At Colorado Symphony, Mozart Meets Modern

In Monday’s (1/15) Denver Post, Ray Mark Rinaldi writes, “Orchestras, opera companies, universities and foundations are constantly commissioning new music by living composers…. This practice … keeps classical current, and relevant, and it expands the repertory…. It also allows the genre to diversify itself. Classical gets ribbed for being all about ‘dead white guys,’ but the truth is, the industry is working hard to support art by new and talented writers from different cultural backgrounds and multiple musical influences…. That is much of the reasoning behind the Colorado Symphony’s ‘Mozart & Now’ program, set to be performed Jan. 26-28 at Boettcher Concert Hall. The lineup for the weekend of concerts is mainly Mozart … but Colorado Symphony principal conductor Peter Oundjian has mixed that with pieces by more recent names. As Oundjian sees it, present-day audiences are not opposed to new work; in fact, they can be quite curious…. The move will support a few composers whose reputations are at varying stages while giving audiences just the right amount of the unfamiliar. The programs include work by living composers Valerie Coleman and Carlos Simon, as well as Christopher Rouse, who died in 2019.”