WILD SYMPHONY
SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2025 / 11:00 AM & 12:30 PM / MAURICE ABRAVANEL HALL
JESSICA RIVERO ALTARRIBA , conductor
LATOYA CAMERON , narrator
BEN YOUNG , narrator
Join us early for an Instrument Petting Zoo hosted by Summerhays Music, visit with Hogle Zoo, complete a craft hosted by UMOCA and purchase Dan Brown’s WILD SYMPHONY book in the gift shop with other animal merchandise.
CONDUCTOR SPONSOR
Jessica Rivero Altarriba
Conductor
Utah Symphony Assistant Conductor
Latin American conductor Jessica Rivero Altarriba is known for her charismatic stage presence, dynamic energy, and communicative skills. Recently announced as a Taki Alsop Fellowship Award Recipient from 2024–26 and named the New Jersey Symphony’s first-ever Colton Conducting Fellow for the 2023–24 season, she is also a Freeman Conducting Fellow with Chicago Sinfonietta. Altarriba is concurrently pursuing her master’s degree in conducting at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.
Upcoming engagements this season include performances with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, New Jersey Symphony, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, and the NOI Institute and National Seminario Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival. During the 2022-23 season she worked with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, and Lüneburg Symphoniker in Germany as a guest conductor.
Altarriba’s guest engagements include performances with the Málaga Camerata in Spain, Virtuós Mediterrani Orchestra, Lüneburg Symphoniker in Germany, and professional orchestras in Cuba such as the Holguín Symphony Orchestra, Camagüey Symphony Orchestra, Esteban Salas Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the National School of Art, Eastern Symphony Orchestra, Amadeo Roldán Orchestra, Lyceum Mozartiano Orchestra, and the Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestra of the University of Arts of Cuba. She also conducted incidental music with the Havana-Martin Camerata for the national premiere of The Phantom of the Opera.
Festival credits include Cuba’s A Tempo Con Caturla Festival, Jazz Plaza Festival, Contemporary Music Festival, Mozart Havana Festival, and the Arts Festival, where she was awarded first prize for young conductors.
Born in Cuba, Altarriba is equally vested in both established and well-known repertoire and contemporary compositions. Her devotion to her craft is evident in her prior posts, which include serving as guest conductor of the Esteban Salas Symphony Orchestra in Cuba and Music Director of the University of Arts Band and the Eastern Symphony Orchestra in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. She received her bachelor’s degree in conducting from the Arts University in Havana in 2018. During her time at the University of Arts, Altarriba gave world premieres of contemporary pieces including “Calabi’’ by Nathalie Hidalgo Reyes, and “The Creation’’ by Dania Suarez Piorno—in collaboration with the university’s composition faculty. Altarriba is the recipient of an Excellence in Music Leadership Fellowship at The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where she is currently pursuing her master’s in orchestral conducting under Marin Alsop.
Latoya Cameron Narrator
Latoya Cameron (she/her) is an actor, singer, writer, and director. She is an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Dramaturg at Salt Lake Acting Company. As an actor, you may have seen her on the local stages at Pioneer Theatre Company, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Salt Lake Acting Company, and Plan-B Theatre Company. She made her Off-Broadway debut as the lead in Shelter, the musical, at the formally known New York Musical Theater Festival in New York City. In 2022, she was part of the production, The Clean-Up Project, which was named the Utah Review’s Top Moment of the Utah Enlightenment by Les Roka.
In 2022, she made her directing debut with the production of RENT. Since then, she has directed Sankofa, This Journey: Go Back and Get It (a collaboration with Utah Black Artists Collective (UBLAC) and Salt Lake Acting Company), Title of Show (The Grand), and Town Hall (University of Utah). As a Change Leader, she raises her voice for Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and other marginalized groups within her community. She’s part of the 2022-23 National Leaders of Color Fellows, representing the WESTAF region, and is one of the 2023 Mayor’s Artist Award recipients. She continues to be an advocate and activist for inclusion, representation, and equity in the arts.
Ben Young Narrator
Ben Young is a graduate of the University of Utah’s Actor Training Program. Previous credits include Climbing With Tigers (Algernon) and You Will Get Sick (1) with Salt Lake Acting Company; Gruesome Playground Injuries (Doug) with Wasatch Theatre Company; Big Love (Constantine), Our Country’s Good (Phillip/Wisehammer), The Odyssey (Odysseus) with the University of Utah’s Theatre Department; My Brother Was a Vampire (Callum), RIVER.SWAMP.CAVE.MOUNTAIN (JJ), Alli and #3 (#3) with Plan-B Theatre Company.