By Kelly Dean Hansen Camera Classical Music Writer Boulder Daily Camera
Last week’s announcement that Michael Christie would step down as music director of the Colorado Music Festival should have struck the summer event’s loyal patrons as a disappointment, but not as a surprise.
Considering what has gone on in his professional life for the past several years, it’s actually a wonder Christie has stayed as long as he has — 12 years of glorious summers, with two more to follow.
I’ve written so much about the CMF that it is sometimes a challenge to find anything new to say. But I can’t let this opportunity escape. And this column is not really about the CMF itself, except as a mere setting.
This is about a turnaround nobody saw coming in 2001. This is about how somebody in his mid-20s was able to win over the crustiest of purist curmudgeons — and lure in the most unlikely souls who didn’t know Beethoven from Bon Jovi. It’s about seeing teenagers and schoolchildren experiencing the joy of live music at an event that had gained a reputation as a geriatric pursuit. It’s about a lesson for all those who are resigned to the tired canard that classical music is dead, or dying, that the symphony orchestra has no future.
In short, it’s about the man and, yes, the eventual legend. Click here to read the full story on the Daily Camera>>
