These can’t-miss concerts bring together two Festival favorites: lauded composer Joan Tower, whose concerto A New Day premiered at the Festival to rave reviews, and saxophonist Steven Banks, who stunned audiences in 2021. Now these powerhouses unite to give the world premiere of Tower’s saxophone concerto Love Returns under the baton of Music Director Peter Oundjian. After intermission, the Festival Orchestra performs Brahms’ brilliant First Symphony, which helped the composer step out of Beethoven’s shadow; critic Eduard Hanslick claimed that “...even the layman will immediately recognize it as one of the most distinctive and magnificent works of the symphonic literature.”

These can’t-miss concerts bring together two Festival favorites: lauded composer Joan Tower, whose concerto A New Day premiered at the Festival to rave reviews, and saxophonist Steven Banks, who stunned audiences in 2021. Now these powerhouses unite to give the world premiere of Tower’s saxophone concerto Love Returns under the baton of Music Director Peter Oundjian. After intermission, the Festival Orchestra performs Brahms’ brilliant First Symphony, which helped the composer step out of Beethoven’s shadow; critic Eduard Hanslick claimed that “...even the layman will immediately recognize it as one of the most distinctive and magnificent works of the symphonic literature.”

There is something for everyone in these energetic concerts! Be among the first to hear a new showpiece for violin, The Pacific Has No Memory, composed by Eric Whitacre and commissioned by Latin Grammy-winning violinist Anne Akiko Meyers. Meyers, “the coolest thing to happen to the violin since Stradivari” (Denver Post), also performs Ravel’s fiery Tzigane. Music Director Peter Oundjian opens the program with Copland’s idyllic tribute to the American heartland, Appalachian Spring, and concludes with one of the most recognizable pieces of music ever written: the achingly romantic Fantasy-Overture to Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet.

There is something for everyone in these energetic concerts! Be among the first to hear a new showpiece for violin, The Pacific Has No Memory, composed by Eric Whitacre and commissioned by Latin Grammy-winning violinist Anne Akiko Meyers. Meyers, “the coolest thing to happen to the violin since Stradivari” (Denver Post), also performs Ravel’s fiery Tzigane. Music Director Peter Oundjian opens the program with Copland’s idyllic tribute to the American heartland, Appalachian Spring, and concludes with one of the most recognizable pieces of music ever written: the achingly romantic Fantasy-Overture to Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet.