[ad_1]
The Colorado College Summer Music Festival is returning this month for its 39th season.
The festival will kick off Wednesday evening with its opening Faculty Artists Concert in Packard Hall. From there, the college will host a series of concerts across three weeks, ending June 23 with an orchestra concert.
“What makes our festival different from so many others in the United States is that we cut out the competitive edge that is so divisive,” said the festival’s music director Susan Grace.
“Our students are so supportive of each other, but yet they come away learning an amazing amount of material and how to get along with each other.”
Fifty-two student fellows will perform at the festival from around the country, joined by about 20 faculty members.
“They are from some of the major music schools and from some of the major orchestras. They’re a really wonderful group of people who really love to teach,” Grace said.
“Some of the faculty have been coming since the very beginning, most of them over 20 years. They really are like family.”
The festival is broken down into several shows, including five artist concerts, two orchestra concerts, seven chamber music at midday concerts and a children’s orchestra concert.
“Our faculty work so well together, they love being here and they put out so much energy and joy when they play. And so that makes our festival special,” Grace said.
It takes a year for the concert to completely come together. The college opens applications in November and closes them in February.
“We keep trying to market the festival so more and more people know about it. We try to come up with new and creative ideas for the next season,” Grace said.
“We do a lot of work to recruit professionals who might be interested in coming, and so we’re answering a lot of questions and putting out things (to) music schools around the country.”
This year, the college received over 400 fellow applications, accepting only 52.
“Each year the orchestras is better and better. The students who come here, you hear them play in an orchestra and they sound like a professional orchestra,” Grace said.
The college welcomes all to the festival.
“We try to make this festival for everyone,” Grace said.
“I can’t express enough how dedicated our faculty are and how much they love playing and so it’s just fun. It’s really entertaining as well as really very high quality.”
Source link