The sweet sounds of the Young Artist Chamber Players – one of Utah’s premiere youth orchestras – will soon fill the air of Carbon County. On Thursday, March 13, the group hosts a free concert at Mont Harmon Middle School. Founder and conductor Jack Ashton joined the KOAL Newsroom to promote the event and preview what the community can expect from the concert.
“The Young Artist Chamber Players is a string ensemble of some of the finest string players along the Wasatch Front,” explained Ashton. We even occasionally have some from Park City and Utah Valley. We play repertoire from the very best and some of the hardest music that’s ever been played professionally. We meet weekly in Salt Lake, then present concerts in Westminster and Central Utah.”
Founded in 1985, the YACP has traveled statewide and abroad from Price to the Czech Republic. Ashton reflected on this travel and described his favorite part of being with the group: ” It’s invigorating, but I love the music and the sound. I love to watch them and listen to them and see the experience that they’re having when they do well. That really helps me to feel like this is worthwhile.”
With classical music slowly being phased out of the public eye, Ashton spoke on the importance of spreading this music to communities,” I think it’s important because in the present day, there’s so many distractions that we focus on only the present and look forward to the future. And we’re so caught up in so many things that are important to us, sports, education and socializing and so forth. But the problem is, in doing so, we often lose track of the importance of the past and the great things that have been done in the past by men of great genius.”
Ashton added,” That’s one of the reasons for doing it for the young people. In their violin and string learning, they don’t usually focus on the idioms of the present rock and new-age music. They enjoy it, but they need to know where this came from and hear music from those different periods so that their life can be enriched. And it kind of is like good ideas that were fed into young people, and they’re fed in again and again. And as they get older, they recognize and can separate the good and the excellent work from trivia.”
Moving to the March 13 concert, Ashton previewed what attendees can expect,” we’re going to play music from all different eras. We’ll play some from the 18th century by Albinoni and maybe Vivaldi. And then we’ll play some from the Romantic period, Rossini. Then we have our special big piece called ‘Fantasia on the Theme’ by Thomas Tallis, who was a composer in the Elizabethan age and whose hymns are still sung in many churches. However, that particular theme by Ralph Vaughan Williams in the 20th century is written into a beautiful, dark piece that lasts about 10 minutes. And then we’re going to play ‘Rodeo’ by Aaron Copland and maybe a fun piece called the ‘Pizzicato Polka’ by Strauss from the 19th century, which are entertaining pieces and more lively and shorter.”
In closing, Ashton shared,” I love Price and that area. I came there with the Utah Symphony for many years, and I’ve always liked Price. The people in Price have been so receptive, so we’re looking forward to it.”
The Young Artist Chamber Players will perform at Mont Harmon Middle School on Thursday, March 13, starting at 7 p.m. Admission to this event is free and open to the public.