By Peter Alexander

Robert Olson with the MahlerFest orchestra. Photo by Keith Bobo.

Robert Olson’s final concerts with the Colorado MahlerFest will be memorable occasions — for Boulder audiences, for the festival’s world-wide fans and for Olson himself.

Olson will lead his final two concerts with the festival that he nurtured from the merest of ideas 28 years ago to an event recognized around the world today, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 16 and 17. He will conduct Mahler’s Ninth Symphony — the last of the composer’s completed symphonies — which he says is “not only the most perfect piece to end on, but may be one of the most perfect pieces, period.”

The festival will also include film showings at the Boedecker Theater at the Dairy Center, at 2 p.m. Thursday and Friday, May 14 and 15; and a free public symposium on the University of Colorado Boulder campus Saturday, May 16.

Apart from the opportunity to hear one of Mahler’s less frequently performed masterpieces, this year’s concerts will be memorable for audiences because Olson’s appearances at MahlerFest have become a familiar part of the Boulder musical landscape. After these concerts, that landscape changes. It will be memorable for Mahler fans around the world who have come to Boulder over the years because many of them will return to hear Olson conduct one last time. And it will be memorable for Olson for many reasons.

Read more at Boulder Weekly.

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Colorado MahlerFest XXVIII

Gustav Mahler. Photo by Moritz Nähr.

MahlerFest Orchestra, Robert Olson, artistic director and conductor
Mahler: Symphony No. 9
7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 16
3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 17
Mackey Auditorium
Tickets

Film:
For Love of Mahler: The Inspired Life of Henry-Louis de la Grange (World Premiere)
2 p.m. Friday, May 15 SOLD OUT
The Boedecker Theater at the Dairy Center,

Symposium:
8:30 a.m. Saturday, May 16
Morning session: Imig Music Building, Room C-199
Afternoon session: ATLAS 102
University of Colorado, Boulder campus
Free and open to the public