Deer Valley Music Festival 15th anniversary lineup announced
The Deer Valley Music Festival is turning 15 and the Utah Symphony is grateful to Park City and Summit County for the continued support, said Paul Meecham, Utah Symphony president and CEO.
“I think this means that we’re feeling like we’re established and a permanent part of the community,” Meecham said. “We’re feeling good about our presence and the audience seems to respond well to what we are doing.”
The festival’s six-week summer schedule, which starts on June 30 with a Patriotic Celebration featuring vocalist Rachel Potter, will include 13 full orchestra concerts at the Snow Park Amphitheater, as well as four chamber concerts at St. Mary’s Catholic Church that begin on July 11 with Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 featuring violinist Kathryn Eberle, Meecham said.
The Snow Park concerts comprise a variety of performances and artists, from the music of John Williams movie scores and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim Broadway shows to the folk singer and songwriter Amos Lee, Grammy-winning country artist Ricky Skaggs and Tony Award-winning singer Kristin Chenoweth.
Even pop rocker Rick Springfield is part of the lineup, as is the symphony performing the music of classic rock band Pink Floyd.
“We’re pushing the envelope with inviting artists such as Amos Lee and Ricky Skaggs who have been experiencing with symphony orchestras,” Meecham said. “We have this incredible mountain venue. So we want to draw as many people as possible to experience music in this spectacular setting.”
The intimate St. Mary’s concerts are the perfect foil for the big outdoor performances, he said.
“The audience is able to get closer to the artists as well,” Meecham explained.
One of the St. Mary’s highlights is the Deer Valley Music Festival debut of the Fremont String Quartet on Aug. 1.
This is a newly formed quartet comprised of Utah Symphony Concertmaster Madeline Adkins, Principal Second Violinist Claude Halter, Principal Violist Brant Bayless and Principal Cellist Rainer Eudeikis.
“They are all new to us, with the exception of the violist, who has been with us for 15 years,” Meecham said. “They decided to create a quartet and they debuted during the Utah Symphony’s tour of national parks. They performed in Vernal just outside Dinosaur National Monument, and enjoyed playing.”
The Deer Valley Music Festival’s 15th anniversary will also include a barn bash on Thursday, Aug. 9, at the Blue Sky Ranch in Wanship.
“You should never let an anniversary go by without celebrating something,” Meecham said. “So we wanted to do an event with a western them because we live in the Intermountain West, and we also wanted it to be a fundraiser for our extensive outreach programs we do throughout the state.”
Nine-time Grammy Award-winning country band Asleep at the Wheel will perform with the Utah Symphony during the Barn Bash.
“It’s not really a gala because we are encouraging people to dress up in Western wear and have fun giving back to the Utah Symphony’s educational programs,” Meecham said.
Not only does the Deer Valley Music Festival offer a variety of concerts for audiences, it also gives the musicians a chance to expand their playing.
“Life would be dull playing Mozart and Beethoven every week,” Meecham said. “The musicians we have are great and they play those works very well, but the Deer Valley Music Festival shows the evolution of symphony orchestras over the past 150 years. And we don’t want to be pigeonholed into playing only classical music.”
The 2018 Deer Valley Music Festival schedule is as follows;
Snow Park Amphitheatre concerts
June 30 — Patriotic Celebration wit Rachel Potter.
July 6 — Disney in Concert: A Silly Symphony Celebration
July 7 — Broadway Hits by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim with Debbie Gravitte, Christiane Noll and Hugh Panaro.
July 13 — Abba the Concert: A Tribute to Abba
July 14 — Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder
July 20 — Rick Springfield
July 21 — Kristin Chenoweth
July 27 — Amos Lee
July 28 — The Music of John Williams
Aug. 3 — The ‘70s vs. The ‘80s with Capathia Jenkins
Aug. 10 — Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Orchestra and Violin Concerto with violinist Benjamin Beilman, the Utah Symphony Chorus and the Cannoneers of the Wasatch
Aug. 11 — Utah Symphony Performs Windborne’s Music of Pink Floyd with Randy Jackson
St. Mary’s Church Chamber Orchestra Series
July 11 — Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with violinist Kathryn Eberle
July 18 — Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony with flutist Mercedes Smith and harpist Matthew Tutsky
July 25 — Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 with soprano Sarah Shafer
Aug. 1 — Fremont String Quartet
Subscription, group, and VIP tickets for the Deer Valley Music Festival are on sale now. The Park City Locals Sale for Summit and Wasatch county residents will take place on Saturday, March 31, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Park City Visitor Information Center, 1794 Olympic Parkway at Kimball Junction. Concert tickets for the general public will go on sale at 10 a.m. on April 17. Performance tickets and lodging information are available by calling 801-533-6683 or online at deervalleymusicfestival.org.
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