Enjoy an Explosive Night of Tchaikovsky at the Deer Valley® Music Festival on August 2

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (July 2, 2019) – The Utah Symphony will perform Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture alongside live cannon fire from Cannoneers of the Wasatch with Deer Valley® Music Festival Principal Conductor Conner Gray Covington directing the annual festival favorite. The night of Tchaikovsky will continue with a festival debut from Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova as she performs Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The concert will take place on Friday, August 2 at 7:30 PM at the Deer Valley® Snow Park Outdoor Amphitheater. Tickets to the performance start at $38 and are on sale now.

Conner Gray Covington is in his second season with the Utah Symphony as Associate Conductor and recently assumed the role of the Deer Valley® Music Festival’s Principal Conductor for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. He has conducted over 80 performances across the state of Utah. Before his residency in Utah, he was the Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and has worked with the symphonies of St. Louis, Virginia, and Monterey (California) as a guest conductor. Covington graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in violin performance and has earned awards such as the Walter Hagen Conducting Prize and the Career Assistance Awards from the Solti Foundation U.S. in 2014, 2017 and 2019.

Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova was the definition of a prodigy, starting her international musical career when she was a young girl. She has become a worldwide pianist sensation, astonishing audiences in famous concert halls across the globe, such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, London’s Cadogan Hall, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan, and many others. Ms. Fedorova now performs with orchestras across the world and has earned the top prize in numerous international piano competitions. She plans to release three albums in 2019, and about her music she says, “You can really paint with music. You see the colorful, inspiring scenes.”

Returning to perform Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with the Utah Symphony at the Deer Valley® Music Festival, Cannoneers of the Wasatch have been firing their cannons for symphonies for over 40 years all across Utah. Their arsenal boasts 18 historical replica cannons, ranging in size from 25 to 1,000 pounds. Their performances have become a traditional favorite for symphonies and youth orchestras in Utah.

Utah Symphony | Utah Opera’s 16^th season of the Deer Valley® Music Festival comprises 19 performances over 7 weeks with performances in a variety of venues featuring a wide array of music styles, including bluegrass, musical theater, folk, country, and more. The 16^th year of the festival will focus on celebrating the local community, donors, and supporters through a variety of pop-up ensemble performances at existing summer events and venues throughout the community.

RELATED EVENTS

Throughout the 2019 festival, small Utah Symphony and Utah Opera ensembles will perform close to a dozen “pop up concerts” – many of them free – in collaboration with other community groups. On Wednesday, August 7 at 5:30 PM at the Deer Valley® Snow Park Outdoor Amphitheater, members from the Utah Symphony Youth Guild will perform in a community concert for an afternoon of musical entertainment.