Madeleine Festival offers music for many tastes

Friday, Mar. 25, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY — The 2016 Madeleine Festival of the Arts & Humanities will present five performances that will run a riff from Bach to classic guitar, from Japanese drumming to Celtic jazz, and conclude with an operatic retelling of the biblical flood.

The diversity of music is intentional, said Patricia Wesson, director of development for the Cathedral of the Madeleine, which hosts the performances. 

“We’re an increasingly diverse parish and community, and we like the idea of exposing people to new performances,” she said. “After the Aztec dancers  and the Japanese drumming went over well last year, we wondered what else we could do.”

The result of that pondering is this year’s lineup of performers: classical guitarist Michael Lucarelli, the Japanese drummers of Kenshin Taiko, the Celtic jazz of Synkofa, and the Utah Baroque Ensemble, which specializes in the music of J.S. Bach.

The five-week festival will end, as is traditional, with a performance by the Choir of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, featuring the Choristers of the Madeleine Choir School, who will present the one-act opera “Noye’s Fludde” by Benjamin Britten.

The performance will include a large cast of children, many of whom will portray the animals that are loaded into Noah’s ark.

With the piece, Britten “set out to do something that combined professional musicians with amateur musicians, and in particular with children,” said Gregory Glenn, the cathedral’s director of liturgy and music. “It’s meant for performance within a church, not a concert hall, and it makes use of some of the traditional hymns that people know.”

Wesson recalled when the choir school performed “Noye’s Fludde” 10 years ago.

“That one was such a community effort,” she said. “Upwards of 200 people were involved.”

 The annual Madeleine Festival, which runs April 3 to May 1, is “in the Catholic cathedral tradition of making arts accessible to the community,” Wesson said. “We also want to share the cathedral and get people in our doors to enjoy it and feel its presence.”

The 2016 Madeleine Arts and Humanities Awards Dinner on April 28 at the Alta Club will honor Dr. Glenn Olsen, professor emeritus of medieval history at the University of Utah.

“His accomplishments are literally pages long,” Wesson said.

In addition to his academic career, Olsen is active in the community by volunteering his time by serving on the boards of directors for organizations such as the Madeleine Choir School and the diocesan arts and humanities commission.

For tickets to the awards dinner, which are $60, contact Wesson at pwesson@utcotm.org or 801-328-8941 x108.

April 3: Michael Lucarelli, classical guitar

April 10: Kenshin Taiko SLC, Japanese drumming

April 17: Synkofa, Celtic jazz

April 24: Utah Baroque Ensemble, fine choral music

May 1: The Choir of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, featuring the Choristers of the Madeleine Choir School, presenting Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde

All performances will begin at 8 p.m. in the Cathedral of the Madeleine, 309 . South Temple, SLC. 

Free and open to the public. 

For information, visit www.utcotm.org.

Two additional performances of “Noye’s Fludde” will be presented Friday, April 29, at 10:30 a.m. and 8 p.m.