One of the world’s most acclaimed violinists, Pinchas Zukerman, is adding Salt Lake City to his performance schedule in November, to play with and conduct the Utah Symphony.
Zukerman will perform four concerts, Nov. 19-21, with the Utah Symphony at Abravanel Hall, the symphony announced Monday.
He will perform and conduct Johann Sebastian Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor. The program, part of the symphony’s Masterworks Series, will also feature Edward Elgar’s “Serenade for Strings,” Jessie Montgomery’s “Starburst,” and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 — which the composer wrote when he was 18.
The concert scheduled for that week — a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Third Symphony, aka the “Eroica” symphony, and Arnold Schoenberg’s “Peace on Earth” — has been rescheduled to Dec. 3 to 5.
Thierry Fischer, Utah Symphony’s principal conductor and music director, is out of the country, and won’t make it back for the November dates because of COVID-19 travel restrictions into the United States, Utah Symphony | Utah Opera President/CEO Steven Brosvik said in a statement.
This is Zukerman’s eighth appearance with the Utah Symphony. His first, in 1985, was as a viola soloist. His last visit to Abravanel Hall was in October 2009, performing works by Brahms.
The four Zukerman performances will be in front of limited, socially distanced audiences, to protect fans and musicians from the spread of COVID-19. In addition to the traditional Friday and Saturday evening shows, the symphony is adding a Thursday night show and a Saturday matinee. Each performance will be about 70 minutes long, with no intermission.
