Musical ideas have been exchanged between the Eastern and Western worlds since the days of the Silk Road, when music, instruments, and ideas traveled along with traded goods between China, India, Europe, and the Middle East. In this program, we will uncover ancient connections between very different musical styles and create new ones.

Joining forces with Hindustani raga musicians, we will place European Medieval songs side by side with North Indian classical ragas, with musicians from both traditions working together on new collaborations. Our musical pairings will be based on similarities of musical scale or emotional tone, with creative improvisation. These two musical styles go together surprisingly well: both styles are rooted in melodic line and drone (instead of chords), both styles use unusual musical scales, and both were heavily influenced by Persian music. Raga singer Soma Sarkar Preciado and tabla player Debanjan Bhattacharya will perform with soprano Emily Nelson and visiting artists, Medieval fiddle player Niccolo Seligmann and Persian flute specialist Kelariz Keshavarz.

This concert is made possible in part by a generous grant from The Salt Lake City Arts Council.

Saturday, October 14, 7:30 PM   

Sunday, October 15, 5:00 PM  

Emily Nelson, voice & tanpura  •  Soma Sarkar Preciado, voice & harmonium • Niccolo Seligmann, vielle • Kelariz Keshavarz, flute • Debanjan Bhattacharjee, tabla

Utopia celebrates the holidays by bringing back our Celtic favorites! The program features songs and instrumentals in a solstice mode from Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, the Isle of Man, and Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Fiddlers, harp, bodhrán and flute join a vocal quartet to span the full range of the season, from festive reels to winter lullabies. Hear Medieval chant, songs from Renaissance Scotland, Irish and Welsh carols, and rollicking jigs and reels. 

Saturday, December 3, 7:30 PM     Cathedral Church of St. Mark

Sunday, December 4, 5:00 PM   231 E 100 S, Salt Lake City

Emily Nelson, soprano  • Monica Hyman, alto  •  Christopher LeCluyse, tenor  • Ricky Parkinson, bass 

Bronwen Beecher, fiddle  •  Ben Spigle, Irish flute

Therese Honey, Celtic harp  • Eleanor Christman, cello  •  Cindy Spigle, bodhrán

There is no shortage of creatures that slither, swoop, and pad through the pages of ancient music! Gothic harp, recorder, and Medieval hurdy-gurdy join a vocal quartet to celebrate the gentle lamb, the loyal hound, the glorious phoenix, and the industrious silkworm, to name a few. With Medieval chant and trouvère song, jolly Renaissance madrigals, and delicate ars subtilior textures, our concert will revel in the chirps, bahs and rustlings of the animal world. Recommended age 7+

Saturday, February 10, 7:30 PM    

Sunday, February 11, 5:00 PM  

Emily Nelson, soprano  •  Mandi Barrus, mezzo-soprano  •  Elijah Hancock, tenor  •  Yvette Gilgen, bass  •  Lisa Chaufty, Baroque flute  •  Haruhito Miyagi, Medieval hurdy-gurdy  •  Therese Honey, Gothic harp

In collaboration with Renaissance violinist Shulamit Kleinerman, our concert highlights composer Salamone Rossi, whose Jewish faith gives us a fascinating glimpse of how religious life dictated professional and social mobility in 15th century Italy. A quartet of voices, two violins, harpsichord, and cello complete this evening of Rossi's brilliant and varied works. The concert will include primary source readings and descriptions about what life was like for a minority-culture composer and performer working in Italy at the dawn of the Baroque era.

Saturday, April 6, 7:30 PM  

Sunday, April 7, 5:00 PM  

Emily Nelson, soprano  •  Monica Hymas, mezzo-soprano  •  Christopher LeCluyse, tenor   •  Yvette Gilgen, bass   •  Shulamit Kleinerman, violin  • Micah Fleming, violin   •  Pamela Palmer Jones, harpsichord • Eleanor Christman, baroque cello

Utopia revisits one of our favorite programs of medieval works from northern and eastern Europe, featuring works from Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, Finland, Ukraine, and other cultures of eastern Europe and northern Africa. Shulamit Kleinerman (vielle) and Therese Honey (Gothic harp) join a trio of voices to bring this hauntingly beautiful and rarely heard music to life. 

Saturday, October 8, 7:30 PM     Cathedral Church of St. Mark

Sunday, October 9, 5:00 PM   231 E 100 S, Salt Lake City

Emily Nelson, soprano  •  Christopher LeCluyse, tenor  • Nate Pence, countertenor 

Therese Honey, Gothic harp  • Shulamit Kleinerman, vielle

View Celtic Christmas on YouTube  

Utopia celebrates the holidays by bringing back our Celtic favorites! The program features songs and instrumentals in a solstice mode from Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, the Isle of Man, and Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Fiddlers, harp, bodhrán and flute join a vocal quartet to span the full range of the season, from festive reels to winter lullabies. Hear Medieval chant, songs from Renaissance Scotland, Irish and Welsh carols, and rollicking jigs and reels. 

Saturday, December 3, 7:30 PM     Cathedral Church of St. Mark

Sunday, December 4, 5:00 PM   231 E 100 S, Salt Lake City

Emily Nelson, soprano  • Nate Pence, countertenor  •  Christopher LeCluyse, tenor  • Ricky Parkinson, bass 

Bronwen Beecher, fiddle  • Mary Louise Otterstrom, fiddle  •  Ben Spigle, Irish flute

Therese Honey, Celtic harp  • Eleanor Christman Cox, cello  •  Cindy Spigle, bodhrán

View Written on the Wind on YouTube  

With spring in the air, Utopia brings an intimate evening of music for flute, recorder, and that other wind instrument: the voice. Our program explores the shared human emotions of desire, excitement, and insecurity brought on as we emerge from the grip of winter once again. And, oh yes, there will be birds! Our program features works by Purcell, Quantz, Boismortier, and more.

Saturday, April 1, 7:30 PM     Cathedral Church of St. Mark

Sunday, April 2, 5:00 PM   231 E 100 S, Salt Lake City

Emily Nelson, soprano  •  Christopher LeCluyse, tenor

Lisa Chaufty, Baroque flute  •  Rachel Webb, Baroque flute

Kevin Payne, theorbo  • Eleanor Christman Cox, Baroque cello 

View Alternate Routes on YouTube 

Join Utopia to explore the worlds of composers and performers from diverse walks of life in Baroque Italy at the dawn of opera. The concert will feature showstopping vocal works by Barbara Strozzi, Claudio Monteverdi, and selections from early opera, such as Francesca Caccini's La liberazione di Ruggerio. We will also highlight works written by Antonio Vivaldi for orphaned violin virtuosas that he taught at the Ospedale della Pieta, as well as works by Salmone Rossi, Isabella Leonarda, Vincente Lusitano, and more. Dr. Jane Hatter, Professor of Music History at The University of Utah, will offer a pre-concert talk 30 minutes before each performance. This concert is made possible in part by a generous grant from the Salt Lake City Arts Council.

Saturday, May 20, 7:30 PM (pre-concert talk at 7:00 PM)     

Sunday, May 21, 5:00 PM (pre-concert talk at 4:30 PM )

Emily Nelson, soprano  •  Melissa Heath, soprano  •  Nate Pence, countertenor  •  Christopher LeCluyse, tenor  •  Elijah Hancock, tenor •  Yvette Gilgen, bass

Alex Woods, violin  • Aubrey Woods, violin

Bill Simms, theorbo  •  Loren Carle, harpsichord  • Eleanor Christman Cox, baroque cello

All Hallows' Eve approaches. The veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest. You find yourself in a Gothic cathedral by flickering candlelight. A ghostly figure appears before you and begins to keen …. Purcell! Utopia's return gets off to a spine-tingling start with a program of Baroque music celebrating the ghostly, the ghoulish, and the macabre.

Saturday, October 16, 8:00 PM     Cathedral Church of St. Mark

Sunday, October 17, 5:00 PM   231 E 100 S, Salt Lake City

Emily Nelson, soprano  •  Christopher LeCluyse, tenor  • Yvette Gilgen, bass  

Micah Fleming, baroque violin  • Jeffrey Smith, baroque violin  • Loren Carle, harpsichord  • Eleanor Christman Cox, baroque cello

Find refuge from the ugly sweaters and animatronic snowmen of the season in the passion and depth of medieval music. Our program spans over five centuries, varying in texture from Gregorian chant to rollicking English carols. Gothic harp, medieval fiddle, and percussion join Utopia's voices to create a soundscape of beautiful intensity. Readings from medieval mystics including Julian of Norwich and Meister Eckhart frame these festive and moving works. 

Saturday, December 4, 8:00 PM     Cathedral Church of St. Mark

Sunday, December 5, 5:00 PM   231 E 100 S, Salt Lake City

Emily Nelson, soprano  • Nate Pence, countertenor  •  Christopher LeCluyse, tenor  

Shulamit Kleinerman, vielle  • Therese Honey, Gothic harp 

Utopia Early Music joins area musicians on a nautical adventure, presenting songs of the sea from across the centuries. Early American and British boat songs and chanteys sail alongside hornpipes and ballads from the coasts of Europe. 

Saturday, March 5, 8:00 PM     Cathedral Church of St. Mark

Sunday, March 6, 5:00 PM   231 E 100 S, Salt Lake City

Emily Nelson, soprano  •  Christopher LeCluyse, tenor  • John Bergquist, baritone  •  Ricky Parkinson, bass  

Mary Louise Otterstrom,  fiddle  • Mandy Danzig, mandolin, mountain dulcimer, and banjo

French composers of the 17th and 18th centuries spun music of refined taste, luscious harmony, and poignant detachment. How one performs this music is as important as the music itself. Utopia and a skilled complement of strings present music of Marin Marais, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Andre Campra, Francois Couperin and other masters of je ne sais quoi.

Saturday, May 21, 8:00 PM     Cathedral Church of St. Mark

Sunday, May 22, 5:00 PM   231 E 100 S, Salt Lake City

Emily Nelson, soprano   •  Christopher LeCluyse, tenor 

Alex Woods, violin  • Aubrey Woods, violin

Adam Cockerham, theorbo  •  Loren Carle, harpsichord  • Eleanor Christman Cox, baroque cello

Emily Nelson, soprano • Nate Pence, countertenor • Christopher LeCluyse, tenor

Logan Bradford, tenor • Brett Taylor, baritone • Kevin Smith, bass

Lisa Chaufty, recorder • Loren Carle, organ

Utopia Early Music and the newly formed Utopia Chamber Singers present Ockeghem’s Requiem, the earliest polyphonic setting of the mass for the dead, alongside works by his students and contemporaries. Voices weave a tapestry of shifting sounds in works that pay tribute to lost loved ones and seek solace through music. Secular pieces offer a lighter counterpoint to this meditative music. 

This concert is made possible by a generous grant from the Salt Lake City Arts Council.

Emily Nelson, soprano • Nate Pence, countertenor• Christopher LeCluyse, tenor

Rotem Gilbert, recorder & bagpipe • Lisa Chaufty, recorder • Therese Honey, Gothic harp

“The Siren and the Nightingale” traces three centuries of musical innovation from the emotional outpouring of twelfth-century troubadours to the intricate complexities of the fourteenth-century Ars Subtilior. Be transported by the mysterious, sensual, and joyful music of medieval France performed by special guests Rotem Gilbert (recorder and bagpipe), Lisa Chaufty (recorder), and Therese Honey (Gothic harp) with Salt Lake singers Emily Nelson (soprano), Nate Pence (counter-tenor), and Christopher LeCluyse (tenor). 

Saturday, October 18, 8:00 PM and Sunday, October 19, 5:00 PM at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark 

Utopia Early Music kicks off the new season with a weekend of fun and frolic featuring selections from The Short-Tempered Clavier and The Art of the Ground Round by P.D.Q. Bach (a.k.a. Peter Schickele). To keep things historical, Utopia presents these “exquisite” masterworks alongside their legit, if still saucy, forebears: naughty songs from Elizabethan England, seventeenth century drinking songs, and even the humorous side of that other Bach.

For this concert, Utopia features local singers and historical instruments. Co-founders Emily Nelson           (soprano) and Christopher LeCluyse (tenor) will be joined by Gretchen Windt (mezzo-soprano), Geoffrey Friedley (tenor), Ricky Parkinson (bass), Lisa Chaufty (recorder and flauto traverse) and Pamela Palmer Jones (harpsichord)

Saturday, December 6, at 8:00 PM and Sunday, December 7, at 5:00 PM at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark 

Utopia celebrates the holidays with music of transporting beauty from the lands of the Celts. The program features songs and instrumentals in a solstice mode from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, and Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Fiddler Bronwen Beecher, Celtic harpist Therese Honey, flutist Lisa Chaufty, and cellist Eleanor Christman Cox join a vocal quartet to span the full range of the season, from festive reels to winter lullabies. Hear medieval Irish chant, songs from Renaissance Scotland, settings of tunes from Wales and the Isle of Man, and Robert Burns’s original “Auld Lang Syne.”

For this concert, Utopia co-founders Emily Nelson (soprano) and Christopher LeCluyse (tenor) will be joined by local favorites Gretchen Windt (mezzo-soprano), Michael Chipman (baritone), Lisa Chaufty (recorder and flute), Bronwen Beecher (fiddle), and Eleanor Christman Cox (cello). Visiting artist Therese Honey (Celtic harp) joins Utopia from Houston.

Monday, February 23, 7:30 PM

In an epilogue to Valentines’ Day, Salt Lake’s Utopia Early Music will join members of the Westminster voice faculty in a fabulously diverse collection of songs on the countless shades and dimensions of love.

Emily Nelson, soprano • Aubrey Adams-McMillan, mezzo-soprano • Christopher LeCluyse, tenor • Michael Chipman, baritone • David Walker, lute • Emily Williams, piano • Kimi Kawashima, piano

Friday, December 6, 8:00 PM; Saturday, December 7, 6:30 PM; and Sunday, December 8, 5:00 PM at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark, Salt Lake City. 

Utopia presents our favorite works for the holiday season from around the world and across time, from medieval chant and English carols to early American hymns, French noëls, Italian lullabies, and a German Christmas oratorio. Festive and warm, these pieces speak directly to the heart. A full complement of strings and voices share their musical gifts: Emily Nelson, soprano; Clara Hurtado-Lee, soprano; Christopher LeCluyse, tenor; Michael Chipman, baritone; John Lenti, lute; Alexander and Aubrey Woods, violin; and Eleanor Cox, baroque cello.

From meditative to joyous, Utopia brings Christmas favorites from around the globe. The haunting O Antiphons, chanted since the seventh century, punctuate a program that includes Claudio Monteverdi’s festive psalm “Beatus Vir,” instrumental noëls by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, selections from Heinrich Schütz’s Christmas Story, and Handel’s “For unto Us a Child Is Born” sung in true Baroque style. Medieval English carols resound alongside an American hymn by William Billings and the fervent Epiphany song “Star in the East,” from the Sacred Harp tradition. The Cathedral Church of St. Mark, offers its special support for this concert as it prepares for Christmas.

Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 15 at 8:00 PM, and Sunday, March 16 at 5:00 PM at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark

For this concert, Utopia features local virtuosi trained in playing historical instruments. Co-founders Emily Nelson (soprano) and Christopher LeCluyse (tenor) will be joined by Jayne Drummond (Baroque oboe), Miyo Aoki and Lisa Chaufty (recorders), and Eleanor Christman Cox (Baroque Cello). Regular guest David Walker (theorbo and Baroque guitar) joins us from Louisville, Kentucky. Together, this ensemble will perform works by high Baroque greats on a human scale. All-wood woodwinds and gut strings bring a warm, vibrant, and sensuous sound to solos and duets from Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantatas, songs by George Frideric Handel, vocal and instrumental works by Henry Purcell, and sonatas by Georg Philipp Telemann and Francesco Barsanti.

December 7, 8:00 PM

December 8, 8:00 PM

December 9: 5:00 PM

St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, Salt Lake City 

“Heaven to Earth: A German Baroque Christmas” journeys from expectation and longing to celebration and fulfillment. Presenting works of Johann Sebastian Bach, his contemporaries, and predecessors. Utopia's two founding members will be joined by eight other musicians, including two guest artists from San Francisco. A vocal quintet, two violinists, organ, and viola da gamba will perform works by Bach, Johann Hermann Schein, Samuel Scheidt, Heinrich Schütz, Dietrich Buxtehude, and others, including selections from Bach's Christmas Oratorio and settings of German Advent and Christmas songs that are still sung today.

Utopia’s founders, Emily Nelson (soprano) and Christopher LeCluyse (tenor) team up with Valerie Hart Nelson (mezzo-soprano), Tyler Nelson (tenor), Ricky Parkinson (bass), Leslie Henrie (violin), Rebekah Blackner (violin), Jonathan Rhodes-Lee (organ), Christopher Wootton (organ), and Josh Lee (viola da gamba) for a lush baroque sonority.  

Friday, May 11, 8:00 PM

Sunday, May 13, 5:00 PM

St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, Salt Lake City

Utopia Early Music finishes its third season with “Generous Beauty: A Musical Tour of Baroque Italy.” Join us on our romantic Italian adventure—a musical treat for Mother’s Day weekend! 

“Generous Beauty” tours Italy in time and space, bringing you the early innovations of Monteverdi and his contemporaries—including women composers Francesca Caccini and Barbara Strozzi—as well as the late baroque sounds of Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, and Antonio Vivaldi. Discover Italy’s gift to the world in the passion, playfulness, and sensuality of this music.

Utopia’s founders, Emily Nelson (soprano) and Christopher LeCluyse (tenor) team up with Tyler Nelson (tenor), Ricky Parkinson (bass), Lisa Chaufty (recorder), Pamela Palmer Jones (harpsichord), and Frances von Seggern Bach (viola da gamba) for a lush baroque sonority.

Friday, May 11, 8:00 PM

Sunday, May 13, 5:00 PM

St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, Salt Lake City

Utopia Early Music finishes its third season with “Generous Beauty: A Musical Tour of Baroque Italy.” Join us on our romantic Italian adventure—a musical treat for Mother’s Day weekend! 

“Generous Beauty” tours Italy in time and space, bringing you the early innovations of Monteverdi and his contemporaries—including women composers Francesca Caccini and Barbara Strozzi—as well as the late baroque sounds of Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, and Antonio Vivaldi. Discover Italy’s gift to the world in the passion, playfulness, and sensuality of this music.

Utopia’s founders, Emily Nelson (soprano) and Christopher LeCluyse (tenor) team up with Tyler Nelson (tenor), Ricky Parkinson (bass), Lisa Chaufty (recorder), Pamela Palmer Jones (harpsichord), and Frances von Seggern Bach (viola da gamba) for a lush baroque sonority.

Friday, October 29 8:00PM

Sunday, October 31 5:00PM

St Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, Salt Lake City

All Hallows' Eve approaches. The veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest. You find yourself in a Gothic cathedral by flickering candlelight. A ghostly figure appears before you and begins to keen …. Purcell! Utopia’s second season gets off to a spine-tingling start with a program of Baroque music celebrating the ghostly, the ghoulish, and the macabre. Pieces include Henry Purcell’s “Bess of Bedlam” and music from The Indian Queen, Antonio Soler’s diabolical Sonata No. 15 in D minor, and Marin Marais’ musical presentation of a gallbladder operation.

Please join us for this celebration of spookiness, featuring Emily Nelson, soprano, Christopher LeCluyse, tenor, Nelson LeDuc, baritone,

Lisa Chaufty, recorder, Pam Jones, harpsichord, Christopher Wootton, organ, Frances Bach, viola da gamba, and extra-special guest, Vicki Boekman, who is flying to us (perhaps on a broomstick?) from Seattle to play recorder.

An iridescent panther with sweet breath.  An enchanted maiden clothed in leaves and flowers.  These creatures, born hundreds of years ago in the French imagination, are carried to us through the mists of time by haunting music.  Hear the story of a lady rescued from peril, and another whose lover was killed in a joust.  Come and tap your toe to an ancient tune and let your imagination dance in the autumn night!

Saturday, November 7, 8:00 PM and Sunday, November 8 , 5:00 PM at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral

Emily Nelson, soprano, Christopher LeCluyse, tenor, Shulamit Kleinerman, vielle, Bronwen Beecher, fiddle, Peter Maund and Nick Foster, percussion.

Our concert will trace American music from colonial beginnings all the way across the Rocky Mountains into our own Salt Lake Valley.  This music contains the purest religion, the tenderest love and the most bloodcurdling violence that early music has to offer.  Some of it is funny, too!

Saturday, February 5, 2010  8:00 PM

Sunday, February 7, 2010  5:00 PM

St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral

231 East 100, Salt Lake City

Emily Nelson, soprano, Christopher LeCluyse, tenor, Catherine Coda, mezzo-soprano, Nelson LeDuc, baritone, Bronwen Beecher, fiddle, Nick Foster, guitar.