Thank You for the Music – Cover Article in Boulder Lifestyle
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Colorado Music Festival. With Music Director Peter Oundjian serving at the helm for his eighth season, the festival features a variety of talented performers such as pianist Yuja Wang, violinist Njioma Grevious, trumpeter...
Diversity at the Colorado Music Festival
by Kyle Macmillan Across the ranks of composers, conductors, singers and instrumentalists, classical music has been dominated by white men for nearly its entire history. But with the rise of movements like Black Lives Matter and more focused attention on equity and...
City of Boulder Declaration: July 9, 2026 is “Colorado Music Festival Day”
We’re grateful to Mayor Aaron Brockett and Boulder’s City Council for recognizing this summer season’s opening day – Thursday, July 9, 2026 – as “Colorado Music Festival Day”! “The City of Boulder recognizes that the...
Gemma New Returns to Colorado Music Festival
Interview by Kyle Macmillan In recent years, as Gemma New’s profile has soared in the classical world, the genial New Zealander conductor has been on a kind of international goodwill tour, introducing herself to orchestras, opera companies and festivals. Indeed, she...Upcoming Events
35 events found.
Events
Calendar of Events
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Curious to hear the stories behind the fantastic music being performed at the Colorado Music Festival? Eager to meet new Festival friends who share your love of music? Your concert […]
Free
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The 2026 Festival opens with a once-in-a-generation violinist: Himari, a 14-year-old phenomenon who has already collected substantial awards and recognition, performs Sibelius’s Concerto for Violin, full of Nordic snow and moody skies. Just as Sibelius invokes his native Finland, Tchaikovsky’s dramatic Fifth Symphony is infused with Russian colors. Composer Carter Pann also unveils a brand new piece of music to celebrate the start of the Festival season.
$31 – $113
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2 events,
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The 2026 Festival opens with a once-in-a-generation violinist: Himari, a 14-year-old phenomenon who has already collected substantial awards and recognition, performs Sibelius’s Concerto for Violin, full of Nordic snow and moody skies. Just as Sibelius invokes his native Finland, Tchaikovsky’s dramatic Fifth Symphony is infused with Russian colors. Composer Carter Pann also unveils a brand new piece of music to celebrate the start of the Festival season.
$31 – $113
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Immediately following the July 10 concert, you’re invited to a brief, interactive Q&A with Music Director Peter Oundjian and violinist Himari in Chautauqua Auditorium. Free to ticketholders.
Free
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1 event,
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Bring your littlest listeners to our annual Free Family Concert! We are pleased to offer this concert in Spanish and English, and at no charge, so gather the whole family to enjoy classical and popular favorites. Ideal for music lovers aged five and under. Join us after the concert for a free Family Lawn Fair featuring food trucks, live music performances, and more, in partnership with the Colorado Chautauqua Association. |
1 event,
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Great singers aren’t just born—they’re coached. And you get to watch it happen live. Come witness the creative process in action at a free public master class hosted by world-renowned […]
Free
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2 events,
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Take a peek behind the scenes to experience how Music Director Peter Oundjian and the Festival Orchestra prepare for their world-class performances. Free and open to the public. Note: Attendees […]
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The 2026 Robert Mann Chamber Music Series opens with “one of the most popular brass ensembles in the world” (Washington Post), the Juno Award-winning quintet Canadian Brass. With a discography of over 130 albums and an extensive worldwide touring schedule, Canadian Brass is a pioneer in bringing brass music to audiences through their trademark humor, charismatic stage presence, and sparkling musicianship.
$36 – $93
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2 events,
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Curious to hear the stories behind the fantastic music being performed at the Colorado Music Festival? Eager to meet new Festival friends who share your love of music? Your concert […]
Free
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“Pianist Yuja Wang is a dazzler,” claims Cleveland Classical. “She has a way of dressing, of taking the stage, and of bowing that bespeaks confidence and star quality.” In her Festival debut, Wang plays Barber’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Piano Concerto, a spectacular rainbow of sound. Music Director Peter Oundjian leads Bernstein’s vibrant Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, as well as short works from Prokofiev and Saint-Saëns.
$31 – $113
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2 events,
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“Pianist Yuja Wang is a dazzler,” claims Cleveland Classical. “She has a way of dressing, of taking the stage, and of bowing that bespeaks confidence and star quality.” In her Festival debut, Wang plays Barber’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Piano Concerto, a spectacular rainbow of sound. Music Director Peter Oundjian leads Bernstein’s vibrant Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, as well as short works from Prokofiev and Saint-Saëns.
$31 – $113
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Immediately following the July 17 concert, you’re invited to a brief, interactive Q&A with Music Director Peter Oundjian and pianist Yuja Wang in Chautauqua Auditorium. Free to ticketholders.
Free
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1 event,
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On July 18, Create Boulder, in association with eTown, introduces Create Boulder Nights at eTown Hall. Create Boulder Nights is a new quarterly event series, showcasing the diversity of performing arts in Boulder in a […]
$25
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1 event,
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Former Colorado Symphony Music Director Jeffrey Kahane returns to the Festival stage to lead all six of Bach’s celebrated Brandenburg Concertos with the help of trumpeter Maximilian Morel. Possibly the most revered of all Baroque music, this complete set of Bach’s masterpieces should be on every music-lover’s bucket list.
$31 – $113
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The Robert Mann Chamber Music Series continues with a world premiere by “astonishingly innovative” composer James Stephenson (Musical America); while he writes deftly “in all walks of the musical landscape,” his new quartet features trumpet and strings. Following intermission, Tchaikovsky remembers Italy — by way of Russia, of course — in an irresistible sextet for strings, his final contribution to chamber music.
$36 – $93
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2 events,
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Curious to hear the stories behind the fantastic music being performed at the Colorado Music Festival? Eager to meet new Festival friends who share your love of music? Your concert […]
Free
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Six-time Grammy-winning conductor and Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Leonard Slatkin joins the Festival for a program celebrating the distinctive American sound. This spotlight on American composers begins with Aaron Copland’s Rodeo with its iconic “Hoedown,” followed by a chaconne from John Corigliano’s romantic score for the film The Red Violin. After the break: Ron Nelson’s paean to the South’s Savannah River, a haunting adagio by “unmistakably American-sounding” Cindy McTee (Washington Post), and finally George Gershwin’s jazzy symphonic poem An American in Paris.
$31 – $113
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4 events,
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Take a peek behind the scenes to experience how Music Director Peter Oundjian and the Festival Orchestra prepare for their world-class performances. Free and open to the public. Note: Attendees […]
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Get insights about conducting from Maestro Leonard Slatkin in a hands-on workshop onstage at Chautauqua Auditorium. Most of us have watched a conductor walk onto the stage, raise a baton, […]
$75
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Six-time Grammy-winning conductor and Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Leonard Slatkin joins the Festival for a program celebrating the distinctive American sound. This spotlight on American composers begins with Aaron Copland’s Rodeo with its iconic “Hoedown,” followed by a chaconne from John Corigliano’s romantic score for the film The Red Violin. After the break: Ron Nelson’s paean to the South’s Savannah River, a haunting adagio by “unmistakably American-sounding” Cindy McTee (Washington Post), and finally George Gershwin’s jazzy symphonic poem An American in Paris.
$31 – $113
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Immediately following the July 24 concert, you’re invited to a brief, interactive Q&A with Maestro Leonard Slatkin and violinist Njioma Grevious in Chautauqua Auditorium. Free to ticketholders.
Free
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1 event,
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Music Director Peter Oundjian begins this all-Mozart marvel with a mysterious serenade for winds, which broods before turning suddenly buoyant. At the keyboard for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 is Tony Siqi Yun, a nuanced performer who plays with “every note personalized” (Musical America). Closing this revel of Mozart’s genius is his Haffner Symphony, a staggering work of energy and invention.
$31 – $113
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The Robert Mann Chamber Music Series continues with a program featuring the Festival’s own musicians. Beethoven’s only quintet for piano and wind is rife with rhapsodic dialogue between its instruments. In Stravinsky’s bitter L’Histoire du Soldat, a WWI soldier makes a deal with the devil in order to know the future, but — after a rousing story animated by music — the cunning devil keeps the upper hand.
$36 – $93
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2 events,
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Curious to hear the stories behind the fantastic music being performed at the Colorado Music Festival? Eager to meet new Festival friends who share your love of music? Your concert […]
Free
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Music Director Peter Oundjian helms one of music’s grandest spectacles: Holst’s The Planets. From the hammering “Mars, the Bringer of War” to the ethereal “Neptune, the Mystic,” this seven-planet suite lures the heavens into Chautauqua Auditorium. Electrifying pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii performs Rachmaninoff’s dreamy Second Piano Concerto. This monumental program begins with the world premiere by Leigha Amick, a composer who aims “to spark intellectual curiosity and express human experience.”
$31 – $113
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2 events,
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Music Director Peter Oundjian helms one of music’s grandest spectacles: Holst’s The Planets. From the hammering “Mars, the Bringer of War” to the ethereal “Neptune, the Mystic,” this seven-planet suite lures the heavens into Chautauqua Auditorium. Electrifying pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii performs Rachmaninoff’s dreamy Second Piano Concerto. This monumental program begins with the world premiere by Leigha Amick, a composer who aims “to spark intellectual curiosity and express human experience.”
$31 – $113
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Immediately following the July 31 concert, you’re invited to a brief, interactive Q&A with Music Director Peter Oundjian and pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii in Chautauqua Auditorium. Free to ticketholders.
Free
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