Students sample the arts at Museum and Music

Nathan Southwick will be the featured violinist on Thursday at the monthly Museum and Music production.

“Nathan is one of our best, brightest and most talented students,” said Mike Bankhead, head of the Utah State University Music Department, which co-sponsors the monthly event with the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art. “He is willing to go the extra mile with his performances. We know he will be both charming and artistically outstanding.”

The event is held on the third Thursday of each month at 3 p.m. in the museum. The goal, said museum director Katie Lee Koven, “is to have students perform music related to artwork on view in the museum, therefore making connections between visual arts and music in a meaningful way.”

Nadra Haffar, the education curator at the Caine College of the Arts, noted that the time of the event has changed for the spring semester.

“It was a challenge to get students to come last semester because a lot of them like to go home over the weekend,” Haffar said. “So this semester we decided to hold it every third Thursday at three. It’s still a challenge because a lot of classes are held during this time, but last month’s attendance was larger in comparison to last semester’s attendance.”

Andrea DeHaan, the administrative coordinator for the museum, said based on feedback from instructors a greater attendance is anticipated at this week’s event. Southwick is one of three musicians expected to perform on Thursday.

“We hope Nathan’s name recognition in the local community will draw in additional followers,” DeHaan said. “We expect it to be a very high-quality performance.”

Koven said Museum and Music was created to provide an opportunity for visitors, especially USU students, to enjoy music, art and refreshments. The event also provides students in the music department an opportunity to perform live in front of an audience.

“We hope these presentations become a permanent part of the artistic landscape for the museum and offer our music students a great opportunity to perform for a wonderful audience that may be different than what we normally see at our concerts,” Bankhead said. “We want to make the museum come alive with music to match the quality of visual arts.”

Nikki VanLith, Janessa Knowles, Claire Hubbard, LeAnn Fox, Alex Taylor and Logan Jones contributed to this report.