Conference 2025: Opening Session, Gold Baton Award, and Keynote

Speaker(s): Marin Alsop, Conductor and Educator, TACF; Jessica Rivero Altarriba, Assistant Conductor, Utah Symphony; Steven Brosvik, the O.C. Tanner president and CEO of Utah Symphony | Utah Opera; Renée Fleming, Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health, World Health Organization; and Simon Woods, President and CEO, League of American Orchestras

Performance: Clarice Assad, Composer and Pianist; Quinn Mason, Composer and Conductor; and Barbara Scowcroft, Music Director and Conductor, Utah Youth Philharmonic and Utah Youth Symphony

The opening general session at Maurice Abravanel Hall featured the Utah Youth Philharmonic and Utah Youth Symphony and Music Director and Conductor Barbara Scowcroft, performing two world premieres by Brazilian-American composer and pianist Clarice Assad and American composer and conductor Quinn Mason.

The opening keynote address was given by American soprano Renée Fleming, a leading advocate for the study of the powerful connection between art and health. Renée serves as the World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health and was the former Artistic Advisor at Large to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Renée partnered with Dr. Francis Collins from the National Institutes of Health to develop the Sound Health partnership, a collaboration between the National Institutes of Health, Kennedy Center, and National Endowment for the Arts, exploring the intersection of music, health, and neuroscience.

Another highlight of the opening was the presentation of the League’s Gold Baton award to American conductor Marin Alsop, Music Director Laureate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Chief Conductor of the Ravinia Festival, Music Director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival (NOI+F) at the University of Maryland, and Director of Graduate Conducting at the Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute, among others. The award will be presented by Latin American conductor Jessica Rivero Altarriba, Assistant Conductor of the Utah Symphony and a Taki Alsop Fellowship Award Recipient from 2024-26.

The Opening Session has been generously co-sponsored by Akustiks, HGA Architects & Engineers, and Schuler Shook. The Youth Orchestra performance at the Opening Session has been generously sponsored by BMI.

The Opening Session is also made possible, in part, by generous grants from The Amphion Foundation, Inc. and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

Photo Credit: Douglas Carter Photography