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Louise Vickerman describes Mark Adamo's "Four Angels," which she'll perform with the Utah Symphony in upcoming concerts, as "a kick-ass concerto" that will "transform Utah audiences' image of the harp as a pretty background instrument."

You can see why a piece like that would appeal to the high-flying, sharp-shooting Vickerman, dubbed "the world's most dangerous harpist" by Utah Symphony colleague George Brown.

"She is extremely graceful and beautiful to watch [on the range]," said Louise Ekenstam, Vickerman's shooting instructor. "But don't let her grace lull you into a false sense of security."

Ekenstam believes the harpist has the skills to compete in sporting clays, trap or skeet shooting — if she weren't already busy enough flying planes and gliders, helping transport shelter animals to their new homes, giving harp lessons and performing with the orchestra.

"I like to keep life diverse, and the plane flying especially has influenced my harp playing in more ways than I could have ever imagined," Vickerman said. "It's good for me — it keeps me from getting too immersed in one thing."

Flying and shooting, like mastering an instrument, require patience, discipline and focus, Vickerman said. "When I'm in the cockpit of the plane, I leave everything else out on the tarmac," she said. "I just have to switch my brain over totally. It was nice to find I could do that."

Neither hobby was available to her while she was growing up in Glasgow, Scotland. "My parents didn't even drive a car," she said. But flying was one of the dreams she kept at the back of her mind. She took up aviation three years ago this spring and earned her license six months later; the next year, she turned to gliders.

"Talk about nerve-wracking," she said. "Flying gliders is an art. You really do feel how the aircraft responds. You have to know engines and be sensitized to the response of the plane. It's up to you to make sure it stays up. It certainly gives you a different perspective — if you miss a note here and there [in the orchestra], you're not going to die."

Vickerman is part owner of a Cessna 150 (and looking to upgrade to a four-seater) and has access to gliders through her membership in the Utah Soaring Association. She's also a volunteer pilot with Pilots N Paws, a network that facilitates transportation for shelter animals.

She has been shooting for four or five years. "I don't hunt — not yet, anyway," said Vickerman, who got her start at a shotgun clinic for women but has since recruited her husband, Utah Symphony trumpeter Peter Margulies, into the sport. "I like to blow things up before Friday night concerts."

Vickerman became fascinated with the clarsach, a small Gaelic folk harp, as a little girl. She still has one in the living room of the Salt Lake City home she shares with Margulies and their easygoing Shih Tzu, Ollie, whom they adopted last spring.

She started harp lessons at age 7. After studying at Glasgow University and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, she earned a master's degree at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. She played with the Miami-based New World Symphony and with the San Antonio Symphony before winning the Utah Symphony job in January 1999. She became a U.S. citizen in May 2006.

"Louise is an extraordinary player," said former Utah Symphony music director Keith Lockhart, who hired Vickerman and is flying in from Boston to conduct the concerts in which she'll be featured. "Her artistry as a soloist and orchestra player is very rare."

This will be Vickerman's third solo appearance with the orchestra, and it's easily her favorite. "I like playing big works with meaty parts," she said. "The other concertos out there are delicate, with small accompaniment." Not so "Four Angels," in which the harp thunders and sings.

"You can't play it politely," composer Adamo said.

Catherine Reese Newton is a music critic. Contact her at creese@sltrib.com or 801-257-8616. Twitter: @cathycomma —

Touched by 'Angels'

P Principal harpist Louise Vickerman plays "Four Angels," a concerto by Mark Adamo, with the Utah Symphony. Keith Lockhart conducts.

When • Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.

Where • Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City

Tickets • $15 to $85 (prices rise $5 on performance day)

Finishing Touches • Attend the dress rehearsal Thursday at 10 a.m.; tickets are $15.

Also in Ogden • Thursday, 7:30 p.m. in Weber State University's Browning Center; $14 to $34; visit http://www.symphonyballet.org.