DU Lamont 2019/2020 Season Opens

September 16, 2019 - DENVER – The Lamont School of Music’s fall season opens with Colorado Symphony Music Director Brett Mitchell conducting the Lamont Symphony Orchestra. Guest and faculty artists perform throughout the season and the Lamont Opera Theatre Gala, conducted by new faculty member Sahar Nouri will be presented twice. Performances are in the Robert and Judi Newman Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Denver campus.

The season’s first major event welcomes Colorado Symphony Music Director Brett Mitchell to the Lamont Symphony guest podium for performances of Sibelius: Symphony No. 1 and Ethel Smyth: Concerto for Violin and Horn performed by new Lamont faculty artists Victor Pikayzen on violin and David Byrd-Marrow on horn. An award-winning Russian-American violinist, Pikayzen is confidently establishing himself as one of the most in-demand soloists of his generation. Byrd-Marrow performs as solo hornist of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), an ensemble-in-residence at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. The performance is on Tuesday, October 8 in June Swaner Gates Concert Hall. Free tickets are required, $5 reserved seating is available and parking is complimentary.

The Hamilton Recital Hall stage will present five accomplished guest and faculty artists, opening with bassoonists Frank Morelli and Martin Kuuskmann at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 6. Morelli, a mentor of Kuuskmann, is a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the woodwind quintet Windscape. Faculty performer Kuuskmann is an Estonian-born bassoon virtuoso with two Grammy-nominated albums. Next, celebrating her 20th season as concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony, violinist and faculty artist Yumi Hwang-Williams takes the stage on Wednesday, October 23 at 7:30 p.m. with pianist Hsing-ay Hsu. In his first faculty recital since performing and teaching in Switzerland, Norway and France, Lamont faculty clarinetist Jeremy Reynolds returns to the Hamilton stage at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, November 4. Tickets for all guest artist performances are $10 and parking is complimentary.

The Lamont Symphony Orchestra and Lamont Opera Theatre singers take the stage in Gates Concert Hall for the popular Opera Theatre Gala Event. Conducting scenes from the opera classics L’italiana in Algeri, Don Pasquale, Rusalka, Lucia di Lammermoor and more is the new Music Director of Lamont Opera Theatre Sahar Nouri. Expanding to two performances this season, the gala will perform on Friday, November 1 at 7:30 p.m. and will be reprised at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, November 3. Free tickets are required, $5 reserved seating is available and parking is complimentary.

The 50 singers in the acclaimed Lamont Chorale have been invited to be featured performers at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Southwestern Regional Conference in March in Little Rock. The Chorale, Men’s Choir and Women’s Chorus will perform in Gates Concert Hall on Thursday, November 7 at 7:30 p.m. and will host vocal ensembles from colleges and university across Colorado the following night, Friday, November 8 at 7:00 p.m. in the ACDA Collegiate Choral Concert. Both choral events are free admission with complimentary parking.

Adding to the variety of the fall season are performances by the Lamont Wind Ensemble celebrating “Bugs” on Wednesday, October 9 (free admission), the Lamont Jazz Orchestra and director Steve Wiest on Monday, November 4 (free admission), the Lamont Steel Drum Ensemble on Monday, November 11 (free ticket required), master’s degree candidate Jorge Salazar conducting Schubert and Copland with the Lamont Symphony Orchestra on Thursday, November 14 (free tickets are required, $5 reserved seating) and a unique paring of the Lamont North Indian Classical Dance and Bluegrass Ensembles on Saturday, November 16. These concerts all begin at 7:30 p.m. and parking is complimentary.

For more information and a complete list of concerts, master classes and events, please visit the Lamont School of Music website at www.du.edu/lamont.  For updated weekly information, call the Concert Line at 303.871.6412.

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