The 2009 Festival is its sixth season of providing chamber music, classical, opera, and pops offerings in four venues: the Deer Valley Snow Park Amphitheater, St. Mary’s Church, Temple Har Shalom, and salons in private homes in the Park City area.

The goal of the DVMF is to be renowned for consistently delivering a high quality and musically diverse experience in casual settings of unparalleled natural beauty.

The DVMF is an outgrowth of the Utah Symphony’s summer weekend classical and pops performances which have been held at the Deer Valley Resort for more than 20 years. The original rationale for the DVMF had a financial basis. The Utah Symphony is a 52 week orchestra, one of only eighteen in the United States. As a result, USUO leadership determined that, with controlled incremental expense, a resort town based summer festival could attract a substantial new audience, add ticket revenue and, most importantly, tap into an expanded donor base.

The concept of DVMF from an artistic perspective has been a success, and from a financial perspective, the rationale has been validated. The DVMF is achieving its short-term goal of bringing in more revenues from a combination of ticket sales and contributions than the marginal expense associated with the Festival.

Multiple performances each week give patrons a wide variety of events to choose from.  Highlights of the 2009 Deer Valley Music Festival include LeAnn Rimes, Elvis Costello, opera-singer Fredica von Stade, and the Utah Symphony playing the music of ABBA.

Friday Classical concerts and Saturday Pops concerts are held at the Deer Valley Snow Park Outdoor Ampitheater where concert goers are invited to picnic under the stars.

For times and venues of all the performances check DVFM website.

Take advantage of this great community asset this summer.

DoSLC

It was here that Brigham Young stopped his carriage in July 1847 and, after surveying the desert valley near the shores of the Great Salt Lake, declared, “This is the right place.” On July 24, 1947, exactly 100 years after his declaration, a heroic-sized bronze sculpture of Young and two of his colleagues was placed atop a 60-foot pedestal overlooking the Valley.

Whether you’re watching a craft, petting a farm animal, listening to a fiddler, eating penny candy from Z.C.M.I. or enjoying the fresh foothills air, a visit to the Park is an experience for all of the senses.

Young visitors can help do chores by watering the real garden, beating dirt from rugs hung on the fence rail or scrubbing clothes on a washboard in a large metal tub. They can see and touch domestic animals typical of the era: cows, sheep, goats, chickens, horses and huge oxen – even ride a pony!
And now the cultural traditions of Utah’s first people are now being shared at This Is the Place Heritage Park.  At the Native American Village are re-creations of traditional dwellings used by Navajo and Shoshone Indians so visitors can see how those tribes lived prior to the arrival of Utah’s pioneers.

The Native American Village is being constructed in cooperation with the Utah Division of Indian Affairs and various tribal leaders to ensure the different heritages and traditions being presented are true to their source.

The Native American Village will grow as installations for Ute, Piute and Goshute tribes are incorporated into the area. As the site grows, crafts and activities will be added to the site, including necklace making, a bow and arrow range and cooking.

The village will be staffed by historical interpreters who are members of participating tribes, and many of the stories and songs shared at the site will be spoken in the language they originated in.

This Is The Place Heritage Park – So Much More Than A Monument!
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Admission: $8/adults – $6/children (3-11) and seniors (55+)

For more information about the park, visit www.thisistheplace.org or call 801-582-1847

Enjoy,

DoSLC

The Living Planet Aquarium has now hosted more than 1 million visitors since opening its doors in 2004. 

The Living Planet Aquarium had a terrific March and April after unveiling the Journey to South America Exhibit with over 84,000 people coming to visit, which is more than 72 percent higher than last year,” said Angie Hyde, director of public relations and marketing. “We broke our prior one-month summertime record of 31,085 last year with 46,292 visitors this April.”

On April 19, it reached its one-millionth visitor since opening the preview exhibit at The Gateway in 2004. General admission attendance includes school visits, birthday parties and special event rentals. The aquarium anticipates adding South American penguins to the Journey to South America exhibit.

The Living Planet Aquarium was founded by marine biologist Brent Andersen in 1997 and continues to grow through the addition and enhancements of new exhibits and programs.  Their outreach education programs have been operating since January 1999 and have reached ~ 360,000 Utah students.  In June of 2004, a Preview Exhibit of The Living Planet Aquarium at the Gateway Mall was opened. 

This 10,000 square foot public exhibit displayed local freshwater animals and marine life from around the world, and offered an exclusive experience never before available in Utah, and attendance far exceeded projections with over 150,000 visitors per year.  Due to this overwhelming demand, the Preview Exhibit, was relocated to much larger (43,000 sq ft) building in Sandy in the summer of 2006. 

Currently, exhibits feature sharks, rays, seahorses, jellyfish as well as octopus, eels, starfish, amphibians, trout and other freshwater species, providing a unique opportunity for the many landlocked Utahns, particularly children, who have not previously had the chance to interact with such creatures.  

Since re-opening in June 2006, the Aquarium has added 5 major new exhibits, and attendance has risen to over 250,000 per year (and growing).  The Living Planet most recently opened a 7,000 sq ft exhibit hall to take visitors on an aquatic Journey to South America.

Stop by and check it out.  They even have a program where you can adopt one of their animals, and become an Aquarium parent.

Visit the Living Planet Aquarium Website for more information and hours of operation.

Enjoy,

DoSLC

The Living Planet Aquarium
725 E. 10600 S. Sandy, UT 84094
801-355-Fish (3474)
info@thelivingplanet.com

But sometime during July or August, Christie will deliver her first baby, probably weighing 180 pounds to 250 pounds — the first elephant to be born at Hogle Zoo in more than 80 years. Princess Alice gave birth to the first Utah elephant when the zoo was at Liberty Park back in 1918.
The process of naming the coming new baby hasn’t been discussed yet, and zoo staff won’t know the gender of the elephant until it is born. Ultrasounds have been used on Christie, but they can only show a portion of the baby and gender is very hard to see in elephants anyway.

If the new baby is a female, it will likely remain at Hogle Zoo with its mother. That’s because elephants tend to remain with their mothers for life, while males eventually go out on their own.

The zoo’s other elephant is HyDari, a 49-year-old female who is currently the oldest elephant in North America.

Check out our other post to see  a video HyDari celebrate her 48th birthday last year.

DoSLC

When the ‘80’s began, it was struggling along as the Human Ensemble Company in the tiny Glass Factory Theatre space at Arrow Press Square for a couple of seasons.

Its current (and most likely permanent) home is the 100-year-old LDS 19th Ward Meeting House, also known as the Marmalade Hill Center, where it enjoys a strong subscription season base and ranks as one of the Mountain West’s most important regional theater companies.

The main theater seats 180 and occupies a space built as a multipurpose room within one of the earliest churches in Salt Lake City by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The Salt Lake Acting Company presents dramas and musicals, with live accompaniment. During SATURDAY’S VOYEUR, the theatre’s annual summer musical that parodies the local politics and society of Salt Lake City and Utah, audience members sit around the edge of the stage and enjoy wine and picnic lunches.

This acting company keeps you rolling in the aisles with laughter or on the edge of your seat with suspense.

 This theatre is a grand historic 1890s structure with a comfortable green room filled with tables and chairs.A concession area with refreshments is on the same floor nearby. There is a theatre on each level. The upper level seats 180 people and the main level seats 100. Check the SLAC website for upcoming shows.

Salt Lake Acting Company
168 W 500 N Salt Lake City UT 84103

 Tel: (801) 363-7522
Hours: Monday – Friday 10:00am – 6:00pm

Enjoy the performances.

DoSLC