About

Founded in 1976, the Salt Lake Symphony is one of the area’s most highly respected volunteer driven orchestras. The Salt Lake Symphony is a non-profit organization dedicated to performing quality classical music concerts for the Wasatch Front community. The Symphony performs around 15 concerts per year.

The approximately seventy-five hard-working musicians of the SLS volunteer roughly 10,000 hours annually to accomplish this goal. Although the members of the Salt Lake Symphony come from all walks of life and frequently work full-time in other professions, they hold one thing in common: They play for the love and passion of music. Their dedication as volunteers sets them apart and creates a unique bond.

Mission Statement

The Salt Lake Symphony strives to be the area’s best community orchestra. We are a non-profit organization dedicated to performing quality classical music concerts for the Wasatch Front community. Our mission is unique in many respects. Our concerts are inexpensive and informal, drawing an audience that might not otherwise attend a classical music event. We are an amateur orchestra in the purest sense, striving always to increase our connections with community members to keep the beauty and passion of classical music alive. In particular, we are committed to education, and will continue to initiate projects that bring music to children. We are dedicated to providing opportunities to Utah performers, conductors, and composers to display their talents to our audiences.

Conductors

Robert Baldwin is Music Director and Conductor for the Salt Lake Symphony and Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting at the University of Utah. He is also the founding conductor for Sinfonia Salt Lake, a professional chamber orchestra that made its critically acclaimed debut in 2016. He has appeared across the North America, Europe and Asia as a conductor and viola player. International conducting appearances include the Hunan Symphony in China, Busan Maru International Music Festival in South Korea, Eutin Festspiele in Germany, Kuopio Academy of Music in Finland, and the Hermitage Camerata in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and tours with the University of Utah Chamber Orchestra to London, Vienna, Graz and Salzburg. In demand as a guest conductor and clinician, he also has conducted performances with the Great Falls Symphony, Lafayette Symphony, Lexington Philharmonic, Lexington Singers, Flagstaff Festival of the Arts, Abilene Tri-Collegiate Opera, and numerous All-State and regional festival orchestras across the U.S.A. His performances and ensembles have received international attention and have been featured on New York’s WQXR Classical Radio, and nationally broadcast radio programs, including Performance Today, Highway 89 and Weekend Edition. Dr. Baldwin’s preconcert talks and community music classes are popular mainstays of the Utah Arts scene. His award-winning blog on music and creativity is Before the Downbeat.

Also an active violist and viola d’amore player, he has had a variety of experiences, including guest appearances with the Amadeus Trio, and both the Saint Petersburg and Stanford String Quartets, as well as with Vivaldi Virtuosi (UT), the Sedona Chamber Music Festival (AZ), the Eutin Festspiele (Germany), and as a soloist with several orchestras in the western US. He was violist of the Arizona-based Coconino Chamber Ensemble from 1989-1999, and was principal violist for the Flagstaff Symphony, Arkansas Symphony, and Arizona Opera. Recent solo appearances on viola and viola d’amore include recitals in the United States, Germany and Mexico.

Previously, he has held faculty and conducting positions at the University of Kentucky, Lexington Philharmonic, New American Symphony, Flagstaff Symphony and Northern Arizona University. Dr. Baldwin studied conducting in the United States and in Saint Petersburg, Russia, holding degrees in viola performance from the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Iowa, and a DMA in orchestral conducting from the University of Arizona. He makes his home in Salt Lake City, Utah where, in his spare time, he enjoys reading, writing, hiking, and spending time with his family.

Brandon is thrilled to be returning at the Assistant Conductor with the Salt Lake Symphony, a position he held in the Spring/Summer of 2021. Additionally, in the Salt Lake community, Brandon is the Music Director and Conductor of the Utah Philharmonic Orchestra and the Wasatch Symphony Orchestra.

Brandon is a current doctoral student in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Utah and serves as an Assistant Graduate Conductor of the Campus Symphony and the University of Utah Philharmonia. He also works as the Orchestra Librarian for the University orchestras.

Brandon is a vocalist by training and maintains connection to the choral community as a choir section leader with the Cathedral of the Madeleine Choir in Salt Lake City and works at the Madeleine Choir School as an adjunct teacher for their Choir classes. Brandon is an active choral singer and has performed with Utah Chamber Artists, Salt Lake Choral Artists, La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, and San Diego Master Chorale.

Brandon holds a Master’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting and Bachelors of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Utah where he studies conducting with Dr. Robert Baldwin. He studied voice and opera with Dr. David Power and Dr. Robert Breault.

Brandon is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
www.brandonhorrocks.com

SLS Board

Board of Directors

Dick Fox

Chair

Presides over SLS Board meetings. Corporate fundraising, contracts and legal issues.

MARTY MCMILLAN

Managing Director

Cello
Manages operations of the Salt Lake Symphony. Cultivates good relations with musicians, sponsors, and friends of the Salt Lake Symphony.

Mary Anne Peterson

Librarian

Principal 2nd, Violin
Responsible for ordering, distribution, inventory, and maintenance of all purchased and rented music used by the SLS.

Hilary Coon

Grant Proposals

Section Leader, Oboe
Responsible for writing grant proposals to public and private foundations which contribute a large portion of funding to the SLS budget.

Charlotte Bell

Graphics and Media Relations

Oboe
Oversees the graphic design for the symphony’s promotional materials, coordinates media relations for the SLS.

Margaret Smith

Vienna Ball Chair

Bass
Coordinates various fundraising functions including the silent auction for the Vienna Ball. Assists with public relations and the SLS mailing list.