NEHMA Museum + Music; Imagining Community: Logan 1948-49

Caine Performance Hall, USU Campus

This year, Museum + Music explores different conceptions of “community” suggested by the intersection of visual art and music. The first concert considers the artistic life of Cache Valley, and Utah in general, immediately after the Second World War. In 1948 Roy Harris, who was one of the preeminent composers of American classical music at the time, and his wife Johana, a virtuoso pianist with a career in her own right, accepted positions at Utah State Agricultural College (now Utah State University). During their brief stay they contributed to a burgeoning cultural scene, much of which was fostered by New Deal programs. By juxtaposing music composed and performed by the Harrises with contemporaneous visual art created in the state, a picture begins to emerge of Utah’s cultural landscape reflecting a period of immense change.This concert is guest-curated by Dr. Rika Asai, a Faculty Associate in the USU Department of Music.