UW Symphony to Perform in Colorado Springs

October 23, 2012
Man holding clarinet
Blake McGee will perform a clarinet solo with the UW Symphony in Sunday’s concert at Cheyenne Mountain High School. (UW Photo)

The University of Wyoming Symphony Orchestra will perform at Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., Sunday, Oct. 28, at 2:30 p.m., in a free concert sponsored by UW and the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony.

The concert is a joint event with the CSYSO, and both orchestras will join forces for a portion of the concert. Part of a Front Range tour for the orchestra, it will include works by Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, Rossini and Elgar, works by two Chinese composers, and more. The UWSO also will share encores with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and bluegrass legend Ervin Rouse.

Joining the UWSO will be clarinet soloist Blake McGee, a new member of the UW faculty. A native of the west coast, McGee has performed as a member of the Oregon Mozart Players, the Portland Opera and the Vancouver Symphony. He is an active chamber musician who performs regularly with the Oregon Mozart Players’ “Chamber Music and Chocolate” series and as a member of Lights Along the Shore, a trio specializing in eclectic music from around the world. He will be heard in two well-known clarinet solos: Debussy’s “Premiere Rhapsody” and the brilliant “Introduction, Theme, and Variations” by Rossini.

Now in his 23rd year as director of orchestral activities at UW, Michael Griffith has been guest conductor for Orquestra Petrobras Pro Musica in Rio de Janeiro, Cleveland’s Opus I Chamber Orchestra, Opera Fort Collins, the Fort Collins Symphony, Denver’s Mercury Ensemble, the Cheyenne Symphony, the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, and high school honors ensembles in states from Maryland to Colorado.

As a guest lecturer and clinician his work has taken him to Bolivia, Finland, Shanghai and much of the United States. He and the UWSO are winners of an ASCAP/American Symphony Orchestra League Award for Adventurous Programming, he is a past president of the Conductors' Guild, and he was twice elected a Top 10 Teacher by UW graduating classes.

For more information, call the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony Association office at (719) 633-3901.

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