CONTEMPORARY MUSIC CONSORTIUM, First Unitarian Church, Thursday.

The Contemporary Music Consortium opened its 20th anniversary season Thursday night as part of the First Unitarian Church's new concert series, "First Thursdays at the First Unitarian."

The program focused on the lyrical side of late 20th- and early 21st-century music. All of the works that were played were tonally centered, with some being unabashedly romantic. While the program certainly wasn't as stylistically diverse as most CMC concerts tend to be, it showed that tonalism is still a stylistic trend for many younger composers.

Current CMC co-directors Jeffrey Price and Laurel Ann Maurer have made it a point to perform music by local composers, and Thursday there were two Utahns represented, Stan Funicelli and Ann Hankinson.

Funicelli, who besides being a talented composer is also a fine guitarist, opened the concert with four short pieces that showed the range and scope of his music and his playing.

His Prelude, based on J.S. Bach's famous C Major Prelude from the "Well Tempered Klavier," is a rich chordal study almost sensual in its texture.

"Soliloquy" and "Pavane," on the other hand, are somber and dark toned, while the Etude No. 1, subtitled "Stormsong," is a virtuosic and colorful outburst.

Hankinson's "Three Places in Utah," for violin and piano, started off the second half of the concert. Violinist Jennifer Bogart and pianist Jed Moss gave a dynamic reading of the piece that captured the nuances wonderfully — from the fluid expressiveness of "Little Cottonwood," to the dramatic power of "The Wasatch," to the intensely emotional and moving "Lament." Moss was also the pianist for Carson P. Cooman's Sonata for Flute and Piano, this time with Maurer.

While the piece itself is rather insipid and repetitive, Maurer and Moss gave a performance that was anything but dull. They brought life to the piece in their vibrant and dynamic interpretation.

Maurer and Moss are wonderful collaborators. Her luminous playing and his perceptiveness complement each other superbly. Moss is one of the finest pianists in Utah, and whenever he performs it adds a new dimension to the music.

The same can be said of Maurer and Bogart's insight and sensitivity in their playing.

There was one other piece by Cooman on the program, his "Distant Glittering Orbs" for alto flute, which he dedicated to Maurer. She played the evocative piece with wondrous expressiveness, feeling and seamless phrasings.

Besides the Hankinson piece, Bogart also soloed in Christopher Marshall's "Woman Rising," which received its world premiere at this concert. While the piece itself is an exercise in romanticism and sentimentality, Bogart thankfully played it with restrained passion and understatement.

The only other work was Meyer Kupferman's delightfully brash and vivid "Tanktotem II" for piccolo.

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