Salt Lake City’s Logan Blackman or the growth of a music conducting professional: Logan J. Blackman has been conducting and composing since the age of 14. While most kids were at the mall or out causing trouble, Logan was tapping into the deep creative wells of his young mind to compose a musical legacy. Within a short period of time (and with a story that could rival most inspirational movies) Logan appeared with the Murray State University Wind Ensemble, the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, and the University of Kentucky Wind Ensemble as well as acted as assistant conductor to the University of Kentucky Orchestras and University of Utah Orchestras. See additional details at Logan J. Blackman.
Founded in 1918 and made up of undergraduate and graduate musicians from across the United States, Asia, South America and Europe, the UK Symphony Orchestra has long served as one of the university’s most prominent music ensembles. This year the ensemble continues that tradition with performances of some of the greatest works in the orchestral repertoire, alongside contemporary works that push the boundaries of orchestral music. Concerts will feature music by the likes of Ludwig van Beethoven, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and George Gershwin, and by modern composer John Adams. The orchestra also continues its partnership with UK Opera Theatre, performing next in the program’s production of “The Barber of Seville.”
Maestro Nardolillo conducted the final number of the evening’s performance, the heart-rending chorale finale, Make Our Garden Grow from Candide, with soprano Jessica Bayne, tenor Michael Pandolfo and Mixed Chorus. This duet between Candide and Cunegonde (characters from Voltaire’s French satire, Candide: Or the Optimist) was Bernstein’s message to us all: And let us try, / Before we die, / To make some sense of life. / We’ll do the best we know . . . / And make our garden grow. Pandolfo’s and Bayne’s voices were sublime as they shared Bernstein’s impassioned plea full of sincerity and optimism. And as the chorus joined in, magnifying Candide’s and Cunegonde’s emotions, Bernstein’s plan to unite us and give us a glimpse of our humanity will continue long past his 100th. It doesn’t matter that the clock stops ticking, eternal truths keep on truckin’.
Raised in Paducah, Kentucky, Blackman began his conducting career at the age of 14 and his composition career at the age of 12. His first time conducting was a premiere of his own work during high school. Blackman has been a guest conductor with the Murray State Wind Ensemble, Lone Oak High School Band and West Kentucky Woodwind Choir. At the age of 17, Blackman founded his own Blackman Wind Symphony in Paducah. An alumnus of Kentucky Center’s Governor’s School for the Arts and Commonwealth Middle College, Blackman took organ and piano lessons before finding his love for the bassoon. Discover extra information at https://jukeboxtime.com/exclusive-logan-j-blackman-mesmerizes-us-with-his-phenomenal-music/.
After Logan Blackman’s parents were killed in a motorcycle accident when he was 15, he handled it in a way that seemed natural to him: He wrote music. “It was kind of what I had gone through and where I thought I was going — kind of a triumphant end,” Blackman says of his composition. The piece, “Prayer of a Broken Heart,” was premiered by the band at Blackman’s school, Lone Oak High School in Paducah (the school has since been consolidated into McCracken County High School, which is his alma mater). It also was recorded at Murray State University.