My friend Janet and I took the opportunity for a night out to attend a salon concert last night. We met up with Brian Kershisnik (yes, the artist. I know he is a big deal, but I just think of him as Patrick's friend) at the park and ride to give him a lift there--his wife works in SLC, and she was going to meet him at the concert.
It was a thank you concert for all the millionaires (and the poorer people who love the arts) who have donated to the cause of Mormon Artists Group. This is a group based in New York City that self-describes as a "collective of creative artists." It is headed by Glen Nelson, who has been friends with Janet for many years and with me for fewer years, and Richard Bushman the eminent historian. Janet and I have attended several of their Utah initiatives--a concert of the music of Spanish composer Franciso Estevez a couple of years ago, the opening of the Joseph Paul Vorst exhibit at the Church History Museum, but this one was more directly related to our work as librarians.
Since it was a salon concert for millionaires to attend, of course it was held in a million dollar home. (I am pretty sure it was a several million dollar home, actually. I think the front door alone probably cost $5000.) The hostess, Neylan McBaine, was delightful and Janet and I may get the opportunity to collaborate with her on the music for a project she is working on--about Utah suffragettes. Neylan's mother is Metropolitan Opera singer Ariel Bybee, so we chatted about her mother's musical career, too. (And the possibility that, in the future, her mother's papers might be able to find a home at BYU, when Neylan is ready to give them up, which she is not ready for yet.)
The concert was simply wonderful. It featured music by three composers: James McConkie, Murray Boren and Ramon Conrad Fuller. Performers were Jared Oaks, a BYU grad who we knew when he was just an undergrad, and who is the associate music director and conductor at Ballet West, and Jennifer Welch-Babidge, who is a successful opera singer who sometimes teaches adjunct for BYU, and whose husband Darrell is on the vocal faculty at BYU. There were also two string quartets, one made up of young students.
Our library at BYU was spoken about at least five times in various situations as either Glen or Richard spoke about pieces or performers or the Mormon Artists Group, and Janet and I both were mentioned by name. It was a fabulous PR event for the HBLL and especially for the music collection. For one, Glen discovered Ramon Fuller several years ago when browsing through the theses and dissertations in the music library, when he discovered the dusty volume that was Ramon Fuller's "Concerto for piano and chamber band." (You can read Glen's story about finding Ramon here.) Ramon Fuller ended up to be a very big deal, working with luminaries such as Morton Feldman during his long career as a composition professor in Buffalo, New York. Glen worked with Janet, who is an adjunct curator with responsibility for Mormon music, to bring Ramon's collection to BYU a couple of years ago. For this particular concert, I worked with Glen to get copies of the works needed for performance. Ramon is in his eighties (born 1930) and attended the concert with his daughters Ramona and Christina among other family members. They were thrilled.
Jenny Babidge sang two arias from "The Book of Gold" with music by Murray Boren and libretto by Glen Nelson. So beautiful and touching! Since Murray was teaching at BYU when he wrote this and most of his major works, he was collaborating with Janet at the time to be sure that the HBLL has his music, so again the HBLL was mentioned to the audience as a place to discover more works by Boren.
James McConkie was the brother of Bruce R. McConkie. He was a fabulously talented pianist and composer (born 1921) who studied with Nadia Boulanger. You read a list of Nadia B's students, and it is like a who's who of twentieth century musical luminaries, of which McConkie was set to be one--unfortunately, two of his little children contracted polio. Though he was warned to stay away from the hospital where his children were being treated, he could not do that, because he loved them too much to stay away. He ended up contracting polio himself, and though his children survived, he did not, and cut short his promising career at age 32. Jared Oaks told me about discovering McConkie's music a few years ago, and he has been performing it whenever he can work it into a program, because it had completely faded into oblivion before Jared learned about it. Understandable--when you are left a young widow with three small children, you don't think about promoting your husband's compositions, do you? You think about surviving. So his music, while treasured, was kept very private for a long time. All the McConkie children and some extended family also were there, and thrilled by the performances of their father's music.
Janet and I were just leaving when we were literally chased after by David Erekson, McConkie's son-in-law, because the family would like his papers and manuscripts to come to BYU--how could they not, after the way our library was talked up at this event?!!! It is always a little scary to us--the library administration is less interested in donations than donors are in donating. But where should James McConkie's music go? Is not BYU the best fit for the papers of a Mormon composer? Is that not the logical place where researchers might expect to find them? Well, Janet will get to deal with making it possible to say yes to the McConkie family--it would be a shame not to have this collection, which is not large because the poor man died so young.
All in all, what a splendid night! The music was wonderful, Janet and I got our egos most wonderfully massaged with lots of attention for the work we do, we met all sorts of people who expressed appreciation for the work we do--had we been with LDS Philanthropies, we would have been in seventh heaven, surrounded by all the wealth these people represent!!
Even the fact that an accident on the freeway sent us out of our way, so that it took longer than expected to get home, could not detract from this great experience, listening to great music in a beautiful setting with really great people.
It was a thank you concert for all the millionaires (and the poorer people who love the arts) who have donated to the cause of Mormon Artists Group. This is a group based in New York City that self-describes as a "collective of creative artists." It is headed by Glen Nelson, who has been friends with Janet for many years and with me for fewer years, and Richard Bushman the eminent historian. Janet and I have attended several of their Utah initiatives--a concert of the music of Spanish composer Franciso Estevez a couple of years ago, the opening of the Joseph Paul Vorst exhibit at the Church History Museum, but this one was more directly related to our work as librarians.
Since it was a salon concert for millionaires to attend, of course it was held in a million dollar home. (I am pretty sure it was a several million dollar home, actually. I think the front door alone probably cost $5000.) The hostess, Neylan McBaine, was delightful and Janet and I may get the opportunity to collaborate with her on the music for a project she is working on--about Utah suffragettes. Neylan's mother is Metropolitan Opera singer Ariel Bybee, so we chatted about her mother's musical career, too. (And the possibility that, in the future, her mother's papers might be able to find a home at BYU, when Neylan is ready to give them up, which she is not ready for yet.)
The concert was simply wonderful. It featured music by three composers: James McConkie, Murray Boren and Ramon Conrad Fuller. Performers were Jared Oaks, a BYU grad who we knew when he was just an undergrad, and who is the associate music director and conductor at Ballet West, and Jennifer Welch-Babidge, who is a successful opera singer who sometimes teaches adjunct for BYU, and whose husband Darrell is on the vocal faculty at BYU. There were also two string quartets, one made up of young students.
Our library at BYU was spoken about at least five times in various situations as either Glen or Richard spoke about pieces or performers or the Mormon Artists Group, and Janet and I both were mentioned by name. It was a fabulous PR event for the HBLL and especially for the music collection. For one, Glen discovered Ramon Fuller several years ago when browsing through the theses and dissertations in the music library, when he discovered the dusty volume that was Ramon Fuller's "Concerto for piano and chamber band." (You can read Glen's story about finding Ramon here.) Ramon Fuller ended up to be a very big deal, working with luminaries such as Morton Feldman during his long career as a composition professor in Buffalo, New York. Glen worked with Janet, who is an adjunct curator with responsibility for Mormon music, to bring Ramon's collection to BYU a couple of years ago. For this particular concert, I worked with Glen to get copies of the works needed for performance. Ramon is in his eighties (born 1930) and attended the concert with his daughters Ramona and Christina among other family members. They were thrilled.
Jenny Babidge sang two arias from "The Book of Gold" with music by Murray Boren and libretto by Glen Nelson. So beautiful and touching! Since Murray was teaching at BYU when he wrote this and most of his major works, he was collaborating with Janet at the time to be sure that the HBLL has his music, so again the HBLL was mentioned to the audience as a place to discover more works by Boren.
James McConkie was the brother of Bruce R. McConkie. He was a fabulously talented pianist and composer (born 1921) who studied with Nadia Boulanger. You read a list of Nadia B's students, and it is like a who's who of twentieth century musical luminaries, of which McConkie was set to be one--unfortunately, two of his little children contracted polio. Though he was warned to stay away from the hospital where his children were being treated, he could not do that, because he loved them too much to stay away. He ended up contracting polio himself, and though his children survived, he did not, and cut short his promising career at age 32. Jared Oaks told me about discovering McConkie's music a few years ago, and he has been performing it whenever he can work it into a program, because it had completely faded into oblivion before Jared learned about it. Understandable--when you are left a young widow with three small children, you don't think about promoting your husband's compositions, do you? You think about surviving. So his music, while treasured, was kept very private for a long time. All the McConkie children and some extended family also were there, and thrilled by the performances of their father's music.
Janet and I were just leaving when we were literally chased after by David Erekson, McConkie's son-in-law, because the family would like his papers and manuscripts to come to BYU--how could they not, after the way our library was talked up at this event?!!! It is always a little scary to us--the library administration is less interested in donations than donors are in donating. But where should James McConkie's music go? Is not BYU the best fit for the papers of a Mormon composer? Is that not the logical place where researchers might expect to find them? Well, Janet will get to deal with making it possible to say yes to the McConkie family--it would be a shame not to have this collection, which is not large because the poor man died so young.
All in all, what a splendid night! The music was wonderful, Janet and I got our egos most wonderfully massaged with lots of attention for the work we do, we met all sorts of people who expressed appreciation for the work we do--had we been with LDS Philanthropies, we would have been in seventh heaven, surrounded by all the wealth these people represent!!
Even the fact that an accident on the freeway sent us out of our way, so that it took longer than expected to get home, could not detract from this great experience, listening to great music in a beautiful setting with really great people.
