Catch The Valencia Baryton Project In Cedar City This Week

Cedar City Music Arts continues its eclectic concert season this week with a performance that promises to introduce audiences to an instrument few have ever seen, let alone heard. Marty Warburton, a board member with Cedar City Music Arts, recently spoke on the Big Picture Morning Show on KSUB radio about the upcoming appearance of the Valencia Baryton Project at the Heritage Center.

Warburton joked that the group’s arrival seemed to trigger Cedar City’s first real taste of winter. “So, it hasn’t snowed since what, last March, April, May. And so it’s been a great fall, a great winter. No snow, everything’s brown. And we have the Valencia-Berryton project coming to Cedar City tomorrow. And what’s in the forecast for tomorrow, Tim? Snow,” he said, adding that the musicians would handle it just fine.

The centerpiece of the concert is the baryton, an unusual stringed instrument dating back to the 1500s. Visually similar to a cello, the baryton is bowed from the front, but it also features sympathetic strings running along the back of the neck. “It’s a bowed instrument. Picture a cello. It has cello strings on the front and on the back of the neck of the cello are sympathetic strings that vibrate when the front of the cello is played and the player plucks the strings on the back of the neck with his thumb while he’s fretting the instrument,” Warburton explained. “It’s a wild looking instrument.”

Reverb From 500 Years Ago?

The Valencia Baryton Project performs as a trio with baryton, viola, and cello, focusing on music written specifically for the baryton centuries ago. According to Warburton, the sound is unlike anything modern audiences are used to. “It sounds like reverb, basically, from 500 years ago,” he said.

In addition to the Thursday evening concert at 7:30 p.m., the group will also perform a matinee at 10 a.m. for Iron County School District students, giving young audiences a rare chance to see and hear the instrument up close. “The kids will be educated. They’ll see what a baryton is. They’ll see what a viola is. They’ll see what a cello is,” Warburton noted.

Warburton said Cedar City Music Arts intentionally seeks out performances that fall outside the mainstream. “The curiosity is the hook here,” he said. “We like to bring odd and off the radar acts and artists in here.”

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Tickets are available at the box office and through cedarcitymusicarts.org, with added incentives for season ticket holders to bring guests. Warburton said attendance has been encouraging this year, thanks in part to community outreach and social media, and events like this one help keep that momentum going.

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You can listen to our entire discussion with Marty Warburton about this unusual instrument in the podcast below.