Krystin Anderson

When Utah-born Sally Peterson Brinton showed up at Juilliard to study piano, her classmates thought it was a joke.

"Do you have pianos in Utah?" they would ask her. It didn't take her long to prove her home state's musicality by winning the Juilliard Piano Concerto Competition.

After hundreds of performances, including nine as a soloist for the Utah Symphony Orchestra, Brinton will continue sharing her talent at the American Fork Symphony "Great Romantic Classics" performance Monday, where she will play a piece by Rachmaninoff.

Brinton, whose children are all musically involved, believes in the importance of both playing and listening to classical music. Performing is a way to allow others to benefit from the effects of good music, she said.

"I donate my services because I feel like it is such a wonderful thing that (the symphony) is doing for the community in American Fork," Brinton said. "I've performed so many times in different venues throughout the world, and it's not that I have to perform, it's just that when I have an opportunity such as this ... I feel an obligation to share my talent."

Allen Allred, one of the conductors of the symphony, said he believes the group is important to the community both for the performing musicians and the listeners.

"It's a life-long learning opportunity which I think is very important for members of the community, as far as being able to be participants in the group," Allred said, "and in terms of those who attend our concerts -- it's a life-long learning experience for them being exposed to music from different cultures from both the past and the present."

The broad repertoire will include such well-known pieces as Strauss' "Blue Danube Waltz" and Smetana's "The Moldau," both of which are tributes to a river. The concert also will include Rimsky-Korsakov's "Procession of the Nobles" and, to break with the theme a bit, selections from John Williams's "Star Wars."

The performance of Rachmaninoff, however, will delight patrons as it always has, a point upon which both Allred and Brinton agreed.

"Rachmaninoff, as a composer, was very popular at the time that he did his piano masterpieces, and they continue to have an enduring quality to them," Allred said. "They're very popular in the fact that the music is very singable and has some beautiful soaring melodies that the patrons can identify with and look forward to hearing."