By Marc Shulgold “We live in unusual times,” Tom Morgan observed, quietly stating the obvious. As the founder and longtime music director of the Ars Nova Singers, the 59-year-old conductor has spent much of the past year keeping his group together while nimbly navigating through the ups and (mostly) downs of the Covid-19 pandemic. Glad […]

A preview by Marc Shulgold Cynthia Katsarelis acknowledges that the title of her orchestra’s season-opening concert offers a unifying, uplifting theme: “Rainbow Strings! A Concert of Hope.” But then she offers a caution. “This is not a social statement program.” Maybe, maybe not. Once it become apparent, there’s no ignoring the music’s subtext when her […]

By Betsy Schwarm In troubled times, music can be the perfect balm:  soothing the soul and heartening one for the future.  Alas that, for the past year and a half, live music experiences have been all too rare, for performers and audiences alike, though encouraging developments await!  The new season for the Denver area’s St. […]

Reprinted from The Denver Post by Lisa Kennedy By LISA KENNEDY |  lkennedywriter@gmail.com | The Denver PostPUBLISHED: August 12, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: August 12, 2021 at 7:41 a.m.0 It seems so obvious in retrospect, the pairing of a talented Denver-based rapper with an ace local theater company on an original production. But then, that’s how the best no-brainers […]

Review by Elyn Joy Few would deny the strangeness of this past year. Through it, we’ve come to know well the feeling of isolation. We’ve learned how to reconcile the hidden, sequestered parts of ourselves with the human need for expression and connection—even if through the grate of Zoom-land. Likewise, some of the most gifted musicians of the Baroque era found themselves quarantined from the spotlit musical world (for other reasons, but still). Yet at the Colorado […]

A preview by Marc Shulgold There were no Baroque-trumpet fanfares when musical life resumed in May 2021 for the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado (BCOC). A socially distanced audience in the Lakewood Cultural Center cheered the onstage arrival of musicians for the first concert  in – well, it seemed like forever. Perhaps aware of the […]

At Westminster’s historic Shoenberg Farm, a play that’s part ghost story, part time travel Reprinted from the Denver Post Review by Lisa Kennedy, Special to The Denver Post Jun 10, 2021 If you go to see “Land of Milk and Honey,” you will be wandering around the barn of the historic Shoenberg Farm in Westminster when two actors […]

A preview by Betsy Schwarm, Frank Nowell and Susan Andre In its Intercambio series, Baroque Chamber Orchestra is featuring a treasure trove of Baroque and post-Baroque music from Latin America. This summer, listeners can enjoy a virtual Night in a Peruvian Salon, https://vimeo.com/559785371 the most recent concert in the series, which is now streaming on […]

Musicians Flee the Arapahoe Philharmonic on a Sour Note JASMINE LIU| JUNE 2, 2021 | 6:55AM Devin Patrick Hughes conducts the Arapahoe Philharmonic. Millie Patterson was part of the Arapahoe Philharmonic for 67 years. She enjoyed playing the viola, making music, and seeing her friends at practices and performances. Over the decades, the orchestra became such a major part of […]

A review by Gwen Gray, with photos by Heather Gray/Gray Area Dance Over the years, 3rd Law Dance/Theater has become known for navigating on-stage obstacles. They’ve glided across a stage filled with bouncing ping-pong balls, held handstands atop typewriters, and woven themselves in and out of a collection of cardboard boxes and towers of metal cubes. But those were self-imposed creative challenges.  This year, 3rd Law, like virtually all performing arts groups, had to face the impossibilities imposed upon them by the pandemic. Yet in characteristic […]