The Moab Music Festival, from its inception, has been committed to music education and cultural enrichment in the Moab area. The Board and leadership of the festival is passionate about arts education locally and nationwide and works to reach all children in the Grand County Schools annually, providing year-round education and engagement program to support, advise, and supplement local music education for all ages.

Schedule:

Monday, August 22, 2022 - Wednesday, August 24, 2022

7:00am - 5:00pm: Westwater Canyon Musical Raft Trip
Lovers of music, outdoor adventure, and unforgettable scenery will find this three-day/two-night Musical Raft Trip to be the experience of a lifetime. Unparalleled views of towering canyon walls are the perfect backdrop for hiking, swimming, charming campsites, delicious food, and soaking in daily performances by Festival Artists. Rafters begin floating serenely through Ruby-Horsethief Canyons at the river’s leisurely pace.  Westwater Canyon then brings riveting whitewater fun where the Colorado River careens through ancient polished black and pink stone canyons.

Cost:$ 2, 200

Location: Ruby-Horsethief & Westwater Canyons

Ruby-Horsethief & Westwater Canyons on the Colorado River.

Orientation & departure location: Sheri Griffith River Expeditions (SGRE), 2231 US-191, Moab.

Orientation: Sunday, August 21, 4:00 pm, at SGRE

Departure: Monday, August 22, 7:00 am, from SGRE

Return: Wednesday, August 24, 5:00 pm. End time may vary.

Friday, August 26, 2022

7:00pm: Extreme Weather

Historic Star Hall, located in the center of Moab, is an ideal setting for chamber music, with excellent acoustics, wheelchair accessibility and air conditioning.

Concert Description: The weather has been in the news in recent years. Flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, and severe drought contributing to record-setting fires are now annual events. This extreme weather affects our decisions about where to live and where and when we might travel. This program looks at how composers have depicted weather in their work- (Beethoven’s “Pastorale”) and used weather as a metaphor for our emotional lives. If it is “raining in your heart,” your internal weather is causing melancholy and pain. Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” reminds us that April is the cruelest month, as the story of an ancient civilization ends in ritualistic human sacrifice to appease nature and ensure a good harvest.

Cost: $25

Location: Star Hall

Saturday, August 27, 2022

5:30pm: Floating Concert: Schubert on the Water

An open air river boat takes patrons several miles up the Colorado River to a spectacular concert  location literally on the river. Surrounded by towering canyon walls, patrons stay aboard to see Festival Artists perform the outdoor concert against a red rock backdrop. An early return allows for a relaxed evening following this magical experience.

Concert Description: Franz Schubert wrote dozens of songs specifically about rivers. We hear the promise of fresh fish, life-giving water, recreation, and beautiful respite from everyday drudgery through his musical lens. This Floating Concert,  which includes the “Trout” Quintet,  puts audiences on the Colorado River, the perfect setting to reflect on the promise of survival and romance that harkens back to the 19th-century admiration of the life-giving waterways. It’s a reverence we share in the drought-stricken Southwest.

Location: Colorado River

Cost: $125

Sunday, August 28, 2022

5:30pm: Music in the Meadow

Our newest outdoor venue is a secluded streamside meadow surrounded by red rock walls and dotted with cottonwood trees. The event includes great music in a memorable setting, refreshments, and light hors d’oeuvres.  

Concert Description: Music in concert with the landscape® describes the magic made by combining the red rock desert with pieces chosen especially for the surroundings. We can celebrate this spectacular new to us venue by performing two of our favorites. Mozart’s marvelous Duo for violin and viola, and Dvo?ák’s masterful Quintet for Strings. It’s one of the few pieces that incorporate the double bass, adding extra depth to the Czech national flavor that fills his music.

Location: Moab Wilderness

Cost: $100

Thursday, September 1, 2022

11:30am: Grotto Concert I

Take a jet boat ride down the Colorado River through spectacular red rock canyons to “nature’s own concert hall” (The New York Times) – an acoustically perfect wilderness Grotto carved from the surrounding red rock walls. Hear a program of works chosen specifically for the space, performed by the Festival’s world class artists. A light reception with the musicians precedes the glorious boat ride home.

Concert Description: Quartet for the End of Time remains one of the best-regarded musical creations of the 20th century. It is a serious work, written in a World War  II German prison camp, and seems to express Messiaen’s dire situation and suffering together with his Christian belief, beauty, hope, and his own vision of eternity. Messiaen’s spirituality and his faith in the human spirit prevail. Maurice Ravel’s primitivist Songs of Madagascar and Stravinsky’s magical early work for violin and piano, based on his first ballet, “The Fairy’s Kiss,” while no less daring for their time, predate Messiaen’s musical masterpiece.

Location: Colorado River Wilderness Grotto

Cost: $400

Friday, September 2, 2022

5:30pm: Ranch Benefit Concert

This scenic, historical working ranch beside the Colorado River is the perfect setting to enjoy drinks, a buffet-style dinner, and a lively concert. Dramatic fireworks illuminate the surrounding red rocks after the program (weather permitting).

Concert Description: The incredibly versatile violinist Tessa Lark teams up with legendary guitarist Frank Vignola to create an intimate musical experience unlike any other. Performing intricate original arrangements of classics that span from classical to jazz and old to new, the duo mixes elements of improvisation with their collective breadth of musical lineages resulting in a unique and unforgettably exciting performance.

Cost : $125

Location: Private Ranch

Saturday, September 3, 2022

7:00pm: Sunrise on Turtle Island: Contemporary Native American Voices

The Festival Stage and seating area are on the lawn at scenic Red Cliffs Lodge, overlooking the Colorado River and set against towering red rock walls, which blaze in the distance at sunset. This spectacular location and environs have appeared in numerous films and commercials, and there is a museum on-site honoring that heritage. You may well recognize the view!

Concert Description: Conductor and pianist Timothy Long (Muscogee, Thlopthlocco, Choctaw) curates and leads performances of three world premieres exploring the new generation of Native American composers. Dawn Avery (Mohawk), Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (Chickasaw), Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache), and Martha Redbone (Choctaw) bring their unique musical voices and their own stories of growing up in America with world premieres to this celebration of new and existing works. Turtle Island refers to the origin story of North America as a great turtle, on whose back we have built our civilizations. This concert honors our current Native American artists and acknowledges their ancestors whose land we now call America.

Location: Red Cliffs Lodge

Cost: $40

8:00am: Music Hike I: New Music in an Ancient Space

A guided scenic hike leads adventuresome concert-goers to a secluded canyon to enjoy music chosen to fit the setting. Among our most popular events, these scenic hikes offer unparalleled musical
intimacy and engagement with the artists.

Concert Description: Bang on a Can All-Stars bassist and new music champion Robert Black curates a program of living composers with world premieres for solo bassby Daniel Sabzghabiae and John Luther Adams, expressly written for the outdoor space where they’ll be  performed. The incomparable JACK Quartet and Festival Artists  join in with music by Julie Zhu, and John Adams’ groundbreaking  20th century classic Shaker Loops

Location: Moab Wilderness

Cost: $70

Sunday, September 4, 2022

8:00am: Music Hike II

A guided scenic hike leads adventuresome concert-goers to a secluded canyon to enjoy music chosen to fit the setting. Among our most popular events, these scenic hikes offer unparalleled musical intimacy and engagement with the artists.

Concert Description: Violist and composer Jessica Meyer leads a quintet in two of her engaging works for strings, including double bass. Native American composer and vocalist Martha Redbone sings from her catalog of latest songs, and Taiwanese composer Shih-Hui Chen’s ephemeral music for solo violin anchors this concert of today’s music.

Location Moab Wilderness

Cost: $70

7:00pm: Copland & the American West

The Festival Stage and seating area are on the lawn at scenic Red Cliffs Lodge, overlooking the Colorado River and set against towering red rock walls, which blaze in the distance at sunset. This spectacular location and environs have appeared in numerous films and commercials, and there is a museum on-site honoring that heritage. You may well recognize the view!

Concert Description:  Known in the 20th century as the “Dean of American Composers,” Aaron Copland created what we think of as the “western” sound. His music evokes lonely, wide-open spaces, the wilderness, and the rugged terrain we think of as the American West depicted by old Hollywood cowboy movies. Copland has a shared background with Billy the Kid. They were both born in Brooklyn, New York! But while the “Kid” went west, Copland stayed mainly on the east coast writing pieces like The Red Pony and his ballets Rodeo, Billy the Kid,” and Appalachian Spring.” He remains an important touchstone for his music, which captures the time before freeways and airplanes and evokes big western cities. Gerald Elias, known equally as an author of musical murder mysteries, a violinist, and a composer, shares two of his works with us about early settlers in the Moab area. Grandstaff is a brief portrait of William Grandstaff, who homesteaded and ranched at mile 3 on the River Road (Highway 128). Conversations With Essie is taken from Essie White’s oral history of her days running the White Ranch. This concert will be performed at the site of the White Ranch, known today as the Red Cliffs Lodge.

Location: Red Cliffs Lodge

Cost : $40

Monday, September 5, 2022

2:00pm: Rocky Mountain Power Community Concert: 30th Birthday Celebration

Moab’s Old City Park has beautiful shade trees, plenty of room to spread out on the lawn, and free parking! The Festival provides some seating at this family-friendly, free afternoon program, and concert-goers are encouraged to bring blankets or camp chairs. Picnics are welcome.

Concert Description: The 2022 Rocky Mountain Power Community Concert is our Moab Music Festival 30th birthday celebration, complete with cake! We present this annual free concert to thank the entire Moab community for their interest and support.  We look to appeal to a wide range of tastes different by playing lots of different styles of music, and this year is no exception. From the spectacular vocalism of Justin Austin- fresh from Lincoln Center’s hit Intimate Apparel -to Joseph Secody’s hoop dancing, to the wind virtuosity of Anthony and DeMarre McGill, we’ll cover much musical ground and give a sample of what you can hear at our other Festival concerts.

Thanks to our sponsor Rocky Mountain Power for their continued support!

Location:  Old City Park

Cost: Free

Thursday, September 8, 2022

11:30am: Grotto Concert II: Genius Prodigies

Take a jet boat ride down the Colorado River through spectacular red rock canyons to “nature’s own concert hall” (The New York Times) – an acoustically perfect wilderness Grotto carved from the surrounding red rock walls. Hear a program of works chosen specifically for the space, performed by the Festival’s world class artists. A light reception with the musicians precedes the glorious boat ride home.

Concert Description: Mozart and Mendelssohn, just a half-century apart in history, were both considered the most significant musical geniuses of their respective eras. Both were masters of their craft as pianists and composers by a very young age. Mozart’s work is regarded as the culmination of the Classical style, perfect in symmetry, balance, musical architecture, and good taste. Mendelssohn was a pathbreaker in melody, harmony, and musical drama (prodded by Beethoven’s work) of the emerging Romantic era. Both Mozart and Mendelssohn exude infectious positivity and joy in much of their music. Even Mozart’s almost Beethoven-like G minor Piano Quartet first movement resolves all the drama in a wide-grinning, liberated, joyful finale.

Location: Colorado River Wilderness Grotto

Cost: $400

Friday, September 9, 2022

5:30pm: House Benefit Concert: Encore

One of Moab’s most beautiful private homes provides the intimate location for a memorable evening of music and fine food. This convivial occasion offers a special opportunity to experience a performance up close, followed by a celebratory dinner.

Concert Description: At the end of a great concert, the audience shows approval and appreciation by demanding more. Most artists oblige their fans with a chestnut or something famous and dear to them. This House Benefit Concert cuts straight to the end as MMF artists play their favorite “go-to” encores. We don’t guarantee you will know them all, but it’s a good bet that your musical sweet tooth will be satisfied.

Location: Private Home

Cost: $250

Saturday, September 10, 2022

8:00am: Music Hike III: Tango & Fandango

A guided scenic hike leads adventuresome concert-goers to a secluded canyon to enjoy music chosen to fit the setting. Among our most popular events, these scenic hikes offer unparalleled musical intimacy and engagement with the artists.

Concert Description: Luigi Boccherini was a fabled cellist whose particular gift was playing in the extreme higher registers of his instrument. This was an innovation for 18th-century cello playing, making him a sought-after star. It also propelled his composing career, as he wrote many pieces that exhibited his unusual talent. Among them are his still popular cello quintets. The centerpiece of today’s Music Hike is his most famous quintet for guitar and strings – the “Fandango” named for its Spanish dance finale. Argentinean Astor Piazzola, the master of Nuevo Tango, is represented by his Histoire du Tango for violin and guitar. Jason Vieaux, one of America’s leading guitarists, anchors both works.

Location: Moab Wilderness

Cost: $70

7:00pm: Bela Fleck: My Bluegrass Heart

Concerts at Sorrel River Ranch take place in the open-sided pavilion, which provides splendid views of towering red mesas, vast skies, and breathtaking sunsets. Some concert-goers choose to take inthe show relaxing from the lawn surrounding the pavilion.

Concert Description: Béla Fleck returns to MMF with My Bluegrass Heart, the third chapter in a decades-spanning CD trilogy, and winner of the 2022 GRAMMY for Best Bluegrass Album. The banjo virtuoso and celebrated musical adventurer has dug deep into his instrument’s complex global history and unlocked the breadth of its possibilities. The music isn’t straight bluegrass, but it’s written for a bluegrass band. My Bluegrass Heart is vividly collaborative, highlighting Fleck’s talent as a leader who encourages his bandmates

Location:  Sorrel River Ranch

Cost: $45

8:00am: Music Hike III: Tango & Fandango

A guided scenic hike leads adventuresome concert-goers to a secluded canyon to enjoy music chosen to fit the setting. Among our most popular events, these scenic hikes offer unparalleled musical intimacy and engagement with the artists.

Concert Description: Luigi Boccherini was a fabled cellist whose particular gift was playing in the extreme higher registers of his instrument. This was an innovation for 18th-century cello playing, making him a sought-after star. It also propelled his composing career, as he wrote many pieces that exhibited his unusual talent. Among them are his still popular cello quintets. The centerpiece of today’s Music Hike is his most famous quintet for guitar and strings – the “Fandango” named for its Spanish dance finale. Argentinean Astor Piazzola, the master of Nuevo Tango, is represented by his Histoire du Tango for violin and guitar. Jason Vieaux, one of America’s leading guitarists, anchors both works.

Location: Moab Wilderness

Cost: $70

Sunday, September 11, 2022

7:00pm: Time For Three

Concerts at Sorrel River Ranch take place in the open-sided pavilion, which provides splendid views of towering red mesas, vast skies, and breathtaking sunsets. Some concert-goers choose to take in the show relaxing from the lawn surrounding the pavilion.

Concert Description: Time For Three bursts with energy and virtuosity in their heralded performances in America and abroad. Audiences are amazed at what two violinists and a bass player can produce in their visceral, emotional songs. Their category-defying music springs from their own hearts and minds (with a few covers thrown in) and fills an important place in defining America’s current zeitgeist. A Moab Music Festival favorite, we are pleased to have them perform at the close of our 30th season.

Cost: $35

Location: Sorrel River Ranch

Monday, September 12, 2022

11:30am: Grotto Concert III

Take a jet boat ride down the Colorado River through spectacular red rock canyons to “nature’s own concert hall” (The New York Times) – an acoustically perfect wilderness Grotto carved from the surrounding red rock walls. Hear a program of works chosen specifically for the space, performed by the Festival’s world class artists. A light reception with the musicians precedes the glorious boat ride home.

Concert Description: Our final Grotto concert of the season traverses 250 years of western music, beginning with Mauro Giulini’s violin and guitar showpiece. Schubert’s monumental F minor Fantasy for two pianists, and Paganini’s poetic Cantabile, represent the 19th century. Bassist Ranaan Meyer, one of the three in Time For Three, shares selections from his new bass concerto. Violinists Charles Yang and Nick Kendall join him for the latest works from Time For Three’s original and eclectic catalog.

Location:  Colorado River Wilderness Grotto

Cost: $400

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

5:00pm: San Juan River Musical Raft Trip

This scenic three-day/two-night float trip on the Upper San Juan River couples daily concerts by Moab Music Festival Artists with one of the prettiest river experiences in the region. The leisurely pace allows rafters to enjoy the spectacular red rock canyons, petroglyph panels, Ancestral Pueblo ruins, and side canyon hikes. The trip begins with a dinner and hotel stay in historic Bluff, Utah.

Concert Description: Guitarist Jason Vieaux and violinist Kristin Lee first met as the alumni of the Philadelphia-based organization, Astral Artists. Through paths crossed in various festivals and performances since then (including a commission work dedicated to Jason and Kristin called Twist by Vivian Fung),  they have played as a duo at Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Sedona, and Emerald City Music in Seattle. Their program is built to reach a broad audience that features a variety of genres, including composers Mauro Giuliani, Niccolo Paganini, Astor Piazzolla, and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Arrival: Tuesday, September 13, 4:30 pm, at Bluff Dwellings Restaurant

Meal time: 5:00 pm.

Orientation: Tuesday, September 13, 7:30 pm

Departure on the River: Wednesday, September 14, 7:00 am

Expected Return: Friday, September 16, by 5:00 pm. End time may vary.

Location:     Bluff to Mexican Hat section of the San Juan River

Cost:     $1,900.00

Date: August 22, 2022 - September 16, 2022

Location: Various Venues in Moab, Ut.

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