A sad farewell...
Well first things first: No, I am not the one saying farewell. Ha ha.
For those of you in Utah and interested in the symphony: Did you know that the 2008-2009 season will be Keith Lockhart's last season conducting?
After thinking about this for a while, I decided I will be sad that he's leaving. At one time (long ago), believe it or not, the Utah Symphony was very highly rated in the nation. Then its rating fell quite a bit. Since Lockhart started conducting it hasn't risen to incredible heights, but it has gotten a lot better than it was. So I hope that when he leaves they will get a suitable replacement for him, one that will continue to help the Utah Symphony and not hurt it.
I think what I will miss most about Keith Lockhart will be the level of entertainment I got from watching the symphony play. In general usually I like watching the cello section (though I play the violin), but with Lockhart he conducted so energetically that it was hard not to watch him jumping around and grasping at the air. I'm not making fun; it really was amusing. Most conductors are passionate about the music but even so a lot of them kind of just stand there. So I guess I'll miss him moving about and really getting into the music.
Any way, hopefully I'll get to go and see a lot of his final concerts. The line up for the season is pretty good. I hope there will be the traditional performances for the holidays (on Halloween they generally do something considered "scary" and the members of the orchestra are allowed to wear costumes ^.^ and for Christmas they usually do a sing-along Messiah [no I am not kidding]). I think the thing I want to see most is Mozart's Requiem though.