Program - Ben Folds in Actual Person Live for Real Tour

2021/22 SEASON PRESENTING SPONSOR:

SPOTLIGHT 2021/22

BEN FOLDS IN ACTUAL PERSON LIVE FOR REAL TOUR WITH YOUR COLORADO SYMPHONY CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor Saturday, April 23, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.

Boettcher Concert Hall

Program to be announced from stage.

CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR AND 30 MINUTES WITH A 20 MINUTE INTERMISSION.

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FIRST TIME TO THE SYMPHONY? SEE PAGE 7 OF THIS PROGRAM FOR FAQ’S TO MAKE YOUR EXPERIENCE GREAT! Tonight's concert is dedicated to Liberty Global PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY SOUNDINGS

2021/22

PROGRAM I

SPOTLIGHT BIOGRAPHIES BEN FOLDS, vocalist, pianist Ben Folds is widely regarded as one of the major music influencers of our generation.

He’s created an enormous body of genre-bending music that includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, and numerous collaborative records. His last album was a blend of pop songs and his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra that soared to #1 on both the Billboard classical and classical crossover charts.

For over a decade he’s performed with some of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras, and currently serves as the first ever Artistic Advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center.

In addition to solo rock and orchestral touring, Folds released his first book -- a collection of interrelated essays, anecdotes and lessons about art, life and music -- in 2019, which debuted as a New York Times Best Seller, and is currently hosting a podcast series spinoff of his book entitled “Lightning Bugs: Conversations with Ben Folds.”

Folds, who was on tour in Australia when the pandemic hit in early 2020, has been doing some live shows in Australia, as well as live and taped virtual streams, and is preparing to work on a TV series and possibly do some solo piano and orchestral tour dates upon his scheduled return to the US later this year.

An avid photographer, Folds is also a member of the prestigious Sony Artisans of Imagery, has worked as an assignment photo editor for National Geographic, and was featured in a minidocumentary by the Kennedy Center’s Digital Project on his photographic work.

An outspoken champion for arts education and music therapy funding in our nation’s public schools, has served for over five years as an active member of the distinguished Artist Committee of Americans For The Arts (AFTA), and serves on the Board of AFTA’s Arts Action Fund. He also served as Chairman of the Arts Action Fund’s ArtsVote2020 national initiative that encouraged voter engagement in the 2020 US elections, and continually advocates for improving public policies for the arts and arts education.

PROGRAM II

C O LO R A D O S Y M P H O N Y.O R G

SPOTLIGHT BIOGRAPHIES CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor Australian conductor Christopher Dragon is the Music Director of the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra and Resident Conductor of the Colorado Symphony. He joined the Colorado Symphony in the 2015/2016 Season as Associate Conductor – a position he held for four years. For three years prior, Dragon held the position of Assistant Conductor with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, which gave him the opportunity to work closely with Principal Conductor Asher Fisch.

Dragon works regularly in Australia and has guest conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. His 2015/16 debut performance at the Sydney Opera House with John Pyke and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was released on album by ABC Music and won an ARIA the following year. Dragon’s international guest conducting includes Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre, Omaha Symphony, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

He has also conducted at numerous festivals including the Breckenridge and Bangalow Music Festivals, with both resulting in immediate re-invitations. At the beginning of 2016, Dragon conducted Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony as part of the Perth International Art Festival alongside Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Dragon began his conducting studies in 2011 and was a member of the prestigious Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program in Australia under the guidance of course director Christopher Seaman. He has also studied with numerous distinguished conductors including Leonid Grin, Paavo and Neeme Jarvi at the Jarvi Summer Festival, Fabio Luisi at the Pacific Music Festival and conducting pedagogue Jorma Panula.

SOUNDINGS

2021/22

PROGRAM III