Q&AJerry Steichen

What is your best memory of the Deer Valley Music Festival? 

1. Watching the slope fill up with audience members—spreading blankets, sharing friendship.
2. The first moment I walk out on stage and feel the excitement before each concert.
3. The first four seasons, when we did fully-staged and choreographed Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
4. And the sound of the Utah Symphony echoing through the valley.

What are things you always do when you come to Utah? 

1. Crown Burger!
2. Hiking around Deer Valley.
3. Coffee with Llew and Sally Humphreys.

In your opinion, what makes Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber great composers?

Lloyd Webber has an incredible gift for melody, and he composes easily in every musical style. Compare Jesus Christ Superstar to Cats to Phantom of the Opera—talk about flexibility. But it’s really his melodies that grab you.

Sondheim has the broadest gifts of theatrical skill. From the lyrics to West Side Story and Gypsy to the complex characters in Into the Woodsand Company to the musical genius that is Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George—his mastery of text combining with music to take us on musical journeys is unsurpassed

What is the best thing about conducting at the Deer Valley Music Festival?

The orchestra and the audience—there is so much Joy.

What do you like most about this concert’s repertoire?

Variety! My favorite thing is having something different in every selection, and it is so much fun!