USU Art Museum Collaborates With USU Music Students for Live Exhibition Performance

LOGAN, Utah — The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art will present the New Music Museum Walkthrough Concert in collaboration with students in the Utah State University Department of Music. Attendees can walk through the museum while listening to live performances, with each piece uniquely composed by students and inspired by the displayed artwork. The event will start at 6 p.m. Nov. 25 at NEHMA.

The New Music Museum Walkthrough aims to enrich the audience’s experience by combining visual and auditory arts.

“It will be a richer experience,” said Piano and Composition Professor Kevin Olson. “It allows music students to internalize a medium they're not as familiar with. They study music all day and all week. Visual arts are a little bit outside their wheelhouse, and they must really start to wrap their head around what that medium is saying and how they can represent it in their own style.”

Music students enrolled in a composition seminar have dedicated all semester to composing and fine-tuning the original works that will be showcased.

“It's a nice way for students to set a goal in a class, a course requirement, and to get to the finish line on a piece and then end up with a world premiere,” Kevin Olson said.

The exhibit currently in the NEHMA is June Harwood Painting Exhibition & 1960s Hard-Edge Painting. The music will vary from dissonant and abstract to emotionally constant, which aligns with the abstract art exhibition on display.

“This new music concert will be especially exciting because of the musical connection to art. Premieres bring special energy when coming to life with visual art,” said Campbell Helton, a second-year student at USU majoring in piano performance and composition.

Along with Helton, composers include Rebecca Farmer, Luke Waite, Jessie Bladen and eight others.

Rebecca Farmer drew inspiration from the university's history, connecting with its rich artistic legacy.

“I am stoked for the new music recital because I am premiering a piece that was inspired by an artist who went to USU in 1924,” said Farmer, a fourth-year student majoring in music with an emphasis in composition.

The New Music Museum Walkthrough Concert is free and open to the public with no ticket required.