Salt Lake Tribune music critic Catherine Reese Newton's top 10 memories of Keith Lockhart's Utah Symphony music directorship:

Vaughan Williams, 'Hodie,' November 2000 » Arguably Lockhart's finest hour with the Utah Symphony, this Salt Lake Tabernacle performance teamed the orchestra with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, International Children's Choir and soloists in a nationally televised production of the Christmas oratorio.

Bartók, 'Duke Bluebeard's Castle,' April 2006 » The 2002 merger of the Utah Symphony with Utah Opera led to a series of experimental multimedia "enhancements." Some, such as the giant hammer driving home the "fate" motif in Mahler's Symphony No. 6, were notoriously goofy. Others, such as the chilling staging of Bartók's two-character opera in Abravanel Hall, paid off spectacularly.

Britten, 'War Requiem,' March 2000 » Lockhart had a penchant for grandiose choral works, and this was one of the grandest, which he pulled off with authority. William Walton's "Belshazzar's Feast" (April 2003) and the Brahms "German Requiem" (April 2007) were other choral triumphs for Lockhart.

Mahler, Symphony No. 1, November 1999 » If anyone still suspected the boyish-looking Boston Pops conductor lacked serious musical chops in his second season here, this forceful and insightful performance offered evidence to the contrary. An exuberant Lockhart waded through the orchestra, high-fiving most of the musicians at the work's conclusion. Since then, Lockhart has presided over strong performances of the other eight Mahler symphonies, plus the epic song cycle "Das Lied von der Erde." The revival of a Mahler tradition established by Maurice Abravanel was perhaps Lockhart's most welcome contribution in Utah.

Vaughan Williams, 'Job: A Masque for Dancing,' April 2007 » Lockhart's keen affinity for the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams was one of the happiest surprises of his music directorship. His October 2006 performance of "Job" in Abravanel Hall was superb, but the 2007 encore in the Salt Lake Tabernacle was even better. Lockhart also had a stunning success with the composer's "Sea Symphony" in March 2006.

Peter Maxwell Davies, 'Eight Songs for a Mad King,' January 2007 » This avant-garde one-character opera was but one striking example of the reinvention of the Utah Symphony's chamber-orchestra series under Lockhart. The traditional evenings dominated by Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi still had a place, but Lockhart also programmed more forward-looking fare, including Kurt Weill's "Seven Deadly Sins," Steven Paulus' "Voices From the Gallery" and Dominick Argento's "A Water Bird Talk." Unfortunately, the contemporary chamber series never found the audience it deserved; it's been furloughed for the foreseeable future, a victim of the recession.

John Corigliano, Symphony No. 1, April 2001 » Lockhart wasn't known for rocking the musical boat, but programmed his share of contemporary music with generally good results. The Corigliano symphony was one of the more memorable.

Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, February 2001 » As a rule, the music of Beethoven and Mozart weren't Lockhart's strengths, but this dynamic performance of the "Eroica" Symphony was the exception.

Pops with Arturo Sandoval, September 2000 » Though he bristled at being pigeonholed as a pops conductor, Lockhart presided over two Utah Symphony pops concerts every season. A lively evening with Cuban trumpeter Sandoval was one of the best.

Elgar, 'Nimrod' (from 'Enigma' Variations), September 2001 » In a rare unguarded moment, Lockhart moved many in the Abravanel Hall audience with his reflections on 9/11. Travel restrictions in the wake of the attacks kept soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in France for opening night; Lockhart replaced the scheduled concerto with "Nimrod," which is often played as a memorial. The somber conductor called the piece a prayer, a memorial to the crash victims and "a defiant show of beauty in a world which this week seems to have become unbearably ugly."