Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center to host Colorado College Summer Music Festival Orchestra’s June 15 dress rehearsal and June 16 concert with specially priced admission

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.

“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 the Constellation. 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.

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 include reserved seats on Packard Hall's main level. Tickets are now on sale to the general public, and will be available at TicketsWest outlets by calling (866) 464-2626, or online at www.ticketswest.com.