Colorado Music Festival Begins Thursday; Family Concert Saturday

Colorado Music Festival presents its summer concert season offering 22 diverse performances of orchestral and chamber music by the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, 17 guest artists, three internationally acclaimed string quartets and three guest conductors, under the direction of music director Peter Oundjian.

Oundjian opens the 2021 Festival season on Thursday, July 1 at 7:30 p.m. with Beethoven's brilliant and beloved Seventh Symphony. The Festival welcomes its 2021 artist-in-residence, violin phenomenon and audience favorite Augustin Hadelich. The program begins with a world premiere by the Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis, one of the most powerful voices in contemporary American music, whose touching elegy commemorates the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic. This performance will be delivered both in person and virtually and will be repeated on Friday, July 2 at 6:30 p.m.

On Saturday, July 3 at 11 a.m., CMF will feature its Family Concert, "The Story of Babar," in partnership with Really Inventive Stuff, animateurs and vaudeville-inspired storytellers for orchestras. This program also includes Toy Symphony, which features noisemakers, kazoos, and other toy instruments as part of the orchestra. Tickets are $10. Additionally, the concert will be live streamed for families for free. Registration is required at https://coloradomusicfestival.org/calendar/livestream-concerts/.