Utah Symphony Orchestra

Celebrity Concert Season begins the 2012-2013 with the famed Utah Symphony Orchestra for one night only. Utah Symphony is a perennial favorite and offers and outstanding program of classical repertoire.

Music Director and Principal Conductor of Utah Symphony is Theirry Ficher. Swiss conductor Fischer is Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and also Chief Conductor of the Nagoya Philharmonic. From 2001-2006 he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Ulster Orchestra. In 2009 he was named Music Director of the Utah Symphony.

Founded in 1940, the Utah Symphony has become a vital presence on the American music scene through its distinctive performances worldwide and its well-known recording legacy.

The orchestra became recognized as a leading ensemble largely through the efforts of Maurice Abravanel, its Music Director from 1947 to 1979. Under his direction, the orchestra made its first recordings of works by Varese, Milhaud, Gottschalk, Honegger and Satie, as well as the first complete cycle of Mahler Symphonies.

Under Keith Lockhart, whose tenure as Music Director began in 1998, and Joseph Silverstein, Music Director from 1983 to 1998, the orchestra has continued its commitment to the music of our time, recording and premiering a number of American works.

The Utah Symphony has its home in Abravanel Hall, which is acclaimed as one of the world's great concert halls - having won awards for both its architecture and its extraordinary acoustics. In addition to performing more than 70 subscription concerts in Abravanel Hall, the Symphony regularly travels around the Intermountain West serving communities in Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and Idaho. In April 2005, the orchestra embarked on its first European Tour in 19 years, visiting concert halls in Austria and Germany.

The orchestra accompanies the Utah Opera in four productions per year at Salt Lake's Capitol Theatre. In addition, the Utah Symphony performs numerous concerts as part of Utah Symphony & Opera's Deer Valley Music Festival, held each summer in the Park City mountain community. Funding from the Utah State Legislature makes it possible for the Symphony to perform for over 55,000 students each year, both in Abravanel Hall and traveling to schools throughout the state.