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Salt Lake County commits to Abravanel Hall. That’s music to the Utah Symphony’s ear

A performance of Tchaikovsky's "Symphony No. 2" and a concerto with the world's top violist at Abravanel Hall in downtown Salt Lake City, Feb. 24, 2024.
Martha Harris
/
KUER
A performance of Tchaikovsky's "Symphony No. 2" and a concerto with the world's top violist at Abravanel Hall in downtown Salt Lake City, Feb. 24, 2024.

It’s the kind of news that would strike a sour note with anyone – the possibility of losing your home. In this case, musicians from the Utah Symphony faced an uncertain future with Abravanel Hall. The speed at which Salt Lake City got its hands on a new NHL team and plans started to roll for a new downtown sports and entertainment district seemed to leave the building behind.

But no longer.

Salt Lake County owns Abravanel Hall, and on Oct. 8, the county council unanimously approved a resolution to preserve and renovate it.

When the preservation vote came down, a quartet from the symphony began to play.

“Like so many in the community, we want the symphony to thrive for the next 50 years and beyond,” said Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson. “I will continue to engage with the Utah Symphony to develop a viable renovation plan that will showcase the hall for decades to come.”

Symphony President and CEO Steve Brosvik was also there for the vote.

“It is a huge relief to know that our home will exist and we may still have the opportunity to add some improvements which will honor it and give it the love it deserves for the next 50 years,” he said.

The fact that improvements are in the cards for Abravanel is music to his ears, especially since the building’s current orientation would not fit well with plans for a new zone downtown.

“The part of our building that will face that zone will really be our loading dock and some office windows,” said Brosvik.

Instead of feeling“as though the building is turning its back” on the new development, he would like Abravanel Hall and the Utah Symphony “to be engaged and be an active part of it.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

PAMELA MCCALL: What did you tell your musicians when you heard Abravanel might be torn down?

STEVE BROSVIK: Getting the news was pretty arresting, and it's probably one of the most difficult messages I've ever had to deliver to a group of professional musicians. These are people who have spent their entire lives preparing to try to win a job in an orchestra like this. Because there are only 17 full-time professional orchestras in the country, it's special to win an audition to play here, and to deliver that message was a real challenge. We have had some nice moments together since we learned it’s being preserved, though.

PM: Will the renovations displace you, at least for some time?

SB: That was always going to be a challenge, but the challenge of being displaced for a shorter period of time versus the amount of time of razing the building, doing the site preparation, building a new concert hall, that specter is at least four years of displacement, if not more. So it's a great relief to know that, yes, while we might be displaced, it's for a much shorter period of time.

PM: Mayor Wilson and the county council committed to “community input and ongoing collaboration” on the renovation. How do you feel about that?

I think we have seen that there is so much love and respect for the building and there has been a lot of public conversation. What do people love about the building? What is the challenge for people getting into the building with access and things like that? And I think that public conversation is going to be really important as we move forward.

Pamela is KUER's All Things Considered Host.
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