2021/22 SEASON PRESENTING SPONSOR:
HOLIDAY 2021/22 A COLORADO CHRISTMAS
TAYLOR MARTIN, conductor DEVIN DESANTIS, vocalist COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS, DUAIN WOLFE, director COLORADO CHILDREN’S CHORALE, EMILY CRILE, artistic director Friday, December 10, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, December 11, 2021, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, December 11, 2021, at 6:00 p.m. Sunday, December 12, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. Boettcher Concert Hall
Arr. Samuel Lancaster
O Come All Ye Faithful
Arr. Vaughan Williams
Wassail Song
Morten Lauridsen
O Magnum Mysterium
Gary Fry
Snow at Christmas
Arr. Adam Waite
Go! Tell It on the Mountain
Steven Amundson
Angels' Dance
Arr. Gary Fry
Joy!
Gary Fry
Christmas Morning — INTERMISSION —
PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY SOUNDINGS
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PROGRAM I
HOLIDAY 2021/22 Arr. John Kuzma
Need A Little Christmas
Leroy Anderson
Sleigh Ride
Gary Fry
The Day After Christmas
John Kuzma
I Want the Star
Madi Bishop, Saniyah Brooks, Bianca Curtiss-Schmidt, Brian Erickson, Clara Frey
Steven Amundson
On Christmas Day
Samuel Lancaster
Christmas in Colorado
Gary Fry
The Twelfth Elf
Arr. John Kuzma
Christmas Sing Along
Lee Hoiby
A Christmas Carol
Gary Fry
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
Special appearance by Brad and Susie Bolton
CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR AND 35 MINUTES WITH A 20 MINUTE INTERMISSION
FIRST TIME TO THE SYMPHONY? SEE PAGE 7 OF THIS PROGRAM FOR FAQ’S TO MAKE YOUR EXPERIENCE GREAT!
PROGRAM II
C O L O R A D O SY M P H O N Y.O R G
HOLIDAY BIOGRAPHIES TAYLOR MARTIN, conductor Taylor Martin is an emerging conductor and sought-after educator in the greater Denver area who has served as Assistant Conductor of the Colorado Symphony Chorus since 2017. He made his Colorado Symphony debut conducting Handel’s Messiah in 2019 and in 2020 he conducted the Colorado Symphony’s Virtual Colorado Christmas. For the Colorado Symphony, Taylor has prepared the chorus for The Flaming Lips, Video Games Live, Zelda Symphony of the Goddess, and the Music of Danny Elfman. He also prepared and conducted the recent Red Rocks Amphitheater performance by Opiuo with ELUS Vocal Ensemble. Since 2016 Taylor has served as the Artistic Director of this innovative chamber choir. His passion for creative and thoughtprovoking programming has led the ensemble to considerable acclaim for their immersive presentations of repertoire ranging from great orchestral masterworks to new, imaginative works for unaccompanied choir. Taylor has worked with Duain Wolfe on major choral-orchestral masterpieces and operas, not only with the Colorado Symphony, but also with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra.
DEVIN DeSANTIS, vocalist Devin DeSantis is so happy to be back hosting A Colorado Christmas for the 5th consecutive year. He grew up in Arvada, Colorado as a proud member of the Colorado Children’s Chorale, and started his solo career with the Colorado Symphony at the age of 11 in Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, conducted by Marin Alsop, right here on the Boettcher stage. He now lives and works as a performing artist in Chicago. Favorite professional credits include: Charlie Price in Kinky Boots, Tommy in The Who’s Tommy (Jeff Award Nomination Best Actor), Marius in Les Miserables (Jeff Award Nomination Best Supporting Actor), Prince Eric in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Corny Collins in Hairspray, Britt Craig/Young Soldier in Parade, Dr. Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein, Frederick in Pirates of Penzance, Nanki-Poo in Hot Mikado, Buddy in the first regional postbroadway production of Side Show, Frank Churchill in Emma, Matthew in Altar Boyz Chicago, Anyone Can Whistle starring Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald, and The Most Happy Fella starring George Hearn. He was a singer for 4 years in The Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring The Rockettes at the world-renowned Radio City Music Hall. He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Music, and a proud member of Actor’s Equity. He is a lead singer with the Bluewater Kings Band in Chicago, a member of the Four C Notes: a Tribute to Franki Valli and the Four Seasons, and an adoption consultant with RG Adoption Consultants—helping people all over the country grow their families through adoption. Happy Holidays and welcome back to the world of live performance. Have courage and be kind.
SOUNDINGS
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PROGRAM III
HOLIDAY BIOGRAPHIES DUAIN WOLFE, director, Colorado Symphony Chorus Three-time Grammy® winner for Best Choral Performance, Best Classical Recording, and Best Opera Performance, Duain Wolfe is Founder and Director of the Colorado Symphony Chorus and Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. This year marks Wolfe’s 37th season with the Colorado Symphony Chorus. The Chorus has been featured at the Aspen Music Festival for over two decades. Wolfe, who is in his 28th season with the Chicago Symphony Chorus has collaborated with Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, and Sir George Solti on numerous recordings including Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, which won the 1998 Grammy® for Best Opera Recording. Wolfe’s extensive musical accomplishments have resulted in numerous awards, including the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Denver, the Bonfils Stanton Award in the Arts and Humanities, the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in an Artistic Discipline, and the Michael Korn Award for the Development of the Professional Choral Art. Wolfe is Founder of the Colorado Children’s Chorale, from which he retired in 1999 after 25 years. For 20 years, Wolfe also worked with the Central City Opera Festival as chorus director and conductor, founding and directing the company’s young artist residence program, as well as its education and outreach programs. Wolfe’s other accomplishments include directing and preparing choruses for Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, the Bravo! Vail Festival, the Berkshire Choral Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Grand Teton Music Festival. He has worked with Pinchas Zuckerman and Alexander Shelly as Chorus Director for the Canadian National Arts Centre Orchestra for the past 20 years.
MARY LOUISE BURKE, creative director for A Colorado Christmas, associate director, Colorado Symphony Chorus Mary Louise Burke is in her 28th season as Associate Director of the Colorado Symphony Chorus. In addition to assisting Chorus Director Duain Wolfe, she also prepares the chorus for various Colorado Symphony pops concerts and special projects. She was the Associate Director of the Colorado Children’s Chorale, participating in hundreds of concerts and dozens of the Chorale’s regional, national and international tours. She is now Vocal Director of the Children’s Chorale, where she provides specialized vocal coaching and opera preparation. With an expertise in vocal technique, Burke frequently conducts seminars in vocal and choral techniques for area church and community choirs. She is the Vocal Advisor at Montview Presbyterian Church and has taught classes in Find Your Authentic Voice at the University of Denver. She has a Doctorate in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Colorado.
PROGRAM IV
C O L O R A D O SY M P H O N Y.O R G
HOLIDAY BIOGRAPHIES JOHN KUZMA, composer, in memoriam We remember John Kuzma with great respect, admiration, and affection. He passed peacefully in August after a fifteen-year struggle with Parkinson’s Disease. John brought much of his creative energies to the Colorado Symphony with many special compositions and arrangements for our Christmas concerts and other special concerts – concerts that he made more special with his skill and ingenious approach to concert presentations. John was Music Director of Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church for over a quarter of a century. In high school, he studied at the prestigious Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and then won a scholarship to study at the Eastman School of Music where he earned his Bachelor of Music Degree in 1968. After a year’s study in Copenhagen on a Fulbright Scholarship, he earned his Master of Music at the University of Illinois in 1971. He held positions as music director of numerous orchestras, the Crystal Cathedral, the American Boychoir, and ultimately Montview Church. John brought his profound knowledge of classical Greek and Latin to his musical work and frequently made this the core of his creative world. We applaud and thank John for his extraordinary gifts to the Colorado Symphony, and we salute him with all of the honors he so richly deserves.
COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS The 2021-2022 Colorado Symphony concert season marks the 38th season of the Colorado Symphony Chorus. Founded in 1984 by Duain Wolfe at the request of Gaetano Delogu, then the Music Director of the Symphony, the chorus has grown into a nationally respected ensemble. This outstanding chorus of volunteers joins the Colorado Symphony for numerous performances each year, to repeated critical acclaim. The Chorus has performed at noted music festivals in the Rocky Mountain region, including the Colorado Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, where it has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony, under conductors Alan Gilbert, Hans Graf, Jaap van Zweden, and Yannick NézetSéguin. For over two decades, the Chorus has been featured at the world-renowned Aspen Music Festival, performing many great masterworks under the baton of conductors Lawrence Foster, James Levine, Murry Sidlin, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, and Robert Spano. Among the eight recordings the CSO Chorus has made is a NAXOS release of Roy Harris’s Symphony No. 4. The Chorus is also featured on a Hyperion release of the Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem and Stephen Hough’s Missa Mirabilis. Most recently, the Colorado Symphony and Chorus released a world-premiere recording of William Hill’s The Raven. In 2009, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the chorus, Duain Wolfe conducted the chorus on a three-country, two-week concert tour of Europe, presenting the Verdi Requiem in Budapest, Vienna, Litomysl and Prague; and in 2016 the chorus returned to Europe for concerts in Paris, Strasbourg and Munich featuring the Fauré Requiem. The summer of 2022 will see the return of the Chorus to Europe to open the famed Salzburg Music Festival with Bruckner’s majestic Te Deum.
SOUNDINGS
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PROGRAM V
HOLIDAY BIOGRAPHIES COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS Duain Wolfe, Founding Director and Conductor Mary Louise Burke, Associate Director Taylor Martin, Assistant Conductors Brian Dukeshier, Hsiao-Ling Lin, ShaoChun Tsai, Yukino Miyake, pianists Eric Israelson, Barbara Porter, Chorus Managers
SOPRANO I Black, Kimberly Brown, Jamie Causey, Denelda Coberly, Sarah Collins, Suzanne Dobreff, Mary Gile, Jenifer Gill, Lori Graber, Susan Hedrick, Elizabeth Heintzkill, Mary-Therese Hittle, Erin Hupp, Angela Jones, Kaitlyn Jordan, Cameron Knecht, Melanie Look, Cathy Machusko, Rebecca Maupin, Anne Moraskie, Wendy Porter, Barbara Sladovnik, Roberta Stegink, Nicole Wuertz, Karen SOPRANO II Ascani, Lori Blum, Jude Brauchli, Margot Coberly, Ruth Collums, Angie Cote, Kerry Dakkouri, Claudia Ewert, Gracie Galante, Leontine Headrick, Alaina Kermgard, Lindsey Kraft, Lisa Kushnir, Marina Lang, Leanne Linder, Dana
PROGRAM VI
Montigne, Erin Nyholm, Christine O’Nan, Jeannette Perry, Lorena Pflug, Kim Rae, Donneve Roth, Sarah Tate, Judy Timme, Sydney Von Roedern, Susan Walker, Marcia Woodrow, Sandy Zisler, Joan
ALTO II Chatfield, Cass Cox, Martha Deck, Barbara Golden, Daniela Haxton, Sheri Jackson, Brandy Janasko, Ellen LeBaron, Andrea London, Carole Maltzahn, Joanna Müller, Abigail Worthington, Evin
ALTO I Adams, Priscilla Braud-Kern, Charlotte Conrad, Jayne Darone, Janie Fairchild, Raleigh Friedman, Anna Gayley, Sharon Groom, Gabriella Guittar, Pat Haller, Emily Holst, Melissa Hoopes, Kaia Kim, Annette Kolstad, Annie Long, Tinsley Major, Alice McNulty, Emily McWaters, Susan Nordenholz, Kristen Rudolph, Kathi Short, Chloe Stevenson, Melanie Thaler, Deanna Thayer, Mary Tiggelaar, Clara Trubetskoy, Kimberly Virtue, Pat
TENOR I DeMarco, James Dougan, Dustin Gordon, Jr., Frank Guittar, Jr., Forrest Hodel, David Jordan, Curt Moraskie, Richard Mosser, Shane Muesing, Garvis Nicholas, Timothy Rehberg, Dallas Roach, Eugene Thompson, Hannis Zimmerman, Kenneth TENOR II Babcock, Gary Carlson, James Davies, Dusty Dinkel, Jack Fuehrer, Roger Gale, John Ibrahim, Sami Johnson, Trey Kolm, Kenneth Lively, Mark Milligan, Tom
C O L O R A D O SY M P H O N Y.O R G
Richardson, Tyler Ruth, Ronald Seamans, Andrew Sims, Jerry BASS I Adams, John Aychman, Jacob De Cecco, Daniel Gray, Matthew Grossman, Chris Hatton, Phill Hesse, Douglas Hunt, Leonard Jirak, Thomas Joseph, Jared Lingenfelter, Paul Mehta, Nalin Pilcher, Ben Quarles, Kenneth Ragan, Jimmy Smedberg, Matthew BASS II Friedlander, Robert Griffin, Tim Hamlyn, Nicholas Israelson, Eric Jackson, Terry Morrison, Greg Potter, Tom Richards, Joshua Skillings, Russell Swanson, Wil Virtue, Tom
HOLIDAY BIOGRAPHIES EMILY CRILE, artistic director, Colorado Children's Chorale Emily Crile exhibits her passion and enthusiasm for choral music through developing and conducting singers of all ages. She currently directs Tour Choir, a premiere treble ensemble. During the past 20 years with the Chorale, she has directed Prep, Apprentice and Transitions Choirs, worked with Concert and Tour Choirs, prepared children for appearances with the Colorado Symphony, Central City Opera, Opera Colorado, and Colorado Ballet, and toured throughout Australia, China, Europe, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. With a commitment to equitable access for high quality music education, she crafted, led, and administered School Partnership and Community Choir programs across the Denver Metro area. Emily serves as the current President of the Colorado American Choral Director’s Association and is an active choral clinician and presenter throughout the United States. Prior to joining the Chorale in 2000, she served as an Assistant Conductor with the Northern Iowa Children’s Choir. She holds a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Colorado Boulder.
COLORADO CHILDREN’S CHORALE The Colorado Children’s Chorale has been performing with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra on their Colorado Christmas concert for more than 36 years. With a diverse repertoire ranging from fully staged opera and musical theater to standard choral compositions in classical, folk and popular traditions, the Chorale performs with an innovative stage presentation and a unique theatrical spirit. In recognition of its artistic quality, the Chorale was awarded the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and the prestigious El Pomar Award for Excellence in Arts and Humanities. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Emily Crile and Executive Director Meg Steitz, the Colorado Children’s Chorale annually trains 400 members between the ages of 7 and 14 from all ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds representing more than 150 schools in the Denver metro area and beyond. Since its founding, the Chorale has sung countless performances with some of the world’s finest performing arts organizations, performed for numerous dignitaries, and appeared in television and radio broadcasts. The Performance Program includes a series of self-produced concerts, numerous performances with other Colorado arts organizations and touring around the world. This season the Chorale presents Merry and Bright and Hope Grows Here at Boettcher Concert Hall, So Many Voices at Montview Presbyterian plus Performing Small Miracles and Spring Fling Sing! at Bethany Lutheran. Performances also include Tosca and Carmen with Opera Colorado.
SOUNDINGS
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HOLIDAY BIOGRAPHIES COLORADO CHILDREN’S CHORALE Emily Crile, Artistic Director Victoria Bailey, Assistant Conductor
TOUR CHOIR Kourtnie Batcho Keaton Bau Kinsley Bau Madi Bishop Alice Britton Saniyah Brooks Carson Cash Logan Chamberlain Carly Crile Bianca Curtiss-Schmidt Nick Diamond Finn Donahue Brian Erickson Eryn Franklin Lorena Franklin Clara Frey Sofia Gessler Lyla Getsch Jackson Hasserd Silas Helton Hannah Hoffman Adedoyin Jaiyesimi Rachel Johnson Joseph Kraus Jack Lee Cam Lewis Soliah Maceo Eli Maize Abby Martin Will McGaha Adah Meyerhoff Kenny Millard Bianca Morris Amelia Muldrow Finn Murry Grace Neubeiser Kason Nicholas Kate Olson Aubrey O’Neill Clara Paterson Taytum Peterson Avie Powers Marion Powers Selina Rakhmanova Max Raphaely
Mary Kate Reagan-Wilson Julia Rippons Macy Sampson Isabella Sandoval Sara Schott Lucy Seidensticker Hari Shamos Conor Sharpe Drew Shoup Tori Southworth Joshua Taylor Lovely Tilon Gabe Ward Ella Williams Jonah Winburn Sheena Wu Sarah Yang Johnson Zhu CONCERT CHOIR Tess Accardi Tre Appleton Anna Bardeau Soren Baugher Alexa Bishop Maddi Burm Annon Camero Cordelia Cheever Nelle Collier Anika Dande Terra Darnell Maggie Davis Zoe Davis Bailey Eaton Elizabeth Eckstine Havi Flores Carmen Gomez Charlotte Gort Portia Hansen Alice Hawes Angela Herrera Manullang Evy Hogan Harper Hollander Ethan Horner Addie Hutchinson Dovie James
PROGRAM VIII C O L O R A D O SY M P H O N Y.O R G
Addie Jewell Mike Jui Samuel Kraus Jane Lanoha Gracie Lee Joey Martinez-DeLeon Gretchen Meredith Vanessa Meredith Josh Morris Christina Mulryan Abby Musser Gwen Nicholas Abby Nichols Jael Orrin McKenna Pardieck Inarra Partch Katelyn Patterson Emmy Pouliot Lia Rivera Lola Sadler Addler Secor Clara Seigle Josephine Sejas Mae Shamos Cora Shoup Mia Sibree Ayden Sidwell Emily Stone Jackson Tune Avery Turner Gavin Ulmer Kiera Uster-Harris Isabelle Vogels Madeline Walker Davina Wang Colton Williams Conor Winburn Bailey Winn Caroline Wolfinger Layla Zisler