For the first time in two months music will once again fill the historic Ute Theater in Rifle.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Gov. Polis’s order to limit the size of gatherings and the subsequent stay at home order, the theater last hosted a musical act March 7, when they presented the Outlaw Country show.
Noodle Soup, a small local group of musicians from Symphony in the Valley, will be performing New Orleans style Jazz music at 7 p.m., Friday at the theater.
Symphony in the Valley conductor Kelly Thompson is working with if the Rifle Community TV, live streaming the event on Facebook for all to listen and watch.
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“Obviously everybody has been missing playing music, and the symphony traditionally does a Mother’s Day show,” New Ute Theatre Society Board Member Anna Kaiser said.
She said since they can’t get the symphony together they are getting their small group together.
Noodle Soup which includes 8 members, will be pared down to keep the number of people in the Ute under the limit of 10 advised during the pandemic.
Kaiser said the production crew will include two camera operators the theater director and the band and they will all adhere to social distancing.
The concert will be live on the Ute, Rifle Community TV, and Symphony in the Valley’s Facebook pages, and KMTS is planning to air it as well.
“We‘ve got it all set up to cross-post, and (for) anyone who misses it, then we will post it on the Rifle Community TV website,” Kaiser said. “This will still let people hear the great local musicians, especially for Mother’s Day weekend. You can listen to it remotely together.”
The symphony and the New Ute Theater Society will be taking denotation during the event on their respective websites at sitv.org and utetheater.com.
The Ute’s next scheduled event is July 10, when Jason Boland and The Stragglers are slated to play. The concert is the first of several engagements, which were rescheduled after the closure in March.
“The closer we get it’s feeling more and more like it might not happen. We are just waiting to see,” Kaiser said.