OUR PICK: MOAB MUSIC FESTIVAL

Beautiful music and spectacular scenery — it doesn’t get any better than that.
Treat yourself to plenty of both at the Moab Music Festival, Thursday through Sept. 13 in and around Moab, Utah.

For its 18th consecutive year, the Moab Music Festival keeps its perennial promise of music in concert with the landscape, with sunset concerts along the Colorado River, intimate Musical Walks ending in stunning trails-end concerts performed by world-class musicians, and three of the festival’s signature Grotto Concerts.

Musicians and music lovers from across the country and around the world trek to the festival to perform and listen to musical masterpieces old and new, set among the red-rock canyon lands. The programming includes concerts of classical chamber music, traditional music, vocal music, works of living composers and jazz from around the country. Performances take place in indoor and outdoor venues, including the historical Star Hall in Moab and on the banks of the Colorado River.

 
New this year is an opportunity for some up-close-and-personal time with some of the festival artists. Join musicians for informal cocktails and a question-and-answer session on Thursday. Then, on Sept. 8, lift a glass with Kenji Bunch, violist extraordinaire.

The festival’s most popular events, the Colorado River Grotto Concerts, are performed in a grotto carved by the spring floods of the Colorado River. Patrons reach the grotto from Moab via festival bus to a landing area, then take a 40-minute, flat-water jet-boat ride under famous Deadhorse Point and “Thelma and Louise” Point.

 
The Ranch Benefit Concert offers an opportunity to take a leisurely afternoon drive on one of Utah’s Scenic Byways for a tent concert. For the House Benefit Concert, festival supporters open their Moab-area homes and host intimate evenings of music, cocktails and dinner.

If you choose one of the Musical Walk Benefit Concerts, you’ll be transported to a “secret location” for a hike to a natural “concert hall,” where Leslie Tomkins and Kenji Bunch perform music for two violas on Sept. 5, and festival favorites Christopher Layer and Paul Woodiel perform traditional music on Sept. 12.

Music and nature lovers who dare leave their cell phone, laptop and Facebook status behind can embark on the 2010 Festival Musical Raft Trip, a four-day, three-night custom trip combining rafting on the serene, flat-water sections of the Colorado River, chamber music concerts in extraordinary settings each day, fine food and wine, lively company and even a naturalist to guide you to petroglyphs and petrified wood. The trip, which launches Sept. 13, includes that afternoon’s exhilarating performance at the Grotto. A run through the Class III and IV whitewater rapids of Cataract Canyon and a scenic flight back to Moab from Hite Marina on Lake Powell conclude the trip.

IF YOU GO
Get a complete schedule, ticketing information, and make reservations for all concerts at www.moabmusicfest.org, or by calling 1-435-259-7003.

For lodging options and packages, as well as more to do and see in the area, visit discover www.moab.com.

Joy harper, the gazette