Festivals are high note of Utah musical scene

Looking back over the past 12 months, music festivals turned out to be the big attention-getters of 2004. There were a few surprises along the way, to be sure, but topping the list of newsworthy items during the past year were three festivals.

The Park City International Music Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary during the summer. The oldest music festival in Utah — and one of the oldest in the country — the Park City festival has been a mainstay on the chamber-music scene for two decades. Co-directors Leslie and Russell Harlow have had a vision about what a chamber music festival ought to be, and they've managed to turn that vision into reality.

The Harlows have consistently offered their audiences the best in chamber music — both in terms of repertoire and guest artists. Their programs are a wonderful blend of standard literature and works that are now forgotten or infrequently played.

And the artists the Harlows bring to the mountain resort each year are among the country's finest chamber musicians, and they put as much passion and dedication into their playing as the Harlows. This successful marriage of music and musicians has proven its longevity.

An avid film buff, Leslie Harlow has for several years toyed with the idea of starting a new festival devoted to film music. This finally came to fruition in January with the inaugural season of the Park City Film Music Festival. An annual event that overlaps the final week of the Sundance Film Festival, Harlow's festival focuses on the impact music has on films, and it's one of the first of its kind in the United States. Starting with next year's festival (Jan. 20-30, 2005), Harlow will expand it to include seminars, workshops and concerts.

Another festival debuted this year. In July, Utah Symphony & Opera unveiled its new Deer Valley Music Festival. The festival can't avoid comparisons to the Boston Symphony's Tanglewood Festival. There are some similarities, to be sure, as well as some differences.

But in order for it to succeed, DVMF will have to stand on its own merits and not be thought of as Tanglewood West. With the Deer Valley festival, US&O CEO Anne Ewers hopes to compete for a national audience with established festivals such as Aspen and Marlboro. Whether or not this will happen still remains to be seen, but Deer Valley certainly has the potential to do that.