Colorado Music Festival offers 8 premiere works this summer
The Colorado Music Festival will be bringing several new works to audiences at Chautauqua Auditorium this summer.
"A lot of new premieres, eight actually in all. Five them are going to be played by Joshua Bell, the great violinist, superstar violinist," said Peter Oundjian, Music Director for the Colorado Music Festival.
The five premieres being performed by Bell are a new concerto by five different composers based on five elements: fire, water, earth, air, and ether. Those performances will be Thursday, August 3, and Sunday, August 6.
"I think the most important premiere probably is the one with Adolphus Hailstork, writing this piece called 'JFK: The Last Speech', and it literally is inspired by the very last speech JFK made just literally 3-and-a-half-weeks before he was assassinated," Oundjian explained on CBS News Colorado.
University of Colorado Boulder professor and composer, Carter Pann has a new piece premiering. It's called "Dreams I Must Not Speak" and he said that it's based on three dreams that he's had over-and-over for the last couple of decades.
"It's really putting imagery to music with no visuals, like a film score coming off the stage. Without a screen, let's say," Pann said.
Jordan Holloway is a violinist and composer who recently graduated from CU Boulder. He's written a new piece based on the natural beauty of Chautauqua.
"It's called 'Flatirons Escaped.' It's sort of a musical love letter to not only Chautauqua but to the surrounding flatirons and all of that nature," Holloway said.
In addition to the premieres, there is a full schedule of guest performers throughout the summer. Bell will be the artist-in-residence. Other guest artists include Grace Park, saxophonist Timothy McAllister, and composer-in-resident John Corigliano.
"We have this phenomenal Russian pianist, Nicolai Lugansky, who's going to be playing all the music that Rachmaninoff wrote while he was in America," Oundjian said.
The Festival Orchestra, itself is made up of exceptional national and international musicians, representing 44 orchestras from 23 states, 4 provinces, and 3 countries.
Throughout the festival, the orchestra will be performing works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven & Brahms, among many others.
"Our family concert is going to be fun. We do 'Goodnight Moon'. I mean who doesn't love 'Goodnight Moon'? Eric Whitacre wrote the music. He's a very famous Hollywood composer. Very famous in every genre," Oundjian explained.
LINK: For Tickets to Colorado Music Festival
The Colorado Music Festival runs over 6-weeks, from June 29 – August 6 at Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder. The Tuesday/Thursday concerts are at 7:30, and the Friday/Sunday concerts are at 6:30. New this year, the Festival is offering $10 tickets for ages 18 and under and for students (with a current school id card).
