Reflections Blog

Music in the Mountains

On July 11, music returns to Durango, Colorado, and the beautiful San Juan Mountains in the southwestern part of our state as the 25th anniversary season of Music in the Mountains gets underway. 

Each year, we commission a special work of art to represent the spirit of music in the mountains.  Traditionally, the featured art is a painting, but this year it is an original sculpture by New Mexico artist Joe Cajero, called The Koshare and his Music in the Mountains.  “I thought a Koshare would be the perfect representative for the Festival,” Cajero said, “dressed appropriately for the occasion with a bowtie.  I wanted to create an expression on his face that conveyed a feeling of love of music.  For the butterfly and the music stand, I chose to place designs that reflect images of prayer, meditation, and oneness with nature.”

This captivating work of art will be auctioned at our Pops Night benefit dinner and concert on July 20 at the festival tent at the Durango Mountain Resort.

During the first week of our three-week-long festival, we will have performances by the Philadelphia Boys Choir and New York’s famed Latin jazz ensemble, The Mambo Kings, as well as chamber concerts by our Conservatory faculty and members of the festival orchestra.  The chamber concerts will include works by Mozart, Ravel, Schoenfield, Piazzolla, Farberman, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn.  Our featured artists will be Guillermo Figueroa (who is also the festival’s music director and conductor), Arkady Fomin (our Conservatory artistic director), cellist Jesus Castro-Balbi, and pianist David Korevaar.

The second week features performances by the young artists in our Conservatory, our Pops Night benefit dinner and concert (led by the incomparable Carl Topilow and featuring renowned pianist Aviram Reichert playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue), a chamber concert at St. Columba Church led by world-class Russian violinist Philippe Quint, and a special appearance by Britain’s famed group Stringfever, which bills itself as the world’s first genetically modified string quartet.  Among their most popular works are The History of Music in Five Minutes and Ravel’s Bolero, which all four musicians perform on one cello simultaneously. 

During the final week of the festival, we have orchestra concert performances that include Dvorak’s Carnival Overture, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D, Haydn’s Piano Trio in C, Schulhoff’s Duo for Violin and Cello, Brahms’ Piano Trio in B, Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 5, Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody.  One of our featured soloists this week is Vadim Gluzman, who is considered one of the finest violinists in the world.  He combines superb technique and sensibility with extraordinary passion.

For more information on Music in the Mountains, see www.MusicintheMountains.com.

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