The Salt Lake Vocal Artists

Seeing the renowned Salt Lake Vocal Artists in concert was a truly amazing experience. Their sound is clear and full of expression. It was an honor to observe and meet Dr. Brady Allred, an accomplished conductor, conductor of the group, and one of my personal inspirations. They performed such a variety of music: starting with an organ-accompanied C. Hubert H. Parry piece, to Bach, to Bob Chilcott’s “The Singing Heart” and Marcin Wawruk’s Spanish piece “Ceciliada” with percussion. They then sang a beautiful world premiere of Larry Nickel’s “I Cannot Dance.” After that piece, they performed my personal favorite of the concert: Eriks Esenvalds “Stars,” which was performed with both water glasses and singing bowls. I’ve never seen singing bowls before, but they have a very similar sound to the water glasses—they are a traditional Tibetan instrument. These unique instruments created an unbelievable ethereal atmosphere, along with the Salt Lake Vocal Artists' voices. After this piece, they sang Jake Runestad’s “Alleluia” and Vladimir Martynov’s “The Beatitudes.”

The concert was nothing short of incredible, and I am so glad to have been able to share it with my friend Juliana! We went up to Dr. Allred afterwards and I told him what an inspiration he has been to me as an aspiring choral conductor. Dr. Allred was so kind and it was such an honor to meet him. Here’s a picture of the two of us!

-Sunhwa Reiner (Junior and ICACDA President-Elect)