"I have an allergy to five-year plans," Keith Lockhart said early in his tenure as Utah Symphony music director.

So it isn't entirely surprising that Lockhart's 11 seasons in Abravanel Hall haven't always gone according to plan. The Lockhart era ends with performances of Leonard Bernstein's "Mass" this week; after that, he intends to do more guest conducting and, more important, to spend time with his family in Boston, where he has been conductor of the Boston Pops since 1995.

His appointment in Utah seemed unlikely. When he was announced as a candidate to succeed Joseph Silverstein, his high-profile position with the Pops prompted a few eye rolls and some alarmed letters to the editor. On the flip side, a Salt Lake Tribune columnist scoffed at the idea that anyone with Lockhart's star power would consider the Utah job.

Lockhart wasn't a complete classical-music novice; he was also director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra when he got the Utah job. Still, it's unlikely many people would have predicted his knack for programming or his excellence as a choral conductor.

Conventional wisdom in 1998 held that the telegenic, 38-year-old maestro's youth and charisma would lure new audiences to concerts -- and for his first few seasons, subscriptions rose. Then two events changed the orchestra's course in unexpected ways. The 9/11 attacks left arts organizations nationwide reeling. Less than a year later, a merger of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera generated a backlash from many concertgoers and donors; much of it was directed at Lockhart, who had enthusiastically backed the change.

He still believes the merger was the right move. "I have absolutely no regrets about having advocated that," he said. "There's no crystal ball, but had we not done that ... one or the other or both [organizations] would have been in serious, serious trouble. ... We both got into a bigger lifeboat. Even people who were skeptical or negative about the merger have nothing detrimental to say about either organization artistically."

Lockhart is aware of the murmurs that he wasn't fully committed to Utah, that he downplayed his connection to the orchestra in his program bios and preconcert publicity when he conducted outside the state.

"One thing that's stuck in my craw is this smattering of feeling that for me, this was moonlighting, that it was not my real job or that I didn't treat it as such -- a fly-in, fly-out sort of thing," he said. "I have spent more weeks of the year here, every single year, than any music director, except one, in the major [U.S.] orchestras."

As for the notion that he self-identified as "the Pops guy" and soft-pedaled his Utah ties, he said, "It's a different job. [The Pops] is an orchestra with a truly national constituency. There's no other job like that. The job here is to provide service to this community."

The Utah Symphony knew at the outset that the "Maurice Abravanel model," a music director who spent decades with a single orchestra, was obsolete, said David Winder, the former Utah Department of Economic and Community Development director who headed the symphony board when Lockhart began his music-director stint here. "We knew from the beginning that if we wanted a really good music director, he wouldn't be here year-round," Winder said. "It would be somebody with a second orchestra."

Winder added that the Pops schedule, which is concentrated in the summer months and around the end-of-year holidays, was a better fit with the Utah Symphony's season than most other orchestra calendars would have been. And he says if the conductor's profile in Salt Lake City wasn't as high as it might have been, the fault isn't all Lockhart's.

"It was more our fault on the administrative side," he said. "We didn't use him as much as we could have. And in saying that, I'm criticizing myself a little."

Robert Breault, a Salt Lake City tenor with an international opera career, agrees that the year-round music director is a thing of the past. "He's been here at a time when the industry is changing," Breault said. "We have to get used to a jet-setting music director."

Lockhart's celebrity was a double-edged sword. The conductor said he has "no illusions" he would have been a contender for the Utah job without it; Breault pointed out that the nature of the Pops job not only made Lockhart an easy target for skeptics, it also made his absences from Utah more obvious.

Breault gives Lockhart credit for taking on the Mahler symphony cycle, a body of work inextricably linked with the legendary Abravanel in Utah. He's also been impressed with Lockhart when they have collaborated, as they did in Ralph Vaughan Williams' Christmas oratorio "Hodie" in 2000. "That was one of the highlights of my career," Breault said. "It's a spectacular piece of music, and he put together the right forces for it. I also had a lot of fun working with Keith on things like [Kurt Weill's] 'Seven Deadly Sins.' His sense of humor and personality were able to really shine through."

The tenor said Lockhart enjoys a good reputation among singers. "The singers I've talked to have all really enjoyed working with Keith. He knows how to accompany, and they feel safe in his hands."

Symphony buffs often mention Lockhart's knack for choral music and opera. "Choral pieces are where he was at his best," longtime subscriber Rachel Navarro said. "The Britten 'War Requiem' was gorgeous -- there was so much emotion."

Composer and performer Kurt Bestor also lists the "War Requiem" as his favorite Lockhart memory. "I think that was where Keith was at his best, with a big epic thing in front of him. That's when he rose to the occasion, and ironically, that's the kind of thing people wondered if he could do."

Longtime symphony buff Paul Griffin is sorry to see Lockhart leave. "I feel he's just hitting his stride," Griffin said. "Musically, it's very satisfying to go to his concerts. In the past, he's been inconsistent, but the last couple of years he's been consistently good." Griffin also enjoys Lockhart's preconcert lectures. "He's informative without being pedantic."

"He's communicated with the audience with the spoken word as well as his conducting," Winder said. "That's one of the places where he shone." Musically, "we've made gains; we haven't lost ground," Winder said. "He wasn't perfect, but I certainly give him more positives than negatives."

Lockhart has influenced the orchestra in a less readily apparent way: He has hired more than 20 players, including principal clarinetist Tad Calcara, harpist Louise Vickerman, keyboardist Jason Hardink, violist Brant Bayless and bassoonist Lori Wike. "I've hired over one-fourth of the orchestra," he said. "It's funny, the orchestra is an organization that thrives on, that survives on, renewal."

He said he has just one regret -- well, two, if he counts his shorter-than-anticipated time on the Utah ski slopes. "I would have loved to wrap things up with the orchestra ... on a rock-solid foundation. Instead, we find it in another rocky position, but I suppose it can't be helped.

"This is the little engine that could -- a strong, well-established, large cultural institution of a type that is very difficult and expensive to maintain, in the smallest demographic in terms of audience and funding entities. That's a point of great pride, and it's also a point of great difficulty."

He looks forward to slowing down his pace and to spending more time with his wife of 18 months, Boston attorney Emiley Zalesky, and his 5-year-old son, Aaron. "It's not physically as easy as it was in my 30s," said Lockhart, who will turn 50 in November. "Eventually, you realize that chasing your tail endlessly doesn't really bring you joy."

Catherine Reese Newton reviews and writes about music. Contact her at creese@sltrib.com or 801-257-8616. Send comments about this story to livingeditor@sltrib.com.