The Gifted Music School of Salt Lake City

Musicians aged 7 to 17 from the Gifted Music School in Salt Lake City Utah join us for Highway 89’s annual Young Artists Highlight.  The Gifted Music School has received recognition and awards from the Salt Lake Community, as well as national attention from NPR’s “From the Top” program. The Gifted Music curriculum combines choir, solfège, theory, music history, orchestra, and master class training with instrument instruction. It’s a unique program in the United States and is comparable to programs of the same name in Russia, China, Korea, Venezuela, and Japan.  Eugene Watanabe is the director and founder of the Gifted Music School and, beyond merely teaching talented musicians, is an accomplished musician himself. In his youth he soloed with the Utah Symphony and won numerous piano competitions, he then attended the Curtis Institute of Music and was the 1st student to ever graduate from there with degrees in two instruments: violin and piano. Since then he’s performed all throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe and was very proud to share some of the hard work of his students with us tonight.  Host: Bruce Seely  Repertoire: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 – Johannes Sebastian Bach; Sonatina #3 (4th mvt) – Franz Schubert; Meditation from “Thaïs” – Jules Massanet; Étude - Felix Blumenfeld; Meditation – Leopold Godowski; Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso – Camille Saint Saens;  Follow Highway 89 on twitter @byuh89