Colorado Symphony to bring 'RhapsodyRock' to the Fillmore
Brett Mitchell will lead a performance of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with pianist Natasha Paremski at the Colorado Symphony's 2018 Ball. (Photo by Peter Lockley)
DENVER — 303 Magazine has published an interview with Music Director Brett Mitchell about the Colorado Symphony's 2018 Ball, presented on Saturday, April 28.
303 Magazine: This event is very exciting and imperative for the Symphony’s annual funding. Last year's Ball raised over $1 million. What are the major goals for this year’s fundraising?
Brett Mitchell: The biggest focus this year (and every year) are our education initiatives that bring kids into the concert hall and bring outreach programs to them. These big fundraising events make these kinds of community engagement events possible.
303: The night is also about shedding light on the outstanding contributions that have been made to the Symphony in the last year, otherwise known as the recipients of the prestigious Margaret Phipps Award. Can you tell us what makes your personally excited about United Airlines being the recipient?
BWM: While I first moved to Denver last summer, it took my wife around eight months before she joined me. I can’t tell you how many times I heard Rhapsody in Blue during the United flights back and forth between Denver and Cleveland, so we're are thrilled to honor them.
303: If the event is successful, what can we expect from the Symphony in 2018?
BWM: We joke that if these events are as successful as we’d like, then we wouldn’t need them anymore! What a successful night will really enable us to do is to dream even bigger in the future, to expand what we can do in the 2019/2020 season and beyond.
303: For those who have never attended a Symphony event, what can we tell them that they might not know?
BWM: The biggest misperception I hear from people who haven't come to the orchestra before is, “But I’m just a regular guy.” Well, I and everyone playing on stage are all just regular guys and gals, too. This is not an elitist art form. If I—a guy who grew up on grunge music like Nirvana in Seattle—can fall in love with Beethoven and make a career of it, then everybody has an "in." If I can fall in love with this music, so can you.
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