Just a few days early, we welcome the coming of spring with a program of joy and budding potential. Assistant conductor Brandon Horrocks will conduct William Grant Still’s Festive Overture to open the concert and announce the coming happy season. Still is an important American composer and considered the “Dean of Black Composers,” writing over 150 compositions, many premiering in major music centers. Perhaps nothing defines spring and the coming green quite like Ralph Vaughan Williams A Lark Ascending. Filled with English charm, the work depicts its title most effectively, transporting the audience to the English countryside. Local violin virtuoso Kasia Sokol-Borup joins us as soloist. The program will be conducted by longtime Utah musical leader, Barbara Scowcroft. Maestra Scowcroft has chosen Brahms’ 4th Symphony as the perfect ending to our welcome to spring. Brahms’s final work is perhaps his most controlled example of musical seeds blooming into life as a complete symphony.