Colorado College welcomes students, faculty for 40th Summer Music Festival
Since 1984, Colorado College has brought together students and faculty from around the world to perform together.
Now, the Colorado College Summer Music Festival is celebrating its 40th season and running through June 21. The festival will host a series of concerts and will be honored by the Colorado Springs City Council with a special proclamation. The festival will also serve as the kickoff celebration of Colorado College’s 150th anniversary.
“We’re just really lucky, said Susan Grace, music director of the festival. “We have a wonderful fan base. We have a wonderful donor base. We have a college that is very supportive of our program and giving us a wonderful home on the campus and I can really feel the support.”
The festival features 52 student fellows, selected from a pool of nearly 400 applicants interested in coming to the college to study and perform during the three-week program. The students and faculty from around the country (and world) will perform throughout the festival in a variety of concerts.
The program is special in that it negates the competitive nature that is often part of collegiate music programs, Grace said, and instead encourages learning and collaboration among peers and faculty.
“We have an outstanding faculty who loves to teach, as well as perform, and we also take the competitive part of the festival out,” Grace said. “In doing this, the students are very supportive of each other and they learn so much more by being able just to concentrate on learning and the mentoring that they’re getting from the faculty — and the end product has been incredible.”
By the time the festival concludes, the new ensemble will have played two cohesive, full orchestral programs together. This year, special guest Scott Yoo will conduct the Summer Music Festival. Yoo is the host and executive producer of “Now Hear This” on PBS.
“Last year, our final orchestra concert was at a level of one of the major orchestras,” Grace said. “It’s so clear that they love performing together and love performing music that they are playing, and that enthusiasm and energy comes off the stage and to our audience, and our audiences are just always on their feet for the performances.”
