New assistant Conductor, Brandon Horrocks will conduct this program of winners from the 2022-2023 Summer Arts Piano Competition. An important collaboration with the UofU School of Music, the SLS gladly offers our services every year to celebrate and support young Utah talent.
Just a few days early, we welcome the coming of spring with a program of joy and budding potential. Assistant conductor Brandon Horrocks will conduct William Grant Still’s Festive Overture to open the concert and announce the coming happy season. Still is an important American composer and considered the “Dean of Black Composers,” writing over 150 compositions, many premiering in major music centers. Perhaps nothing defines spring and the coming green quite like Ralph Vaughan Williams A Lark Ascending. Filled with English charm, the work depicts its title most effectively, transporting the audience to the English countryside. Local violin virtuoso Kasia Sokol-Borup joins us as soloist. The program will be conducted by longtime Utah musical leader, Barbara Scowcroft. Maestra Scowcroft has chosen Brahms' 4th Symphony as the perfect ending to our welcome to spring. Brahms’s final work is perhaps his most controlled example of musical seeds blooming into life as a complete symphony.
Tickets are available through ArtTix. Click here to purchase tickets.
Come explore the limitless musical imagination of composers with our varied April program. Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, an orchestral favorite, is like a time capsule, a reimagining of modern music into old forms. We will also take a journey into the fantastical realms of King Solomon’s mind in Bloch’s Schelomo (with SLS principal cellist, Andrew Clement) and the entire orchestra takes us on a wild ride with a famous trickster, Til Eulenspiegel!
We celebrate the diversity of composers and our audiences with our May Family concert. Tales from the Mist will take us into magical realms and even some real places, all composed by real people. It’s a story of US, the people that make up our human community. Appropriate for the whole family, this is a concert not to be missed! We wiltake a journey down the Moldau River in Smetana’s The Moldau (joined by some of Utah’s high school talent)
Olé! Join us for the season opener with the spirit of flamenco, complete with castanets and plenty of Spanish flair. The Salt Lake Symphony takes us on a journey of the sights and soundS of Spain, both from Spanish composers and the composers from other lands whose works were inspired by visits to the sunny southwest corner of Europe. As a special bonus, assistant conductor Brandon Horrocks will give the pre-
concert lecture on the fascinating life and music of little-known Spanish composer, Juan de Arriaga, his
doctoral research topic.
Some music had to overcome great obstacles before becoming beloved works. Some composers faced the
challenges of culture, gender, self-doubt, or political environment. All these works have a story rooted in
struggle and triumph. Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix’s older sister, wrote more than 350 pieces, although
most remained unperformed outside her immediate family group during her lifetime, and almost all of her
music was unpublished. This includes the outstanding Overture in C major, which is now finding its
rightful place in the orchestral repertoire. Serge Prokofiev’s Lt. Kije tells the unlikely story of a soldier
brought to life by a clerical error, which grows into a grand lie and entire life history that must be
propped up. (A satirical take on the Russian bureaucracy). University of Utah faculty pianist Viktor Valkov joins us performing Brahms’s early masterpiece, his First Piano Concerto. Riddled with inexperience and self-doubt, Brahms turned to others for assistance in molding the work, including Clara Schumann, who remarked after a rehearsal, "(it) went very well ... Almost all of it sounds beautiful, some parts far more beautiful even than Johannes himself imagined or expected."
The Salt Lake Symphony enthusiastically continues our collaboration with the University of Utah Opera and The Grand Theater at Salt Lake Community College for another set of performances of Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors and Leavitt and Buck’s A Christmas Carol. The holiday spirit is guaranteed! Shows are Nov. 30, 7:30 pm, Dec. 1, 7:30 pm, and Dec. 2 at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm.Tickets available through the Grand Theater website.
Have you ever wondered what happened to the Sugarplum Fairy, AFTER Clara and the Nutcracker
Prince lived happily ever after? Find out at our Holiday concert! Our special guests will be the Salt Lake
Children’s Choir and local dance talent. Appropriate for ALL ages. Bring the entire family!
The Salt Lake Symphony is pleased to provide the soundtrack of the future talent, presenting the members of the annual SummerArts Piano Competition in concert. Tickets will be available through the University of Utah School of Music
Dance the night away with live music from the Salt Lake Symphony, the Mark Chaney Jazz Trio and special floor shows by the BYU Ballroom Dance Team. It’s a tradition and fundraiser like none other in Salt Lake City, and the ballroom dance event of the season. Come support YOUR Salt Lake Symphony and dance the night away!
May the Force Be With Us! We’ll travel from ancient mythology to festivals on planet Earth. But the final
destination is hyperspace and musical selections from John Williams‘s incredible scores to Star Wars and
The Empire Strikes Back. Our special traveling companions include the talented players of the Rocky
Mountain Strings and invited Side-By-Side High School players.
With the world once again open after the pandemic, we are reminded of cycles and returning. Join the Salt Lake Symphony as we travel to Taylorville with a varied program of old and new music. One of our cellists, originally from Venezuela, introduced our conductor to the wonderful piece, Margariteńa, by Venezuelan composer, Innocente Carreńo. Filled with Venezuelan rhythms and melodic material, this concert favorite from South America will soon to be a favorite with U.S. audiences as well. We are also happy to reprogram a new work for soprano and orchestra by Utah composer, John Costa, originally planned to be premiered in March of 2020. Based of poetry by selected poets, the piece comes across as a deep reflection and powerful statement of life. Closing the concert will be Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 4, a cyclic masterpiece and orchestra player’s top choice. Tickets available at https://www.saltlakecountyarts.org/events/life-cycles/