Brant Bayless on performing Dai Fujikura’s Wayfinder with the Utah Symphony – August 5 in Park City. Details and tickets available here!

For this concert, you will be performing a fairly recently composed concerto – Wayfinder by Dai Fujikura, written in 2020.  What led you to this piece?  

I first became away of Dai Fujikura’s music during the COVD pandemic. The Utah Symphony remotely recorded and assembled “Longing from Afar.” It seemed to me to be one of the most successful COVID-era remote collaborations. It’s still online, and you can watch here:

Have you performed other works by this composer?

Exploring further, I came upon a really colorful work for solo viola and interactive electronics called “Prism Spectra,” which I performed on the NOVA Chamber Music Series a few years ago. It was a very memorable performance for me—I kept breaking A strings like crazy while learning it, and even broke another one in the performance! It turned out to be a quirk with the bridge design of my viola, which was pretty new to me at the time. I got it fixed and haven’t broken a string since [KNOCKS ON WOOD].

How would you describe the language or musical effect of the piece?

he title of and idea behind the Wayfinder Concerto comes from the ancient Polynesian sailors who, incredibly, navigated their way across vast swaths of the Pacific Ocean. The writing in the first half of the concerto makes me feel like a lone courageous—maybe even overconfident—sailor riding the waves of the orchestra. A lot of the solo viola writing here is sustained notes connected by melismatic passagework. There are motifs that insert themselves here and there, like the parting of clouds to reveal a recognizable constellation. It’s in a highly chromatic tonal language throughout, with lots of harmonics natural and artificial.

About halfway through our voyage, there is a duet between vibraphone and pizzicato viola. To me this represents a clear sky and glassy sea. The Doldrums. Time stops. The stars twinkle overhead and the mariner contemplates the vast emptiness all around. From here we’re launched towards a cadenza with lots of “sul ponticello” string crossing tremolo, harmonics, and intense drama. Whether our sailor is wrestling with stormy seas or a psychological battle within is a matter of interpretative speculation!

The piece ends in solitude, the solo viola bowing over the fingerboard to create a far away flute-like sound. To my mind this is neither a song of lament or thanksgiving—our sailor has neither capsized or arrived on solid ground—but is the voice of one who at last understands the meaning of infinity and their tiny place in it.

I should add a caveat: all this programmatic projecting has in no way been hinted at or endorsed by the composer in his program note! The result of learning the concerto and putting myself inside the lonely sailor psyche led me naturally to this narrative arc, and I eventually just had to embrace it. Apologies to the composer if this over-romanticizes his work, but humans do seem to have a tendency to over-romanticize all things oceanic.

Is there anything you did in to prepare this unique piece, that was perhaps different from other solo works?

From a technical standpoint, the most difficult aspect has been embracing the “molto sul tasto” passage at the end. Mr. Fujikura even has a photo in the score to make the point especially clear that he wants the soloist to bow over the mid-point node of the string! However, given that the strings are so close together at that point, and that the bouts of the instrument don’t allow the kind of clearance to be able to play the C string without rubbing on the wood of the instrument it’s a real challenge to make any kind of sound! I’m certain that the challenge is precisely the point, so I’m going to “go for it” and can’t wait to hear that weirdly wonderful sound in the resonant acoustics of St. Mary’s!

• Wednesday, August 5– A Viola Concerto!  Utah Symphony Principal Violist Brant Bayless performs Wayfinder by Dai Fujikura.
  • 8:00 PM, St Mary’s Catholic Church, Park City.  
  • Tickets here!

• Saturday, September 26 – Viola Day!  A day full of workshops, classes, performances and more, featuring guest artists Toby Appel from the Juilliard School, and violist, improviser, and composer Kenji Bunch.
  •  9:00-4:30, University of Utah’s Gardner Music Music Building.  
  • Visit www.utahviolasociety.org for membership and updates!

• Thursday, October 1 – Primrose Memorial Concert. This annual Utah tradition will feature Indiana University Professor of Viola, Stephen Wyrczynski, in recital with Aram Arakelyan, piano. Program to include an original transcription of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring!
  • 7:30 PM, Recital Hall, Brigham Young University Music Building  
  • Free Admission.

Prier & Sons has a long history in Utah, could you tell us about this background?

Peter Prier & Sons Violins was established 60 years ago by luthier, Peter Prier. Educated at the State Violin Making School in Mittenwald Germany, Peter immigrated to Salt Lake City at the age of 19 to work at Pearce Music Company, which he eventually bought. Peter soon gained a reputation for making exceptional instruments. His instruments were purchased by many fine players including Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Joseph Silverstein and Daniel Heifetz.  Peter was passionate about sharing his knowledge with others and established the Violin Making School of America in 1972. Graduates of the school have gone on to win international prizes for their instruments as well as establishing reputations for their restorations and repairs.  Our music community is fortunate to have a number of these fine luthiers working throughout Utah.

What services does your businessss provide, and are there areas that you specialize in?

Our luthiers and archetiers are the heart of our shop. They provide beautiful restorations as well as high quality repairs and rehairs. Their professional setups on every instrument sold at the shop ensures that every instrument plays at its best. 

We sell a range of quality instruments, from well built workshop instruments to instruments made by some of the world’s finest luthiers, past and present. We have a vast collection of bows, from student to professional quality from around the world. As the home of JonPaul bows we have a number of high quality carbon composite and pernambuco bows made right at the shop.

Would you like to introduce the representatives from your shop that we might meet at Viola Day?

Everyone at Prier’s wants to come to Viola Day. We have established that alto clef shaped cookies just taste better. Our owners, Jon Hatch and Chris Johnson as well as our luthiers Aaron Goll and Andrew Stolfa and our shop manager, Mary Otterstrom all look forward to attending. Absent will be Paul Prier who will sadly be out of the country.

What do you look for in a viola, and how do you approach the instrument differently than violins or cellos?

Violas come in many sizes and shapes. Cellos and violins are much more standard. Viola makers have taken many approaches to trying to get the best sound quality for the middle range while also having an instrument that is not too large for the player. We approach violas and their players individually. Our job is to try to help the player get the best sound the instrument will make as easily as possible. For this reason we carry a range of violas from 12 – 17 inches. Our luthiers work one on one with violists to try to make sure that we set up their instruments to work well for them.

Could you tell us a little bit about the instruments you will have at Viola Day?

The instruments we will bring will include a 1971 Peter Prier 16.5 inch viola and a  16 ⅜ inch viola made by American luthier Geoffrey Ovington (1946-2017). 

Ovington studied violin making with James Coggin in Manhattan before opening his own studio in upstate New York. Ovington’s instruments have won numerous awards, including medals at the Violin Society of America International Competitions. Many are played by professionals in prestigious European and American orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, who commissioned Ovington to make three violas in 1991.

Viola Day!
September 27, Saturday 9 AM – 4 PM 
University of Utah, Gardner Music Building
Featuring guest artist Ann Marie Brink, from DePaul University and formerly of the Dallas Symphony.
Guest artist recital + masterclass, instrument exhibition, pizza party and more!


Spotlight: Viola!
UVS Annual Recital
October 6, Monday 7:00 PM
University of Utah, Dumke Recital Hall
Violists of the Utah Symphony take center stage, along with artists and educators from across Utah!


Utah ASTA Fall Workshop
October 25, Saturday 8:30 AM
Weber State University
Keynote Speaker, Dr. Michael Palumbo, UVS Co-Founder and Past President
Viola Masterclass, Bradley Ottesen, Fry Street Quartet and Professor of Viola at Utah State University
Free Registration with your Utah Viola Society Membership!

Primrose Memorial Concert, featuring guest artists Matthew Lipman, viola and Kwan Yi, piano.
Thursday, February 13, 2025, 7:30 pm
Recital Hall, Music Building, BYU

Masterclass: Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 5-7 pm
4255 Music Building, BYU

https://music.byu.edu/map

Admission to both events is free. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear the incredible Matthew Lipman play this amazing program!

Program:
Dowland – Lute Ayres (1597-1600)
Flow my tears 
In my complaints…

Britten – Lachrymae, Op. 48 (1948)

Brahms – Sonata in Eb Major, Op. 120 No. 2 (1894)
Allegro amabile
Allegro appassionato 
Andante con moto – Allegro

Intermission

Bach – Partita No. 3 in A Major, BWV 1006 (1720)
Preludio
Loure
Gavotte en Rondeau

Assad – Metamorfose (2017) 
Crisálidas
Dança das Borboletas

Waxman – Carmen Fantasy (arr. Lipman)