The Scen3

Preview article by Betsy Schwarm The greatest music is timeless, still speaking to us generations later.  The best of current music acknowledges that timelessness, while also bringing something new to the mix.  Past and present can still co-exist:  in Pro Musica Colorado’s upcoming January 28 concert, it’s Mozart, Haydn, and Caroline Shaw. The last of […]

A preview by Betsy Schwarm Theoretically, to be the ‘apotheosis of the dance,’ dancers should be involved.  Not in this case!  It’s an all-instrumental concert to be presented November 19 in Boulder by Pro Musica Colorado.  However, when the program includes Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7, which Richard Wagner famously described as the “apotheosis of the […]

Given the events and moods of the past two years, all of us could benefit from some healing.  In its Boulder County concerts of February 4 and 5, the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra provided exactly that:  not merely healing, but also gracefully executed performances that soothed the soul. On the podium was conductor/music director Cynthia […]

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 […]

A review by Marc Shulgold Cynthia Katsarelis could barely contain her joy, as she began the concert by her Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra on Saturday. “We are so, so excited to be playing music together,” she told the small crowd gathered in Broomfield Auditorium. Half her face was concealed by a Covid mask, yet […]

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 […]

Review by Betsy Schwarm The concerts offered this first weekend of December by the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra bore the heading “Holiday Moods.”  Admittedly, in this particular year, holiday moods are not quite what they have usually been.  However, if one needed some reassurance that there is still joy to be found, Pro Musica’s programs […]

A preview by Betsy Schwarm Few will have missed the TV reference in the title of this article.  In this case, though, the idea came from comments by Cynthia Katsarelis, music director of the Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra, who asserts that the ensemble “has a mission to ‘boldly go’ where no orchestra has gone […]

A review by Marc Shulgold  On January 13, 2012, the massive cruise ship Costa Condordia was ripped open by an undersea rock off of Isola del Giglio on Italy’s Tuscan coast. Most of the 4,200 passengers and crew were rescued, but 32 did not survive. Among the dead was a Hungarian violinist named Sándor Fehér, […]

A preview by Robin McNeil Scen3 Fall 2014 Instrumental Music Roundup This coming concert season is going to be very exciting because it contains some rarely heard music, music that we know, and music which is so important in all of music literature, that you simply must go hear it. Some of the organizations listed […]