Colorado Music Festival Opens This June in Boulder

The Colorado Music Festival (CMF) opens the 2022 season in Boulder, Colorado at the historic Chautauqua Auditorium on June 30, offering 22 concerts this summer and running through August 7, under the leadership of Music Director Peter Oundjian. John Adams is this summer's Composer-in-Residence, and the Takács Quartet are Artists-in-Residence. The 2022 festival welcomes 13 renowned, international guest artists and ensembles. The spectacular setting, at the base of Boulder's dramatic Flatirons, is just an hour from Denver and was described as "an oasis" by Musical America.

The Festival's orchestra, led by music director Peter Oundjian, boasts world-class musicians from around the country who return to Boulder each summer to perform as the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra.

Wang Jie

Just added: Pre-Festival Online Event: Meet Composer Wang Jie, in Conversation with Music Director Peter Oundjian
Wednesday, May 18 at 4 pm ET / 2 pm MT

In anticipation of the world premiere of Wang Jie's new composition, Flying on the Scaly Backs of Our Mountains on August 4, CMF presents a free, live, online discussion between this rising-star composer and Festival Music Director Peter Oundjian on Wednesday May 18 at 4pm MT / 2 pm ET. Jie and Oundjian talk about the composer's creative process and her thoughts on the new work. Viewers will get to hear a brief excerpt and have the opportunity to ask questions. Register here.

CMF Welcomes Eight "Festival Fellows"

The Festival Fellows Program brings eight aspiring professional musicians to Boulder during the Colorado Music Festival (CMF). Created with the intent to diversify the field of classical music, the program gives aspiring musicians from diverse backgrounds access to world-class guest-artist mentors; performance experience in CMF's orchestra and in chamber music settings; seminars led by CMF's organizational leaders; and private instruction from Peter Oundjian, CMF music director.

The Festival Fellows positions were filled by CMF through an invitation-only audition process in which applicants were selected by faculty at America's top conservatories. Four of this year's Festival Fellows come to the program through a collaboration with New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy (NWS), which prepares graduates of music programs for leadership roles in professional orchestras and ensembles. The artistic director and co-founder of NWS is Michael Tilson Thomas.

The 2022 CMF Festival Fellows are: Ka-Yeon Lee and James Zabawa-Martinez, violin, Jacquelyn O'Brien, viola, Chava Appiah, cello (all from NWS); plus Byungchan Lee, violin; Kate Arndt, violin; Grace Takeda, viola; and Justin Goldsmith, cello.

Albert Cano Smit plays Mozart on July 24

On July 24, the exciting young Spanish/Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit-winner of the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the 2017 Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition-joins the Orchestra for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 as part of an all-Mozart concert conducted by Ryan Bancroft. (This concert was originally set to feature Simone Dinnerstein, who is unable to appear.)

Takács Quartet

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
Guest Artists making their CMF debuts indicated with an asterisk (*).

John Adams*, Composer-in-Residence
Takács Quartet, Artists-in-Residence

The Colorado Music Festival welcomes the preeminent American composer and conductor John Adams as Composer-in-Residence this season. The Festival this summer opens on June 30 with Adams' Absolute Jest (2012) performed by the Takács Quartet, this year's Artists-in-Residence, and the CMF orchestra.

"John Adams is without question one of the most important voices in music today; his own music is beyond fascinating, and to hear John speak about art, literature and music is always engaging and inspiring. So to have him in Boulder is really a dream come true," said CMF Music Director Peter Oundjian.

Music by John Adams at CMF 2022

• Thu & Fri, June 30 & July 1: Absolute Jest (Takács Quartet & CMF Orchestra)
• Tue July 12: Selections from John's Book of Alleged Dances (Attacca Quartet)
• Thu July 14: City Noir, conducted by Adams
• Fri July 15: Road Movies (Timo Andres, piano and Tessa Lark, violin)
• Sun July 17: Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?, conducted by Adams (Jeremy Denk, piano)

Attacca Quartet

MUSIC OF TODAY, JULY 12-17
Co-Curated by John Adams* and Peter Oundjian

• On Tuesday, July 12 the week opens with the Attacca Quartet* performing an eclectic program of music by hip-hop producer, DJ and rapper Flying Lotus; Berlin-based cellist and composer Anne Müller; multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and co-founder of the electronic/avant-pop/jazz-funk duo Knower, Louis Cole; Caroline Shaw, the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013; composer-environmentalist Gabriella Smith; the iconic composer Philip Glass, recipient of the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors, awarded for lifetime artistic achievements; and John Adams.
• On July 14, John Adams conducts his own orchestral masterpiece, City Noir (2009). "The music should have the slightly disorienting effect," says Adams, "of a very crowded boulevard peopled with strange characters...the kind who only come out very late on a very hot night." Also on the program-handpicked by John Adams-is the world-premiere of Dark Patterns (a CMF commission) by Timo Andres*. Reacting to Andres' debut recording in 2010, Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker, "it achieves an unhurried grandeur that has rarely been felt in American music since John Adams came on the scene..." The third composer on the program is John Adams' son Samuel Adams, a formidable composer in his own right and a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow; his lyrical and haunting Chamber Concerto gives GRAMMY-nominated violinist Tessa Lark* an opportunity to shine.
  
• On July 15, Kaleidoscope returns for a second year, adding theatrical elements like special lighting and cinematography to the concert experience; Musical America called the 2021 Kaleidoscope concert "mind-opening." Anchored by John Adams' Road Movies (1995), the concert features nine composers, from elder statesmen John Adams, John Corigliano, Philip Glass and Osvaldo Golijov to a whole new generation: GRAMMY-winning percussionist David Skidmore; Stacy Garrop, recently on Marin Alsop's list of "10 Women Composers You Should Listen To;" GRAMMY-nominated composer and flutist Valerie Coleman; composer and pianist Timo Andres performing his solo piano piece Honest Labor; and Roshanne Etezady, who was inspired to be a composer when she saw Philip Glass and his ensemble perform on Saturday Night Live. Violinist Tessa Lark and saxophonist Timothy McAlllister* join members of the CMF Orchestra in a variety of configurations.
  
• Music of Today culminates on July 17 with John Adams conducting his own off-beat 2019 piano concerto Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? with the extraordinary pianist Jeremy Denk*. Peter Oundjian conducts Christopher Rouse's Sixth Symphony, completed shortly before the composer's death in 2019; The New York Times described it as being "all of Mr. Rouse-contemplative elegy, rowdy playfulness, eclectic homage." Opening the concert is another piece from Gabriella Smith, Tumblebird Contrails, which calls to mind the sounds and sights of the Pacific Ocean.

MORE PREMIERES

• On August 4, CMF presents a world-premiere commission by rising-star composer Wang Jie, who is described by Derek Bermel as "a musical polyglot...with a great sense of humor and natural theatrical flair." Jie describes herself as "part cartoon character, part virtuoso." Her new work for orchestra, Flying on the Scaly Backs of Our Mountains, is inspired by 11th-century Chinese poet Su Dongpo's reflections on China's Mount Lu and Jie's own experiences climbing Colorado's Eldorado Canyon. She joins Peter Oundjian for a pre-festival conversation (online) on May 18. The concert also features the charismatic clarinetist Anthony McGill*, principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, who joins the orchestra for Weber's First Clarinet Concerto and the brief Rhapsody by Debussy. The program closes with Stravinsky's iconic Firebird Suite.
• Bringing the Festival to a rousing finish on August 7 is the Colorado premiere of Herald, Holler and Hallelujah!, a co-commission by jazz great Wynton Marsalis, followed by Mahler's epic Fifth Symphony, a dramatic journey through tragedy, joy and love.

Danish String Quartet

Robert Mann CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES

Returning this year is the Tuesday evening Robert Mann Chamber Music Series, named for the late Robert Mann, who was founding first violin of the Juilliard String Quartet, a friend and mentor to CMF Music Director Peter Oundjian, and a conductor and composer.

The Festival's Artists-in-Residence this summer, the GRAMMY Award-winning Takács Quartet-an ensemble that is both world-renowned and based in Boulder-opens the series on July 5. On the program are Haydn and Dvořák's final complete works for quartet, coupled with Coleridge-Taylor's extraordinary Fantasiestücke.

The Danish String Quartet*, which has garnered critical acclaim and enthusiastic fans around the world with its brilliant playing and eclectic repertoire, brings the series to a delightful conclusion on August 2 in its CMF debut. The program begins with Purcell's Chaconne and ends with Schubert's Quartet in G Major. In between, the Quartet offers up a collection of Nordic folk music, like the tunes on their highly acclaimed recordings Wood Works and Last Leaf.

The GRAMMY Award-winning Attacca Quartet* describes itself as "a quartet for modern times" and is known for its impeccable musicianship and adventurous programming. The Quartet performs an eclectic program on July 12 as part of Music of Today (more details above).

Two concerts in the series feature performances by members of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra: on July 19, a Russian-inflected program with music by Tchaikovsky, Glinka and Borodin and on July 26, Brahms' Clarinet Quintet and music by Mozart, Perkinson and Debussy.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

On July 31, CMF Principal Guest Conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni leads a special performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Mendelssohn's lush score, which includes the instantly recognizable "Wedding March," is paired with dramatic readings by actor John de Lancie* (American Shakespeare Festival, TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation). Joining de Lancie in the cast of Midsummer are soprano Jennifer Bird-Arvidsson, mezzo soprano Abigail Nims and actor Marnie Mosiman* (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Remington Steele). Read more about A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The concert opens with a brand-new orchestral arrangement of Jessie Montgomery's vivid Starburst, which is, in her words, "a play on imagery of rapidly changing musical colors." Also in the first half is Bizet's Symphony in C, which he wrote at 17.

Jan Lisiecki, Randall Goosby, Albert Cano Smit

MORE GUEST PERFORMERS

In addition to the guest performers mentioned above, the following artists are also making their CMF debuts this year.

• On July 7, 8 and 10, award-winning Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki*, whom Oundjian calls "one of the greatest piano talents of all time," joins Oundjian and the CMF Orchestra for a cycle of all five of Beethoven's piano concertos over three concerts. "I'm so delighted that the astounding young pianist Jan Lisiecki will be joining us to do this Beethoven cycle," said Oundjian. "I've known Jan since he was a young teenager, and he is not only one of the greatest musicians alive today (at all of 26 years old), but an absolutely charming and wonderful human being. Seeing him perform this repertoire will be an unforgettable treat for the audience - and for me!" Each concert in this series opens with a work by Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), in celebration of the composer's 150th birthday.
  
• On July 21 and 22, Ryan Bancroft* leads Sibelius' Second Symphony. Bancroft is a young American-born conductor who serves as Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and, beginning in 2023-24, will also take on the role of Chief Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Violinist Randall Goosby*, the youngest recipient ever to win the Sphinx Concerto Competition and an artist dedicated to the dynamic music of Black composers, joins the orchestra to perform Florence Price's sweeping Second Violin Concerto (lost to history until 2009) and music by Saint-Saëns. Read more about Bancroft here.
  
• Bancroft returns to conduct an all-Mozart program on July 24, featuring the young Spanish/Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit on Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major. Smit won First Prize at the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and at the 2017 Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition.

ANNUAL FAMILY CONCERT

The annual CMF family concert returns on Sunday morning, July 3 at 11 am, with a performance of Tubby the Tuba by vaudeville-inspired musical storytellers Really Inventive Stuff. This program also includes Benjamin Britten's classic Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. The family concert is a hallmark of CMF and designed to introduce children to orchestral performances in a fun, approachable manner. Read more about Tubby the Tuba here.

2022 FESTIVAL INFORMATION

Colorado Music Festival concerts take place in the historic Colorado Chautauqua Auditorium, which was built in 1898 and is located at the base of Boulder's Flatirons.

CMF will follow recommended and required COVID guidelines as necessary during the 2022 season.

For more information about CMF or to purchase tickets, visit ColoradoMusicFestival.org, email tickets@comusic.org, or call 303-440-7666. A full media kit, including images, is available here. Students of all ages receive a 50% discount on tickets for all CMF performances.

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