The Colorado Music Festival (CMF) in Boulder, Colorado, under the leadership of Music Director Peter Oundjian, returns to Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder this summer for 19 concerts between July 3 and August 3.

World-class musicians from around the country arrive in Boulder to perform as the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra under the direction of Peter Oundjian. Joining them are 12 guest artists, two internationally acclaimed string quartets, and four guest conductors who perform throughout the season. The location -- a spectacular setting at the base of Boulder’s dramatic Flatirons -- is just an hour from Denver, giving artists and audiences easy access.  The summer's concerts are listed below. 

Thursday, July 10, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, July 11, 6:30 p.m.
BRAHMS 1 & JOAN TOWER’S WORLD PREMIERE
Peter Oundjian, conductor
Steven Banks, saxophone
Aaron Copland, An Outdoor Overture
Joan Tower, Love Returns for saxophone and orchestra (world premiere)
Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 1, op. 68
These concerts bring together two Colorado Music Festival favorites: one of today’s most important living composers, Joan Tower, whose concerto A New Day premiered at the Festival to rave reviews, and saxophonist Steven Banks, who stunned CMF audiences in 2021 in Alexander Glazunov’s Saxophone Concerto. Now these powerhouse artists unite for the world premiere of Tower’s saxophone concerto, Love Returns, with Peter Oundjian conducting. The concerto is a vehicle for Tower’s experience of grief and remembrance after the loss of her husband in 2022. The raw and sentimental new work expands on the theme of Tower’s cello concerto, A New Day.  The concert opens with Copland in a nod to his 125th birthday. 

Chloé van Soeterstède, conductor | Benjamin Beilman, violin

Sunday, July 13, 6:30 p.m.
AN EVENING OF MOZART
Chloé van Soeterstède, conductor
Benjamin Beilman, violin
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: 
Don Giovanni Overture
Violin Concerto No. 5 in a Major (Turkish), K.219
The Marriage of Figaro Overture
Symphony No. 34 in C Major, K.338
Guest conductor Chloé van Soeterstède leads the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra through this all-Mozart program, which includes the composer’s animated Symphony No. 34 as well as overtures to two of his most popular operas, Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro. Violinist Benjamin Beilman and van Soeterstède make their CMF debuts. 

Tuesday, July 15, 7:30 p.m.
ROBERT MANN CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES: BRENTANO STRING QUARTET
Franz Schubert, Quartet in A Minor, D. 804 (“Rosamunde”)
Anton Webern, 5 Movements for String Quartet, op. 5
Johannes Brahms, String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat Major, op. 67
By popular demand, the Brentano String Quartet — Ensemble-in-Residence at the Yale School of Music — returns to CMF's Robert Mann Chamber Music Series. The Times (London) raves, “Balance and intonation reach an almost unearthly level of perfection, yet there's nothing inhuman about these American musicians.” Brentano’s Romantic program includes Webern’s abstract Five Movements for String Quartet, Brahms’ sunny Third String Quartet, and Schubert’s poetic A-Minor Quartet, which borrows a theme from his incidental music to the play Rosamunde. 

Anne Akiko Meyers, violin

Thursday, July 17, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, July 18, 6:30 p.m.
ANNE AKIKO MEYERS PLAYS RAVEL
Peter Oundjian, conductor
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring
Eric Whitacre, THE PACIFIC HAS NO MEMORY (CMF co-commission, Colorado premiere)
Maurice Ravel, Tzigane
Hector Berlioz, Béatrice and Bénédict Overture
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
Eric Whitacre’s THE PACIFIC HAS NO MEMORY is a new work, co-commissioned by CMF and written for Latin Grammy-winning violinist Anne Akiko Meyers in response to the recent wildfires in southern California. It premiered at Carnegie Hall in May. Whitacre writes in his program note:  

Los Angeles was my home for 25 years. In 2024 I moved to Antwerp with my family, but as fate would have it, we flew to L.A. for a visit on January 8th, 2025. The sky over the Palisades was already smudged black, homes and histories evaporating into the quiet air.

Over that week we had our own scares with evacuations, felt the fear and surreal dread that was everywhere in the city. We spent time with friends, hearing their hushed stories of how they had lost everything. I will never forget the look in their eyes — shocked, untethered. I think there is something truly unique about losing one’s world to a fire: it burns everything, completely and utterly. There is literally nothing left to mourn.

The Pacific Has No Memory takes its title from a line in one of my favorite films, The Shawshank Redemption. In it, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) dreams of a life near the ocean where his past is a memory of a memory, distant and liquid – a place where the blue of the Pacific will give him a chance to start new, reborn. I hope the same for all who lost so much in those terrible fires.”

Peter Oundjian opens the program with Copland’s idyllic tribute to the American heartland, Appalachian Spring, and concludes with the Fantasy-Overture to Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. 

Maurice Cohn, conductor | Hayoung Choi, cello

Sunday, July 20, 6:30 p.m.
TCHAIKOVSKY & BEETHOVEN
Maurice Cohn, conductor
Hayoung Choi, cello
Ottorino Respighi, Gli uccelli (The Birds)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Variations on a Rococo Theme, op. 33
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 1 in C Major, op. 21
Maurice Cohn conducts a program of Respighi, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky, with cellist Hayoung Choi, making  her CMF debut; she joins the orchestra as soloist for Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. Known for dominating international cello competitions, Choi was First Prize Winner of the 2022 Queen Elisabeth Competition for Cello, and this Korean cellist (born in Germany) possesses a talent not to be missed. The program opens with Respighi’s five playful attempts to transcribe the sounds of doves, cuckoos, nightingales, and more. 

Tuesday, July 22, 7:30 p.m.
ROBERT MANN CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES: MOZART & DVOŘÁK
Colorado Music Festival musicians
Nico Muhly, Doublespeak (2012)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat Major, K.452
Antonín Dvořák, String Quintet No.3 in E-flat Major, op. 97
The Robert Mann Chamber Music Series continues with a spotlight on the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra's own musicians, with Mozart's classic Quintet in E-Flat for Piano and Winds and Dvořák’s Third String Quartet, which (like much of his work) is flavored with melodies and rhythms he heard while visiting America, including various folk tunes and Native American drumming. The program begins with Nico Muhly’s minimalist Doublespeak, which was written as a gift for composer Philip Glass’ birthday and teems with stylistic rhythms and repetitions.   

Ryan Bancroft, conductor |  Yeol Eum Son, piano

Thursday, July 24, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, July 25, 6:30 p.m.
BEETHOVEN’S PIANO CONCERTO NO. 3
Ryan Bancroft, conductor
Yeol Eum Son, piano
Sofia Gubaidulina, Fairytale Poem (Märchenpoem) (1971)
Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, op. 37
Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 10
Pianist Yeol Eum Son (pron. YOR-um sohn), known for her poetic elegance and the power to project bold, dramatic contrasts, makes her CMF debut with Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. Son's new album, featuring works by Ravel and Wittgenstein, is out now on Naïve. The Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina, who died in March at 93, was known for combining intensely spiritual themes with daring musical colors; her striking Fairytale Poem, which opens the program, draws inspiration from a children’s story about creativity. Guest conductor Ryan Bancroft conducts this dynamic program, which also includes Shostakovich’s Tenth, written shortly after Joseph Stalin’s death and rife with terror, passion, and oppression, and one final, hopeful ray of light; this is also Bancroft's CMF debut. 

Xuefei Yang, guitar

 

Sunday, July 27, 6:30 p.m.
YANG PLAYS RODRIGO’S CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ
Peter Oundjian, conductor
Xuefei Yang, guitar
Zoltán Kodály, Dances of Galánta
Joaquin Rodrigo, Concierto de Aranjuez
Franz Schubert, Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, D. 485
Known for her “feisty virtuosity, impeccable technique and sensitive musicianship” (The New York Times), classical guitarist Xuefei Yang makes her CMF debut with Rodrigo’s florid Concierto de Aranjuez; this work intended to evoke “the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains” of a royal estate in the Spanish city of Aranjuez. Yang's deep connection to Rodrigo's music traces back to her debut in Spain at age 14, when she performed in a concert attended by the composer himself.  Opening the concert is Kodály’s Dances of Galánta, which adapts sprightly Hungarian folk tunes and makes an exuberant dance partner for Rodrigo’s Concierto. After intermission, Peter Oundjian conducts Schubert's light and airy Fifth Symphony. 

Dover Quartet

Tuesday, July 29, 7:30 p.m.
ROBERT MANN CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES: DOVER QUARTET
Leoš Janáček, Quartet No. 1 (“Kreutzer Sonata”)
Robert Schumann, Quartet No. 1 in A Minor, op. 41
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Quartet No. 1 in D Major, op. 11
The Robert Mann Chamber Music Series is delighted to welcome “one of the greatest quartets of the last 100 years” (BBC Music Magazine), the Dover Quartet, Ensemble-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music, for a program of music by Janáček, Schumann and Tchaikovsky.   

Top row: Lauren Snouffer, soprano (left) | Abigail Nims, mezzo-soprano
Bottom row: Issachah Savage, tenor | Benjamin Taylor, baritone

Thursday, July 31, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, August 1, 6:30 p.m.
BEETHOVEN’S NINTH + AMPLIFY by MICHAEL ABELS
Peter Oundjian, conductor
Lauren Snouffer, soprano
Abigail Nims, mezzo-soprano
Issachah Savage, tenor
Benjamin Taylor, baritone
St. Martin’s Festival Singers
Michael Abels, Amplify (CMF co-commission)
Ludwig van Beethoven, Elegischer Gesang (Elegiac Song) in E Major, op. 118
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, op. 125
Peter Oundjian conducts Beethoven’s Ninth, the beloved masterpiece that celebrates brotherhood, forgiveness, and the quest for peace. For the iconic “Ode to Joy,” the Festival welcomes four distinguished singers – soprano Lauren Snouffer, mezzo-soprano Abigail Nims, tenor Issachah Savage, and baritone Benjamin Taylor – and the Denver-based St. Martin’s Chamber Choir. Amplify, by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Abels and co-commissioned by the Festival, opens the program in a Colorado premiere. In addition to his Pulitzer Prize-winning compositions for opera, audiences may recognize recodnize the composer from his film scores such as Get Out, Us, Chevalier, and more. 

Conductor Peter Oundjian with the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra

Sunday, August 3, 6:30 p.m.
MAHLER 9
Peter Oundjian, conductor
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 9
Music Director Peter Oundjian continues his tradition of closing the Festival season with a massive Mahler symphony. Composer Alban Berg once wrote of Mahler’s Ninth, “The first movement is the greatest Mahler ever composed. It is the expression of a tremendous love for this earth, the longing to live on it peacefully and to enjoy nature to its deepest depths – before death comes.” The myriad colors of life are present in the mighty Ninth, throughout which Mahler grieves, dances, basks in sunlight, and ultimately reflects on the enormity of it all.

Tickets & Information

CMF offers $10 tickets for youth (ages 18 and under) and students (with current school identification). For more information, visit coloradomusicfestival.org/ticket-info.

For more information about CMF, or to purchase tickets beginning March 4, visit ColoradoMusicFestival.org or call the Chautauqua box office at 303-440-7666.

For a full media kit, including details about performances and events and images, visit coloradomusicfestival.org/mediakit.

Colorado Music Festival concerts take place at Chautauqua Auditorium, which was built in 1898. Located at the base of Boulder’s Flatirons and one of only 25 National Historic Landmarks in the state of Colorado, the Colorado Chautauqua remains committed to its historic purpose.