I talked with Utah Symphony Violist Whittney Thomas by phone about her upcoming wedding plans. With her ever-present grace and poise, she conceded that she will unfortunately have to postpone wedding plans for a while due to the pandemic. In her words:

“We planned to do a backyard wedding and do a catered reception, but I think now because travel is up in the air and not the safest right now, we are planning to just get married at the courthouse and then have a little celebration probably next year. I didn’t really want a big wedding anyway, so we will just have things on a smaller scale and just more intimate, and not be stressed out about planning and stuff. Yes, I think it’s just better to save money now. I’d almost rather save the money and go for a nice honeymoon! A girl who I follow on Instagram was supposed to get married and of course it couldn’t happen. She and her husband got a wedding license, got married at the court house, celebrated at home and their family members just zoomed in. You have to get creative these days.”

Originally from Minnesota, her fiancé is not a musician. He’s a senior project manager who oversees the building and launching of websites. They met on a dating app about 4 and a half years ago. The couple recently bought a house and were looking forward to an intimate wedding gathering.

I asked Ms. Thomas some questions about her career experiences as well as her current and future plans:

 
You have quite an impressive touring career. Do you miss the summer touring with the Schleswig-Holstein Orchestra Academy?

Oh yes, that was a long time ago. Ten years ago. This was a summer festival based in Germany. It was two months long and most of the concerts were in Germany, and then we toured to several different Eastern European countries like Poland and the Czech Republic. It was amazing because I had never been to those countries before. Experiencing history and culture and freedom in terms of travel, food, and of course…drinking. We kind of just went wild. And of course there was music. Not much practicing, but a lot of concerts.

What are some of your favorite memories with Utah Symphony?

My most recent favorite concert was when Carlos Miguel Prieto guest conducted. He brought a certain flare and excitement to the program. It made the week super fun!

I saw on your resume that you’ve worked with Bobby McFerrin, among others. I know when he was here he was really inspiring. How was that experience?

Music is supposed to bring people joy and you know, it’s supposed to be fun! I liked working with jazz artists. Anything that‘s not classical I see like a break. You can get inspiration from them as well.

And you worked with Arnold Steinhardt.

Back in college I had a viola loaned to me through the Maestro Foundation, and part of the contract was that you had to play chamber music concerts and one of the guest musicians was Arnold Steinhardt from the Guarneri Quartet. I can’t remember what we played. I want to say it was a sextet? I think Utah Symphony Associate Concertmaster Kathryn Eberle was in it as well. We went to USC together.

Have you been able to catch up with hobbies like hiking and baking during this pandemic?

I’ve been baking, cooking, hiking, and working out.

What are some of your recipes?

I’m not a fancy baker. I’m kind of on this journey to find the best gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe. I think I’ve found it out of the twenty different recipes that I’ve tried through different blogs. I like using alternative flours and flours that have more nutritional value than the normal all-purpose flour.

It sounds like you’re doing pretty well.

Back in March, people weren’t out as much and it was a good thing. Pollution has gone down a lot. The air is a lot healthier. My fiancé, since we can’t fly anywhere, got a transit van – like a motor cargo van but smaller. He got that to use as his main mode of transportation. Before, he just had an old ’78 truck that he got from his dad. We were talking about getting something more reliable. We thought we should get a van so we could camp in it and maybe take a cross country road trip. I think we’re going to do a trip to Minnesota next month, and then San Diego the following month. I’m excited about that because for a while we have felt trapped. I think things are more exciting that you can go just hop in the car and go anywhere. We’re planning to not interact with anyone and will be wearing masks; just getting in and out of places. There are people that are going around saying, “oh I’m healthy, nothing will happen to me.” You have to take into consideration that you may be carrying it and infecting somebody else. You can’t just think of yourself. It’s better to err on the side of caution than to make things worse. Some people just don’t think it’s that bad. Everyone’s healthy. We’ve quarantined and limited our social circles. It’s a very trying time, especially if you’re very close to your family and you’re used to seeing them.

-Lynn Rosen

View Whittney Thomas’ bio here