Colorado Music Festival: New and Commissioned Works, Plus Classics

In Friday’s (6/23) Denver Gazette, Marc Shulgold writes, “Peter Oundjian glanced over the Colorado Music Festival’s 2023 lineup and reported with unconcealed glee, ‘Everybody I wanted to invite said “Yes.” ’ That pretty much sums up the music director’s enthusiasm for the annual summer event that opens June 29-30 in Boulder’s Chautauqua Auditorium. That’s when superstar violinist Joshua Bell will serve as soloist to launch a season of premieres and must-see concerts that have Oundjian positively bubbling with excitement…. Oundjian … was named music director of the Colorado Music Festival in 2019 and, additionally, principal conductor for the Colorado Symphony last year…. Oundjian pointed to the [Festival’s] July 16 premiere of ‘JFK: The Last Speech,’ a deeply personal work for soprano, speaker and orchestra blending the poetry of Robert Frost and President Kennedy’s inspiring words … The music was composed by Dr. Adolphus Hailstork, a music professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia. ‘His music is so beautiful,’ the conductor said, noting that this piece is one of three new works commissioned by the festival. ‘We’ve never supported that many in one year. But the board was right there with me (in underwriting contemporary music),’ he said.”