LIVE VIDEO
The College of Music is finalizing testing of new live webcasts, and we’d love you to join us for Faculty Tuesdays this fall! For a schedule and to view video, visit music.colorado.edu/live/
Join us in celebrating Daniel Sher
We hope you’ll join us for this week’s celebratory events!
Reprinted from the Daily Camera:
CU-Boulder College of Music’s Dan Sher to be honored in performance celebrations
Dean is stepping down at end of June after 20 years at the helm
By Brittany Anas Camera Staff Writer
Dan Sher — who has spent two decades on the University of Colorado’s campus, serving as dean of the College of Music — says his favorite place on campus is Grusin Music Hall on a Tuesday night when faculty members are performing.
It’s a close tie with the walk from the Imig music building to the historic Macky Auditorium on a snowy winter afternoon right before the college’s holiday festival program.
Those music school traditions link the college to the broader community — and, in fact, when Sher looks back on his career, that relationship is among his proudest achievements. Sher will be stepping down as dean at the end of June, and he will join the faculty.
“What makes me so happy is the wonderful relationship that our faculty and students have developed with our community audience,” Sher said. “It’s just grown and grown. To have them feel like they are a part of our concerts and value them the way they do is so important.”
To honor Sher, there will be two performances this week to celebrate the outgoing dean — including a free, public musical fete 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Macky Auditorium. Faculty performers will premiere performances of “Sher’s Originals,” penned by faculty composers.
In Denver, student musicians at the college will dedicate their Wednesday performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to the outgoing dean. The concert is at 7:30 p.m. in Boettcher Concert Hall and tickets are $15 for general admission.
“I can think of no music better suited for this than the monumental Ninth Symphony by Beethoven, which has been integral to many important events since its premier,” said Gary Lewis, director of orchestral studies and conductor for the Wednesday concert.
The program — which also includes Brahms’ “Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80″ — is “truly a celebration of Sher’s tenure as dean of the college,” Lewis said.
Sher, a pianist, first started taking lessons at age 5, but became focused on a music career after going away to a music camp while in high school.
“I think everyone here knows I’m just a sucker for the 19th century romantic music of Brahms and Schubert and Chopin,” Sher said. “But as an educator and a dean, I have just come to value and appreciate all of the things that we do here.”
Sher came to CU from Louisiana State University in 1993. During his time on the Boulder campus, the college has added programs in jazz studies and collaborative piano, as well as launching the Entrepreneurship Center for Music, which was the first of its kind in the United States.
The past three years in a row, CU has been cited by the Fiske Guide to Colleges as one of just 25 in the nation — among a total 1,200 music programs in higher education — for its excellence in music. It has been ranked in the top 20 among all college, university and conservatory music programs by U.S. News and World Reports.
“I think his legacy is he’s created a nationally prominent College of Music,” said CU Provost Russell Moore. “It was a fine school before he came, but he has taken it up the charts. What I think is really telling is the school has sustained its national reputation. It’s one thing getting there, but staying there is an accomplishment — especially in a challenging fiscal environment.”
Judith Glyde, chairwoman of the strings department, said Sher’s “interest and support of faculty is celebrated.”
“He’s a musician first,” she said. “He’s a real humanist. And, as an administrator he had a real passion for music.”
If you go
What: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, performed by CU College of Music symphony orchestra and choirs, conducted by Gary Lewis, dedicated to outgoing Dean Daniel P. Sher
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Boettcher Concert Hall, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 1400 Curtis St., Denver
Tickets: $15 general admission, $20 reserved
More info: cupresents.org or 303-492-8008
If you go
What: A CU College of Music faculty concert in honor of Dean Daniel P. Sher
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Macky Auditorium, CU campus
Tickets: Free and open to the public
VIDEO: 40th Parallel Wind Quintet
40th Parallel, the Graduate Woodwind Quintet at the CU-Boulder College of Music, performs during the Faculty Tuesday concert January 22, 2013.
Villa Lobos – Quintette en forme de choros (1928)
Leanne Hampton, flute; Abby Yeakle, oboe; Jacob Beeman, clarinet; Yahaira Nieves, bassoon; Katherine Smith, horn
CU International Guitar Festival & Competition
SoloDuo
For three days, from February 14th to 16th, 2013, the CU campus and the College of Music will open its doors to the guitar world. The CU Guitar Studio and the College of Music will present a unique, exciting and unprecedented event – The First CU International Guitar Festival & Competition.
Guitar Instructor Nicolò Spera and the CU Guitar Studio will be hosting prestigious guests, guitar lovers and students from all over the world. CU will become an agorà, a public space where students, teachers, performers – the entire community – can come together to share ideas and their love for the guitar.
Concerts, master classes, and an international competition: all of these events will expose our students and our community to a deeply ethical and meaningful way to relate to music making. The exciting presence of world-renowned artists such as Adam Levin, Matteo Mela, Lorenzo Micheli and Paco Peña will be extremely enriching and stimulating. Each artist will bring a different and varied treasure of musical and international experiences: students will learn how to collaborate with others, how to find their musical personality, and how to enlarge their cultural and human horizons – all in the endeavor to build their unique artistic path.
Most of the events (except Paco Pena February 14th) are free and open to the public. Please, join us for this first, special and unique guitar extravaganza at CU Boulder!
Visit the festival website for a schedule and more information.
Charles Wetherbee concerts
Charles Wetherbee
New Assistant Professor of Violin Charles Wetherbee will perform with his string quartet Carpe Diem on November 10. The program is entitled “American Routes” and takes place at the Chautauqua Community House, 8 PM, with featured guest, banjo soloist Jayme Stone.
On December 2, Professor Wetherbee makes his Boulder recital debut with David Korevaar, piano, as part of The Library Concert Series Presents: The Annual Ridi VanZandt Concert.
VIDEO: Artist Series 2012-13 Preview
CU Opera in “Brundibar”
CU Opera performers in "Brundibar" (Photo Copyright David Fellows, Boulder Jewish News 2012)
CU Opera provided the student vocalists for the lead roles in the Colorado Music Festival’s presentation of Hans Krasa’s “Brundibar” June 28-29, 2012. Jessi Goebel and Lukas Graf played the young heroes, Anniku and Pepicek, in search of milk for their ailing mother. Malcolm Ulbrick, as the villain Brundibar, received a chorus of boos from the audience each night; his character was clearly identified with Hitler, as a bully who kept families from living in peace together. Other CU students included Kenneth Donahue and Max Hosmer, and a trio of charming animals played by Chelsea Lewis (Sparrow), Adam Ewing (Dog), and Anna Englander (Cat). The performance also incorporated a children’s choir, made up of singers from local church and community ensembles. The children added a sweet, eager joy to the performances, and their voices evoked the original production, which was sung by children inthe Terezin concentration camp.
One of the original performers from that time, Ela Weissberger, is the sole living survivor of those productions and was a guest of the Colorado Music Festival for the week. She spoke of her experiences in the concentration camp in rehearsals and at performances. Her inspiring, touching story of survival was incredibly moving for the cast and for CMFaudiences. Stage director Leigh Holman said, ” I will be forever inspired by the story and the tremendous spirit of Ela Weissberger. The students at CU have told me that they were transformed by meeting her– I know I was.”
The small orchestra, led by conductor Michael Christie, filled the back half of the Chautauqua stage, while a simple set and staging put the vocalists and the story in the foreground. Holman said: “What a thrill it was to collaborate with the Colorado Music Festival on Krasa’s opera, Brundibar! The cast, the musicians and all the people behind the scenes pulling this together truly understood the magnitude of the piece we were putting forth.” The semi-staged performance was part of CMF’s Rediscovered Masters series, a series of performances celebrating Jewish composers and their music, with an emphasis on music composed before, during, and immediately after World War II. The music of many Jewish composers was suppressed during the Holocaust period, and a great deal of their work was subsequently forgotten. Music Director Michael Christie is committed to resurrecting these lost treasures and celebrating these artists’ rightful places in musical history.
Tesla Quartet Places at Multiple Competitions
The Tesla Quartet, graduate string quartet-in-residence at the CU College of Music, has earned the Gold Medal in the Senior Strings Division of the illustrious Fischoff Chamber Music competition. After several rounds of rigorous competition, the Tesla Quartet emerged with the gold medal in the senior strings division along with a $3,000 cash prize. In addition to the prize money, the Tesla Quartet will participate in a tour of the midwestern United States in October.
Also at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Tesla earned the Third Prize, which includes an appearance at the Menton Festival in southern France in the summer of 2013 or 2014. The quartet is proud to carry on the tradition of their mentors, the Takacs Quartet, who won the first ever London Competition some 33 years ago.
The CU College of Music is proud to congratulate Tesla Quartet members Ross Snyder (violin), Michelle Lie (violin), Megan Mason (viola) and Kimberly Patterson (cello) on these fine achievements!
VIDEO: Notable Voice Alum Ashraf Sewailam
Ashraf Sewailam (BM 94, MM 96, DMA 08) discusses his role in the Virginia Opera production of Aida and is seen performing Brahms’ Requiem as a featured soloist.
2012 CU New Opera Workshop Announced
David Mason and Lori Laitman (credit Christian Steiner)
The CU New Opera Workshop has just been announced for this summer and you’re invited to explore this year’s exciting offerings including Lori Laitman’s opera “Ludlow,” based on the verse novel by Colorado poet laureate David Mason about the deadly Colorado coal mining strike.
By the time an opera production hits the floorboards, composers and performers have spent years transforming theatrical ideas and music for the stage. The CU New Opera Workshop (CU NOW) gives you the rare opportunity to observe this process and share your suggestions with the composers. The interactive workshop-style performances feature acclaimed opera composers working with CU singers on new operas, on their way to professional world premieres. You’ll leave with exciting insights into the creative process when you experience opera from the ground up at CU NOW!
Click here for more information about CU NOW 2012 May 25-June 3, including a special Faculty/Alumni Recital and “Ludlow.”