For Immediate Release
Media contacts:
Jane Turnis
(719) 389-6138
JTurnis@ColoradoCollege.edu
Leslie Weddell
(719) 389-6038
Leslie.Weddell@ColoradoCollege.edu
UPDATE: Measha Brueggergosman and Margaret Fuller Simpson will not perform on June 15 and June 16 as scheduled; both are ill. Tony Arnold and Annamarie Zmolek will perform for the dress rehearsal and concert events instead. Photos of both are downloadable at www.ColoradoCollege.edu/News_Events/Photos.
SOPRANO MEASHA BRUEGGERGOSMAN, BEETHOVEN’S 9TH
KICK OFF FIRST ORCHESTRAL SERIES IN NEW ARTS CENTER
NOTE TO EDITORS: A high-resolution photo of Measha Brueggergosman is available here: http://www.coloradocollege.edu/news_events/photos
Who: The Festival Orchestra of the Colorado College Summer Music Festival; conductor Scott Yoo, sopranos Measha Brueggergosman and Margaret Fuller Simpson; mezzo soprano Shannon McGee; tenor Brian Stinar; bass Ashraf Sewailam and the Colorado Vocal Arts Ensemble
What: The first orchestral performances in the college’s new Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center featuring Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915”and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with a celebratory party immediately following
When: Monday, June 16 at 7:30 p.m. (open dress rehearsal on Sunday, June 15 at 7:30 p.m.)
Where: Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center, 825 N. Cascade Ave. on the Colorado College campus, Colorado Springs, Colo.
Tickets: $15 for June 16 (reserved seating and celebratory party) and $5 for June 15 (open seating); tickets available at all TicketsWest outlets by calling (866) 464-2626 toll free; or online at www.ticketswest.com.
Details: http://artsfestival.ColoradoCollege.edu/MusicFestival
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – May 21, 2008 – In what is being called an “essential move,” the Festival Orchestra has a new home for the Colorado College Summer Music Festival’s 24th season. At 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 15 and Monday, June 16, the public will hear the first orchestral performances offered in the new Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center, 825 N. Cascade Ave. on the Colorado College campus. The new $33.4 million interdisciplinary arts teaching and performance building was designed by renowned New Mexico architect Antoine Predock.
To mark the event, internationally renowned soprano Measha Brueggergosman will join the 
orchestra and conductor Scott Yoo for a performance of American composer Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915.” After the performance of this beloved setting of James Agee’s reflections of a time gone by, a more conventional celebratory work will be performed: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.
Thanks to a grant provided by Colorado College’s Cultural Attractions Fund, the already scheduled June 16 concert and party will be offered to the public at $15, which is $5 less than regular admission to Festival Orchestra concerts. The grant also will support a $5 admission to the June 15 dress rehearsal. “We’re delighted to make this exceptional artistic offering accessible to a large audience and at a very affordable price,” said Libby Rittenberg, Colorado College dean of summer programs.
“This is an essential move for us,” said Susan Grace, the music director of the festival. “Conductor Scott Yoo has created immense excitement and grown the quality of the Festival Orchestra in his six years at our festival. The glorious sound they produce and the increasing demand for seats will be far better served in the new 450-seat theater. We’re going to mark this event by inviting the entire audience to join us for a party in the new building right after the Monday night concert.”
The Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center is across the street from Packard Hall, the 
longtime home of the Summer Music Festival and where the five Festival Artist chamber music concerts will still reside. Festival Artist Concerts feature concertmasters and principal players from leading American orchestras and key faculty from the country’s leading music conservatories.
“This part of the festival has made our reputation,” Grace said. “We’ve been told that no other chamber music series in the country combines our outstanding quality, intimate setting and extraordinary audience response.”
The Festival Artist Concerts debut this year at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 11 with a concert featuring music by Gatti, Weber, Wilder and Saint Saëns.
The main theater in the Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center is equipped with a variable room acoustic system by Meyer Sound known as theConstellation. In its static state, there is little reverberation in the environment. For live classical music performance or any desired room acoustic, the necessary acoustical aura can be literally dialed with digitally controlled enhancements.
The technology “truly is state-of-the-art,” said Ed Logston, vice president of D.L. Adams Associates, consultant for the arts center’s acoustical design. “The intent was to augment the natural acoustics of the room while retaining the natural sound of the space so it doesn’t sound processed. This is coming at a time when colleges, universities and arts centers are finding it next to impossible to justify maintaining dedicated spaces for all their varied activities.”
The Festival Orchestra is an ensemble comprised of scholarship students who attend the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. Their performances regularly receive critical and audience acclaim. The appearance of Measha Brueggergosman will add an international flavor to the opening concert.
“I’m very excited to be coming to Colorado,” Brueggergosman said. “It's my first concert to kick off the summer season, and singing Barber's delicious ‘Knoxville: Summer of 1915’ is such a great way to usher in this beautiful season in a beautiful setting.”
The Canadian soprano’s career has hit full stride as she performs regularly in leading concert and opera halls in Europe and North America. She also has become an exclusive recording artist for Deutsche Grammaphon. Gramophone Magazine described her voice as “rich, dark – seems to shimmer on the breath … an instrument of endless fascination.”
For Beethoven’s 9th, Maestro Yoo will turn to the Colorado Vocal Arts Ensemble, a critically acclaimed Colorado Springs-based organization under the direction of Colorado College faculty member Deborah Jenkins Teske, for choral duties. A solo quartet consisting of superb singers all with regional connections – Margaret Fuller Simpson, soprano; Shannon McGee, mezzo soprano; Brian Stinar, tenor; and Ashraf Sewailam, bass – will perform Beethoven’s demanding vocal histrionics.
“We expect this to be a world-class performance,” said Grace. “We devised our roster of artists with just that in mind.”
Two more orchestral concerts during this year’s festival are scheduled to be performed in the Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center’s main theater: the concert at 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 22 features music by Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and Brahms with violin soloist Steven Copes; and the concert at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 1 features music by Ravel, Shostakovich and Walton with viola soloist Toby Appel. Both soloists are faculty artists at the festival. At Packard Hall, concerts begin on June 11 with the first Festival Artist Concert and also include free concerts offered by the festival’s students.
Tickets for Festival Artist Concerts are $25 each, and include reserved seats on Packard Hall's main level. Tickets for the June15 dress rehearsal of the Festival Orchestra’s Barber and Beethoven concert are $5 (open seating) and admission to the June 16 regular performance, which includes a celebratory party immediately following, are $15 (reserved seating); additional Festival Orchestra Concerts are $20 each and all include reserved seating. Tickets are available at TicketsWest outlets by calling (866) 464-2626, or online at www.ticketswest.com.
Complete information including festival artist bios: http://artsfestival.ColoradoCollege.edu/MusicFestival
About the Colorado College Summer Festival of the Arts
Colorado College’s Summer Festival of the Arts features four major festivals within it, as well as additional world-class film, theater, literary readings, comedy and art events throughout the summer. The Summer Music Festival, a teaching festival in which young musicians from around the world learn from and perform with professional musicians who also present their concert series, runs June 9-July 1. The Extraordinary Dance! Festival runs June 30-July 18, with dance education opportunities open to the public, and gala performances on July 12 and 13. The New Music Symposium, featuring contemporary composers and their music, runs July 10-July 12, with concerts each day, plus complementary Pikes Peak Young Composers concerts on June 6 and July 13. The Vocal Arts Symposium runs July 20-Aug. 8, with opera, jazz and musical theater performances. See http://artsfestival.coloradocollege.edu for details on all four major parts of the Summer Festival of the Arts. For details on the entire summer’s offerings, see www.ColoradoCollege.edu/News_Events.
About Colorado College
Colorado College is a nationally prominent, four-year liberal arts and sciences college that was founded in Colorado Springs in 1874. The college operates on the innovative Block Plan, in which its 1,945 students study one course at a time in intensive 3½-week blocks. For more information, visit www.ColoradoCollege.edu <http://www.ColoradoCollege.edu>.
