Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra

When I was 18 years old, I won a position in a professional orchestra, the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony that was in the process of morphing into the Florida Orchestra and becoming a budding major orchestra. Many of the string players began their careers in the NBC Orchestra, conducted by Toscanini, before going on to orchestras such as Chicago and Boston. Those players had played for the most famous conductors of the 20th Century and they revered Toscanini above all. What I observed, was that these musicians played with incredible passion and conviction. 

It was a great job, but it was important for me to move on to conservatory, so I went to the Peabody Institute of Music of the Johns Hopkins University. There I studied both violin and conducting. As I progressed in my career, I noticed that there seem to be a lot of orchestras where players are not invited to add their own voice to the same degree that I observed in Florida. Then I heard the Berlin Philharmonic with Claudia Abbado conducting. Eureka! An orchestra where every player contributed 100 percent of their passion and skill, in total sync with their conductor. 

I wanted to try to create an orchestra where every player could contribute their voice, and put those voices together in inspirational ways for our audiences. Voila! Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra.

Music is just 2 dimensional paper until musicians come together to give it life. New music speaks to our time. It gives us perspective on where we are as a people. It also gives perspective to the classics. Philosophical tomes can be written on this. Ultimately, the new invigorates the old, and vice verse. Thus, Pro Musica Colorado is committed to performing new and old music. 

One current in music is the combination of "World Music" with the orchestra. This was the case with Osvaldo Golijov's cantata, Oceana, which we performed with Ars Nova Singers. There are works that engage Native American flutes, drummers, and dancers, for example. PMC plans to explore this repertoire that is so in sync with today.

Pro Musica Colorado hopes to grow our seasons to 3-5 concerts and to continue to engage compelling collaborators to present our concerts on the Front Range. 

We are engaged in a creative journey. We hope you will join us, and support us on this adventure!