Boulder Concert Chorale and Boulder Phil perform weekend concerts
By Peter Alexander Oct. 24 at 2 p.m.
The Boulder Concert Chorale will present a work celebrating peace, with texts from more than a dozen authors, to start its 2024–25 season.
The concert, at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, at the First United Methodist Church in Boulder, will feature The Peacemakers by Sir Karl Jenkins, a Welsh composer whose music is widely performed. Authors of texts for the 17 movements of The Peacemakers include Percy Bysshe Shelley, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Terry Waite, Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Nelson Mandela and Anne Frank.
Known principally as a jazz and jazz-rock musician, Jenkins plays baritone and soprano saxophones, keyboards and oboe. He has written music for advertising, winning prizes for work in that field, as well as a series of crossover albums under the title Adiemus. Originally written for a Delta Airlines advertisement, the original song Adiemus and the subsequent albums contributed to the growth of Jenkins’s recognition as a composer.
The Peacemakers was premiered in Carnegie Hall in 2012. Jenkins dedicated the score “to the memory of all those who lost their lives during armed conflict: in particular innocent civilians.” The composer has written that one line from Rumi summarizes the underlying idea of the piece: “All religions, all singing one song: Peace be with you.”
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Boulder Concert Chorale
Vicki Burrichter, artistic director and conductor
- Sir Karl Jenkins: The Peacemakers
4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26
First United Methodist Church, Boulder
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The Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra presents “Bewitching,” a Halloween Extravaganza, Saturday in Northglenn and next Wednesday in Macky Auditorium (Oct. 27 and 30; details below).
Aiming to start “a new tradition,” the Boulder Phil added the Halloween concert this season to their usual schedule of masterworks concerts and special events including the annual Holiday performances of The Nutcracker. Along with the “Shift” series of informal concerts featuring players in unique venues, “Bewitching” represents a populist trend in programming running parallel to the more traditional orchestral concerts.
Billed as “a spine-tingling evening filled with haunting melodies and thrilling orchestral arrangements, perfect for audiences of all ages,” “Bewitching” features film music along with light classical music with magical or eerie associations. Concertgoers are encouraged to wear costumes.
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“Bewitching: Halloween Extravaganza”
Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, Gary Lewis, conductor
Program includes:
- Danny Elfman: “This is Halloween”
- Edvard Grieg: “In the Hall of the Mountain King”
- Klaus Nadelt: Music from Pirates of the Caribbean
- John Williams: Harry Potter Suite
- Alan Menken: Music from Beaty and the Beast
- Paul Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
- Joe Hisaishi: “Merry-Go-Round of Life”
2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27
Parsons Theatre, Northglenn
6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30
Macky Auditorium
Sharps & Flatirons 