After buying a home in Salt Lake City, having moved here to start work as a physician at a clinic downtown, one of my first big purchases was a season ticket for the Utah Symphony. I made a donation — in truth, so that I could get a seat on the left side, first tier, from which I had the optimal view of the keyboard for programs that featured a piano concerto. At the time, still paying back medical school debt, it was a significant investment.
But one I have never regretted and the start of further support with invaluable returns. Connection and music helped me survive the COVID pandemic, which was devastating for so many people. Living alone and with a practice full of incredibly dear and vulnerable patients was unspeakably hard at times.
I lost patients and felt powerless. My responsibility to these patients, to help them, heal them and protect them seemed limited without knowledge of a new deadly virus, or means to treat or prevent it. Life was dark.
With the development of vaccines, and with the greatest caution , Abravanel Hall and the Utah Symphony returned to in-person concerts. Marvelous architectural and engineering work improved the airflow, while distancing the symphony from the audience. Masks were mandatory, as well as proof of vaccination.
Individuals or “family groups” were seated far more than six feet apart. Performances were shortened, and concessions were canceled. There were no wind instruments, woodwinds or brass.
Musicians and conductor Thierry Fis.
