“Performances with Location, Location, Location…In Nature’s Own Concert Hall, Sound Is

Forever…The two grotto shows neatly combine culture with the area’s reputation for

adventure travel.” New York Times

“I can’t help feeling as if I’ve discovered the keys to some magic kingdom. As dusk sets in,

poignant melodies become the soundtrack to a world-class sunset.”

Denver Magazine 5280

“If climbing, hiking, river-rafting, mountain-biking and the scenery in Arches National Park

aren't enough to draw you to Moab, here's another reason to visit: three weekends of

music…the Moab Music Festival.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Moab Music Festival, which takes place in the town of Moab, Utah, wins the title for coolest

outdoor fest around.” AFAR (magazine)

ABOUT

The Moab Music Festival was founded

in 1992 by New York based musicians

Michael Barrett, pianist/conductor,

and violist Leslie Tomkins. On a rare

vacation, they fell in love with the red

rocks of Moab, and were inspired to

combine the magical landscape with

the joys of music-making. “Starting a

music festival seemed like the perfect

way to make sure we would return

again and again,” says Tomkins.

The award-winning Moab Music

Festival Festival celebrated its 25th

year of music in concert with the

landscape™ in 2017, and is noted for

its distinctive programming, superb performances, and intimate concert experiences of chamber

music, traditional, jazz, and music of living composers. Its star-studded rosters are a venerable who’s

who including the likes of Paquito D’Rivera, Bela Fleck, Marcus Roberts, David Amram, Lukas Foss,

Ned Rorem and beyond.

MMF presents approximately 20 concerts during the 2 week

festival. Concerts are held in a variety of indoor and outdoor

venues around Moab, with the Festival’s signature events, the

Grotto Concerts, taking place in a pristine wilderness grotto 30

miles down the Colorado River, reached by jet boat. A 3 day / 2

night Musical Raft Trip through Westwater Canyon immediately

precedes the Festival, and a 4 day / 3 night Musical Raft Trip

through Cataract Canyon immediately follows the Festival.

The Moab Music Festival, from its inception, has been committed

to music education and cultural enrichment in the Moab area.

The Board and leadership of the festival is passionate about arts

education locally and nationwide and works to reach all

children in the Grand County Schools annually, providing

assemblies with visiting musicians for students during the Festival.

Educational experiences for interested music lovers of all ages are also provided at other times of the

year through an artist-in-residence program.

PRESS

“You might well hear a Beethoven quartet in a stone grotto on one night, a progressive bluegrass

band on a river bank the next, and a Venezuelan jazz group backed by red cliffs on the night after

that. The boat ride to the Grotto itself has a magical, almost mythical quality, with the guests being

removed literally and figuratively from the dissonance of society into a wilderness where the organic

and synthetic fuse together seamlessly. There was a stillness rarely experienced in contemporary life.

You are in a room, Utah’s living room. And it’s perfect.” Salt Lake Tribune

“Moab’s two-weekend celebration offers a sophisticated exhibition of musical talent. Although I

don’t know Tchaikovsky from Brahms, the beauty of this festival is that I don’t have to. It’s about what

you feel when the music starts, not about what you know. The combination of music – whether it’s

chamber music or jazz ensemble – set against the canyonlands background is, in a word, stirring.”

Denver Magazine 5280

“It's tough to beat the scenery at the Moab Music Festival. Where else can you hear chamber music

in a red rock grotto amid immaculate wilderness or take a four-day, three-night musical rafting trip

down the Colorado River?” National Public Radio

“Few Festivals blend the intimacy of the concert hall with the expansive freedom of the outdoors as

well as this Utah festival… Moab is a refreshing alternative.” Departures (magazine)

“Sensational Summer Arts Festivals: No other festival offers a chamber music concert in cavernous red

rock grotto or a 4-day, 3-night musical raft trip (with daily concerts) along the Colorado River.”

Travel and Leisure

“this adrenaline-fueled town makes room for a small crowd of classical-music lovers and out-of-town

musicians who come here for a series of concerts that explore more subtle extremes of intimacy with

nature—and silence . . . an experience that draws performers and audiences closer together.”

Wall St. Journal

SELECTED AUDIENCE COMMENTS:

“I have J.S. Bach coursing through my

veins. I’ve heard Bach around the world

and have never heard it done better or in a

more beautiful setting.”

(Grand Junction, CO)

“Friends from Manhattan who attended

the evening of French music at Star Hall

said they could not have had such an

enjoyable evening in New York. Why?

Because they felt they were not at the

concert but in the concert.”

(Pack Creek, UT)

“The Gershwin 100th Birthday Celebration was truly

elegant. I have never before heard Gershwin played

with such commitment and stylistic validity as we

experienced at that concert. All of the performers

were absolutely tuned in to the period and purpose of

the music. They were superbly prepared. The event

was filled with pure joy!” (Provo, UT)

“…very special, offering a unique

experience. We love it and hope/expect to

attend in the future. We enjoy the concerts

in the Red Cliffs Lodge and in Sorrel River

Ranch. We admire the great work that the

Festival does in the community, in

promoting young artists, and in providing

great musical experiences. Thank you!”

(Illinois)

“The entire experience was most

enjoyable! The sights and sounds, the

awesome contrasts in geography, all made

it a most memorable experience. Keep doing it!!!”

(California)

The Moab Music Festival celebrates 25 years of music in breathtaking landscapes from Aug. 31-Sept. 11. Image: Richard Bowditch

Twenty-five years ago, violinist Leslie Tomkins and her pianist/conductor husband Michael Barrett took a rare

vacation to Moab. Like so many before them, they fell in love with the red rock and the magical landscape of

southeastern Utah, and decided to pay homage to the breath taking surrounding by adding to it the joys of

music-making. And so in 1992, they created the Moab Music Festival. “Starting a music festival seemed like

the perfect way to make sure we would return again and again,” Tomkins says. This year, from August 31 and

September 11, the award-winning festival celebrates its 25th anniversary with a stellar program, featuring the

world-class artistry and extraordinary outdoor backdrops you don’t want to miss out on.

Why has the Moab Music Festival stood the test of time? Simply put: it’s a fantastic event that stirs something

in people. Recall the magic of Disney’s Fantasia, where animated stories came to life with the grandiose music

of composers you may not have been able to identify, but it didn’t dampen the experience. That’s what the

Moab Music Festival is all about, except that instead of just watching it on a screen, you’re actually there in this

spectacular, almost otherworldly setting. It doesn’t matter if you are or aren’t able to identify who wrote the

orchestration. What does matter is how it makes you feel in the moment and the memory you take away with

you.

(Park City Magazine, Continued)

Old City Park, Moab Music Festival Image: Richard Bowditch

This year’s line-up will give audiences a taste of a variety of genres, from chamber music (including works of

living composers) and jazz to Latin music. Events will take place at indoor and outdoor venues around

Moab, with the Festival’s signature Grotto Concerts, taking place in a pristine wilderness grotto 30 miles down

the Colorado River, accessible only by jet boat. A four-day / three-night Musical Raft Trip through Cataract

Canyon immediately follows the Festival, and includes Music Hikes where patrons are taken to a secret location

for a concert, at area ranches, private homes, and at Moab’s historic Star Hall. “Our 25th Anniversary will be a

rich celebration of ‘Music in Concert with the Landscape,’ with guest artists Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn,

the Manhattan Transfer’s Janis Siegal with her Brazillian Trio, my favorite jazz pianist Marcus Roberts, Cuban

Pedrito Martinez, plus my classical favorites Bach, Brahms, and Bernstein will all be singing their music,” says

Michael Barrettt, pianist and music director of the festival. “And all in our amazing Red Rock country. This is

the only MUSN’T MISS of the season.”

Moab Music Festival Image: Richard Bowditch

Tickets for the Moab Music Festival’s various concerts are on sale now and available for purchase via their

website. Don’t miss this grand marriage of nature and music!

In Nature's Own Concert Hall, Sound Is Forever By MINDY SINK

September 18, 2004

Kevin Moloney for the New York Times Musicians rehearse in the natural red rock grotto that is the site of the Moab Music Festival in Moab, Utah.

MOAB, Utah, Sept. 17 - It is a rare music festival that requires patrons to sign a risk waiver as they purchase

tickets. But that is one of the peculiarities of the Moab Music Festival, which takes the idea of outdoor concerts

to the extreme by ferrying musicians, guests and instruments - including, on Thursday, a Steinway grand piano -

15 miles along the Colorado River for a late afternoon performance in a towering red-rock grotto.

"My wife calls this 'extreme chamber music,' " said Michael Barrett, co-founder and music director of the

festival. Mr. Barrett, who is also the director of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, N.Y.,

founded the festival 12 years ago with his wife, Leslie Tomkins, a violist. "Our slogan is 'music in concert with

the landscape,' '' Mr. Barrett said, "and that really says it all."

After a visit to this small town adjacent to a group of national parks 13 years ago, the New York couple decided

not only to start the nonprofit festival but also to combine it with the desert scenery.

"It's so beautiful it's just indescribable," said Ms. Tomkins, the festival's artistic director. "What we do in our

lives is make this music that is also very hard to describe. This is the best that nature has to offer and the best

that man has to offer. It's very seductive, and that's why we are crazy enough to get out here in this grotto and

play music."

On this day, Ms. Tomkins and the other female musicians had decided to go barefoot and wiggle their toes in

the pink sand as they played two Brandenburg Concertos - in part to connect with the environment.

The festival, with a variety of classical, bluegrass, jazz and chamber music, runs from Sept. 3 to Saturday, and

includes two concerts in the grotto.

The two grotto shows - neatly combine culture with the area's reputation for adventure travel.

(The New York Times, Continued)

To put on a concert in a sandy alcove 45 miles from town, preparation begins as the sun rises, with the

meticulously wrapped piano being loaded on a metal motor boat and taken to the grotto.

In years past the piano had to be borrowed, but the Steinway now used was the festival's first capital acquisition,

paid for mostly with donations.

For the performance, the 14 musicians headed down the river for some rehearsal time in the grotto at

midmorning on Thursday, and the 100 or so patrons started their trip to the concert site shortly after noon. The

grotto, which is within the boundaries of Canyonlands National Park, is tucked in from the river's edge by a

thicket of shrubs and trees.

"It's all worth the look on people's faces when they walk in and see there really is a piano here and there really

is going to be a concert," Ms. Tomkins said.

Bob Jones, the owner of Tag-A-Long Expeditions, the boat company that carries everything from piano to

patrons to the site, first discovered the grotto and its acoustic possibilities in 1987 when a Portland, Ore.,

musician on a raft trip tried it out. In the second year of the music festival, Mr. Jones told Mr. Barrett about the

place.

It's the rare natural acoustics of the grotto that attracts musicians from all over.

"This is our Carnegie Hall," said Mr. Barrett, who on this day also played piano and turned pages for other

pianists. "God made this one and Carnegie made the other one. I refer to this as my personal church."

Paquito D'Rivera, the Grammy award-winning clarinetist, has played in the festival in recent years, but this was

his first time in the grotto. He performed in Brahms's Trio in A minor for clarinet, piano and cello.

"The sound is absolutely incredible," he said. "There is no way I have the words to describe it. I love nature, so

for me this feels like home."

Before beginning the concert with Claude Debussy's "Images," the San Francisco-based pianist Paul Hersh

asked that everyone sit and simply absorb the silence for "5 to 10 seconds." Indeed, the silence is complete in

the grotto with only an occasional breeze rustling the leaves to interrupt. The music does not bounce or echo off

the spiraling multi-story rocks but instead fills the natural chamber.

"The mindset of people is very different here," Ms. Tomkins said. "Their senses are engaged with the physical

beauty, and they are almost more receptive to sound. You couldn't get an audience to sit in total silence in a

concert hall for 10 seconds!'' As she put her shoes on after performing two Brandenburg concertos, a violinist,

Jennifer Frautschi, declared it the most exciting experience of her life. "From when we started coming down the

river, this setting is just so inspiring," she said.

Bryant Summerhays of Salt Lake City came to the show with a friend. "Classical music deserves to be heard in

nature," he said. "The intimacy and the isolation of this is what make it so amazing."

This summer's concerts were sold out, and tickets for next year are already selling.

August 2009

Natural Composition

Slickrock be damned—the Moab Music Festival showcases southern Utah's spectacular canyonlands in ways

mountain biking never could. BY JULIE DUGDALE

A lazy breeze sighs through the red-rock hollow, skimming the curves of the towering walls. Except for the babbling

Colorado River, not 50 yards away, silence envelops the grotto. Then a faint melody unfolds from a place unseen: It's a

single clarinet—lonely, enchanting, pure. The musician strolls out from his secret spot, captivating the audience sprawled

on low rock ledges and folding chairs. Under an azure afternoon sky, the grotto feels otherworldly—and a glossy grand

piano resting on the canyon floor only adds to the surreal atmosphere.

The grotto show, otherwise known as the Colorado River Benefit Concert, is the signature event of the Moab Music

Festival—what those in the know call Moab's best-kept secret. Until now, my definition of "music festival" had included

college-age throngs with tents and keg cups, and bobbing and reeling to multiband jam sessions. But Moab's two-weekend

celebration (September 3-14) offers a more, shall we say, sophisticated exhibition of musical talent. Although I don't

know Tchaikovsky from Brahms, the beauty of this festival is that I don't have to. It's about what you feel when the music

starts, not about what you know. The combination of music—whether it's chamber music or a jazz ensemble—set against

the canyonlands background is, in a word, stirring.

For 17 years, the Moab Music Festival has been drawing top talent to the Moab area. Every year, the founders—two New

York City-based musicians—recruit world-class musicians to perform in a variety of venues throughout Utah's canyon

country. Festivalgoers can make their own itineraries: Friday afternoon might offer a quartet in a secluded amphitheater,

while Saturday's agenda could include a lavish white-tent concert on a Moab ranch. But every performance reflects the

festival's mission: "Music in concert with the landscape."

Nowhere is this philosophy more apparent than the grotto show. As a first-timer, I can't help feeling as if I've discovered

the keys to some magic kingdom, tucked away in a bend of the Colorado River. We arrive at the grotto via motorized,

covered boats, which carry about 60 passengers on a scenic 40-minute trip down the river to a point so hidden that some

boating companies float right past it. Carved by millions of years of river currents, the grotto is an amphitheater of

unrivaled acoustics. After the 90-minute concert, we mingle with the performers and enjoy a catered lunch before

boarding the fleet for the upriver journey back to Moab. Along the sheer canyon walls are geological points of interest and

landmarks such as Dead Horse Point, which, at 2,000 feet up, is one of the most awe-inspiring overlooks in the world

(and, film fans, the site of the fateful last moments of Thelma and Louise).

After disembarking, many festivalgoers head back toward town to regroup before the night's activities—Moab's status as

Utah's adventure capital ensures hotels, motels, and campgrounds galore—but the 17-mile drive to the Sorrel River

Ranch, my headquarters for the weekend, is worth it for scenic value and a little bit of luxury (think 400-thread-count

linens and a heavenly river-stone massage at the on-site spa). From Moab, Scenic Byway 128 winds along the Colorado

River toward the ranch, snaking through canyons that form striking silhouettes and provide days worth of hiking

opportunities. Situated across from the iconic Castle Rock formation, the ranch is a postcard-perfect oasis of lush green

grounds sprawled between sunburned red rock and the river.

Not only is the Sorrel River Ranch a great spot to unwind, it's also one of the festival venues. Amid the manicured lawns,

a covered outdoor pavilion hosts everything from benefit concerts (which support the festival's education and community

programs) to special memorial shows. Performances at the ranch are mesmerizing, set against the backdrop of Castle

Rock in the waning afternoon sun. When the applause dies down, head to the Sorrel River Grill (make reservations

beforehand) for gourmet ranch fare; choose from entrées like medallions of lamb with butternut squash or grilled pheasant

with huckleberry barbecue sauce. Make sure to sit on the balcony for picturesque views of the river.

Besides the grotto and the ranch, there are other striking open-air venues, and if you're lucky Onion Creek will be in the

lineup. A few miles northeast of the ranch, the turnoff from Highway 128 is a graded dirt road that winds through a

painted desert fit for the backdrop of any classic Western flick. In the shadow of the majestic Fisher Towers—red rock

formations that break the horizon at nearly 900 feet tall—I find a seat under the festival tent. As dusk sets in, poignant

melodies from the piano and string quintet become the soundtrack to a world-class sunset. During a well-timed

intermission, I scramble up an outcropping to watch the fiery sun sink below the red-rock silhouettes in an array of pinks

and violets that linger like the notes of the last sonata.

While most events are set outside, the festival typically hosts at least one performance, often an opera, at Moab's historic

Star Hall, built more than a century ago when Moab was a frontier mining town. And each year the festival brings new

surprises, like the popular musical walks, where guests are shuttled to a secret location for an unusual hike-concert combo.

Similarly, the house benefit concerts unfold in different Moab-area residences every year, hosted by locals who open their

homes for intimate evenings of cocktails and chamber music.

Though festival nights are usually booked with such affairs, I manage to squeeze in some time to explore the countryside

around us—which is, of course, half the reason I'm here. Between daytime events, I find my way to Arches and

Canyonlands national parks for the unparalleled—almost unbelievable—scenery for which Moab is known. Feeling

sacrilegious without a mountain bike in tow, I embark on a short hike to what seems like the end of the world in

Canyonlands, and just about wear down my camera battery when I reach a massive, jutting overlook to the river below.

It's here that I take a minute to reflect on the landscape and think about how I would never have thought to stage a

classical music festival here. After all, this rugged, unforgiving terrain isn't what you might call classically beautiful. Then

again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Richard Bowditch

Through September 11: Moab Music Festival It’s possible to hear chamber music in some pretty unorthodox settings these days, but few blend the intimacy of the concert hall with the expansive freedom of the outdoors as well as this Utah festival. The most-awaited event: three concerts reachable only by jet-boat, because they take place in a striking red-rock grotto (with magnificent acoustics, naturally). Adventurous concertgoers can also participate in “music hikes,” led by an area naturalist and culminating in uber-private acoustic performances in secret Canyonlands locations. With world-class performers like clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera and Brazilian vocalist Clarice Assad and thoughtfully conceived programs (this year, Latin music hailing from Spain is a focus), Moab is a refreshing alternative to the mega-chamber fests populating the summer. Moab, Utah; moabmusicfest.org.

Event: Moab Music Festival

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Utah

Moab Music Festival, which takes place in the town of Moab, Utah, wins the title for coolest outdoor fest

around. Performances happen in red-rock grottos only reachable by boat, ranches, and canyons. The fest also

offers musical hikes, in which attendees are shuttled to a secret location for a moderate hike ending with a

performance in the middle of nature. Moab—home to both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks—is known

for its beautiful views, sitting just south of the Colorado River. Catch this year's acts from September 1 through

September 15.

Moab, UT; website

GRAMOPHONE (UK) JULY 2014

SOUNDS OF AMERICA

THE SCENE

MOAB, UT

Moab Music Festival

Chamber, folk, and jazz (August 28-September 8)

The Moab Music Festival, founded in 1992, uses the tag line ‘music in concert with the landscape’. That’s no idle

boast. Many of the concerts are set amidst the vast wilderness of the nearby Arches and Canyonlands national

parks. Using the natural acoustics of rock formations, the festival offers a range of chamber music played by top-notch

ensembles; programmes might include anything from a Messiaen horn solo to a Brahms piano quartet. There are also

concert hikes to wilderness locations. In addition to the classical chamber works, there’s folk and jazz music on offer.

This year’s guest artists include a virtuoso Colombian jazz harpist, Edmar Casteneda, and his quartet, and the

John Pizzarelli Quartet. moabmusicfest.org

10 Can't-Miss Classical Music Festivals

by TOM HUIZENGA

May 01, 2014

In much of the country it still feels like summer is a long way off, but it's not too early to plan on hitting the

road and hearing great music. From bucolic college campuses in New England to musical rafting trips down the

Colorado, these are 10 of the most intriguing classical festivals.

MOAB MUSIC FESTIVAL Aug. 28-Sept. 8, Moab, Utah

It's tough to beat the scenery at the Moab Music Festival. The organizers like to think of their festival as "music

in concert with the landscape." Where else can you hear chamber music in a red rock grotto amid immaculate

wilderness or take a four-day, three-night musical rafting trip down the Colorado River? This year, a few

geographical themes emerge, including a nod to England with Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial By Jury and Britten's

English Folk Songs and a Polish/Russian exploration of music by Chopin, Mieczysław Weinberg and the

excellent but little known Grażyna Bacewicz. Mercurial Colombian jazz harpist Edmar Castañeda makes the

trek with his quartet.

Top Summer Events of 2017

Don’t miss our editors’ picks for the season’s best happenings for foodies, art buffs, music lovers, and more

Moab Music Festival, Moab, UT, Aug 31–Sep 11

The rocks star at the Moab Music Festival. Chamber, jazz, and

folk bands all sound pitch-perfect tucked into the grottoes of

Utah’s rust-colored desert. One program lets listeners raft down

the Colorado River, stopping for music and fireside dining.

Moab Music Festival marks 25 years of music

among the rocks

Another season of “music in concert with the landscape” is opening next week.

(Lynn R. Johnson | Special to the Tribune) Harumi Rhodes performs during a music hike at the 2016 Moab Music Festival. The

festival's 25th season opens this coming week.

By Catherine Reese Newton August 26, 2017

Moab was “kind of a little ghost town,” on the brink of coming into its own as a recreation destination, when

Michael Barrett happened through on his way to Santa Fe, N.M., in 1991. The pianist and conductor was drawn

to the place instantly; he returned with his wife, violist Leslie Tomkins, the next year.

“I became completely smitten in a way that was hard to ignore,” Tomkins said. “Something about the rocks and

landscape spoke to me in a way I hadn’t experienced.” The couple had toyed with the idea of starting a music

festival, and Moab felt like the perfect spot for it.

In those days, faxing was considered cutting-edge technology, and program proofs had to be sent back and forth

by FedEx. Nowadays, festival business can be conducted in real time, no matter how far-flung the parties may

be. “That really underscores the duration and what 25 years have meant,” Tomkins said.

The Moab Music Festival presented five concerts in 1993, its first season. The 25th season, which starts in the

coming week, offers more than 20 events, most of them outdoors. Some of the most popular concerts take place

in spots that are accessible only via a jet boat or a rigorous hike.

Barrett said he and Tomkins always have sought to grow the festival slowly and organically. “We weren’t

trying to create another Aspen in Moab,” he said. “We wanted it appropriately sized to the town.”

Some things have been constant — a focus on education, a connection with the environment, a prominent

presence for living composers. Barrett is particularly pleased to have mentored Juantio Becenti, a self-taught

Navajo composer from Montezuma Creek who has been associated with the festival more than half his life.

Meeting and talking with a local composer whose works have premiered in New York sends a powerful

message to area schoolchildren, Barrett and Tomkins believe.

The New York-based couple also were determined not to just parachute in for a couple of weeks a year, but to

foster a feeling of ownership among Moab’s residents. “It’s their music festival, their community,” Barrett said.

He and Tomkins spend three months of the year at their Moab home, and the festival has a year-round office in

town, with three full-time staffers. Most of the board members are local as well. Barrett and Tomkins perform

on about half the concerts, and Barrett acts as host of each one.

Richard Bowditch | Courtesy The Moab Music Festival returns for its 25th season this coming week.

This year’s opening-night concert marks the festival’s milestone year with music written by 25-year-old

composers, from Mozart to Bernstein to festival artist Tessa Lark. “Twenty-five is really young,” Barrett said.

“Remembering what you were like when you were 25 … is an energetic way to celebrate, instead of ‘How did

we get so old?’ ”

Barrett also will use the occasion to kick off a centennial celebration of his mentor, Leonard Bernstein, who was

born Aug. 25, 1918. This year’s festival ends with a salute to the legendary composer-conductor-pianist. Barrett

was Bernstein’s conducting assistant and rehearsal pianist for the last six years of the elder musician’s life.

Jamie Bernstein will narrate the concert dedicated to her father’s work. She’s been an enthusiastic supporter of

the Moab Music Festival since Day 1, proudly reporting that she’s missed only three seasons (no easy feat for a

mom living in New York, she said). She loves bringing festival newcomers on the car journey from Grand

Junction, Colo., to Moab and watching their reactions. “It’s a combination of an earful and eyeful like you’ve

never had in your life.”

Between those two mileposts are an eclectic mix of concerts featuring the Brazilian-flavored Requinte Trio, the

Cuban dance music of the Pedrito Martinez Group and more.

“I love to try to get people to cross the taste line,” Barrett said. Some listeners might consider chamber music

“too brainy, too elitist, too blah blah blah.” But they might be willing to go hear banjo virtuosos Béla Fleck and

Abigail Washburn or jazz pianist Marcus Roberts — and they might end up saying, “I had no idea I liked that

kind of music so much.”

LEISURE & ARTS

Red-Rock Music

By CORINNA DA FONSECA-WOLLHEIM

Moab, Utah

Nestled along the Colorado River and wedged between the Arches and Canyonlands national parks, the town of Moab

mostly draws visitors in search of extremes. Mountain bikers test their mettle on the bone-jarring Slickrock Trail; off-road

4x4s with outlandishly big tires crawl up petrified sand dunes; flocks of Cessnas drop skydivers over the baking-hot

desert.

Yet for two weeks a year, this adrenaline-fueled town makes room for a small crowd of classical-music lovers and out-of-

town musicians who come here for a series of concerts that explore more subtle extremes of intimacy with nature—and

silence.

Richard Bowditch

Held in a grotto on the banks of the Colorado River, the Moab Music Festival runs through Sept. 10.

On a recent early afternoon, horn soloist Eric Ruske stood on a ledge at the back of a red-rock grotto on the

banks of the Colorado, playing the folk-inflected "Horn Call" by Norwegian composer Sigurd Berge. In

between phrases he paused briefly, waiting for the echo to toss his notes back at him from the other side of the

river.

The audience of about 80 had arrived in a fleet of open jetboats, then scrambled up a steep, sandy embankment,

pushing aside drooping willow branches, to reach the grotto. Some had climbed up onto the natural tiers formed

by the waters that rush down the grotto in springtime; most settled down in the black canvas chairs that had

been set up in curving rows opposite a Steinway grand piano. The tech crew had brought the instrument down-

river earlier that morning, but by the time pianist Pedja Muzijevic sat down to play the first notes of Franz

Schubert's Trio in E flat it was already covered in a thin film of red dust. Next to him, violinist Jennifer

Frautschi and cellist Tanya Tomkins played barefoot, digging their toes into the rust-colored sand. In the third

movement, marked "Scherzando," a Cactus Wren chimed in with a metronomelike call that was stubbornly at

odds with Schubert's tempo.

Of the dozens of concerts presented each season, the grotto concerts best embody the Moab Music Festival's

motto of "music in concert with nature." Michael Barrett, a pianist and the festival's music director, says it's

more than the visual appeal that makes the dramatic landscape of Navajo sandstone so apt for chamber music.

"It's the purest acoustics I've ever found," he says. "Part of it is that it's so quiet. The grotto is protected: There's

no electricity, no air conditioning, no buzzing from the lights, no siren four blocks away. John Cage said that

there's no such thing as silence, but this is as close as you can get."

When Mr. Barrett and his wife, violist Leslie Tomkins (sister of cellist Tanya), now the festival's artistic

director, first visited Moab more than 20 years ago, the New Yorkers had been playing with ideas for a summer

chamber-music festival for some time. "The power of the rocks and the landscape affected me very strongly,"

Ms. Tomkins says. "What we musicians deal in is a humanly rendered form of beauty. And to try to have that

human expression of beauty in the surroundings of incredible natural beauty seemed a way to celebrate it and be

a part of it."

In the recent grotto concert, she played in the concluding Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor, when a gusty

breeze battled the dozens of clothespins that were holding the sheet music in place. "It takes a lot to work

there," she says. "The sound for the audience is gorgeous—but for the players there's not a lot of reverberation,

so it's very revealing. But you also have the luxury of playing really quietly and being heard."

Ms. Tomkins says it takes a certain "hardy" kind of musician to put up with the challenges of a grotto concert.

Performers take an early boat down-river in hot weather; pianist Eric Zivian, a Moab regular, sometimes

mountain bikes. There is no Green Room, although two separate sets of bushes have been designated as the

men's and women's changing areas. Once the audience arrives, there can be no more warming up, in order not to

break the special silence. Precious instruments—one year the grotto played host to two Stradivarius violins and

one Guarneri—are exposed to the elements.

"One year we did the Trout Quintet [by Schubert] and the wind blew up," Ms. Tomkins says. "After every

movement the crew would run up and pull a tarp over the piano and we'd hide the instruments under the tarp.

And then it stopped sprinkling and we'd continue. We call that Extreme Chamber Music."

The festival also offers hikes to specially chosen locations with good acoustics and shade, where short programs

are then performed. Other concerts take place in tents set up on ranches and back-country scenic spots, and in

Moab's intimate Star Hall, with intermissions timed to sunset. "It's completely different from the way we've

been trained to present music and to experience music," Mr. Barrett says.

It's also an experience that draws performers and audiences closer together. The recent grotto concert began

with a moment of reverential silence, compromised only by the metallic rustling of a breeze in the willows and

broken, eventually, by the sound of Mr. Ruske's horn.

"The grotto is our church," says Mr. Barrett. "We're not very religious people, but we are when we are there. It's

humbling. It's difficult to perform there, but you are sharing something so pure with people that you take your

ego away and try and stay with the music."

Moab

Utah is well-known for its rust red rock formations and the Moab Music Festival in Utah, left, takes full

advantage of this natural setting — sandstone makes for some impressive acoustics. The festival offers intimate

concert experiences with jazz, Latin and world music performances happening among the rocky outcrops and

caverns.

When? September

Where? Moab, Utah

How to get there? The closest airport is Salt Lake City, a four and a half hour drive.

www.moabmusicfest.org

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Dworkin & Company

Elizabeth Dworkin,elizabeth@dworkincompany.com

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