Utah Symphony to perform Disney favorites at the Deer Valley® Music Festival on July 19

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (July 2, 2019) – The Utah Symphony will delight audiences with a magical evening of hit songs from Disney movies such as “Coco,” “Frozen,” “Moana,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Little Mermaid” and more in Disney in Concert: A Magical Celebration. Also performing will be vocalists Andrea Ross, Whitney Claire Kaufman, Aaron Phillips and Andrew Johnson, and the performance will be conducted by Deer Valley® Music Festival Principal Conductor Conner Gray Covington.

Andrea Ross is an American singer and actress who has earned the backing of Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber. She has released a solo album, “Moon River”, and sings with symphonies across the country.

Whitney Claire Kaufman has been performing since the early age of seven, and has been featured as a principal vocalist for “Disney in Concert” productions with symphonies around the world, including the Pacific Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Australia.

Aaron Phillips has starred in numerous theater and opera productions, including “Les Misérables” and “Gianni Schicci”, and continues to tour nationally to perform as a primary vocalist for “Disney in Concert”.

Andrew Johnson has toured across the United States, Europe and Asia as a lead vocalist and dancer, and has performed background vocals for popular artists such as Demi Lovato, Fifth Harmony, and Florence and the Machine.

Conner Gray Covington is in his second season with the Utah Symphony as Associate Conductor and 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 Hagan Conducting Prize and the Career Assistance Awards from the Solti Foundation U.S. in 2014, 2017 and 2019.

Utah Symphony | Utah Opera’s 16^th season of the Deer Valley® Music Festival comprises 19 performances over seven weeks with performances in a variety of venues featuring a wide array of music styles, including musical theater, folk, classic rock, films in concert, and more. The 16^th anniversary 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
Prior to “Disney in Concert”, from 6-7:15 PM we invite patrons to come make sounds on various instruments at our Instrument Petting Zoo, hosted by members of our Utah Symphony Youth Guild and Summerhays Music.

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. Utah Symphony violinist Lynn Rosen along with pianist Alex Marshall and guitarist Tully Cathey will perform music by Paganini, Prokofiev, Bernstein, and more on Saturday, July 20 at 5:15 PM at Miner’s Plaza in Park City. The following Monday, July 22 at 6:30 PM, a woodwind trio from the Utah Symphony will present a 45-minute concert at Susan Swartz Studios in Park City.