OCR Text |
Show 4 Davis County Composers featured in 'Spectacular' Four Davis County Composers, named winners in the 1990 Composers Guild Annual Composition Contest, Con-test, will be featured on the Composers Guild Spectacular, Spec-tacular, to be held Tuesday, Jan. 29, 7:30 p.m. at Wasatch Wa-satch Presbyterian Church, 1620 S. 1700 E. in Salt Lake City. Sharleen Stevens, Centerville; Cori Connors and Ruth Gatrell, Farmington; and Jan Milligan, Kaysville, were among the nine Utahns who were winners in the contest which drew entries from 1 8 states and five for- eign countries: China, Japan, Australia, West Germany and two provinces of Canada. The spectacular is open to the public without charge. Other composer winners from Utah were grand prize winner Stephen Jones, Murray; Lloyd Miller, Jeff Manookian and Brian Jackson Fetzer, all of Salt Lake City; and Leslie Ann Treis, Mount Pleasant "Firelight," by Sharleen Stevens, was awarded third prize in the popular category. Sharlene was born and raised in Salt Lake City and studied humanities at BYU. She has written music since she was 13, and especially es-pecially enjoys doing pop and choral music. Now residing in Centerville, she is the wife of Jack Stevens and mother of five. "Firelight" will be sung by Megan Dover, with a minus track produced by Kimball Carter, of Centerville. Center-ville. Megan is a senior at Viewmont High School and was recently named Viewmont 's Sterling Scholar in music. Her work at Viewmont is under the direction of Jeanne McGuire, and she is studying voice with Heidi McKay. She has received a one-plus rating in regional and state music festivals. She is also a ventriloquist and does many shows with her sister for community, school and church functions. "Ride a Blue Pony" won honorable mention in the music for children category for Cori Connors, vice president of the Utah Songwriters Association. She was chairman of the Fifth Intermountain Songwriters' Seminar Sem-inar held in Park City last June, which hosted publishers and authors from Nashville and Los Angeles. Cori and her partner, Merlyn Schofield, won the Future Stars of America Contest in Nashville in 1990. Her albums "Cori" and "Is It Snowing Tonight?" will soon be joined by a new album of hymn arrangements put out by Sable Records, produced by Jim Anglesey. She is the wife of David Connors and mother of four. Jan Milligan' s delightful holiday number, "The Spirit of Christmas," earned honorable mention in the music for children category of this year's guild contest. Milligan studied piano for a short time as a child, but prefers to play by ear. It is very easy for her to compose songs the same way while at the piano. She and her husband Leo have served in the Texas San Antonio mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "The Spirit of Christmas" is heard over KUTR during the Christmas season and will be performed by the Kaysville duo Renard and Jeanie Thompson. Active in choral groups since their college days at BYU, as members of the Layton Arts Choral Ensemble, the Thompsons are preparing for an Easter concert which will include "Calm As a Summer's Mom," directed by its composer, Lex de Azivedo (of "Saturday's Warrior" fame.) Renard and Jeanie are choir president and director, respectively, of the Farmington Farm-ington 12th Ward Choir. "No Room at the Inn" garnered an honorable mention men-tion award in the choral music category for Composers Guild president, Ruth Gatrell. The 1990 accolades for musical composition for Gatrell included first prizes in the National League of American Pen Women's musical competition for her recently published Christmas Cantata, "Samuel the Lamanite Foretells Christ's Birth" in choral music, and "Frustration" in vocal solo, and second prizes for "Let Freedom Ring" in vocal solo and "Shepherd Boy" in children's, as well as first honorable mention in choral for "There's Nothing Like Christmas." A former member of the Utah Symphony, and con- certmistress of the University of Utah Symphony for three years, Gatrell established the "Americana" and the "New Sounds for Christmas" concert series sponsored spon-sored each year by Composers Guild. "No Room at the Inn" will be performed by the Ruth Gatrell Singers, who have performed at Temple Square and the Dickens Festival and numerous other church and community functions. They will be accompanied accom-panied by Wilda Madsen, of Kaysville, with a flute obligato by Kristen Nilson of Fruit Heights. They will also sing Stephen Jones' "Night of All Nights." Composers Guild, organized in 1963, strives to help composers of any age and degree of proficiency through classes, seminars and workshops, lectures, concerts showcasing composers and their music, association with other composers, and the Composers Guild Annual Composition Contest, which closes on Aug. 31. The next guild activity after the Composers Guild Spectacular is the pot luck dinner and tape concert Feb. 24. where recordings of contest entries will be played. For additional information on guild activities and :ontest, write Box 586, Farmington, Utah 84025, or call Ruth Gatrell at 451-2275. |