Moab Music Festival
The Moab Music Festival is an annual outdoor classical music festival located in and around the scenic red rock country of Moab, Utah.
The Moab Music Festival was founded in 1992 by Michael Barrett and Leslie Tomkins, professional musicians based in New York who have a love for the red rock country of southeastern Utah. According to Michael, “Creating the Festival allows us to combine two of the major passions of our lives—our love of great music beautifully performed and the tremendous beauty of the Moab area.” Since its inception, the Festival has remained true to Michael and Leslie’s original dream: to marry world class performances of music with the spectacular landscape of the Utah canyonlands region and to bring musical opportunities to the Moab community, particularly to its children.
The Festival is noted for its distinctive programming, unique among Festivals. While classical chamber music remains the mainstay of the Festival, other types of music – traditional folk music, jazz, vocal music, and the music of living composers—are also part of the repertoire.
Each season the Festival has a distinguished Composer-in-Residence whose music is highlighted in several concerts and who is present to discuss his/her work. Past Composers-In-Residence include Carla Kihlstedt, Richard Danielpour, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Lou Harrison.
Over the course of the Festival’s history, close to 150 professional, world-class musicians of outstanding caliber have performed. Many of the principal Festival musicians return year after year, arranging busy touring schedules around their desire to make music in the Moab landscape and to engage with the other musicians and with Festival audiences. Each year also brings new musicians, many of who become “regulars” because of the unique experience of Moab and the Festival.
In 2002, the Moab Music Festival received the Utah Arts Council’s 2002 Governor’s Award in the Arts in the category of Arts Organizations. And in early 2004, The Festival was awarded the 2003 First Prize for “Adventurous Programming” in the Music Festivals category by ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Artists, and Publishers).
The main Festival “season” is a three-week period in early September embracing the Labor Day holiday. Up to a dozen concerts are scheduled in a variety of indoor and outdoor venues in Moab. Certainly the most spectacular of these venues is a grotto 30 miles down the Colorado River from Moab. Three special benefit concerts during the Season take patrons downriver by motorized boat to enjoy the stunning visual beauty and acoustical splendor of this site. In addition, there is a benefit concert at one the many attractive homes in the Moab area.
In addition to the “main season” in September, the Moab Music Festival also has a very unique benefit event in early June: a four-day/three night rafting trip down the Colorado River with music concerts in selected sites.
During the Moab Music Festival in September, the Festival’s Education Outreach Program provides a special educational concert at each Grand County School (two elementary schools, one middle school, one high school, and one charter school). A group of the visiting musicians – including the Festival’s Music Director—perform works appropriate to the children and provide a tutorial about the music, instruments, and the process of becoming a musician. The Education Outreach Program reaches each child in the Grand County School District. Thanks to the generosity of the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney Foundation, in 2002-2003, renowned clarinetist/ saxophonist/ composer Eric Thomas spent significant time in Moab as Artist-in-Residence. Working with the schools, the Moab Arts and Recreation Center, and the Moab Repertory Theater, Eric offered music courses of varying levels to both children and adults, assisted the Moab Community Chorus and conducted a variety of small ensemble workshops for teens and adults interested in music. He provided help to local composers and helped showcase their work during the Music Festival. He also was the host of a regular classical music radio show on the community public radio station KZMU.
The Festival – which is a 501 (c)(3) tax exempt non-profit organization -- is governed by a Board of Trustees. In addition, there is a small professional and volunteer permanent staff.