The Colorado Symphony has been looking younger and hipper in recent years. There are more youthful players in its ranks and, when you scan the musical offerings, there seems to be more rock. Big shows at Red Rocks. Even in Boettcher Concert Hall this season, there are guest shots from Bruce Hornsby and DeVotchKa – plus concert “tributes” to David Bowie and the Bee Gees by cover acts.
Not that the classical standards are ignored. The great composers remain the Colorado Symphony’s bread-and-butter. Among guest soloists, the big name is pianist Lang Lang. Nothing crazy this year, mind you. That said it’s safe to ask: Is the orchestra leaning more toward youth?
Peter Oundjian doesn’t think so.
“I don’t program to bring in young people,” insists the orchestra’s popular maestro. He had only a few minutes to chat as he relaxed in his Boettcher Hall office during a rehearsal break the day before kicking off the new season this weekend. This is a momentous occasion for him – his first as music director, elevated from principal conductor, a title he received in 2022.
Funny thing, how that appointment resulted out of a meeting of the minds a few years ago – one that seems to have propelled the orchestra into a whole new way of thinking. Oundjian brought up the gathering that took place during COVID, when he was merely a guest conductor. Several leaders in the entertainment business, including some from the “rock music industry,” came together, he said, and formed an Imagination Committee “to imagine what the ideal 21st Century orchestra should look like and feel like, post-COVID. What a symphony orchestra should provide to a city culturally” – besides the usual helping of the classics, that is.
“We’d have a good 90-minute mash-up almost every week,” he recalled.
Those brainstorming sessions continued after Oundjian headed off on his conducting assignments. Six months later, the Colorado Symphony called and offered him the position of principal conductor, six weeks of concerts each season – a stepping stone to the position he now holds.
Rather than bask in his new title, Oundjian preferred to heap praise on his players, hinting their performances are what bring new audiences to the hall.
“The orchestra plays with so much personality,” he said. “There’s an enormous commitment. They take risks. They make themselves vulnerable.” He even talked of how they perform with “a feeling of abandon.”
Oundjian marveled that the season’s mix of traditional classical – his opening program is with famed violinist Pinchas Zukerman playing Bruch and Beethoven – and all that pop music make for a lively performing challenge each week. And each week, the musicians meet the challenge.
“They play with equal energy in any genre,” he said. “They’re sharing their love of music.”
“Variety is really important,” Oundjian said. He imagined ticket-buyers flipping through the brochure. “I want people to say, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know what not to go to.’ ”
When the subject turned to his new role as music director, he confessed that it did seem different.
“I feel a sense of commitment,” he said. “I take on different responsibilities. There are more meetings, more ambition – and ambition is not a dirty word.”
And so the 2025-26 season begins, with its newly name music director on the podium. Two highlights: In late January, Oundjian and the orchestra hit the road, playing three nights in New York City: one with violin superstar Itzhak Perlman in Carnegie Hall, and two sold-out shows with Boulder-based pop star Gregory Alan Isakov in Radio City Music Hall.
But there’s another event worth mentioning. The weekend of January 23-25 is titled “Mozart and Now.” There’s plenty of Amadeus, but he shares the bill with works by three living composers: Joel Thompson, a young Jamaican; Vivian Fung, an award-winning Canadian, and Peruvian/Lithuanian composer Gabriela Lena Frank.
Roll over, Wolfgang and tell Tchaikovsky the news.