Utah Tech Students Join World-Class Musicians for Historic Desert Performance
Two years in planning, the College of the Arts, UT Music Department, Kayenta Center for the Arts, and Liquid Music present a new epic piece by a contemporary titan, John Luther Adams. Crossing Open Ground challenges traditions of concerts. Performances take place on Saturday October 25, 2025, at 11am and 3pm at the White Rocks Amphitheater in Snow Canyon State Park.
Guided by music director Nadia Sirota (https://nadiasirota.com/ ) and choreographer Dimitri Chamblas (https://www.dimitrichamblas.com/) members of the Utah Tech Symphonic Band and Percussion Ensemble form the core of the ensemble with contribution by New Music experts from New York and California.
Pulitzer and Grammy winning composer John Luther Adams has been a leading voice in music and the intersection of music making and environmental stewardship since the late 20th century. He wrote Crossing Open Ground in 2023 setting aside many of the conventions of “going to a concert.” The work flips the concert experience for performers and audience members. Rather than the audience seated in darkness watching performers stationed on a stage led by a conductor, the audience and ensemble mingle in an outdoor setting. The musicians memorize notation that shows not when, but where the notes are played. Each musician follows his or her own path to 27 locations where musical events happen. And there is no conductor. Musicians alternate signaling moments and events.
College of the Arts Dean Jeff Jarvis says, "We are all so excited about the opportunity this presents for our students. They will interact with important music by an important composer, as well as work with top-tier professional performers from New York and California. These are the types of experiences that we all remember many years later, sometimes forty years later, as having significant impact on our lives."
Associate Dean Glenn Webb explains why the work appeals to him. “Imagine being presented to the opportunity to work with Mozart in 1785! Or Beethoven in 1820! John Luther Adams’ work will represent our day in the future just as Mozart and Beethoven represent the past.” He also added, “I’m very happy to be part of dispelling the myth that cutting edge music and artistry happen only in metropolitan cities on the coasts. Our students have a tremendous opportunity and I’m grateful for the invitation by Kayenta Center for the Arts to collaborate on this project.”
Composer John Luther Adams provides the following statement from the musical score.
"In this time when we humans have become a geologic force, most of us live in increasingly homogenous environments, and in the amorphous nonplaces of the internet. Searching for real experiences in real places, we travel to far-flung destinations, where we make photographs of ourselves to prove that we were there. Yet it’s increasingly rare that we are fully present anywhere, and the knowledge that we truly belong to any place eludes many of us.
Crossing Open Ground is a ceremony of rediscovery and re-consecration of place—an invitation to listen to the older, deeper resonances beneath our feet, wherever we may be. Each musician and each listener is free to follow their own individual path through the physical and musical landscape of the work. Out of the experience of walking and listening together, a renewed sense of community and place emerges. The title, Crossing Open Ground, is borrowed from a book by my dear friend the late Barry Lopez, to whom the work is dedicated."