By Jane Turnis

Fifty-four days of pure inspiration. That’s what you get — no matter which side of the stage curtain you’re on — during Colorado College’s Summer Festival of the Arts.

“There is an uncommonly charged, upbeat, optimistic, intense atmosphere at this festival that I have never experienced anywhere else,” says Scott Yoo, music director of the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra in New York. Yoo has joined the Summer Music Festival faculty yearly since 2002.

As the festival’s components — actually four different festivals and symposia grouped into the Summer Festival of the Arts — roll out through the summer, audiences and participants can partake of some of the very best chamber music, dance, new music, and vocal arts offered anywhere, led by a highly esteemed international faculty. Plan now to take in these wonderful concerts and performances.

Summer Music Festival, June 16-July 6

The Summer Music Festival is an intensive, three-week program for 38 advanced students on strings, winds, and piano. All students participate in a concert series including informal lunchtime and formal evening chamber music concerts, three chamber orchestra performances, and several off-campus community concerts. Festival Artists Concerts, an acclaimed series of chamber music performances by festival faculty, give students and audiences the opportunity to hear outstanding performances of the world’s great chamber music.

Extraordinary Dance! June 28-July 16

Extraordinary Dance! draws up to 60 full-time students who study technical form, range of motion, ballet, African, hip-hop, dance movement and therapy, and much more. In addition, the festival treats dance fans to outstanding faculty, alumni, and student performances, including the Dancers on the Edge shows featuring original work by professional dancer alumni, and the Gala Concert. Tickets for dance performances will be available beginning June 28 at the festival office, (719) 389-6098.

New Music Symposium, July 15-18

The New Music Symposium brings together
contemporary music composers for four days of collaboration, instruction, performance, and inspiration. Composers featured in the 2004 New Music Symposium will include Ofer Ben-Amots, George Crumb, Carlton Gamer, and other renowned contemporary composers.
In conjunction with the New Music Symposium, the Pikes Peak Young Composers Competition, July 16-18, draws youths ages 5-18 who work with symposium faculty and receive professional music evaluation, instruction, and the opportunity to perform their works in a special concert.

Vocal Arts Symposium, July 18-August 8

The Vocal Arts Symposium is a three-week training and performance program directed by internationally acclaimed operatic soprano Martile Rowland, with an array of distinguished faculty. Offered in collaboration with the Opera Theatre of the Rockies, it accepts 60 participants for private voice lessons, coaching, theatre arts classes and stage makeup classes, and master classes. Audiences can partake in a Faculty Follies and Benefit concert, a “Jazz Sundae” concert, and an overture/dinner/finale event, as well as several others.

For more information on classes, concerts, or performances, contact the Summer Programs office at (719) 389-6098, e-mail festival@ColoradoCollege.edu, or visit
www.ColoradoCollege.edu/SummerPrograms/ SummerFestivaloftheArts.

Mark your calendar now to visit CC this summer and be inspired!

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