The festival was started in 2003 under the direction of Utah Symphony Music Director Keith Lockhart and Utah Symphony & Opera President & CEO Anne Ewers.
2012
The headlining performances of the 2012 festival were Earth, Wind & Fire and Pink Martini.
The Festival began with a tribute to Michael Jackson featuring James Delisco, winner of the E! reality series The Entertainer. Other Saturday night performances included Kansas with the Utah Symphony, Broadway Rocks! (with singers Morgan James, LaKisha Jones, Doug LaBrecque, and Rob Evan), Earth, Wind & Fire with the Utah Symphony, and Pink Martini with the Utah Symphony.
Friday night performances included the return of Utah Opera to the festival with an evening of opera arias (performed by the Utah Opera Chorus and guests Celena Shafer, Jennifer Welch-Babidge, Sishel Claverie, Darrell Babidge and Ryan MacPherson), the annual 1812 Overture performance which also included the Children's Dance Theater joining the orchestra for the Carnival of the Animals, and "The American Songbook" with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Disney in Concert: Magical Music from the Movies also returned to the festival.
The Utah Symphony's Chamber Orchestra Series featured three programs conducted by Vladimir Kulenovic. Mythic Romance featured violinist Sean Lee performing Antonín Dvořák's Romance for Violin and Orchestra as well as performances of Mozart's Overture to Don Giovanni and Schubert's Symphony No. 4. The French Connection featured music by French composers including Ravel, Debussy, Faure, and Gounod. The final performance of the series included three pieces written by Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn during the brief period when all three composers were alive and active.
The Muir Quartet and the Jewish American Songbook were included on the Chamber Ensemble Series.