Boulder
Colorado
Colorado Music Festival 2025
Arts and Entertainment
June 12, 2025
From: Colorado Music FestivalJoin us for the Colorado Music Festival 2025!
Schedule of Events:
July 3, 2025
7:30pm - Hélène Grimaud
"[Hélène] Grimaud doesn't sound like most pianists," proclaims The New Yorker, also calling her "a reinventor of phrasings" and "taker of chances;" here she opens the 2025 Festival season with Brahms’ monumental First Piano Concerto. Surrounding Brahms’ intense work are familiar showstoppers: Ravel’s famously unrelenting Boléro, a dreamy suite from the ballet Daphnis et Chloé, and fantastic musical fireworks by Stravinsky.
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 6, 2025
7:30pm - Hélène Grimaud
"[Hélène] Grimaud doesn't sound like most pianists," proclaims The New Yorker, also calling her "a reinventor of phrasings" and "taker of chances;" here she opens the 2025 Festival season with Brahms’ monumental First Piano Concerto. Surrounding Brahms’ intense work are familiar showstoppers: Ravel’s famously unrelenting Boléro, a dreamy suite from the ballet Daphnis et Chloé, and fantastic musical fireworks by Stravinsky.
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
10:30am - Family Concert - Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Maestro
When the orchestra discovers their Maestro is nowhere to be found, they panic — until the world's greatest detective agrees to take the case! All the musicians are suspects, which means Sherlock Holmes must investigate each of the instrument families — brass, woodwinds, strings, and percussion — to deduce who is behind this mystery. Will Sherlock be able to solve the Case of the Missing Maestro? Bring the whole family to find out! New! We are pleased to offer this concert for free. Please consider a donation to provide the joy of music to more children and families in our community.
Free
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 8, 2025
7:30pm - Schubert, Prokofiev & Brahms
The 2025 Robert Mann Chamber Music Series opens with a program highlighting the Festival’s own musicians. Schubert left his String Trio in B Flat, D. 471 unfinished, but its single complete movement is a Classical jewel full of spontaneity. Prokofiev’s dizzying Quintet in G Minor was originally written as a ballet based on Parisian circus life and features aggressive and ever-changing rhythms. Brahms’ Third Piano Quartet is at times unsettled; an autobiographical work for Brahms, the music’s evolving moods reflect the composer’s own heartaches. Note: To create a more intimate experience, the number of seats available for chamber concerts is different than for our orchestral concerts. All price levels, including our lowest, are available in the main section of the auditorium.
$23 – $83
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 10, 2025
7:30pm - Brahms 1 + Joan Tower’s
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."
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 11, 2025
6:30pm - 8:00pm - Brahms 1 + Joan Tower’s
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."
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 12, 2025
6 pm - A Night of Elegance and Speakeasy Secrets
the Colorado Music Festival invites you to an unforgettable evening of 1920s-inspired glamour, intrigue, and timeless style. Our Gatsby-themed gala will transport you to a world of sophisticated charm, flapper festivities, and indulgent musical moments.
Be captivated by a special performance from the dynamic saxophonist Steven Banks, whose modern energy brings new life to classical music.
Tickets:
General Admission: $175
Table (seats 10): $1,750
Location: Boulder JCC, 6007 Oreg Avenue, Boulder
July 13, 2025
6:30 pm - An Evening of Mozart
The Philadelphia Inquirer calls violinist Benjamin Beilman "poised and monstrously talented;" Beilman takes the stage with Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto, best known for its final movement’s "Turkish" style. Guest conductor Chloé Van Soeterstède leads the Festival through this all-Mozart program, which also 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.
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 15, 2025
7:30pm - Brentano String Quartet
By popular demand, the Brentano String Quartet — Ensemble-in-Residence at the Yale School of Music — returns to the 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. Note: To create a more intimate experience, the number of seats available for chamber concerts is different than for our orchestral concerts. All price levels, including our lowest, are available in the main section of the auditorium.
$23 – $83
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 17, 2025
7:30 pm - Anne Akiko Meyers Plays Ravel
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.
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 18, 2025
6:30 pm - Anne Akiko Meyers Plays Ravel
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.
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 20, 2025
6:30pm - Tchaikovsky & Beethoven
Known for dominating international cello competitions, Hayoung Choi possesses a talent not to be missed; here Choi performs Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, an elegant staple of cello repertoire. Guest conductor Maurice Cohn returns to the Chautauqua stage to lead Beethoven’s classically-styled First Symphony, the symphonic debut that established the composer as the luminary we know him as today. The program opens with Respighi’s five playful attempts to transcribe the sounds of doves, cuckoos, nightingales, and more.
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 22, 2025
7:30pm - Mozart & Dvo?ák
The Robert Mann Chamber Music Series continues with a spotlight on the Festival’s own musicians. Mozart once considered his Quintet in E-Flat for Piano and Winds "the best work I have ever written;" its sense of spontaneity is beguiling. Dvo?ák’s Third String Quartet was one of his most successful compositions; like much of his most popular work, Op. 97 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. Note: To create a more intimate experience, the number of seats available for chamber concerts is different than for our orchestral concerts. All price levels, including our lowest, are available in the main section of the auditorium.
$23 – $83
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 24, 2025
7:30pm - Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3
Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto finds the composer moving toward his own personal style, displaying what would become his hallmark drama, spirit, and agitation; pianist Yeol Eum Son brings a "fearlessly fast articulation" (The Times) to the stage. Sofia Gubaidulina’s striking "Fairytale Poem" draws inspiration from a children’s story about creativity, and its music is fittingly full of color. Guest conductor Ryan Bancroft conducts this dynamic program, which also includes Shostakovich’s Tenth; written shortly after the Soviet dictator Stalin’s death, this symphony is rife with terror, passion, and oppression — until one final, hopeful ray of light.
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 25, 2025
6:30 pm - Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3
Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto finds the composer moving toward his own personal style, displaying what would become his hallmark drama, spirit, and agitation; pianist Yeol Eum Son brings a "fearlessly fast articulation" (The Times) to the stage. Sofia Gubaidulina’s striking "Fairytale Poem" draws inspiration from a children’s story about creativity, and its music is fittingly full of color. Guest conductor Ryan Bancroft conducts this dynamic program, which also includes Shostakovich’s Tenth; written shortly after the Soviet dictator Stalin’s death, this symphony is rife with terror, passion, and oppression — until one final, hopeful ray of light.
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 27, 2025
6:30 pm - Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez
Classical guitarist Xuefei Yang, known for her "feisty virtuosity, impeccable technique and sensitive musicianship" (New York Times), performs Rodrigo’s florid Concierto de Aranjuez; Rodrigo set out 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. Kodály’s beguiling Dances of Galánta, which adapts sprightly Hungarian folk tunes, makes an exuberant dance partner for Rodrigo’s Concierto. After intermission, Schubert breaks free of classical conventions with his light and airy Fifth Symphony.
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 29, 2025
7:30 pm - Dover Quartet
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. Dover’s program includes Janacek’s emotionally charged "Kreutzer Sonata," Schumann’s vigorous A-Minor Quartet, and finally Tchaikovsky’s noble First String Quartet. Note: To create a more intimate experience, the number of seats available for chamber concerts is different than for our orchestral concerts. All price levels, including our lowest, are available in the main section of the auditorium.
$23 – $83
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
July 31, 2025
7:30pm - Beethoven 9 + Michael Abels’ Amplify
Possibly the single most treasured symphony ever written — especially its beloved "Ode to Joy" — Beethoven’s influential Ninth Symphony celebrates brotherhood, forgiveness, and the quest for peace. Music Director Peter Oundjian conducts this masterwork, which also welcomes to the Festival stage soprano Lauren Snouffer, mezzo-soprano Abigail Nims, tenor Issachah Savage, bass Benjamin Taylor, and St. Martin’s Chamber Choir. Composer Michael Abels’ Amplify, co-commissioned by the Festival, opens the program; on top of his Pulitzer Prize-winning compositions for opera, audiences may recognize Abels’ work from film scores such as Get Out, Us, Chevalier, and more.
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
August 1, 2025
6:30pm - Beethoven 9 + Michael Abels’ Amplify
Possibly the single most treasured symphony ever written — especially its beloved "Ode to Joy" — Beethoven’s influential Ninth Symphony celebrates brotherhood, forgiveness, and the quest for peace. Music Director Peter Oundjian conducts this masterwork, which also welcomes to the Festival stage soprano Lauren Snouffer, mezzo-soprano Abigail Nims, tenor Issachah Savage, bass Benjamin Taylor, and St. Martin’s Chamber Choir. Composer Michael Abels’ Amplify, co-commissioned by the Festival, opens the program; on top of his Pulitzer Prize-winning compositions for opera, audiences may recognize Abels’ work from film scores such as Get Out, Us, Chevalier, and more.
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
August 3, 2025
6:30pm - Mahler 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.
$23 – $100.50
Location: Chautauqua Auditorium
Date: July 3, 2025 - August 3, 2025
Location:
Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road Boulder, CO 80302
Boulder Jewish Community Center, 6007 Oreg Avenue Boulder, CO 80303