Editor’s Note: The Selective Echo interviewed Jeff Bram, vice president of artistic operations for the Utah Symphony/Utah Opera. The symphony’s season opens this weekend with an all-Beethoven concert at Abravanel Hall. Garrick Ohlsson will be soloist on the Fourth Piano Concerto (G Major, Opus 58) and Utah Symphony Chorus will join the orchestra on the Ninth Symphony (Choral, Opus 125). Ticket information is available here. Bram answered some questions about Keith Lockhart’s final season and the forthcoming search for a new artistic director.

SE: This season’s programming — while it features some of the best known works from the orchestral repertoire — also reflects huge, complex challenges in musical execution. As Maestro Lockhart’s musical valedictory salute, the season also seeks to establish firmly the Utah Symphony’s reputation as a first-class ensemble. What should veteran and new subscribers pay close attention to as the symphony moves through a potentially thrilling series of big concerts?

JB: Certainly, in his last year, Keith Lockhart hopes to make a statement not only about his tenure but also about what the orchestra has accomplished in the last 10 years. The audience will see first hand a world-class ensemble shaped by finely placed musicians. This season’s repertoire is a hallmark of that development. For example, in Richard Strauss’ famous Ein Heldenleben tone poem (A Heroic Life, 1898, Opus. 40), numerous soloists from the orchestra will be featured. Of course, Maestro Lockhart’s benedictory piece — Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony – is the apotheosis of musical profundity. The time is right for the Utah Symphony to perform Mahler’s last work, which was premiered in Vienna in 1912 just barely a year after the composer died. The performance will cap the Mahler cycle that Keith and the Utah Symphony have undertaken, music breathtaking in its singularly sumptuous capacity for expression. At his final performances (May 29 and May 30), Keith will lead the symphony in Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, which was performed for the first time in 1974 under Ardean Watts. These are just a few examples of this season’s thrilling repertoire to display the collaborative excellence that has come to define the artistic communication between Keith and the entire orchestra.

SE: This season’s contemporary chamber series has a new name honoring Ardean Watts and a new home at Westminster College. Of key interest, of course, are Dominick Argento’s one-man opera A Waterbird Talk and selections by contemporary Finnish and American composers. What is the potential appeal this year of this intriguing series?

JB: Not only does the series bears the name of its host but Ardean will serve as the on-stage emcee, in effect, providing living program notes. We believe this will be more effective than pre-concert lectures. Ardean is an icon of the symphony’s history and this series, now entering its third season, is the ideal way to honor an individual who believes strongly in bringing new music to our community. This season is so fun because baritone Timothy Jones – who thrilled audiences with his performance in Peter Maxwell Davies’s “Eight Songs for a Mad King” in 2007 – will be back for A Waterbird Talk as well as the concert next spring.

The series goes well beyond sharing with audiences what’s happening in contemporary music. In the intimate setting of the Vieve Gore concert hall at the college, audiences will have an exceptional opportunity to see comfortably and close at hand artists and composers as they work hand in hand to create and bring new music to the stage.

As for audiences for new music, what connects them is a sense of intellectual passion to try something new because they cannot be placed in neat demographic categories and they have independent tastes in a wide range of interests and activities.

SE: The slate of operas includes some of the most venerably popular works but also includes Marc Blitzstein’s Regina. What is the significance of including this particular work of Marc Blitzstein, a Philadelphia native whose creative output was widely recognized during the first half of the 20th Century?

JB: Keith is doing it for several reasons. The opera is an outstanding work of the American vernacular which he particularly enjoys; the work is based on Lillian Hellman’s play The Little Foxes. And, Maurice Abravanel conducted its premiere on Broadway on Halloween of 1949. In fact, Maestro Abravanel won a Tony for his work in Regina. The opera also has enjoyed a healthy renaissance in the last few years among American opera companies.

SE: The symphony and opera groups are clearly reaching out to younger music lovers and students, making tickets highly affordable especially in a challenging economy. Why is this outreach so critical to the symphony and opera groups?

JB: No doubt, this is an expensive art form to execute effectively with rigorous standards of excellence. However, in terms of cost to an audience member, across the nation and across the board, it is relatively quite inexpensive – more than going to a movie but definitely less than attending a major sporting event.

For orchestras to be successful, they must believe in their relevance for their communities. It must be driven; it cannot be forced. Our educational outreach about what we offer is critical, especially as we make ourselves available to young people who likely are not in a tax bracket that would typically allow them this kind of entertainment. Our duty is to give something back to the community, to say thank you for the generous support through free concerts and activities that, in part, involve schools in every area of this state.

Among our most pressing challenges is to strengthen and expand the subscription base for our various concert series, a problem found in many orchestras throughout the nation. Certainly, single-ticket sales are welcome but we also know that our audience members have highly diversified individual tastes and preferences. This season, we’re giving music lovers the opportunity to design their own subscription series. In fact, our Web site’s Design-A-Series page offers helpful suggestions on how potential subscribers can customize their ticket packages.

SE: The search for Maestro Lockhart’s successor enters its second year. What has been the learning curve so far with the search process? What criteria are on the short list for the ideal candidate?

JB: Technically, the calendar for the search is in its second year but this season is the first real year for trying out candidates. Currently, no one is on any short list. Each of the 11 guest conductors who will be featured this season – including at least seven who have never appeared before with the Utah Symphony – will get the same attention and treatment.

Of all the criteria, the overarching paramount one is the conductor’s capability for connecting musically with the orchestra as a growth-inspiring force. And, while the audiences will not have a formalized role in the search process, we will definitely be gauging their reactions at this season’s concerts. Audiences have an effective capacity for knowing when it’s right, musically speaking, between the podium and the stage. They necessarily may not be able to put it into words but they can tell when the orchestra has the wind fully at its sails. And, therefore, a guest conductor who might not be a candidate for the job may be the one to have that magic spark.

Certainly, we have not gone for anybody with a full-court press. And, the search logically has a closed level of secrecy. We don’t want to scare anybody off by a pageant-style process. Those who might be interested likely have jobs and they don’t want the world to know that they’re looking for a new gig.

However, everybody is fair game – not all of them will be interested in the job and not all of them will be interesting to us. Yet, we have decided to keep the process as fair as possible, regardless of whether or not we are interested in them. For those who demonstrate that spark, then we’ll go offline and observe them on their own turf.

The best-case scenario obviously would be to have a new musical director in place for the 2009-2010 or 2010-2011 season. However because many conductors have commitments that often go several years at least into the future, we may have a short period where there is a music director-designate.

One outcome, though, is that the search process becomes an excellent way of raising continuously the level of guest conducting and to ensure that the audience and orchestra members feel good that the performing arts company puts the best and brightest artists forward.

SE: Finally, while many symphonies and orchestras across the nation are navigating turbulent economic waters, the Utah Symphony and Opera seem to be holding their own. What defines prudent management for performing arts organizations in times of economic uncertainty?

JB: While there have been big ups and downs after the merger, the recent period has become an opportune time to cultivate an organizational management culture which emphasizes excellence in all phases of the company. For those of us involved in the management of the performing arts organization (60 people) we always have to be mindful of the powerful triumvirate of constituencies – donors (including audience members and subscribers); musicians and governing board members – essential to realizing a model of excellence on and off the stage. That is fundamental in building a relationship of trust with our audiences, especially as we prepare for a major period of change.