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Colorado Music Festival brings world class musicians to Boulder for summer of making extraordinary music
The Colorado Music Festival brings together world-class musicians from around the world to Boulder every summer. The Festival Orchestra is made up of musicians from across the country who are playing at the top of their careers. Mix in the artistic direction of Peter Oundjian, the talents of 12 guest artists, two string quartets, and four guest conductors, set it at the Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder and you have a truly unique orchestral and chamber music experience.
The season opens with Hélène Grimaud performing Brahm's "Piano Concerto #1."
"She's really a top notch pianist. She's a real musicians' musician," said Elizabeth McGuire, Executive Director of the Colorado Music Festival.
On July 6th, the orchestra will be performing the Festival's annual family concert. It's called "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Maestro." It's an interactive piece with the audience. Sherlock Holmes goes through each section of the orchestra looking for the missing Maestro. There will also be a scavenger hunt for the kids and several activities on the lawn associated with the concert.
"One thing that I'm particularly excited about, it's something I've been wanting to pull off for years now, is our family concert will be free. We've decided to just completely open that concert up to the public. It will be ticketed still through the Chautauqua box office, but it'll be free," McGuire said.
Colorado Music Festival Orchestra rehearsal during the 2022 festival.
CBS
The Colorado Music Festival has become known as a place to premiere new music, and this year is no exception. Composer Joan Tower has a new piece called "Love Returns," which will be performed by saxophonist, Steven Banks.
"She actually performed some excerpts of this work that she was working on for us on the piano, and it was like just some of the most poignant, beautiful music I've ever heard," McGuire recalled. "Steven Banks is truly a virtuoso saxophonist. He's clearly one of the best in the world, so it's a beautiful combination."
Under the direction of Oundjian, the Colorado Music Festival has earned a reputation as a place where musicians, composers and talented people can just hang out together and draw inspiration from each other. Surrounded by the beautiful Flatirons, the musicians often stay either at Chautauqua Park or in the homes of Festival patrons in Boulder.
"We've attracted people that are coming through Colorado just to stay with us, or some of the guest artists have extended their stays, and it's been so much fun," McGuire acknowledged.
Colorado Music Festival Music Director Peter Oundjian
Geremy Kornreich, Shiny Machines
On July 17 & 18, Latin Grammy-winning violinist Anne Akiko Meyers will perform a new piece by composer Eric Whitacre called "The Pacific Has No Memory." Whitacre lives in Belgium now, but for years lived in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. Akiko Meyers is based in Los Angeles and experienced the evacuations during the recent devastating wildfires.
"So these two artists were deeply, personally impacted by the fires. He asked if it would be okay of he shifted the commission towards that, and of course, we agreed to it because it's stunning," McGuire explained.
The Colorado Music Festival wraps up with a couple of classics. Oundjian will conduct Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony" which is a musical masterpiece and includes the iconic "Ode to Joy." He'll also be conducting Mahler's "Ninth" for the last performance, which has become a bit of a tradition at the festival.
"It's kind of a way to, in his mind, really feature the orchestra at the closing. It's just the Mahler symphony alone. There's no guest artist. It just really features the orchestral musicians, which is something we're most proud of. It's a fabulous group of dedicated people," McGuire said.
LINK: For Tickets & Information for the Colorado Music Festival
Colorado Music Festival runs from July 3 through August 3 at Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder.
