{"id":14984,"date":"2019-04-09T11:36:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T17:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/?p=14984"},"modified":"2019-04-09T12:32:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T18:32:14","slug":"becoming-a-boulderite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/becoming-a-boulderite\/","title":{"rendered":"Becoming a Boulderite"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise to anyone that\nmore and more people are choosing to live in Colorado every year. The appeal of\nurban living at the precipice of vast expanses of nature continues to spur\nrapid growth of mid-sized western cities. It\u2019s a trend that shows no sign of\nslowing down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you didn\u2019t grow up around mountains, it\u2019s hard\nto beat that first deep breath after stepping off a plane anywhere within\nsniffing distance of the Rocky Mountains. It\u2019s that air<\/em> \u2014 so\nclean and yet complex \u2014 a little burst of lush vegetation in every inhale. As a\nLondoner-turned-New Yorker, it felt like I was tasting oxygen for the first\ntime when I first visited Colorado in 1977.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the air in Colorado, spectacular as it is,\nisn\u2019t what\u2019s been keeping me coming back over the years. It\u2019s the energy of the\npeople. The positivity, the unforced affability, and the ease with which they\napproach life \u2014 that\u2019s what makes Colorado special. Pair that with some of the\nmost beautiful nature the country has to offer, and you get a way of life that\nmany people are flocking towards, myself included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, this isn\u2019t a fluff piece about my\nfavourite gigantic rectangle. It\u2019s a story about why I followed a life of music\nto its cozy confines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m so ready to get up on that podium and help this orchestra bring another summer of beautiful music to Boulder, to Colorado, and to you. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

My name is Peter\nOundjian (OON-jee-ahn). I was born in Toronto, raised in South London, and\nschooled in New York City as a violinist. After 14 years of traveling the world\nwith the Tokyo String Quartet, I decided to dedicate myself to orchestral\nconducting, which had always been an equal passion of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This pursuit\neventually led me back to Toronto, where I spent 14 years as the music director\nof the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. It has also led me to extended stints in\nAmsterdam, Glasgow, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Denver, among others, in various\ncapacities at various major orchestras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now, I\u2019m becoming a Boulderite. Well, not\nyear-round. In spirit, though, full-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first heard\nabout the Colorado Music Festival two years ago when they contacted me asking if\nI would be interested in being their artistic advisor for the 2018 festival. I\nwas particularly intrigued after a quick Google search revealed to me the\nbeautiful Chatauqua Auditorium, in which the festival is held. I then requested\nsome audio of the orchestra and was totally impressed by the integrity and\nexpressiveness of their playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised that I hadn\u2019t been aware of it.\nHere is this fantastic music festival in a lovely, well-known mountain town,\nand through my 40 years of playing violin and conducting across the United\nStates, it had slipped under my radar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I visited Boulder for a week in the summer of\n2017 and got to know the wonderful circle of people who are dedicated to the\nColorado Music Festival. I also got to hear several performances by the\norchestra in that remarkable Chautauqua Auditorium, whose image I had fallen in\nlove with from afar. I got to bask in the quality of the orchestra, the quality\nof the sound, and the quality of the atmosphere. During that week, it started\nto make sense to me why I\u2019d never heard so much as a peep about this festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As much of a joy as it is to keep quiet about something truly great, that\u2019s just not what Boulder is about anymore. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If they had\nwanted to put themselves on the world stage over the past 42 years, they could\nhave turned their focus to a broader audience ages ago. But they didn\u2019t need\nthe rest of us. They had their town, their locals, their summer crowd, and\ntheir wonderful orchestra all to themselves. They were hiding in plain sight.\nAnd now, they \u2014 we<\/em>, I should say \u2014 we want you to come and hide\nwith us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I officially signed on with the Colorado Music\nFestival earlier this year, not as an artistic advisor, but as the music\ndirector for the next five years. I\u2019m so ready to get up on that podium and\nhelp this orchestra bring another summer of beautiful music to Boulder, to\nColorado, and to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As much of a joy as it is to keep quiet about something truly great, that\u2019s just not what Boulder is about anymore. It\u2019s not what Colorado is about. I think I\u2019m getting the hang of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do hope you’ll join me in Boulder this season for the 2019 Colorado Music Festival!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Buy Tickets<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise to anyone that more and more people are choosing to live in Colorado every year. The appeal of urban living at the precipice of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":14985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[382,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-features"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}