: Fiddle
Sarah Sample: Vocals, Guitar
Dylan Schorer: Electric Guitar, Pedal Steel
M Horton Smith: Mandolin, Lap Steel, Vocals
Scott Wiley: Electric Guitar
Stage design: Holly Jacobsen, John Connors, Emily Kawasaki
Hair/makeup/wardrobe: Christie Somers
2025 poster design: Andrea Daquino
Thank you to tonight's performance sponsors
SCOTT & KATHIE AMANN
LAURIE HOFMANN
Carolyn Abravanel
Karen Acker
Scott and Kathleen Amann
America First Credit Union
Zana Anderson
Anonymous
Eric and Dominique Aragon
Ballard Miller Foundation
Mary and Dee Bangerter
William Barnett and Bernard Simbari
The B.W. Bastian Foundation
Margaret Battin
Sandi Behnken
The Benevity Community Impact Fund
Craig and Martha Berghahn
Nate Bowler
Johna Brems
Matthew Bryan and Jason Taylor
Corey Bullough
R. Harold Burton Foundation
Darryl and Ann Butt
Patricia Callahan
John Catlett
Sage Chodosh
Joel and Colleen Clark
Havilah Clarke-Zeller
Mary Ellen Cologero
Rainey Cornaby
R. Corona & Associates Tax Services LLC
Peter and Amy Corroon
D.A. Davidson & Co.
Carolynn Davies-Shatz
Annie and Jahn Davis
Missy Dawson
Anne Decker
Natalie Divino and Eric Stander
Denise Dragoo and Craig Anderson
Metta Driscoll
Eric and Shellie Eide
Janet and Patrick Frasier
Frances Friedrich and Louise Knauer
Dallin Fyffe
Brian Gadoury and Tammy Smith
Michael Lara Galindo
Julie Ganz
Robert and Mary Gilchrist
Darla Gill and Pieter Unema
Josanne Glass and Patrick Casey
Goldman Sachs
Kristina and Steve Goldsmith
David Goldsmith and Kara DiOrio
MJ Gregoire and Daniel Sommers
Nicholas and Michal Hales
Hampton Inn
Gordon and Connie Hanks
Gregory Hatch and Terry Kogan
Jennifer Hewson and Chris Scardelletti
Laurie Hofmann
Lee Hollaar
Tiana Hood and Steven Morales
Meghan Horner
Tyler Horton
Jean Howard and Joseph Virde
Marian Ingham
Bruce and Rhonda Irvine
Hilary Jacobs and Daniel Schelling
Sterling and Lisa Jardine
Dan John and Eric Lemke
Amy Johnson
Page and Don Juliano
Annette Kerbs
Sarah Kurrus
Steven Labrum
Alan and Pam Lakomski
Randall Lalonde
Jill and Matthew Leonelli
Kathryn Lindquist and James Moore
Adam Lindsay
Janet Lindsley and Stuart Vandel
Steven Louie
Ashwini Manjunath
Markosian Auto
Cory and Larry Maxfield
Tom and Mary McCarthey
Sarah McCarthey
Lori McDonald
Herbert I. and Elsa B. Michael Foundation
Toni Montrone and Robert Johnston
Mark and Polly Mottonen
The Neuman Family Foundation
Anthony Nichols
Cynthia and Gary Nicolaysen
David Nimkin
Rick Oliver
Janet Osborne
Janet Owens and Gregory Floor
Manish Parashar
Dinesh and Kalpana Patel
Peder Pedersen and Mary Domeier
PepsiCo Denver
William Peterson and Ann McCall
John and Marcia Price Family Foundation
Monica Ray
Barbara and John Reid
John Roberts
Hal Robins
Madilyn Rockwood
Kim Sargent and Earl Catterton
Sallie Shatz
Annabel Sheinberg and David Turok
Tammy Smith and Brian Gadoury
Carol Steffens
Alice and Kevin Steiner
Steiner Foundation Inc.
Ann Marie Sturm
Summerhays Music of Orem
Sondra and Stephen Swindle
Joanna Tarantola
Paul Taylor
Bill and Cindy Thomas
Elizabeth Thomas
Gregory and Karen Thompson
Nancy and Ervin Trapa
Kyle Treadway and Greg Pedroza
Melissa and Philip Urofsky
Utah Humanities Council
Von and Virginia Whitby
Rachel White
Bruce Wilson
Frank and Betty Yanowitz
Roy D. Youngblood
Zions Bancorporation
Thank you to all our donors of $100 or above from July 2024 to the present.
UtahPresents Staff
Chloe Jones
Executive Director
John Armstrong
Event Manager
David Braithwaite
Technical Director
Michael Dallum
Finance Manager
Dennis Busch
Content Manager
Jason Hogue
Marketing Intern
Sheri Jardine
Content Manager
Patricia Madsen
Box Office Manager
Malynn Nelson
Assistant Box Office Manager
James Padilla
Lighting Supervisor
Melissa Salguero
Community Engagement Manager
Severin Sargent-Catterton
Admin & Artist Services Coordinator
Juniper Taylor
Development Coordinator
Aja Vogelman
Operations Director
UtahPresents Advisory Board
Tiana Hood, Chair
Rainey Cornaby, Vice Chair
Eric Aragon
Michael Billings
Johna Devey Brems
Annie Davis
Metta Driscoll
Becca Green
Laurie Hofmann
Dan John
Lydia Scott Martinez
Melissa Michie
John W. Scheib
Sallie Dean Shatz
Ann Marie Sturm
Elizabeth Menlove Thomas
Anima Varma
Cindy Williams
TO BE A GOD, FEATURING LITTLE MOON
To Be a God
Featuring Little Moon,
and University of Utah School of Dance Students
Presented by UtahPresents and 801 Salon
Produced by Roxanne Gray, with 801 Salon
Directed by Ty Davis
Little Moon
Emma Hardyman - lead vocalist, guitar
Bly Wallentine - accordion, electric bass, flute, clarinet
Grace Johnson - percussion, backup vocal
Bridget Jackson - harp
Liz Lambson - upright bass, backup vocal
Chris Shemwell - drums and percussion
Stephen Rodgers - piano, 12 string guitar, mandocello
Dylan Schorer - pedal steel, 12 string guitar
Bryn Huntington - clarinet, bass clarinet
Lauren Erickson - flute, alto flute, piccolo
Betsy Croft - penny whistle
Dancers
Madi Taylor
Grace Hurley
Lyndsey Wilmes
Sophia Kenton
Marlee Stephens
Elena Evans
Kyra Atkinson
Sofia Johansen
Ella Moore
Dakota Barth
Cooper Wiggins
Céline Nielson
Jade Van Lennep
Lucy Flaming
Aria Green
Maclean Dennis
Characters
Orator - Kylie Finlinson
Magician - Ty Davis
Mermaids - Grace Hurley, Lucy Flaming, Marlee Stephens, Ella Moore, Maclean Dennis
Unicorn - Maclean Dennis
Spiral Knights - Kyra Atkinson, Elena Evans
Ego - Roxanne Gray
Creative Team
Music: written by Emma Hardyman, Bly Wallentine, and Nathan Hardyman
Choreographer: Roxanne Gray, with collaboration from dancers
Set Design and Construction: Ty Davis
Lighting Designer: James Padilla
Sound Designer: Lindenfield
Costumes: Ty Davis, Roxanne Gray, with assistance from the U of U School of Dance Costume Shop
Stage Manager: Samijo Kougioulis
Technical Director: David Braithwaite
Little Moon Manager: Fawn Goodman and Mindy Gledhill
Dance Rehearsal Assistant: Céline Nielson
801 Salon Intern: Keily Tafiti
Merch Design: Nathan Hardyman and Betsy Croft
Documentarian: Vienna Boyes
Little Moon (Featured Artist) is the musical vessel of Emma Hardyman, whose work centers on the intersection of myth and memory. Through soaring vocals and searching lyrics, she explores the ways myth can serve as a mirror for our inner worlds—revealing the sacred within the ordinary and the divine within the flawed. For Little Moon, myth is a way of deepening reality: a language through which pain becomes meaning, and the self becomes story.
Ty Davis (Director) is a multi-media artist originally from Portland, Oregon. He first met Emma while completing his BFA in Graphic Design at Brigham Young University. They have since collaborated on a plethora of projects from photo shoots to music videos to album artwork to even performing together. He’s grateful for the many hats the Little Moon project has allowed him to try on and explore and is constantly inspired by Emma’s trust and the creative freedom she promotes. He’d like to give a special thank you to Roxanne Gray and Emma Hardyman for bringing him on this project and a special thank you to his partner Benjamin Carvajal for constant support and assistance no matter the project. He hopes you enjoy the show!
Roxanne Gray / 801 Salon (Producer) is a Tejana Salt Lake City-based community organizer, choreographer, teaching artist, and curator. Gray works to build community through collaborative structures in her creative work while exploring the diversity of human emotion and identity through curated experiences. She is the the Founder and Director of 801 Salon, a multidisciplinary pop-up art and performance series founded in 2021. 801 Salon, a nonprofit organization, provides a platform and resources for local artists to show work in nontraditional spaces in Salt Lake City. Since 2021, 801 Salon has supported over 300 local artists and produced 41+ exhibits and performances, and continues to create accessible and inclusive art experiences for the Salt Lake City community. @801.salon
We would like to extend a note of gratitude to everyone who supported this project and brought this magic to life. Thank you to Utah Presents for initiating and sustaining the Stage Door Series, providing a platform for local artists to present and create at Kingsbury Hall. Special thanks to Chloe Jones, Aja Vogelman, Severin Sargent-Catterton, and the entire Utah Presents team for their support and assistance. And, additional gratitude to all of our partners, sponsors, and loved ones who sustained us through this creative process! Thank you all for joining us on this journey.
- 801 Salon and the artists of To Be A God
LEE & AUDREY HOLLAAR
Carolyn Abravanel
Karen Acker
Scott and Kathleen Amann
America First Credit Union
Zana Anderson
Anonymous
Eric and Dominique Aragon
Ballard Miller Foundation
Mary and Dee Bangerter
William Barnett and Bernard Simbari
The B.W. Bastian Foundation
Margaret Battin
Sandi Behnken
The Benevity Community Impact Fund
Craig and Martha Berghahn
Nate Bowler
Johna Brems
Matthew Bryan and Jason Taylor
Corey Bullough
R. Harold Burton Foundation
Darryl and Ann Butt
Patricia Callahan
John Catlett
Sage Chodosh
Joel and Colleen Clark
Havilah Clarke-Zeller
Mary Ellen Cologero
Rainey Cornaby
R. Corona & Associates Tax Services LLC
Peter and Amy Corroon
D.A. Davidson & Co.
Carolynn Davies-Shatz
Annie and Jahn Davis
Missy Dawson
Anne Decker
Natalie Divino and Eric Stander
Denise Dragoo and Craig Anderson
Metta Driscoll
Eric and Shellie Eide
Janet and Patrick Frasier
Frances Friedrich and Louise Knauer
Dallin Fyffe
Brian Gadoury and Tammy Smith
Michael Lara Galindo
Julie Ganz
Robert and Mary Gilchrist
Darla Gill and Pieter Unema
Josanne Glass and Patrick Casey
Goldman Sachs
Kristina and Steve Goldsmith
David Goldsmith and Kara DiOrio
MJ Gregoire and Daniel Sommers
Nicholas and Michal Hales
Hampton Inn
Gordon and Connie Hanks
Gregory Hatch and Terry Kogan
Jennifer Hewson and Chris Scardelletti
Laurie Hofmann
Lee Hollaar
Tiana Hood and Steven Morales
Meghan Horner
Tyler Horton
Jean Howard and Joseph Virde
Marian Ingham
Bruce and Rhonda Irvine
Hilary Jacobs and Daniel Schelling
Sterling and Lisa Jardine
Dan John and Eric Lemke
Amy Johnson
Page and Don Juliano
Annette Kerbs
Sarah Kurrus
Steven Labrum
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Carol Steffens
Alice and Kevin Steiner
Steiner Foundation Inc.
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Sondra and Stephen Swindle
Joanna Tarantola
Paul Taylor
Bill and Cindy Thomas
Elizabeth Thomas
Gregory and Karen Thompson
Nancy and Ervin Trapa
Kyle Treadway and Greg Pedroza
Melissa and Philip Urofsky
Utah Humanities Council
Von and Virginia Whitby
Rachel White
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Frank and Betty Yanowitz
Roy D. Youngblood
Zions Bancorporation
Thank you to all our donors of $100 or above from July 2024 to the present.
UtahPresents Staff
Chloe Jones
Executive Director
John Armstrong
Event Manager
David Braithwaite
Technical Director
Michael Dallum
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Dan John
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Cindy Williams
KURBASY
Kurbasy
(Lviv, Ukraine)
Mariia Oneshchak and Nataliia Rybka-Parkhomenko, Artistic Directors
“Songs of the Ukrainian Forest”
Created, Arranged, and Produced by Kurbasy
Projections designed by Grycja Erde & Jardim
Mariia Oneshchak Vocals
Nataliia Rybka-Parkhomenko Vocals
Vsevolod Sadovyi Ukrainian Instruments
Severyn Danyleiko Cello
Artem Kamenkov Double Bass
Markiian Turkanyk Violin
Viktoriia Kyrnytska Sound Engineer
Oleksandra Bezemska Lighting and Projections Engineer
A song cycle in 75 minutes, presented without intermission
Kurbasy is part of Center Stage, a public diplomacy initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs with funding provided by the U.S. Government, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts in cooperation with the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations. General management is provided by Lisa Booth Management, Inc. www.CenterStageUS.org
Songs of the Ukrainian Forest is a conversation between two actress-singers, longtime colleagues and friends Natalia Rybka-Parkhomenko and Maria Oneshchak. The program took shape in the spring of 2020 during the global pandemic quarantine in one of the forests of Lviv region in western Ukraine, where the two women and their families took refuge together.
Since Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Mariia and Nataliia have performed versions of the work in Ukraine and in Europe as a duo, self-accompanied with hand percussion, Tibetan cymbals and bells, and a shruti box – a small Indian harmonium. With these performances in the U.S., Kurbasy is realizing the opportunity to fully produce this work visually and musically.
The program begins with Spring Songs -- calls to awaken and renew life after the long winter -- and includes ballads and love songs from Polissia, Bukovina, Poltava, Podillia, and Central Ukraine. Traditional recruit songs are sung, which highlight the war time situation in Ukraine today.
An affirmation in a time of war and resistance Kurbasy’s Songs of the Ukrainian Forest reveals contemporary connections to an archaic past.
Song List
Zamovliannia vesny / Spring Invocation
A spring song «vesnyanka» from Podillia. Traditionally, spring songs were sung only by girls, very loudly, in the open air, urging Nature to awake after Winter, and to welcome longer, warmer days and new life.
Pytalasia nenka dochky / A Mother Asked Her Daughter
Spring song
Rozlylysia Vody na chotyry brody / The Waters Flow into Four Fords
Spring song
Ya ptychka-nevelychka / I Am a Little Birdy
A lyrical chant from the Kyiv region; a secular song for a three-part ensemble or choir, which was popular in Ukraine in the 16th–18th centuries. A song about love, where a small bird and a falcon allegorically depict lovers figuring out their relationship.
A vzhe tomu sim lit bude / It Has Been Seven Years
A ballad from Bukovina about a Ukrainian soldier who has been wandering lost in the forest for 7 years and now talks to his mother, who visits him in the shape of a bird and flies off, for she could no longer wait for her son to return from military service.
Oi, shcho zh to za svit nastav / Oh, What a World it is Now
A ballad with a sad story about how a son drove his mother out of the house, after which many sorrows and troubles had fallen on him and his family.
Chyia to dolyna / Whose Valley Is This
A lyrical song about a love triangle -- a girl in love with a Cossack who has a wife and three children
Kolyskovi / Lullabies
Two Ukrainian lullabies accompanied by Tibetan bells and "4 elements of Koshi" chimes
Bilia richky, bilia brodu / By the River, By the Ford
A Lemki song about a cheating girl.
Oi, vershe, miy vershe / O Highlands, My Highlands
One of the most famous Lemko songs recounts thoughts of a girl who regrets that she left her mother and fell in love with a boy with black eyebrows.
V nediliu rano / Early on Sunday
Lemko song about both sweet and bitter sides of young love and betrayal.
Iz-za hory viter viie / The Wind Blows from the Mountain
A spring song from the Poltava region in central Ukraine - with these songs, in ancient times, girls tried to invoke Spring and awaken nature. But they also have lyrical plots, as in this song, where a woman with two children waits for her husband for a long time.
Oi, lisu, lisu + Oi, perepelychko + Rano-rano / O Forest + O Little Quail + Bright and Early
A medley of three songs begins with a Spring invocation (O Forest) and moves to O Little Quail (another version of I am a Little Birdy, popular in the 18th century). Bright and Early is a relic of pre-Christian cosmology and ritual – “Seeing off the Rusalky” whose timing is now linked to the Christian calendar. The week before Pentecost or “Trinity” — the spirits of departed kin temporarily cross the veil between worlds. Locals still honor them with reverence: setting tables, offering food, singing to appease, and finally escorting them ritually into the deep forest — a symbolic return to the other world. It’s a sacred act of balance: welcoming the dead, then gently sending them back, so the living may thrive undisturbed, and cosmic order restored.
Zberimosia Rode / Let’s Get Together, Kindred
Feast song from Podlachia borderland region about unity and the value of going through even the most difficult moments in life together.
Chevrona Kalyna / Red Guelder Rose
This military recruit song from Podillia region describes the burden of a wife whose husband goes off to war. Not only she, but all young girls, families, and entire villages are crying for their loved ones.
Ukraine sits at the heart of Europe, bordered to the southwest by Moldova and Romania, to the west by Slovakia and Poland, to the northwest by Belarus and to the northeast and east by Russia. Ukraine’s diverse geography – from the densely wooded Carpathian Mountains to the Dnipro River basin and seaside of Odessa have informed the many and different rites, practices and traditions that together form Ukrainian culture.
Polissia — Ukraine’s most archaic cultural region. Sheltered by dense forests and vast marshlands, and historically insulated from major geopolitical upheavals, Polissia has preserved archaic songs, rituals and cosmological beliefs dating back to Kyivan Rus’ and even pre-Christian times. Remarkably, recent genetic studies pinpoint this borderland between Ukraine and Belarus as the cradle of the distinct Slavic genotype — where, millennia ago, Slavic DNA diverged from Baltic lineages, seeding the entire future Slavic gene pool.
Bukovina — a cultural crossroads historically divided between Romania, Ukraine, and Austria-Hungary, whose legacy still lingers in architecture, law and layered identities. Nestled in the Carpathians, its culture bursts with chromatic intensity — embroidered sleeves like woven rainbows, wooden churches piercing misty ridges and music so intricate it feels like alchemy. Bukovina was and remains a region of striking diversity. Its vibrant highland culture features some of Ukraine’s most ornate folk dress and complex instrumental music. Rooted in ancient Carpathian Slavic traditions, the local sound absorbed strong Ottoman and Balkan influences — heard in asymmetric rhythms, modal scales, and instruments like the cimbalom and trembita. Despite shifting borders and empires, Bukovina’s musical heritage endures as a unique fusion — archaic, layered and unmistakably its own.
Poltava — oblast (region) is situated in central Ukraine on the left bank of the Dnipro. Historically and culturally part of the Cossack Hetmanate, the region is agriculturally significant and a center of Ukraine's oil and natural gas industry. Poltava is the beating heart of Cossack spirit and the cradle of Ukrainian identity along the river Dnipro's banks. Here, where steppes meet rolling hills, the legacy of the Zaporozhian Host lives in speech, songs and stubborn pride. Refined by luminaries like Ivan Kotliarevsky and later Taras Shevchenko, who wove its rhythms into the nation’s poetic canon, the Poltava dialect, with its melodic intonations and archaic lexical treasures, became the bedrock of modern Ukrainian literary language.
Podillia — the sun-drenched southern heartland of Ukraine, is a cultural borderland where Ukrainian traditions blend with strong Moldovan and Bulgarian influences — legacies of migration, trade and imperial border shifts. Known for its vibrant folk embroidery, archaic singing and earthy, rhythm-driven instrumental music, Podillia absorbed Balkan melodic turns, Romanian dance motifs, and even Bulgarian vocal harmonies — especially in villages settled by 19th-century Bulgarian migrants. Unique rituals like “vesnianky” (spring songs) and “kupalo” fire-jumping survives here with a distinct local flavor. Architecture, cuisine, and dialects also reflect this mosaic: clay houses with carved eaves, spicy stews with Balkan flair and linguistic borrowings that color everyday speech.
Central Ukraine — flanking the left and right banks of the Dnipro River and its basin, consists of several provinces (including Poltava) and its cities are among the oldest in the country. Extensive grain and sunflower fields are found throughout the area. Regarded as the nation’s geographic heartland, it holds a resonant archive of polyphonic resistance. Here, the ancient tradition of “chant” singing — rich, layered polyphony echoing Renaissance Europe — survived centuries of imperial erasure, smuggled through generations in village choirs, harvest songs and whispered lullabies. Though the Russian Empire sought to silence it — today, from village porches to global stages, this multi-voiced legacy pulses on: not as museum artifact, but as living proof that authentic voice, like freedom, cannot be fully suppressed — only postponed, then powerfully reclaimed.
Lemki are a distinct Carpathian highland ethnic group of Rusyn/Ukrainian origin — inhabiting Lemkivshchyna, a cultural and historic region that geographically spans the Carpathian Mountains and foothills of western Ukraine, east and north through Slovakia, and Poland. Sharing a rich culture and language across political borders through time, Lemko culture closely holds centuries-old traditions of song, dance, dress, rituals and unique architecture which are revived and celebrated now throughout Ukraine. Tragically, Lemki became victims of forced resettlement: first by Nazi Germany, then by postwar communist Poland in “Operation Vistula” (1947), which scattered them across western Poland to erase their identity. Many fled or later emigrated — especially to the U.S. and Canada — where vibrant diaspora communities preserved their language, songs and churches. Today, their culture survives as a testament to resilience: reviving on native soil and echoing still in exile.
Kurbasy is a contemporary musical project of the renowned progressive Les Kurbas Theatre in Lviv, Ukraine. Founded in 2008 as an informal vocal gathering of singer-actresses, the group has performed across Europe – from the front lines of occupied Eastern Ukraine to concert halls in Western Europe and in the U.S.
The idea of culture as a cosmic living organism is central to Kurbasy, whose folk-based multimedia performances conjure the natural world, beliefs, and rituals. The theatrical foundation of the group is central to Kurbasy's aesthetic. The music they perform is tied to, celebrates, and renews the rituals and the lived memories of Ukraine and her people.
Led by actor-vocalists Mariia Oneshchak and Nataliia Rybka-Parkhomenko, Kurbasy’s performances trace a theatrical arc to reveal the stories held in the songs of their rich repertoire, a collection of which can be heard on ‘Raytse’ a title that references both paradise and the mythical egg at the origins of the universe, released in 2009. Songs from the calendar cycle, Kupala [St. John’s Day/Midsummers] and wedding ritual singing form the core of their second album, ‘Miracle of Creation,’ released in 2018. Many of the Winter songs from Kurbasy’s ‘Rozkolyada’ (2021), aside from describing biblical and archaic Carpathian Christmas tales, are also rich in early slavonic mythopoetic symbols and animalistic ritual images. @kurbasy_official
Kurbasy is traveling the U.S. as part of Center Stage, a cultural diplomacy program that also produced the group in 2018. The seven-week tour features residencies in 11 communities: Bethlehem, State College and Lewisburg PA, New York City NY, Chicago IL, East Lansing MI, Berkeley and Rohnert Park CA, Salt Lake City UT, Albuquerque and Santa Fe NM, and Tucson AZ.
Since 2012, Center Stage has produced national tours by 48 groups from 17 countries, hosted by colleges and universities, festivals, music clubs, and cultural centers. Center Stage ensembles reach large cities and small towns. They engage with communities onstage, offstage, and online through performances, workshops, and discussions, artist-to-artist exchanges, master classes, and community gatherings, and return home to share these experiences with peers and fans. For this last edition of the program, Center Stage has invited alumni groups to return and share their work in communities from coast to coast. These are Khumariyaan (Pakistan), Papermoon Puppet Theatre (Indonesia), Mohamed Abozekry (Egypt & France), and Kurbasy (Ukraine). Visit centerstageus.org for more information.
A package of virtual educational materials, tailored to students in upper elementary through high school, provides a better understanding of the contexts in which these artists thrive. Visit https://worldcultureincontext.org/artist/kurbasy-ukraine-folk-songs/
Center Stage is a public diplomacy initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs with funding provided by the U.S. Government, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts in cooperation with the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations. General management is provided by Lisa Booth Management, Inc.
Center Stage credits
Producer
New England Foundation for the Arts
Adrienne Petrillo, Interim Director of Program Strategy
Kelsey Spitalny, Interim Manager of Program Strategy
General Manager
LBMI, Lisa Booth Management, Inc.
Deirdre Valente, Principal
Robert W. Henderson, Jr., Production Manager
Danielle Dybiec, Nine Muses Travel, Tour Advance
Diego Bucio, On Tour Company Manager
Carolyn Abravanel
Karen Acker
Scott and Kathleen Amann
America First Credit Union
Zana Anderson
Anonymous
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Ballard Miller Foundation
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The B.W. Bastian Foundation
Margaret Battin
Sandi Behnken
The Benevity Community Impact Fund
Craig and Martha Berghahn
Nate Bowler
Johna Brems
Matthew Bryan and Jason Taylor
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Goldman Sachs
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Nicholas and Michal Hales
Hampton Inn
Gordon and Connie Hanks
Gregory Hatch and Terry Kogan
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Lee Hollaar
Tiana Hood and Steven Morales
Meghan Horner
Tyler Horton
Jean Howard and Joseph Virde
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Bruce and Rhonda Irvine
Hilary Jacobs and Daniel Schelling
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Amy Johnson
Page and Don Juliano
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Randall Lalonde
Jill and Matthew Leonelli
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Adam Lindsay
Janet Lindsley and Stuart Vandel
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Ashwini Manjunath
Markosian Auto
Cory and Larry Maxfield
Tom and Mary McCarthey
Sarah McCarthey
Lori McDonald
Herbert I. and Elsa B. Michael Foundation
Toni Montrone and Robert Johnston
Mark and Polly Mottonen
The Neuman Family Foundation
Anthony Nichols
Cynthia and Gary Nicolaysen
David Nimkin
Rick Oliver
Janet Osborne
Janet Owens and Gregory Floor
Manish Parashar
Dinesh and Kalpana Patel
Peder Pedersen and Mary Domeier
PepsiCo Denver
William Peterson and Ann McCall
John and Marcia Price Family Foundation
Monica Ray
Barbara and John Reid
John Roberts
Hal Robins
Madilyn Rockwood
Kim Sargent and Earl Catterton
Sallie Shatz
Annabel Sheinberg and David Turok
Tammy Smith and Brian Gadoury
Carol Steffens
Alice and Kevin Steiner
Steiner Foundation Inc.
Ann Marie Sturm
Summerhays Music of Orem
Sondra and Stephen Swindle
Joanna Tarantola
Paul Taylor
Bill and Cindy Thomas
Elizabeth Thomas
Gregory and Karen Thompson
Nancy and Ervin Trapa
Kyle Treadway and Greg Pedroza
Melissa and Philip Urofsky
Utah Humanities Council
Von and Virginia Whitby
Rachel White
Bruce Wilson
Frank and Betty Yanowitz
Roy D. Youngblood
Zions Bancorporation
Thank you to all our donors of $100 or above from July 2024 to the present.
UtahPresents Staff
Chloe Jones
Executive Director
John Armstrong
Event Manager
David Braithwaite
Technical Director
Michael Dallum
Finance Manager
Dennis Busch
Content Manager
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James Padilla
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Dan John
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Ann Marie Sturm
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Anima Varma
Cindy Williams
LAKECIA BENJAMIN
Lakecia Benjamin
Saxophone, MC, Bandleader
Oscar Perez
Piano
Elias Bailey
Bass
Quentin Baxter
Drums
To witness a live performance by the alto saxophonist, MC, and bandleader Lakecia Benjamin is to never forget it.
The success of her most recent releases, 2023’s Phoenix and 2020’s Pursuance: The Coltranes, positioned Benjamin among jazz’s most celebrated recording artists: In addition to absolute raves in outlets like The New York Times, The Guardian and DownBeat, she received three Grammy nominations for Phoenix, as well as an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Jazz Album. Earlier this year, she was named Alto Saxophonist of the Year by prestigious Jazz Journalist Association.
And yet — the ever-rising star from Washington Heights remains, at her core, an improviser best experienced in her soul-stirring concerts. Each and every time she hits the bandstand, she takes her repertoire, and her wide-ranging audience, to sublime new planes. And her message — of spiritual uplift, of social and political liberation — soars higher still.
Given Benjamin’s personal story over the last few years, her live dates are nothing short of life-affirming. In 2021, she was involved in a car accident that resulted in more than one potentially career-ending injury: Benjamin broke her jaw, shoulder blade and ribs, and ruptured an eardrum, among other wounds. Today, she’s regained her confidence and physical strength, and embraces whatever limitations her accident may have engendered. She also realizes she has decades more music and travel to go. “I don’t think about the accident anymore. Some people might see my shows now as a victory lap, because inspiration comes in multiple forms,” Benjamin says, “but I really feel I’m still learning. I’m trying to get uncomfortable. I’m trying to grow. I’m trying to play better.”
Benjamin’s new album, Phoenix Reimagined, focuses on the music from her acclaimed Phoenix project and adds three new songs. It was captured live-in-studio at Brooklyn’s the Bunker — a great-sounding space whose alumni include everyone from Brad Mehldau to Bang on a Can to the Black Keys. Combining the spontaneous magic of a live LP with the crisp, crystalline audio that only a world-class studio can deliver, Phoenix Reimagined illustrates that vibrant togetherness between Benjamin and her live listeners. In the case of the Bunker show, that meant pretty much anyone who adores music as much as she does. “I was like, you know what? Let’s celebrate life. Let’s celebrate everything. I’m going to invite everybody to this studio,” Benjamin recalls with a chuckle. “The studio personnel were lucky I didn’t just open the door!” The atmosphere took the saxophonist back to her earliest years hitting the NYC jam-session scene: the heat, the camaraderie, the competition, the hard-earned lessons. “It just reminded me why I love music,” she says.
Carolyn Abravanel
Karen Acker
Scott and Kathleen Amann
America First Credit Union
Zana Anderson
Anonymous
Eric and Dominique Aragon
Ballard Miller Foundation
Mary and Dee Bangerter
William Barnett and Bernard Simbari
The B.W. Bastian Foundation
Margaret Battin
Sandi Behnken
The Benevity Community Impact Fund
Craig and Martha Berghahn
Nate Bowler
Johna Brems
Matthew Bryan and Jason Taylor
Corey Bullough
R. Harold Burton Foundation
Darryl and Ann Butt
Patricia Callahan
John Catlett
Sage Chodosh
Joel and Colleen Clark
Havilah Clarke-Zeller
Mary Ellen Cologero
Rainey Cornaby
R. Corona & Associates Tax Services LLC
Peter and Amy Corroon
D.A. Davidson & Co.
Carolynn Davies-Shatz
Annie and Jahn Davis
Missy Dawson
Anne Decker
Natalie Divino and Eric Stander
Denise Dragoo and Craig Anderson
Metta Driscoll
Eric and Shellie Eide
Janet and Patrick Frasier
Frances Friedrich and Louise Knauer
Dallin Fyffe
Brian Gadoury and Tammy Smith
Michael Lara Galindo
Julie Ganz
Robert and Mary Gilchrist
Darla Gill and Pieter Unema
Josanne Glass and Patrick Casey
Goldman Sachs
Kristina and Steve Goldsmith
David Goldsmith and Kara DiOrio
MJ Gregoire and Daniel Sommers
Nicholas and Michal Hales
Hampton Inn
Gordon and Connie Hanks
Gregory Hatch and Terry Kogan
Jennifer Hewson and Chris Scardelletti
Laurie Hofmann
Lee Hollaar
Tiana Hood and Steven Morales
Meghan Horner
Tyler Horton
Jean Howard and Joseph Virde
Marian Ingham
Bruce and Rhonda Irvine
Hilary Jacobs and Daniel Schelling
Sterling and Lisa Jardine
Dan John and Eric Lemke
Amy Johnson
Page and Don Juliano
Annette Kerbs
Sarah Kurrus
Steven Labrum
Alan and Pam Lakomski
Randall Lalonde
Jill and Matthew Leonelli
Kathryn Lindquist and James Moore
Adam Lindsay
Janet Lindsley and Stuart Vandel
Steven Louie
Ashwini Manjunath
Markosian Auto
Cory and Larry Maxfield
Tom and Mary McCarthey
Sarah McCarthey
Lori McDonald
Herbert I. and Elsa B. Michael Foundation
Toni Montrone and Robert Johnston
Mark and Polly Mottonen
The Neuman Family Foundation
Anthony Nichols
Cynthia and Gary Nicolaysen
David Nimkin
Rick Oliver
Janet Osborne
Janet Owens and Gregory Floor
Manish Parashar
Dinesh and Kalpana Patel
Peder Pedersen and Mary Domeier
PepsiCo Denver
William Peterson and Ann McCall
John and Marcia Price Family Foundation
Monica Ray
Barbara and John Reid
John Roberts
Hal Robins
Madilyn Rockwood
Kim Sargent and Earl Catterton
Sallie Shatz
Annabel Sheinberg and David Turok
Tammy Smith and Brian Gadoury
Carol Steffens
Alice and Kevin Steiner
Steiner Foundation Inc.
Ann Marie Sturm
Summerhays Music of Orem
Sondra and Stephen Swindle
Joanna Tarantola
Paul Taylor
Bill and Cindy Thomas
Elizabeth Thomas
Gregory and Karen Thompson
Nancy and Ervin Trapa
Kyle Treadway and Greg Pedroza
Melissa and Philip Urofsky
Utah Humanities Council
Von and Virginia Whitby
Rachel White
Bruce Wilson
Frank and Betty Yanowitz
Roy D. Youngblood
Zions Bancorporation
Thank you to all our donors of $100 or above from July 2024 to the present.
UtahPresents Staff
Chloe Jones
Executive Director
John Armstrong
Event Manager
David Braithwaite
Technical Director
Michael Dallum
Finance Manager
Dennis Busch
Content Manager
Jason Hogue
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Sheri Jardine
Content Manager
Patricia Madsen
Box Office Manager
James Padilla
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Melissa Salguero
Community Engagement Manager
Severin Sargent-Catterton
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UtahPresents Advisory Board
Tiana Hood, Chair
Rainey Cornaby, Vice Chair
Eric Aragon
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Johna Devey Brems
Annie Davis
Metta Driscoll
Becca Green
Laurie Hofmann
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Dan John
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Melissa Michie
John W. Scheib
Sallie Dean Shatz
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Cindy Williams
BALLET HISPANICO
BALLET HISPÁNICO NEW YORK
The Company
Founder
Tina Ramirez
Artistic Director & CEO
Eduardo Vilaro
Rehearsal Director
Anitra Keegan
Rehearsal Director
Nicole Duffy
Chief Managing Director
Patrick Muhlen
The Company
Amanda Bacallao, Amir J. Baldwin, Mia Bermudez, Thierry Blannchard, Maya Canestaro, Antonio Cangiano, Francesca Levita, Matthew Mancuso, Dylan Dias McIntyre, Andrea Mish, Kevin Ortiz Lemus, Amanda Ostuni, Daniel Palladino, Omar Rivéra, Olivia Winston.
Company Manager
Karl Rader Watson
Production Director
Aholibama Castañeda González
Wardrobe Director
Andrea Mejuto
Lighting Supervisor
Dominick Riches
Stage Manager
Rosemary Lisa Jones
Transformational funding for Ballet Hispánico New York is generously provided by MacKenzie Scott, the Ford Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, and the Jerome L. Greene Foundation. Major support is provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Shubert Foundation, Warner Music Group & Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund, a sponsored project of Moore Impact, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Tatiana Piankova Foundation, and the Mosaic Network and Fund in The New York Community Trust.
Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
MetLife Foundation is the Official Tour Sponsor of Ballet Hispánico
Buscando a Juan
World Premiere: 2024, New York City Center
Choreography by Eduardo Vilaro
Music by Osvaldo Golijov
Recorded by Orquesta La Pasión, Members of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela & Maria Guinand
Costume Design by Eduardo Vilaro
Associate Costume Design by Dianela Gil
Set and Lighting Design by Christopher Ash
Performed by
Amanda Bacallao, Amir J. Baldwin, Mia Bermudez, Thierry Blannchard, Maya Canestaro, Antonio Cangiano, Francesca Levita, Matthew Mancuso, Dylan Dias McIntyre, Andrea Mish, Amanda Ostuni, Omar Rivéra, & Olivia Winston.
Juan de Pareja
Amir J. Baldwin
Diego Velázquez
Antonio Cangiano
The Calling of Juan
Francesca Levita & Amir J. Baldwin
Description
Inspired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Juan de Pareja: Afro-Hispanic Painter exhibition and showcasing Eduardo Vilaro’s unique choreographic talents, Buscando a Juan explores the mix of cultures and diasporas through the exoticized body and fixation on gesture and sensuality.
Run Time:
30 minutes
INTERMISSION
(15 minutes)
House of Mad’moiselle
Premiere: 2024, New York City Center
Original Work “Madmoiselle,” World Premiere: 2010, The Joyce Theatre
Choreography by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
Music by Leonard Bernstein, Bart Rijnick, Chavela Vargas, Oro Solido and Charles Gounod
Soundscape by Bart Rijnick
Costume Conception by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
Costume Development and Construction by Diana Ruettiger
Drag Dramaturgy and Drag Wardrobe by Nicholas Villeneuve
Lighting Design by Christopher Ash
Performed by
Amanda Bacallao, Amir J. Baldwin, Mia Bermudez, Thierry Blannchard, Antonio Cangiano, Francesca Levita, Dylan Dias McIntyre, Andrea Mish, Amanda Ostuni, Omar Rivéra, & Olivia Winston.
María
Mia Bermudez
Description:
Originally created in 2010 as her first full-length work for the company, House of Mad’moiselle by internationally acclaimed choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa is a wild romp through the layered symbols of Latin American femininity. It revels in the drama, elegance, and defiance of iconic women who blur the lines between myth and memory.
INTERMISSION
(15 minutes)
Club Havana
World Premiere: 2000, The Joyce Theater
Choreography by Pedro Ruiz
Music by Israel Lopez, Rubén Gonzales, A.K. Salim, Pérez Prado and Francisco Repilado
Costume Design by Emilio Sosa
Costume Construction by Ghabriello Negron
Lighting Design by Donald Holder
The original Club Havana production was made possible, in part, by gifts from Jody and John Arnhold, Dhuanne and Douglas Tansill and Caroline Newhouse; by grants from American Express Company and AT&T; and with commissioning funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Performed by
Amir J. Baldwin, Mia Bermudez, Maya Canestaro, Antonio Cangiano, Matthew Mancuso, Dylan Dias McIntyre, Andrea Mish, Amanda Ostuni, Omar Rivéra, & Olivia Winston.
Opening
Mia Bermudez and Omar Rivéra
Caballo
Olivia Winston and Dylan Dias McIntyre, Maya Canestaro and Matthew Mancuso, Andrea Mish and Amir J. Baldwin
Cha Cha Cha
Amanda Ostuni, Antonio Cangiano and Omar Rivéra
Romanza
The Company
Rumba, Conga
The Company
Description:
Latin dancing at its best. The intoxicating rhythms of the conga, rumba, mambo, and cha cha are brought to life by choreographer Pedro Ruiz, himself a native of Cuba, as he imagined his very own “Club Havana.”
Run Time:
20 minutes
Eduardo Vilaro is the Artistic Director & CEO of Ballet Hispánico New York. He was named the Artistic Director in 2009, becoming only the second person to head the company since its founding in 1970. In 2015 was also named Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Vilaro has infused Ballet Hispánico’s legacy with a bold brand of contemporary dance that reflects America’s changing cultural landscape. Mr. Vilaro’s philosophy of dance stems from a basic belief in the power of the arts to change lives, reflect and impact culture, and strengthen community. He considers dance to be a liberating, non-verbal language through which students, dancers, and audiences of all walks of life and diverse backgrounds, can initiate ongoing conversations about the arts, expression, identity, and the meaning of community.
COMPANY DANCERS
Amanda Bacallao – Dancer – Miami, Florida
Amanda Bacallao, of Cuban descent, is originally from Miami, Florida. She began dancing at the age of four and graduated from Miami Arts Charter School in 2022, where she studied dance under the direction of Diana Ford. Earlier in her career, Amanda also trained at Armour Dance Theater with Rosario Suárez and Mariana Alvarez. Amanda is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. During her time at the Boston Conservatory, she has performed works by Ken Ossola, Dwight Rhoden, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Cristina Chan, Lydia Zimmer, and Alyssa Cardon. She is also a 2024 alumna of The School at Jacob's Pillow. Additionally, Amanda has completed certification to teach Progressing Ballet Technique. This is Amanda’s first season with Ballet Hispánico.
IG: @amanda_bacallao
Amir J. Baldwin – Dancer – Montclair, New Jersey
Amir, originally from Trenton, NJ, received his BFA in Dance from Montclair State University with a minor in American Sign Language. His dance training consists of an eclectic mix which includes Ballet, Modern, Horton, Jazz, Contemporary, Musical Theatre and Capoeira. He has trained in educational facilities such as Ballet Hispánico, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet among others. This is Amir’s fourth season with Ballet Hispánico.
Instagram: @amirjblue
Mia Bermudez – Dancer, Montclair, New Jersey
Mia, originally from Montclair, NJ, began her dance training at The Ballet Hispánico School’s La Academia Pre-Professional Program on a full merit scholarship. While at Ballet Hispánico, Mia performed at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and at the Ballet Hispánico Gala. She has trained at numerous intensive programs including the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, La Escuela National de Ballet de Cuba, Canada National Ballet School, and Ballet Hispánico's ChoreoLaB. This is Mia’s second season with Ballet Hispánico.
Instagram: @mia.bermudez_
Maya Canestaro – Apprentice – San Antonio, Texas
Born in San Antonio, Texas, Maya began dancing at the age of four with Filipino folk dance before continuing her training in ballet. She studied at the Ballet Conservatory of South Texas and was accepted at 16 into the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). After graduating from UNCSA, she attended the University of Chicago, where she earned a bachelor's degree in public policy with minors in human rights and philosophy. While in school, she also danced with Ballet Chicago’s studio company. Following graduation, Maya joined Kansas City Ballet’s second company for two seasons before dancing as an apprentice with Madison Ballet. Her performance highlights include appearing at the Kennedy Center, performing Anabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Nube Blanco and Mark Morris’s Sandpaper, dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy, and dancing in the corps of Giselle and George Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco. Last season, Maya danced in Ballet Hispánico’s Pa’lante program. This is Maya’s first season with Ballet Hispánico as an apprentice.
Instagram: @playa_de_la_maya_
Antonio Cangiano – Dancer – Naples, Italy
Antonio trained on scholarship at the Ateneo Danza, Accademia Normanna and the Martha Graham Dance School in NYC. He has danced for the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Dardo Galletto Dance, Acsi Ballet, and the Martha Graham Dance Company for their 90th Anniversary Season. Antonio has danced works by world-renowned choreographers such as William Forsythe, Nacho Duato, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and Gustavo Ramírez Sansano. This is Antonio’s seventh season with Ballet Hispánico.
Instagram: @cangianoanto
Thierry Blannchard – Dancer – São Paulo, Brasil
Thierry Blannchard, originally from São Paulo, Brazil, began his dance training at the Elizandra Bellotto School. He studied contemporary and character dance, dance history, and pas de deux at the Bolshoi Theater School after being awarded a scholarship. During his time at the Bolshoi Theater School, he had the opportunity to work with the likes of Vladimir Vasiliev, Galina Kravchenko, Dennys Nevidommy, Pedro Carneiro and Rostlav Dzabraev. In 2022, he was awarded a trainee program with Eglevsky Ballet in New York. He has worked with choreographers such as Amy Hall Garner, Cassi Abranches (Grupo Corpo), Kevin Jenkins, Maurice Brandon Curry, Gabrielle Lamb, Valentina Kozlova, among others. This is Thierry’s first season with Ballet Hispánico.
Instagram: @thierryblannchard
Francesca Levita – Dancer – Chicago, IL
Francesca, originally from Chicago, IL, began her training with Visceral Dance Center. She has attended numerous ballet intensives including BalletMet, American Ballet Theatre, and the Milwaukee Ballet. She also trained at The School at Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Summer Intensive, BODYTRAFFIC, and Arts Umbrella. In 2024, Francesca graduated with Honors Summa Cum Laude from Marymount Manhattan College receiving a BFA with a double concentration in Ballet and Modern dance. This is Francesca’s second season with Ballet Hispánico.
Instagram: @frankielevita
Matthew Mancuso – Dancer – East Haven, Connecticut
Matthew Mancuso is originally from East Haven, Connecticut. He began his dance training at the age of 8 at Gloria Jean’s Studio of Dance under the direction of Stacy Eastman. He also studied at New Haven Ballet under various teachers and choreographers. Matthew went on to further his education at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where he earned a BFA in Dance and a Minor in Entertainment Business. While at school, Matthew got to learn and perform repertoire from Sidra Bell and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He also was chosen to study abroad in Prague, Czech Republic at The National Theatre. After graduation Matthew joined “Gaspard and Dancers”, a contemporary dance company where he traveled to Romania, Armenia, and Tbilisi, Georgia. This is Matthew’s first season with Ballet Hispánico.
Instagram: @matthew_mancuso
Dylan Dias McIntyre – Dancer – North Palm Beach, FL
Dylan was born in Key West and raised in West Palm Beach, FL. Dylan started dancing at Palm Beach Ballet Center at the age of eight. At sixteen, he became a trainee with Next Generation Ballet and after two years, he joined the Richmond Ballet to complete his training and start his professional career with their second company. In 2019, Dylan joined Ballet Memphis as a company dancer for three seasons and participated in the 2022 season with the Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance. This is Dylan’s fourth season with Ballet Hispánico.
Instagram: @d_mcintyre
Andrea Mish – Dancer – West Palm Beach, Florida
Andrea Stephanie Mish was born and raised in South Florida. She began her training at Southern Dance Theater and later studied at Ballet East in West Palm Beach, Florida. She furthered her training at A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts and attended numerous summer intensives, including San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, Houston Ballet, among others. In 2023, Andrea graduated with Honors Cum Laude and high distinction with a Bachelor of Science in Dance Arts Administration and Psychology from Butler University. She is also the 2022 and 2023 recipient of the Outstanding Performance Award with Butler Ballet and was on the Dean’s List at Butler University. Following graduation, Andrea accepted a position with Ballet Des Moines. She is currently in her second season with Ballet Hispánico.
Instagram: @andreammish
Kevin Ortiz Lemus – Guest Artist – Guatemala City, Guatemala
Kevin Otoniel Ortiz Lemus, originally from Guatemala, has performed with companies such as Brooklyn Ballet, Ballet Eloelle/Grandiva, Exit12 Dance Company, and Peridance Contemporary Dance Company. Before moving to New York, Kevin was a Principal Dancer with the Modern and Folkloric Ballet of Guatemala, representing his country in international festivals in Spain and France, and performing in numerous national productions. This is Kevin’s first season with Ballet Hispánico.
Instagram: @kevinortizlem
Amanda Ostuni – Dancer – Patterson, New York
Amanda, originally from Patterson, NY, began dancing at the Seven Star School of Performing Arts. She trained in ballet, contemporary, jazz, tap, and hip hop for over fourteen years. She graduated Butler University in 2023, where she received a BFA in Dance Performance. While there, Amanda worked with Jennifer Archibald and Deborah Wingert as well as Susan McGuire, training in Cunningham and Graham technique. This is Amanda’s third season with Ballet Hispánico.
Instagram: @amanda_ostuni
Omar Rivéra - Dancer – Los Angeles, California
Omar Rivéra (He/Him) is a Mexican-American originally from Los Angeles, California. He began his formal training in Dallas, Texas, at Prodigy Dance & Performing Arts Centre under Camille Billelo, and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. He earned his BFA in Dance from the University of Arizona in 2018, where he performed works by Bella Lewitzky, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Christopher Wheeldon, and others, and appeared at The Joyce Theater for the José Limón International Dance Festival. Since joining Ballet Hispánico in 2018, Rivéra has performed in works by acclaimed choreographers including Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Gustavo Ramírez Sansano, Pedro Ruiz, Eduardo Vilaro, and others. This is Omar’s seventh season with Ballet Hispánico.
Instagram: @omyythehomiee
Olivia Winston – Dancer – Salt Lake City, Utah
Olivia, originally from Salt Lake City, UT, received her early classical ballet training at the Ballet West Academy Professional Training Division. She attended intensives at BalletX, American Ballet Theater, Houston Ballet, and Ballet West/ArtÉmotion. Graduating in 2023 from the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program, Olivia performed works by Alonzo King, Mike Tyus, and Kayla Farrish. Olivia was a Dance Fellow with BalletX for the 2023-2024 season where she performed works by Matthew Neenan, Jennifer Archibald, and Amy Hall Garner. This is Olivia’s second season with Ballet Hispánico.
Instagram: @winston.olivia
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ARTURO SANDOVAL
Arturo Sandoval
Trumpet
William Brahm
Guitar
Juan David Perez Castellar
Drums
Keith Fiala
Trumpet
Maximillian Gerl
Bass
Lisandro Pidre
Piano
Samuel Torres
Percussion
Michael Tucker
Saxophone
Tonight's program will be announced from the stage.
Please silence all cell phones or other noisemakers.
Photographer and videography are prohibited.
A protégé of the legendary jazz master Dizzy Gillespie, Sandoval was born in Artemisa, a small town in the outskirts of Havana, Cuba, on November 6, 1949, just two years after Gillespie became the first musician to bring Latin influences into American Jazz. Sandoval began studying classical trumpet at the age of twelve, but it didn’t take him long to catch the excitement of the jazz world. He has since evolved into one of the world’s most acknowledged guardians of jazz trumpet and flugelhorn, as well as a renowned classical artist, pianist and composer.
He is one of the most dynamic and vivacious live performers of our time, and has been seen by millions at the Oscars, at the Grammy Awards, and the Billboard Awards. Sandoval has been awarded 10 Grammy Awards, and nominated 19 times; he has also received 6 Billboard Awards and an Emmy Award. The latter for his composing work on the entire underscore of the HBO movie based on his life, “For Love or Country” that starred Andy Garcia as Arturo.
Arturo Sandoval is one of the greatest trumpet players in the world due to his exceptional technical skills, virtuosic performances, and profound musicality. He possesses a remarkable range, agility, and control over the instrument, allowing him to execute intricate passages efficiently and expressly. Sandoval's ability to blend various styles, including jazz, classical, and Latin music, further adds to his versatility and appeal.
Moreover, Sandoval's contributions to the music world extend beyond his prowess as a performer. He is also a prolific composer, arranger, and educator, inspiring countless musicians with his innovative approach and dedication to his craft.
Additionally, his remarkable life story, overcoming political oppression in Cuba and finding success on the international stage, adds depth to his legacy and serves as an inspiration to many. While opinions on who the "best" trumpet player in the world may vary depending on personal preferences and criteria, Arturo Sandoval undoubtedly ranks among the most respected and admired musicians in his field.
His incomparable collaborations are a who’s-who of legends and new generation voices from the worlds of Pop, Jazz, Classical & Latin music including: Stevie Wonder, Pharrell Williams, Ariana Grande, Placido Domingo, Celia Cruz, Josh Grobin, Juan Luis Guerra, Al Jarreau, Alejandro Sanz, Prince Royce and David Bisbal, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Woody Shaw, Michel Legrand, John Williams, Josh Groban, Tony Bennett, Bill Conti, and Stan Getz to Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka, Rod Stewart and Alicia Keys, Pharrell Williams, Ariana Grande, and Megan Trainor amongst many others.
Sandoval was a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning group Irakere, whose explosive mixture of jazz, classical, rock and traditional Cuban music caused a sensation throughout the entertainment world. In 1981, he left Irakere to form his own band, which garnered enthusiastic praise from critics and audiences all over the world, and continues to do so.
Sandoval is also a renowned classical musician, performing regularly with the leading symphony orchestras from around the world. Arturo has composed his own “Concerto for Trumpet & Orchestra”, which can be heard on “Arturo Sandoval: “The Classical Album.” And later composed his 2nd Trumpet Concerto which he has performed around the world. Arturo has performed with the foremost orchestras in the country as well as abroad and recorded John Williams’ Trumpet Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra. His classical artistry has earned him the respect and admiration from the most prestigious conductors, composers and symphony orchestras worldwide.
His underscore compositions can also be heard in movies including, Clint Eastwood’s most recent films “The Mule” starring Clint Eastwood & Bradley Cooper, and Eastwood’s “Richard Jewel”, “1001 to 1” starring Beau Bridges, “At Middleton” starring Andy Garcia and Vera Farmiga, Dave Grusin’s soundtrack for “Havana” and “Random Heart”, in the “Mambo Kings” soundtrack with his Grammy nominated composition “Mambo Caliente”, in the soundtrack of “The Perez Family”, “61”, “Mr. Wrong”, the documentary “Oscar”, and “The Family Fuentes” among of others. He also was commissioned by the Kennedy Center to compose the music for the ballet “Pepito’s Story”, “Soul Possessed”, as well as “Oman O Men”, and “The Chocolate Hot Nutcracker, choreographed by Debbie Allen. And as mentioned above, he was awarded an Emmy for his composing work on the entire underscore of the HBO movie based on his life, “For Love or Country” starring Andy Garcia.
Arturo Sandoval reaches beyond the scope of mere effort. His struggles while in Cuba and since his defection have given him more energy and strength, urging him to accomplish and surpass his childhood dreams. Filled with a virtuoso capability, he desires nothing more than to share his gift with others who feel the same intense adoration for music as he does. One frequently speaks of Arturo Sandoval’s virtuoso technical ability or his specialty in high notes, but he who has seen him on the piano, lyrically improvising a ballad, or has had the opportunity to enjoy the diversity of his music, through his compositions from the most straight ahead jazz, Latin jazz or classical, knows that Arturo Sandoval is a prominent musician, and one recognizes that Arturo is one of the most brilliant, multifaceted and renowned musicians of our time.
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