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A preview by Betsy Schwarm Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men – and musicians!  Invite a French-based string ensemble to Denver for a concert in 2020 with the Colorado Chamber Players:  COVID intervenes.  Reschedule the program for the spring of 2024:  one of the Colorado-based performers suffers a hand injury and won’t be […]

Preview article by Betsy Schwarm          Spheres of Influence:  that might suggest influences we experience as individuals or groups, though also influences we exert as individuals or groups upon others.  In the case of the Colorado Chamber Players’ launch of its 30th anniversary season on September 8, 9 and 10, it is perhaps both.  When a […]

Preview by Betsy Schwarm Spoken words, stage action, live music, an engaging story of an imaginative child and her personal superhero:  what more could one desire of a theatrical experience, especially one for the entire family? It’s playwright Josh Hartwell‘s new work, Music of Flight: The Falcon. Hartwell attests that the musical element came first.  […]

by Anne Di Candido Griffin, reprinted with kind permission from January “Andiamo” magazine Simone Spadino Pippa, a twenty-two-year-old concert violinist from Potenza, Italy will never forget the Pandemic of 2020. In April 2019, a Potenza friend contacted me about a young musician and family friend. She explained that Simone would be a soloist for a […]

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 […]

Given the theme ‘Music of Springtime:’ many ensembles would choose Vivaldi.  Not the Colorado Chamber Players! Given the additional presence of ‘Wild Things,’ is there perhaps also The Rite of Spring?  Not in a chamber music concert, though the CCP did invite bassoonist Josh Baker to remind listeners of that infamous ballet’s opening theme.  In […]

A preview by Betsy Schwarm, January 13, 2021 It is at times like those of the past ten months that the performing arts can mean the most.  Not only is it a chance to gather together in a shared artistic experience, it is also a reminder of the marvelous things that mankind can create, especially […]

January 4, 2021 A preview by Betsy Schwarm                    Imagine a sandwich cookie with cream filling.  Now set aside that vision of Oreos and instead think of Parisian macarons:  lighter, brighter, and infinitely more elegant than Oreos.  It’s the Parisian cookie, rather than the American one, which best suits the Colorado Chamber Players online recital of […]

A Preview by Betsy Schwarm Spoiler alert:  Beethoven was deaf!  Of course, anyone reading this article already knew that, and likely also knew that 2020 will bring the 250th anniversary of the master composer’s birth.  However, it is both facts, not just the latter, that inspired an upcoming multi-disciplinary performance of a newly commissioned play […]

A preview by Betsy Schwarm Interdisciplinary arts:  certainly some of the most powerful and compelling performing arts experiences are exactly that.  Whether it’s opera, combining voices and instruments with sets, props, costumes, and story-telling, or an orchestra providing live performance of the soundtrack to a beloved film, in both cases, it’s entertainment that draws upon […]