Utah Arts Review – An uncertain 2020 for Utah Symphony continues with Bach and Black Lives Matter

by Edward Reichel

While most American orchestras have canceled their fall schedules to avoid the risk of COVID-19 entirely, Utah Symphony is proceeding with a drastically altered lineup that is, in turn, producing a very different kind of concert experience.

A circumspect season opener last week featured only strings in an auditorium retrofitted for social distancing, and an attendance cap of 400 people in a venue that normally seats almost eight times that number.

This weekend’s offering, with the same precautions, also includes members of the woodwind, brass and percussion sections, although not as a combined force with strings. It’s a modified concept of classical music that takes getting used to. But the good news is that, after more than six months of voluntary shutdown since the pandemic cut short concert seasons everywhere, there are live performances once again in Salt Lake City.

Continue at utahartsreview.com