ArtSci at USU: February Events Preview

February at Utah State University is alive with creativity, inquiry and collaboration across the College of Arts & Sciences. From concerts, exhibitions and theatrical productions to lectures, workshops and public science events, ArtSci’s February lineup reflects the breadth of disciplines that shape learning and discovery at USU. Read below for more details about these coming events, and subscribe to the weekly events reminder email.

African American Read-In

Feb. 5, 12, 19, & 26, 11:30 a.m.

Mehdi Heravi Global Teaching and Learning Center, Room 201 (Carolyn Tanner Irish Pavilion)

Join the USU Department of English for the annual African American Read-In. This year we will be reading "James" by Percival Everett. Obtain a copy of the text and read along with us. We will have weekly, in-person reading groups throughout the month of February to discuss the text. Everyone is welcome.

Brynne Berry Cello Recital

Feb.6, 7:30 p.m.

Family Life Building, Room 212 (Caine Room)

Cellist Brynne Berry will be performing a brief recital comprised of Three Pieces for Cello and Piano by Nadia Boulanger and Variations on a Rococo Theme by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky accompanied by pianists Eliza LeFevre and Lynn Keisker.

Paper & Clay Exhibition

Feb. 9–March 6, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

Tippetts & Eccles Galleries

Paper & Clay is a national juried exhibition open to all current undergraduate and graduate printmaking and ceramic students across the country. This year’s exhibition showcases 70 exceptional contemporary student works from over 20 various academic institutions. This year’s juror is ceramic artist Kevin Snipes.

USU Art Song Competition

Feb. 9, 7:30 p.m.

Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall

In collaboration with the USU Voice and Piano Departments, and as part of USU’s Songfest ’25-26, USU Music presents the first ever Art Song Competition. Art song is a classical vocal composition, for a solo singer and piano, that sets a poem to music; creates an intimate fusion of poetry and music for concert performance. Songs will be presented in German, French, Italian, Russian and/or Czech. The winning singer and winning pianist will each receive a scholarship for the ’26-’27 school year. This exciting event is free and open to the public.

Ceramics Guild Annual Mug Sale

Feb. 11, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Taggart Student Center, Sunburst & International Lounges

This sale includes mugs and cups made by current Art + Design ceramic students.

ArtSci Faculty in Focus: Matt Young (Mathematics & Statistics)

Feb. 11, 12 p.m.

Eccles Science Learning Center, Room 245B

The ArtSci Faculty in Focus series celebrates the breadth of faculty expertise in the College of Arts & Sciences, showcasing faculty achievements in research/creative work and teaching. Matt Young (Assistant Professor, Mathematics & Statistics) will be featured, sharing his research and mentorship.

USU Spanish Club

Feb. 12, 19, & 26, 4:30 p.m.

Mehdi Heravi Global Teaching and Learning Center, Room 270

¿Te gusta hablar español? Join the USU Spanish Club. We meet weekly to socialize, play games and explore Hispanic culture — all in Spanish. Our goal is to provide a relaxed, inclusive space for casual Spanish conversation, regardless of skill level.

Jazz Nights at Elite Hall

Feb. 12–14, 6 p.m.

Elite Hall: 98 W Main St, Hyrum, UT 84319

Join us February 12–14 for this annual fundraiser to support two great causes: The Larry Smith Jazz Scholarship and The Elite Hall Restoration Fund. Throw yourself back to the roaring 20's and experience live music, dinner, and dancing on Utah's only spring-loaded dance floor.

Dance lessons included starting at 6:00 pm. Live music from the USU Jazz Ensembles and general dancing from 7-10:15 p.m.

Optional catered dinner from Firehouse Pizza is available on Friday and Saturday night from 7-8:30 p.m. Pre-purchase of dinner tickets is strongly encouraged.

FSQ at USU 2025-26 Series: The Crossing Point

Feb. 12, 7:30 p.m.

Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall

The Long Arc

Program:

W.A. Mozart | StringQuartet in E-flat Major, K. 428

Leoš Janácek | String Quartet No. 1 “Kreutzer Sonata”

Ludwig van Beethoven | String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131

The final concert of the season reaches back — not as escape, but as remembrance.

These works span classical elegance, psychological rupture and transcendent modernity. Mozart offers luminous clarity. Janácek brings stormy, uncontained passion. And Beethoven’s late quartet stands like a mountain at the edge of time — defiant, searching and radiant with radical tenderness.

Together, this program honors the lineage of the string quartet as a space of intensity and transformation. These composers, in their own eras, were each asking: What is possible within four voices?

The Fry Street Quartet asks the same.

This concert roots the season in resonance, community and the long arc of wisdom through sound.

Merry Wives of Windsor

Feb. 13, 14, 17-20, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 14, 21, 1 p.m.

"Falstaff decides to fix his financial woe by seducing the wives of two wealthy merchants. The wives find he sent them identical letters and take revenge by playing tricks on Falstaff when he comes calling. With the help of their husbands and friends, the wives play one last trick in the woods to put Falstaff's mischief to an end."

—Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Ages 6 and up

Haydn's Missa in Angustiis (Lord Nelson Mass)

Feb. 13, 7:30 p.m.

St. John's Episcopal Church: 85 E 100 N, Logan, UT 84321

Presenting one of Haydn's greatest choral masterpieces, the Lord Nelson Mass–a fiery and spirited work he called his Mass for Troubled Times. This performance features the original, striking orchestration performed by a chamber orchestra, and a 16-voice choir made up of USU students & community members.

Reveron Piano Trio - CMSL

Feb. 17, 7:30 p.m.

Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall

The Reverón Piano Trio introduces audiences to underrepresented music from Latin America alongside contemporary and standard repertoire. Seasoned artists, they are active promoters of Latin American music through their work as scholars and entrepreneurs. “...after listening to you play, one feels an urgent desire to write more music.” — Miguel del Águila, Grammy-nominated composer

ArtSci Faculty in Focus: Alvaro Ibarra (Art + Design)

Feb. 18, 12:30 p.m.

Eccles Science Learning Center, Room 245D

The ArtSci Faculty in Focus series celebrates the breadth of faculty expertise in the College of Arts & Sciences, showcasing faculty achievements in research/creative work and teaching. Alvaro Ibarra (Assistant Professor, Art + Design) will be featured, sharing his research and mentorship.

Jazz Jams

Feb. 18, 7 p.m.

Taggart Student Center, Hub (Moonlight Stage)

Each Jazz Jams session will showcase the Caine Jazz Combo, a special guest artist, and talented jazz students from the Music Department, all performing timeless jazz standards. Whether you're an enthusiast or a musician, you're invited to be part of the action — bring your instrument and join the jam session.

Jazz Jams will take place at the Hub Stage on the first floor of the Taggart Student Center. Don't miss this chance to experience great music and collaborate with fellow jazz lovers.

Tanner Talk with Dustin Edwards: Data in the Desert: Locating Digital Damage in Time, Place, and Culture

Feb. 19, 4 p.m.

Mehdi Heravi Global Teaching and Learning Center, Room 201 (Carolyn Tanner Irish Pavilion)

Edwards is a digital rhetoric scholar who attends to the material, infrastructural, and, increasingly, geological dimensions of rhetoric. In particular, his scholarly monograph Enduring Digital Damage: Rhetorical Reckonings for Planetary Survival (published by University of Alabama Press) articulates and performs a story-based approach that accounts for the entangled damages (ecological, climatic, colonial) of large-scale digital infrastructures. Following digital damage to two places in New Mexico (a Meta data center in Los Lunas and a copper mine in Grant County), the project examines how digital rhetoric is intimately woven to extractive industries. The stories of “the digital” told throughout the book unfold along multiple, often unexpected, threads: water rights, climate patterns, chronic illnesses, forced relocations, species extinctions, conditions of environmental racism, and much more. Yet by posing the question of what happens after damage, the book also amplifies stories of refusal, resistance, and brilliant invention that insist this world can be otherwise.

Symphonic Band and Wind Symphony

Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m.

Daines Concert Hall

Concerts are part of the band large ensemble curriculum. As capstone events, they typically occur twice per semester. Students are required to participate in these events as a large part of their grades, and these concerts are the culmination of several weeks of classroom rehearsals. All concerts are associated with one or more of the band ensembles: MUSC 4700 Wind Orchestra MUSC 3795 Wind Symphony MUSC 3790 Symphonic Band MUSC 3785 Marching Band.

Continuing Education: Bridging Social Work and Peacebuilding

Feb. 20, 12 p.m.

Online/Virtual

Join the Transforming Communities Institute on from noon to 1:30 p.m. Feb. 20 for this free Continuing Education opportunity. This session is presented by Amanda Ford, LCSW & Julie Stevens, LCSW. Participants will receive 1.5 CEU after attending and completing the post-event evaluation.

Active Decision-Making Workshop

Feb. 20, 12:30 p.m.

Mehdi Heravi Global Teaching and Learning Center, Room 201 (Carolyn Tanner Irish Pavilion)

Learn how your mind works when making decisions. Explore a research-backed tool that helps clear distractions, strengthen focus, and improve decision-making. This is a 90-minute interactive workshop that includes a free lunch.

Science Unwrapped — Microplastic Taxis for Microbes

Feb. 20, 7 p.m.

Eccles Science Learning Center Auditorium, Room 130

Inquiring minds of all ages are invited to Science Unwrapped, the free, public outreach program of USU's College of Arts and Sciences. Our events begin with a brief presentation and are followed by hands-on learning activities and refreshments. At our Feb. 20 event: Plastics are everywhere in our modern world, providing convenience for packaging, clothing, furnishings, infrastructure and the many consumer products that make our lives easier. But plastic waste, which breaks down into small particles, is making its way into our air, soils, water, food — and into our bodies — all of which can harm our health and environment. USU environmental engineers Akib Al Mahir and Joanna (Liyuan) Hou are studying how microplastics interact with varied microbes in wastewater. Some of these microbes are beneficial and can break down microplastics. Others are harmful to humans and the environment. Akib and Joanna are exploring how microplastics behave like “tiny Uber drivers” that can transport microbes in ways that are helpful and not helpful.

A Celtic Celebration with the American Festival Chorus & Orchestra

Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m.

Daines Concert Hall

Experience the charm and mysticism of Celtic music as AFCO is joined by guest soprano soloist Alex Sharpe and Celtic violinist Máiréad Nesbitt to bring the joy of Celtic music to Cache Valley. This family pops style concert will have you ready to dance a little jig as you delight in the sounds of Irish & Scottish folklore and tradition.

American Festival Chorus High School Choral Festival

Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m.

Daines Concert Hall

This exceptional evening of choral music will showcase the many outstanding young singers in our region, as the American Festival Chorus is joined by members of local high school choral programs and the USU Chamber Singers. Your spirits will lift as you listen to hundreds of melodious voices joined in song. Please join us in supporting our next generation of musical talent.

Logan Canyon Winds

Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m.

Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall

Logan Canyon Winds, the faculty wind quintet in residence at Utah State University, invites you to attend this free concert of delightful chamber music for woodwinds. Works by August Klughardt, Andrejs Jansons, Adrien Barthe, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are featured on this program. This concert is free to attend for audiences 7 and up, and there will also be a livestream for those unable to attend in person, which can be found on the Caine School of the Arts YouTube channel.

Living Winds: Joint Faculty Flute and Saxophone Recital

Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m.

Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall

Join woodwind faculty Jeiran Hasan, flute and Andrew Stonerock, saxophone collaborating with pianist Amy Glenn for an evening of repertoire by living composers including David Biedenbender, Dorothee Eberhardt, Reena Esmail, Russell Peterson, Ali Ryerson, Gary Schocker, and John Williams. This event is free and open to the public and will be livestreamed on the Caine School of the Arts YouTube channel.

Concerto Competition Winners' Concert

Feb. 25, 7:30 p.m.

Daines Concert Hall

The concert features winners of the annual concerto competition representing performers of many different specialties. Colorful repertoire featuring solo piano, cello, violin and saxophone with orchestra in works by master’s such Tchaikovsky, Brahms or Liszt will be performed alongside contemporary works including world premiere by student composer and solo pianist Adam Bowen.

Communitas Lecture Series: Kevin Snipes

Feb. 26, 5 p.m.

Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall

Kevin Snipes is a visual artist whose work primarily consists of an interplay of narrative drawings and hand-built porcelain constructions. He holds a BFA (1994) from the Cleveland Institute of Art and MFA (2004) from the University of Florida (2003).

Wind Orchestra

Feb. 27, 7:30 p.m.

Daines Concert Hall

Sasha Kasman Laude Recital

Feb. 27, 7:30 pm.

Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall

Assistant Professor of Piano Sasha Kasman Laude presents a solo recital including the music of Frédéric Chopin and Nikolai Medtner.

Origins: Songs by Music Therapy Majors

Feb. 28, 7:30 p.m.

Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall

This concert features an evening of original compositions written by individuals in the music therapy program. Each piece reflects the unique perspectives and relationships that shape their musical voices, emphasizing the human connection at the heart of music-making.