Chautauqua Auditorium

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Name:
Chautauqua Auditorium
Phone:
303 440-7666
Address:
900 Baseline Road, Boulder, CO, 80302, United States
Description:

All CMF concerts are held in the beautiful Chautauqua Auditorium located in historic Chautauqua Park.

Parking in Chautauqua Park is limited. CMF encourages the use of the free shuttle. Parking is allowed on both sides of Baseline Road in the evenings during June, July and August. Parking for the disabled is available in the parking lot south of the Academic Hall.

BASIC DIRECTIONS WITHIN CHAUTAUQUA PARK:
From main road (Kinnikinic) to:
Auditorium: Take fourth left after the large green area onto Primrose Drive. Go to the end where there is a parking area. The Auditorium is right in front of you. It is the large tan barn-like building.
Dining Hall: Left just after the large green area onto Clematis.
Community House: Take third left after the large green area onto Morning Glory Drive. It will be the 4th building on the left (stucco and stone).

Upcoming Events At This Venue

June 29, 2013

 

Animated Orchestra Image_FarretOnlyThe Animated Orchestra is a narrated work about a cartoon score being performed at a symphony concert. The hero of the cartoon is a ferret – an animal known for its insatiable curiosity and playfulness – that inadvertently sneaks into an instrument repair shop late one night while its owner, a sleepy older gentleman, dozes. There’s more to the adventure as things progress beyond the shop!

 

After each concert, join us on the lawn for a Music Fair where kids can meet real live ferrets, costumed characters, try the instrument petting zoo, enjoy face painting, balloon tying, snacks and more!

Tickets are just $8/$7 for groups of 10 or more! Buy now at https://tickets.chautauqua.com/CMF_RMCMA/Online/

Start: June 29, 2013 10:00 am
End: June 29, 2013 11:00 am
Cost: $8.00

 

Animated Orchestra Image_FarretOnlyThe Animated Orchestra is a narrated work about a cartoon score being performed at a symphony concert. The hero of the cartoon is a ferret – an animal known for its insatiable curiosity and playfulness – that inadvertently sneaks into an instrument repair shop late one night while its owner, a sleepy older gentleman, dozes. There’s more to the adventure as things progress beyond the shop!

 

After each concert, join us on the lawn for a Music Fair where kids can meet real live ferrets, costumed characters, try the instrument petting zoo, enjoy face painting, balloon tying, snacks and more!

Tickets are just $8/$7 for groups of 10 or more! Buy now at https://tickets.chautauqua.com/CMF_RMCMA/Online/

Start: June 29, 2013 1:00 pm
End: June 29, 2013 2:00 pm
Cost: $8.00

June 30, 2013

Michael Christie, Music Director
Behzod Abduraimov, Piano
The CMF Chamber Orchestra

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor”
The Sound of Movies: Masters of the Film Score – showcasing celebrated Jewish film music composers. (Rediscovered Masters)

Behzod Abduraimov was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 1990 and began to play the piano at the age of five. He was a pupil of Tamara Popovich at the Uspensky State Central Lyceum in Tashkent, and is currently studying at the International Center for Music at Park University, Kansas City studying with Stanislav Ioudenitch. He gave his first performance as a soloist at age eight;  at age 18, Behzod won first prize at the 2009 London International Piano Competition with his thrilling performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. This resulted in invitations to work with orchestras in England and Germany, as well as a tour to China and Kuala Lampur with the Sydney Symphony. During his career he has given many concerts in the USA, Italy, Russia, and his native Uzbekistan.

The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, popularly known as the Emperor Concerto, was Beethoven’s last piano concerto. It was written between 1809 and 1811 in Vienna, and was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven’s patron and pupil. The epithet of Emperor for this concerto was not Beethoven’s own but was coined by Johann Baptist Cramer, the English publisher of the concerto.

Start: June 30, 2013 7:30 pm
End: June 30, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

July 5, 2013

 

CMF Festival Orchestra

The Colorado Music Festival presents one of the most beloved films of all time, The Wizard of Oz, in this magical new production that features some of Judy Garland’s original 1939 studio recordings. Backed by lush, live orchestra, you will experience the film as you never have before!

Start: July 5, 2013 7:30 pm
End: July 5, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

July 7, 2013

Music Mash-Up Series Kick-Off! THE MUSIC OF RADIOHEAD TO BRAHMS

Join us for an all new sensational concert series where orchestral masterworks meet indie-rock. Conductor Steve Hackman will lead the Colorado Music Festival Chamber Orchestra in a program that moves from Brahms to Radiohead! The fun starts at 6pm with pre-concert mingling – plus you can enjoy free food and drink samples provided by some of Boulder’s finest restaurants.

The term “Mash-Up” has been popularized in today’s culture, music and TV, but it often infers something like a medley. Steve Hackman, arranger, has taken a more extensive approach, actually combining material from Brahms Symphony No. 1 and Radiohead OK Computer. He describes it is as a synthesis process, like musical chemistry. Analyzing each piece of music and distilling it down to the most basic elements of melody, harmony, rhythm and form, he identified which elements they had in common and figured out a way to join them together. Steve has likened this process to a musical “bond”. For him, it was a fantastic journey of creation.

Why Radiohead and Brahms? The Brahms Symphony No. 1, from 1876, is one of the most beloved pieces in the orchestral repertoire. It is intensely dramatic. The themes are memorable, dense and gorgeous, lending itself to a combination with Radiohead. Radiohead’s OK Computer album, from 1997, is one of the most transformational albums in the modern history of rock and roll. It achieved near unanimous critical and popular adoration in the late 90’s due to its skillful blend of rock classicism and futurism, prompting Rolling Stone to call the album a “stunning art-rock tour de force”.

Brahms and Radiohead have both found a way to innovate and break through within conventions that had been established in their art form; in Brahms’ case, the Symphony had been out for more than a decade; in Radiohead’s case, taking pop and rock to new levels. Neither cared as much about critics as they did about innovating, which is why they and their music will live forever.

Join us on this journey of musical chemistry.

Start: July 7, 2013 6:00 pm
End: July 7, 2013 9:00 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

July 9, 2013

The Brazilian Guitar Quartet

Clemer Andreotti
Luiz Montovani
Everton Gloeden
Tadeu do Amaral

We are pleased to present the world-renowned Brazilian Guitar Quartet for a return engagement at Chautauqua Auditorium.  Founded in 1998 and dubbed the “Dream Team” of guitar players by the Brazilian press, The Brazilian Guitar Quartet  performs new  repertoire for four guitars as well as  transcriptions of works from diverse periods and styles.  Revel in the unique sound of the Latin Grammy Award winning group’s regular six-string and extended eight-string guitars, performed with seductive beauty and virtuosic gusto.

 

 



Start: July 9, 2013 7:30 pm
End: July 9, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

July 11, 2013

Michael Christie, Music Director
CMF Festival Orchestra

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55, “Eroica”
Weinberg: Symphony No. 3

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, also known as the Eroica (Italian for “heroic”), is a musical work marking the full arrival of the composer’s “middle-period.” The symphony is widely regarded as a mature expression of the classical style of the late eighteenth century that also exhibits defining features of the romantic style that would hold sway in the nineteenth century. The Third was begun immediately after the Second, completed in August 1804, and first performed on April 7, 1805.

Beethoven had originally intended to dedicate the symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte. The biographer Maynard Solomon relates that Beethoven admired the ideals of the French Revolution, and viewed Napoleon as their embodiment. In the autumn the composer began to have second thoughts about that dedication. Nevertheless, he still gave the work the title of Bonaparte. However, according to Beethoven’s pupil and assistant, Ferdinand Ries, when Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor of the French in May 1804, Beethoven became disgusted and went to the table where the completed score lay. He took hold of the title-page and tore it up in rage.

The work is a milestone in the history of the classical symphony for a number of reasons. The piece is about twice as long as symphonies by Haydn or Mozart. The work covers more emotional ground than earlier works had, and is often cited as the beginning of the Romantic period in music. The second movement, in particular, displays a great range of emotion, from the misery of the main funeral march theme, to the relative solace of happier, major key episodes. The finale of the symphony shows a similar range, and is given more importance in the overall scheme than the quick and breezy finishes of other composers.

Reviews after the first performance of Eroica were mixed; Historian Gareth Jenkins wrote that “Beethoven was doing for music what Napoleon was doing for society—turning tradition upside down,” and that the symphony embodied a “sense of human potential and freedom” first seen in the period of the French Revolution.

Mieczysław Weinberg was a Soviet composer of Polish-Jewish origin. From 1939 he lived in the Soviet Union and Russia and lost most of his family in the Holocaust. He left a large body of work that included twenty-two symphonies and seventeen string quartets; according to one reviewer he ranked as, “the third great Soviet composer, along with Prokofiev and Shostakovich.” At the outbreak of the World War II on the Soviet territory, Weinberg was evacuated to Tashkent (Central Asia), where he  met Dmitri Shostakovich, who was impressed by his talent and became his close friend. Meeting Shostakovich had a profound effect on the younger man, who said later that, “It was as if I had been born anew.” In 1943 he moved to Moscow at Shostakovich’s urging. Thereafter Weinberg continued to live in Moscow, composing and performing as a pianist. He and Shostakovich lived near to one another, sharing ideas on a daily basis. Besides the admiration which Shostakovich frequently expressed for Weinberg’s works, they were taken up by some of Russia’s foremost performers and conductors.

Start: July 11, 2013 7:30 pm
End: July 11, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

July 12, 2013

Michael Christie, Music Director
CMF Festival Orchestra

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55, “Eroica”
Weinberg: Symphony No. 3

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, also known as the Eroica (Italian for “heroic”), is a musical work marking the full arrival of the composer’s “middle-period.” The symphony is widely regarded as a mature expression of the classical style of the late eighteenth century that also exhibits defining features of the romantic style that would hold sway in the nineteenth century. The Third was begun immediately after the Second, completed in August 1804, and first performed on April 7, 1805.

Beethoven had originally intended to dedicate the symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte. The biographer Maynard Solomon relates that Beethoven admired the ideals of the French Revolution, and viewed Napoleon as their embodiment. In the autumn the composer began to have second thoughts about that dedication. Nevertheless, he still gave the work the title of Bonaparte. However, according to Beethoven’s pupil and assistant, Ferdinand Ries, when Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor of the French in May 1804, Beethoven became disgusted and went to the table where the completed score lay. He took hold of the title-page and tore it up in rage.

The work is a milestone in the history of the classical symphony for a number of reasons. The piece is about twice as long as symphonies by Haydn or Mozart. The work covers more emotional ground than earlier works had, and is often cited as the beginning of the Romantic period in music. The second movement, in particular, displays a great range of emotion, from the misery of the main funeral march theme, to the relative solace of happier, major key episodes. The finale of the symphony shows a similar range, and is given more importance in the overall scheme than the quick and breezy finishes of other composers.

Reviews after the first performance of Eroica were mixed; Historian Gareth Jenkins wrote that “Beethoven was doing for music what Napoleon was doing for society—turning tradition upside down,” and that the symphony embodied a “sense of human potential and freedom” first seen in the period of the French Revolution.

Mieczysław Weinberg was a Soviet composer of Polish-Jewish origin. From 1939 he lived in the Soviet Union and Russia and lost most of his family in the Holocaust. He left a large body of work that included twenty-two symphonies and seventeen string quartets; according to one reviewer he ranked as, “the third great Soviet composer, along with Prokofiev and Shostakovich.” At the outbreak of the World War II on the Soviet territory, Weinberg was evacuated to Tashkent (Central Asia), where he  met Dmitri Shostakovich, who was impressed by his talent and became his close friend. Meeting Shostakovich had a profound effect on the younger man, who said later that, “It was as if I had been born anew.” In 1943 he moved to Moscow at Shostakovich’s urging. Thereafter Weinberg continued to live in Moscow, composing and performing as a pianist. He and Shostakovich lived near to one another, sharing ideas on a daily basis. Besides the admiration which Shostakovich frequently expressed for Weinberg’s works, they were taken up by some of Russia’s foremost performers and conductors.

Start: July 12, 2013 7:30 pm
End: July 12, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

July 14, 2013

Michael Christie, Music Director
Lara St. John, Violin
CMF Festival Orchestra

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade
Khatchaturian: Violin Concerto in D minor

Canadian violinist Lara St. John began playing the violin at the age of two and gave her first public performance as soloist with an orchestra by age four. In 1976, at five years old, she began making frequent trips to Cleveland, Ohio, where she worked under the instruction of Linda Cerone. In 1979, she spent a year in Paris studying with Gérard Jarry. At age 10, St. John made her European debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra  in Lisbon, after which she spent three years touring the continent, including Spain, France, and Hungary. At age 13 she entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she later received her degree. She has also studied at the Moscow Conservatory, the Guildhall School of Music in London, Mannes College of Music, and New England Conservatory. She has performed extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, as well as Russia and Australia.

In 1999, an anonymous donor made a permanent loan to St. John of the 1779 “Salabue” Guadagnini.  This instrument, upon which St. John currently performs, is the most important surviving example of Guadagnini’s work.

Considered Rimsky-Korsakov’s most popular work, Scheherazade is a symphonic suite composed in 1888. Based on One Thousand and One Nights,  sometimes known as The Arabian Nights, this orchestral work combines two features common to Russian music and of Rimsky-Korsakov in particular: dazzling, colorful orchestration and an interest in the East, which figured greatly in the history off Imperial Russia, as well as orientalism in general. The composer deliberately made the titles of the four movements vague, so that they are not associated with specific tales or voyages of Sinbad. However, in the epigraph to the finale, he does make reference to the adventure of Prince Ajib. In a later edition, he did away with titles altogether, suggesting that the listener should hear his work only as an Oriental-themed symphonic music that evokes a sense of the fairy-tale adventure.

Alongside Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khatchaturian is sometimes dubbed as one of the three “titans” of Soviet music. Heavily influenced by Armenian folk music, his Violin Concerto in D minor was completed in 1940 and dedicated to the Russian violinist David Oistrakh, who premièred the concerto in Moscow on September 16, 1940. Oistrakh advised Khachaturian on the composition of the solo part and also wrote his own cadenza that markedly differs from the one originally composed by Khachaturian. The concerto was initially well received and awarded the Stalin Prize for arts in 1941. The work became a staple of the 20th century violin repertoire, and maintains its popularity into the 21st century.

Start: July 14, 2013 7:30 pm
End: July 14, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

July 18, 2013

Michael Christie, Music Director
CMF Festival Orchestra
Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, “Pathétique”

For this all-orchestral program in the Russian Mini-Series, Maestro Christie has chosen two well-known and contrasting works.

In 1936 Sergei Prokofiev was commissioned by Natalya Sats and the Central Children’s Theatre in Moscow to write a new musical symphony for children. The intent was to cultivate “musical tastes in children from the first years of school.” Intrigued by the invitation, Prokofiev completed the composition in just four days.  Peter and the Wolf , with all its friendly characters, has since become a favorite work for audiences of all ages.

Tchaikovsky premiered his final completed symphony, the Pathétique, just 9 days before he died. Known for its passion and emotional expression, rousing brass, lilting melodies and dark harmonies, this symphony’s  second theme from the first movement has inspired three popular songs since the 1940s, including “(This Is) The Story of a Starry Night,” made famous by Glenn Miller.

Start: July 18, 2013 7:30 pm
End: July 18, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

July 19, 2013

Russian Masters Mini-Festival – Sponsored by Chris and Barbara Christoffersen

Michael Christie, Music Director
Olga Kern, piano
CMF Festival Orchestra


Rachmaninoff:
Piano Concerto No.  1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1
Rachmaninoff:
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30

Now recognized as one of her generation’s great pianists, Olga Kern’s career began  with her award winning gold-medal performance at the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001. Her second catapulting triumph came in New York City on May 4, 2004, with a highly acclaimed New York City recital debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. In an unprecedented turn of events, Olga gave a second recital eight days later in Isaac Stern Auditorium at the invitation of Carnegie Hall.  Born as Olga Pushechnikova to a family of musicians with ties to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, she later adopted her mother’s maiden name professionally. Olga began studying piano at the age of five;  winner of the first Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition when she was seventeen, she is a laureate of eleven international competitions and has toured throughout her native Russia, Europe, and the United States, as well as in Japan, South Africa, and South Korea. In addition to performing, Ms. Kern devotes her time to the support and education of developing musicians. In 2012, the artist and her brother, Vladimir Kern co-founded a foundation -  “Aspiration” -  whose objective is to provide financial and artistic assistance to musicians throughout the world.

Sergei  Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov,  and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom that included a pronounced lyricism, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity, and a tonal palette of rich, distinctive orchestral colors. The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoff’s compositional output. He made a point of using his own skills as a performer to explore fully the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Even in his earliest works he revealed a sure grasp of idiomatic piano writing and a striking gift for melody.

The Piano Concerto No. 1  was actually Rachmaninoff’s second attempt at a piano concerto. In 1889 he had begun but abandoned a concerto in C minor (the same key, incidentally, in which he would later write his Piano Concerto No. 2). The first movement was premiered on 17 March 1892 at the Moscow Conservatory, with the composer as soloist and Vasily Safonov conducting. This may have been the only time the composer played the concerto in its original form. The public was already familiar with the Second and Third Concertos before Rachmaninoff revised the First in 1917. The differences between the 1890-1891 original and the 1917 revision reveal a tremendous amount about the composer’s development in the intervening years. Using an acquired knowledge of harmony, orchestration, piano technique and musical form, he transformed an early, immature composition into a concise, spirited work.

The Piano Concerto No. 3, composed in 1909,  has the reputation of being one of the most technically challenging piano concertos in the standard classical repertoire. Following the form of a standard concerto, the work is in three movements. Rachmaninoff, under pressure, and hoping to make his work more popular, authorized several cuts in the score, to be made at the performer’s discretion. These cuts, particularly in the second and third movements, were commonly taken in performance and recordings during the initial decades following the Concerto’s publication. More recently, it has become commonplace to perform the concerto without cuts. A typical performance of the complete concerto lasts about forty minutes.

The concerto is respected, even feared, by many pianists. Josef Hoffman, the pianist to whom the work is dedicated, never publicly performed it, saying that it “wasn’t for” him. And Gary Graffman lamented he had not learned this concerto as a student, when he was “still too young to know fear.”

The concerto was first performed on November 28, 1909 by Rachmaninoff himself with the now-defunct New Your Symphony Society with Walter Damrosch conducting. It received a second performance under Gustav Mahler several weeks later, an “experience Rachmaninoff treasured.” Rachmaninoff called the Third the favorite of his own piano concertos, stating that “I much prefer the Third, because my Second is so uncomfortable to play.” Nevertheless, it was not until the 1930s and largely thanks to the advocacy of Vladimir Horowitz that the Third concerto became popular.


Start: July 19, 2013 7:30 pm
End: July 19, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$58.00

July 21, 2013

Russian Masters Mini-Festival – Sponsored by Chris and Barbara Christoffersen

Michael Christie, Music Director
Olga Kern, piano
CMF Festival Orchestra


Rachmaninoff:
Piano Concerto No.  2 in C minor, Op. 18
Rachmaninoff: 
Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40
Rachmaninoff:
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Now recognized as one of her generation’s great pianists, Olga Kern’s career began  with her award winning gold-medal performance at the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001. Her second catapulting triumph came in New York City on May 4, 2004, with a highly acclaimed New York City recital debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. In an unprecedented turn of events, Olga gave a second recital eight days later in Isaac Stern Auditorium at the invitation of Carnegie Hall.  Born as Olga Pushechnikova to a family of musicians with ties to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, Olga began studying piano at the age of five; she later adopted her mother’s maiden name professionally.  Winner of the first Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition when she was seventeen, she is a laureate of eleven international competitions and has toured throughout her native Russia, Europe, and the United States, as well as in Japan, South Africa, and South Korea. In addition to performing, Ms. Kern devotes her time to the support and education of developing musicians. In 2012, the artist and her brother, Vladimir Kern co-founded a foundation -  “Aspiration” -  whose objective is to provide financial and artistic assistance to musicians throughout the world.

Sergei  Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov,  and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom that included a pronounced lyricism, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity, and a tonal palette of rich, distinctive orchestral colors. The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoff’s compositional output. He made a point of using his own skills as a performer to explore fully the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Even in his earliest works he revealed a sure grasp of idiomatic piano writing and a striking gift for melody.

The Piano Concerto No. 2 was composed between the autumn of 1900 and April 1901.The second and third movements were first performed with the composer as soloist on December 2, 1900. The complete work was premiered, again with the composer as soloist, on November 9, 1901 with his cousin Alexander Siloti conducting. This piece is one of Rachmaninoff’s most enduringly popular pieces, and established his fame as a concerto composer. Haunted by personal and professional problems, Rachmaninoff had fallen into a depression that lasted for several years. His Piano Concerto No. 2  confirmed his recovery from clinical depression and writer’s block. The concerto was dedicated to Nikolai Dahl,  a physician who had done much to restore Rachmaninoff’s self-confidence.

Several popular tunes have been composed based on Rachmaninoff’s melodies. The Adagio sostenuto theme appears in Eric Carmen’s 1975 ballad “All By Myself.”  Carmen first composed the song’s interlude, then took the bridge from Rachmaninoff and the chorus from his own “Let’s Pretend.”  The opening chords of Adagio sostenuto also appear in the orchestrated version of Aria di Mezzo Carattere from Final Fantasy VI. The second theme of the Allegro scherzando provides the basis for Frank Sinatra’s 1945 “Full Moon and Empty Arms.”

The Piano Concerto No. 4  is a major work, which Rachmaninoff completed in 1926. The work exists in three versions. Following its unsuccessful premiere (1st version), the composer made cuts and other amendments before publishing it in 1928 (2nd version). With continued lack of success, he withdrew the work, eventually revising and republishing it in 1941 (3rd version, most generally performed today). The original manuscript version was released in 2000 by the Rachmaninoff Estate to be published and recorded. The work is dedicated to Nikolai Medtner, who in turn dedicated his Second Piano Concerto to Rachmaninoff the following year.

Compared to its predecessors, the Fourth Concerto contains sharper thematic profiles along with a refinement of textures in keyboard and orchestra. These qualities do not lead to greater simplicity but to a different sort of complexity. It was also a continuation of Rachmaninoff’s long-range creative growth: the Third Concerto and the recomposed First Concerto were less heavily orchestrated than the Second Concerto. In keeping with its general character, the Fourth Concerto is lighter still. It is the least known of all Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos, but it is frequently performed in Russia. There may be several reasons for this. The structure was criticized for being amorphous and difficult to grasp on a single hearing. Only the second movement (Largo) contains a prominent melody, while the external movements seem to be composed mainly of virtuosic piano runs and cadenzas. Like most of Rachmaninoff’s late works, the concerto has a daring chromaticism and a distinctive jazzy quality.

The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is written for solo piano and symphony orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto. The work was written at Rachmaninoff’s home in Switzerland, Villa Senar,  according to the score, from July 3 to August 18, 1934. Rachmaninoff himself, a noted interpreter of his own works, played the solo piano part at the piece’s premiere at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 7, 1934 with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski.  Rachmaninoff, Stokowski, and the Philadelphia Orchestra made the first recording, on December 24, 1934. The piece is a set of 24 variations on the twenty-fourth and last of Niccolo Paganini’s Caprices for solo violin, which has inspired works by several composers. The whole composition takes approximately 25 minutes to perform. All variations are in A minor, except the middle variations – 12 through 18. Although Rachmaninoff’s work is performed in one stretch without breaks, it can be divided into three sections, corresponding to the three movements of a concerto: up to variation 10 corresponds to the first movement, variations 11 to 18 are the equivalent of a slow movement, and the remaining variations make a finale.

Start: July 21, 2013 7:30 pm
End: July 21, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$58.00

July 23, 2013

Chris Brubeck returns to Chautauqua Auditorium, this time with his group Triple Play. Triple Play is the name given to three outstanding and versatile musicians, Peter Madcat Ruth (on harmonica, guitar, jaw harp, percussion & vocals), Joel Brown (folk and classical acoustic guitar and vocals), and Chris Brubeck (electric bass, bass trombone, piano and vocals).  Collectively they bring a rare level of joy, virtuosity and American spirit to the folk, blues, jazz and classical music they perform.

Brubeck and Ruth have toured and recorded together in different settings since 1969, first as young rock musicians in the group “New Heavenly Blue” and then as jazz musicians touring the world with Dave Brubeck.  Chris Brubeck went on to form the group Crofut & Brubeck with the uniquely talented banjo player Bill Crofut. Together they recorded the acclaimed CDs“Across Your Dreams” and “Bach to Brubeck,” recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Crofut passed away in 1999, and Ruth joined Brubeck and Brown to form the group Triple Play.  This trio’s recordings include “Triple Play Live,” Watching the World” and “Live at Arthur Zankel Music Center.”

With an ever-expanding repertoire, the Trio continues to play in concert halls, clubs, and festivals all over the country, including performing many of Chris’s symphonic arrangements with orchestras across the U.S.   Recently  they played a set at the Monterey Jazz Festival and later that evening were featured in the premiere of Dave Brubeck’s Cannery Row Suite.

http://chrisbrubeckstripleplay.com/

“Triple Play was rollicking good fun … led by bassist, trombonist and pianist Chris Brubeck, the trio stole the show with its flair and virtuosity.” - Mark Swed, L.A.Times

Start: July 23, 2013 7:30 pm
End: July 23, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

July 25, 2013

Michael Christie, Music Director
Johannes Moser, Cello
CMF Festival Chorus, Timothy Krueger, Director

Antonin Dvorak: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104
Ernest Bloch: Sacred Service

Born into a musical family in 1979 as a dual citizen of Germany and Canada, Johannes Moser began studying the cello at the age of eight.  He was the top prize winner at the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition, in addition to being awarded the Special Prize for his interpretation of the Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations. He has been praised for his rich, gorgeous tone and playing that can range from lovely and elegant, to vigorous with head-banging, rock star energy. He has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras and has gained a reputation for his exquisite performances of lesser-known repertoire.  His affinity for new music has brought him much attention from leading conductors such as Pierre Boulez, who invited him to make his U.S. debut with the Chicago Symphony on the Rands Concerto.  Johannes is an enthusiastic advocate for the electric cello, which he uses to explore new possibilities in sound as well as for improvisation. He is a dedicated chamber musician, voracious reader, and avid outdoorsman. He plays on an Andrea Guarneri cello, built in 1694 on loan to him from a private collector.

The Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, by Antonin Dvorák was the composer’s last solo concerto, and was written in 1894–1895 for his friend, the cellist Hanuš Wihan, but premiered by the English cellist Leo Stern. The piece is scored for a full romantic orchestra, and throughout the piece, a motif which resembles American folk music reoccurs. It was suggested that Dvořák was heavily influenced by the music of native Americans and that he used his inspiration in the Cello Concerto.

Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-born 20th-century American composer Bloch, perhaps best known for his work for cello and orchestra, Schelomo. He trained as a violinist before turning to composition. He held several teaching appointments in the US and was also director of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 1941 he settled in Oregon and lived there until he died in 1959.

Inspired by his friend, the Zionist poet , Edmond Fleg, Sacred Service premiered in 1934. The work is over an hour long and is more or less the weekly morning Shabbat synagogue service performed as an operatic work. Scored for solo baritone, chorus, and orchestra, the mixed chorale of men and women’s voices rise and fall with mood of the different prayers. At points it is very quiet and then culminates into a blast of music, such as the Shema Yisroel passage. Towards the end, there is an English reading of part of the Torah service. The rest of the Sacred Service is in Hebrew.

The CMF Festival Chorus is comprised of local amateur and professional singers who come together for a series of approximately 10 rehearsals leading up to the summer performances. The chorus is prepared by Timothy Krueger, music director of St. Martin’s Chamber Choir.

Start: July 25, 2013 7:30 am
End: July 25, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

July 26, 2013

Michael Christie, Music Director
Johannes Moser, Cello
CMF Festival Chorus, Timothy Krueger, Director

Antonin Dvorak: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104
Ernest Bloch: Sacred Service

Born into a musical family in 1979 as a dual citizen of Germany and Canada, Johannes Moser began studying the cello at the age of eight.  He was the top prize winner at the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition, in addition to being awarded the Special Prize for his interpretation of the Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations. He has been praised for his rich, gorgeous tone and playing that can range from lovely and elegant, to vigorous with head-banging, rock star energy. He has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras and has gained a reputation for his exquisite performances of lesser-known repertoire.  His affinity for new music has brought him much attention from leading conductors such as Pierre Boulez, who invited him to make his U.S. debut with the Chicago Symphony on the Rands Concerto.  Johannes is an enthusiastic advocate for the electric cello, which he uses to explore new possibilities in sound as well as for improvisation. He is a dedicated chamber musician, voracious reader, and avid outdoorsman. He plays on an Andrea Guarneri cello, built in 1694 on loan to him from a private collector.

The Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, by Antonin Dvorák was the composer’s last solo concerto, and was written in 1894–1895 for his friend, the cellist Hanuš Wihan, but premiered by the English cellist Leo Stern. The piece is scored for a full romantic orchestra, and throughout the piece, a motif which resembles American folk music reoccurs. It was suggested that Dvořák was heavily influenced by the music of native Americans and that he used his inspiration in the Cello Concerto.

Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-born 20th-century American composer Bloch, perhaps best known for his work for cello and orchestra, Schelomo. He trained as a violinist before turning to composition. He held several teaching appointments in the US and was also director of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 1941 he settled in Oregon and lived there until he died in 1959.

Inspired by his friend, the Zionist poet, Edmond Fleg, Sacred Service premiered in 1934. The work is over an hour long and is more or less the weekly morning Shabbat synagogue service performed as an operatic work. Scored for solo baritone, chorus, and orchestra, the mixed chorale of men and women’s voices rise and fall with mood of the different prayers. At points it is very quiet and then culminates into a blast of music, such as the Shema Yisroel passage. Towards the end, there is an English reading of part of the Torah service. The rest of the Sacred Service is in Hebrew.

The CMF Festival Chorus is comprised of local amateur and professional singers who come together for a series of approximately 10 rehearsals leading up to the summer performances. The chorus is prepared by Timothy Krueger, music director of St. Martin’s Chamber Choir.

Start: July 26, 2013 7:30 pm
End: July 26, 2013 9:30 pm

July 28, 2013

community+play-in+2011
Ages 15-95 | amateur, pre-professional, and professional musicians | Chautauqua Auditorium, Boulder | Sun, July 28 | 4-6pm

Join CMF Music Director Michael Christie on stage at Chautauqua Auditorium for an informal rehearsal/performance of the complete Dvorak New World Symphony. Music will be available through the online IMSLP for easy access. Dust off your instrument, join in the fun, and invite your family and friends to listen! The Community Play-in is FREE, register today by submitting the form below.

Community Play-in Prep Rehearsals – Sunday, July 14 & Sunday, July 21 from 4-6 pm.

Ages: 15 & Up | Location: RMCMA, Lafayette | Instructor: Jennifer Dunn

Would you like to get more out of the Community Play-in with Maestro Christie? The Play-in preparatory rehearsals will familiarize you with the repertoire so that you are more knowledgeable about your part before sitting on stage under the Maestro’s baton. 

Cost is just $10/each or $15 for both! Please note: If you are going to participate in one or both of the prep rehearsals, you will need to submit your payment using the links below AND submit a form to participate in the FREE Community Play-in.
Click here to register for Sunday, July 14>>
Click here to register for Sunday, July 21>>
Click here to register for both>>

Community Play-In

  • If you said yes to either (or both) of the rehearsals above, please be sure to register!


Verification

Start: July 28, 2013 4:00 pm
End: July 28, 2013 6:00 pm
Cost: Free

Michael Christie, Music Director
The CMF Chamber Orchestra

J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 2, 4, and 5
Paul Moravec: Brandenburg Gate
Melinda Wagner: Little Moonhead
Peter Maxwell-Davies: Sea Orpheus

In 2006 the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra launched a project designed to help bridge past and present: It commissioned six composers to write companion pieces for Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos, works that were completed around 1720 and use a rich variety of instruments. The multiyear New Brandenburg Project had one condition: each composer had to use the same instrumentation as the Bach model. The result is new compositions by Aaron Jay Kernis, Melinda Wagner, Peter Maxwell Davies, Christopher Theofanidis, Stephen Hartke and Paul Moravec.

In 2012, Michael Christie and the CMF performed Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos 1, 3, and 6 along with the companion pieces by Kernis, Theofanidis, and Hartke. This concert will present the remaining pieces in the set.

Paul Moravec, winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music, has composed over one hundred works for the orchestral, chamber, choral, lyric, film, and operatic genres. He is University Professor at Adelphi University, recently served as the Artist-in-Residence with the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ., and in 2010 he was recently elected to the American Philosophical Society. His  “Brandenburg Gate,” composed in 2008, is inspired by Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #2,  as well as by contemporary events in Germany. “The title, Brandenburg Gate,’ suggests a portal through which we enter Bach’s world of exuberant invention,” Moravec said in his program notes. “It also refers to the actual monument in Berlin, which I personally associate primarily with the astonishing images of the opening of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989.”

Melinda Wagner’s chamber works have been performed by the New York New Music Ensemble, Network for New Music, the Empyrean and Left Coast Ensembles, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra  and other leading organizations. She has taught at Brandeis University, Swarthmore College, Syracuse University, and Hunter College. She has lectured at many schools including Yale, Cornell, Juilliard, and Mannes, and has served as Composer-in-Residence at the Yellow Barn Music Festival, Monadnock Music Festival, Wellesley Composers Conference and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. Little Moonhead, inspired by Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, includes a celesta in the instrumentation. Wagner says of her composition, “In Brandenburg No. 4, Bach puts into motion a relatively small number of voices, each presented in broad brushstrokes, through doubling. In addition to all of its lightness and air (and the delicacy provided by soloists), there is a kind of orchestral heft, along with pristine clarity. My own music tends to be much more dense, with many more voices, compound chords, and divisi strings. Ironically… Little Moonhead  sounds more like a chamber work, perhaps because my ‘brushstrokes’ are pencil-thin.”

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies  is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen’s Music. He is a  prolific composer who has written music in a variety of styles and idioms over his career, often combining disparate styles in one piece. Commissioned by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as the final installment of their New Brandenburg Project, Sea Orpheus reflects J.S. Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 5 and takes its inspiration from a poem by George Mackay Brown, the Orcadian poet.  Says Maxwell Davies: “There are three movements, played without a break, all based on a Gregorian chant, ‘Tantum Ergo Sacramentum,’ which is subject to constant transformation processes, and is present throughout in some form. The work was commissioned as a companion piece to Bach’s Fifth ‘Brandenburg’ Concerto, and has a similar orchestration, with flute and violin solos, and a virtuoso keyboard part, taking full advantage of the modern grand piano.”



Start: July 28, 2013 7:30 pm
End: July 28, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

August 1, 2013

 

Back by popular demand, the groundbreaking, category-shattering trio transcends traditional classification with elements of classical, country western, gypsy and jazz idioms forming a blend all its own. The funky  innovative Trio will join music director Michael Christie and the CMF Orchestra for a not-to-miss concert you will be talking about for months to come. From classical masterworks like Bartok, Beethoven and Copeland to contemporary favorites like Mumford & Sons, Coldplay, U2, The Beatles, Leonard Cohen and more…you never know what this trio will have in store this year for Boulder!

Start: August 1, 2013 7:30 pm
End: August 1, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

August 2, 2013

Back by popular demand, the groundbreaking, category-shattering trio transcends traditional classification with elements of classical, country western, gypsy and jazz idioms forming a blend all its own. The funky innovative Trio will join music director Michael Christie and the CMF Orchestra with a special appearance by Joshua Radin, for a not-to-miss concert you will be talking about for months to come. From classical masterworks like Bartok, Beethoven and Copland to contemporary favorites like Mumford & Sons, Coldplay, U2, The Beatles, Leonard Cohen and more…you never know what this trio will have in store this year for Boulder!

Start: August 2, 2013 6:00 pm
End: August 2, 2013 9:00 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

August 4, 2013

Courtney Lewis, Guest Conductor
CMF Chamber Orchestra

Calin Lupanu, Violin

Beethoven: Overture to the Consecration of the House

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5

Schreker: Chamber Symphony

Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3

Guest conductor Courtney Lewis will lead the CMF Chamber Orchestra in a program that includes Beethoven’s Consecration of the House and Lenore Overture No. 3, as well as Franz Schreker’s Chamber Symphony and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 performed by CMF Concertmaster Calin Lupanu.

Guest conductor Courtney Lewis is quickly becoming recognized as one of today’s top emerging talents. He is founder and music director of Boston’s acclaimed Discovery Ensemble, and has also recently been promoted to associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, where he regularly conducts Young People’s concerts, outdoor concerts, and other performances. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Lewis attended the University of Cambridge, where he studied composition and clarinet, graduating at the top of his year with starred first class honors. After completing a master’s degree with a focus on the late music of György Ligeti, he attended the Royal Northern College of Music. He also completed a two-year tenure as a Zander Fellow with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, an intensive conducting apprenticeship under the ensemble’s music director, Benjamin Zander.

Franz Schreker (originally Schrecker, March 23, 1878 – March 21, 1934) was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and administrator.Primarily a composer of operas,   his style is characterized by aesthetic plurality – a mixture of styles – timbral experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and conception of total music theatre into the narrative of 20th-century music. The Chamber Symphony in one movement for 7 winds, 11 strings, harp, celesta, harmonium, piano, timpani, and percussion, composed for the faculty of the Vienna Academy in 1916, quickly entered the repertoire and remains Schreker’s most frequently performed work today.  Schreker’s fame and influence were at their peak during the early years of the Weimar Republic when he was the most performed living opera composer after Richard Strauss.


Start: August 4, 2013 7:30 pm
End: August 4, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

August 6, 2013

Elephant Revival will join members of the CMF Orchestra for the final concert in the Music Mash-up series and the first time ever performing with orchestra. This Nederland, Colorado quintet are quite a sound to be experienced – especially when they fall into the pocket of a groove containing elements of gypsy, rock, Celtic, alt-country and folk. This music mash-up concert will incorporate original Elephant Revival works orchestrated as well as classical masterpieces creating a unique one-of-a-kind concert experience. The fun starts at 6 p.m. with pre-concert mingling – plus you can enjoy free food and drink samples from some of Boulder’s finest restaurants.

“Where words fail… music speaks.”

That simple line atop Elephant Revival’s Facebook page contains only five words, but reveals volumes about the band’s reason for being. Music unites us in ways that no other medium can. Even when we don’t understand one another’s languages – we can be moved by a rhythm, soothed by a song. Brought together by a unified sense of purpose – the spirit of five souls working as one, in harmony, creating sounds they could never produce alone.

*This concert is part of the new “Music Mash-up” series where orchestral masterworks meet indie-rock.

 

Start: August 6, 2013 7:30 pm
End: August 6, 2013 9:00 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

August 8, 2013

Michael Christie, Music Director
Alexa Still, Flute
Kristin Kuster, Composer
The CMF Festival Orchestra

Corigliano: Pied Piper Fantasty
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
Kuster: Devil’s Thumb, commissioned by Community Commissioning Club, CLICK!

Alexa Still, former flute professor at CU, returns to Boulder to perform this work that was commissioned by international flute star James Galway. The legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is the basis for this work, which is a  combination of music and theater that premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in 1980. Incorporating a cast of villagers playing flutes and tin whistles, the piece expands on the original story with a battle scene between the Piper and the village rats.

We are also pleased to introduce the music of Kristin Kuster, winner of the Click! Commissioning Club commission from Season 2012.  A Boulder native, Kristin is now Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan. Ms. Kuster was recently selected by Meet the Composer and the League of American Orchestras for the Music Alive: New Partnerships initiative, which fosters new relationships between composers and orchestras.

Symphony No. 5 was Shostakovich‘s response to his denunciation by Russian authorities and marked his “political rehabilitation” and return to a simpler musical style. The Symphony reverberates in an expression of Shostakovich’s  eloquent musical voice, reflecting the suffering of the Russian people under Stalin. It was an unprecedented triumph and appealed to both public and official critics. After the symphony had been performed in Moscow, Heinrich Neuhaus called the work “deep, meaningful, gripping music, classical in the integrity of its conception, perfect in form and the mastery of orchestral writing—music striking for its novelty and originality, but at the same time somehow hauntingly familiar, so truly and sincerely does it recount human feelings.”

Start: August 8, 2013 7:30 pm
End: August 8, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00

August 9, 2013

Michael Christie, Music Director
Alexa Still, Flute
Kristin Kuster, Composer
The CMF Festival Orchestra

Corigliano: Pied Piper Fantasty
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
Kuster
: Devil’s Thumb, commissioned by Community Commissioning Club, CLICK!

Alexa Still, former flute professor at CU, returns to Boulder to perform this work that was commissioned by international flute star James Galway. The legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is the basis for this work, which is a  combination of music and theater that premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in 1980. Incorporating a cast of villagers playing flutes and tin whistles, the piece expands on the original story with a battle scene between the Piper and the village rats.

We are also pleased to introduce the music of Kristin Kuster, winner of the Click! Commissioning Club commission from Season 2012.  A Boulder native, Kristin is now Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan. Ms. Kuster was recently selected by Meet the Composer and the League of American Orchestras for the Music Alive: New Partnerships initiative, which fosters new relationships between composers and orchestras.

Symphony No. 5 was Shostakovich‘s response to his denunciation by Russian authorities and marked his “political rehabilitation” and return to a simpler musical style. The Symphony reverberates in an expression of Shostakovich’s  eloquent musical voice, reflecting the suffering of the Russian people under Stalin. It was an unprecedented triumph and appealed to both public and official critics. After the symphony had been performed in Moscow, Heinrich Neuhaus called the work “deep, meaningful, gripping music, classical in the integrity of its conception, perfect in form and the mastery of orchestral writing—music striking for its novelty and originality, but at the same time somehow hauntingly familiar, so truly and sincerely does it recount human feelings.”

Start: August 9, 2013 7:30 pm
End: August 9, 2013 9:30 pm
Cost: $12.00-$48.00