“Patricia Richards, interim president and CEO of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera, says safety and financial stability are the groups’ two most important goals right now,” writes Mark Saal in Sunday’s (4/26) Standard-Examiner (Ogden, UT). “ ‘My primary objective, to be honest, is to make sure all the staff and musicians are safe and well,’ Richards said…. Richards believes … until there’s a vaccine and effective treatments for COVID-19 … people won’t be comfortable in large groups.… In the meantime … Paula Fowler, director of education and community outreach for Utah Symphony | Utah Opera, says the organization is beefing up its digital resources to offer more online content … with instructional learning videos in a program called ‘School From Home,’ as well as on-demand streaming in listening rooms…. ‘We know that school teachers have been given a huge burden here, so … we were just thinking, “How can we help teachers, and keep students’ minds engaged and learning in the area we represent—music?” ’ says Fowler…. If there’s a silver lining in the coronavirus pandemic madness, Richards believes it’s that people will come to appreciate the value of arts more…. ‘You notice what you miss, and how much you miss it,’ Richards says.”
In photo: Members of the Utah Symphony’s trumpet section—Travis Peterson, principal trumpet; Jeff Luke, associate principal trumpet; Alex Pride, acting fourth/utility trumpet; and Paul Torrisi, second trumpet—performed on CBS Sunday Morning on April 26. Luke arranged the show’s theme music for four trumpets; the musicians recorded it from their homes, combined the parts into a video, and submitted the result to the show’s producers.
