Jean Cheney
- Title
- Jean Cheney
- Quote
- "I had “the humanities” as a part of my life ALL of my life. I had never considered what it might be like to grow up without books, without a sense of the country’s history, or an introduction to art. I never really thought about what the trajectory of my life would have been had I never been introduced to powerful language or intriguing ideas at an early age."
- Story
-
I loved Phillip Bimstein’s work with Red Rock Rondo. When he was on the board [at Utah Humanities], he had told us that Red Rock Rondo was going to have a debut performance of a new song cycle he had written about Springdale and Zion National Park, based on oral histories he had done there when he was mayor. I was free that weekend, so I decided to drive down there to listen to this concert.
And I was blown away, because all the people in those stories were in that room! Here we were in southern Utah, in this tiny, tiny little town, with this joyful music and these musicians, a guy from Chicago leading the whole thing. And I’m – I’m feeling so blessed, and so impressed with all I was hearing. That’s art, its music, its oral history, it’s all intertwined. And I thought, “This is great work being done here.”
It was really lovely. I knew Louise Excell, (she was one of the first board members I met), and I knew Phillip Bimstein. Look what they’re creating. They’re telling the stories of a community, through music, and through words and music capturing a town’s heart and soul. - Date
- April 26, 2024
- interviewer
- Randy Williams