Video: Brett Mitchell leads Colorado Symphony in world-premiere collaboration with Colorado Ballet

Colorado Ballet dancers Sheridan Guerin and Alejandro Perez-Torres perform original choreography for George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, as recorded by the Colorado Symphony and Music Director Brett Mitchell.

DENVER — The Colorado Symphony and Music Director Brett Mitchell have released a video of their new, world-premiere collaboration with Colorado Ballet.

On Thursday, June 11, Mr. Mitchell and nine members of the Colorado Symphony’s string section convened in Boettcher Concert Hall for the first time since mid-March to record George Walker’s Lyric for Strings.

Mr. Walker—the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music—composed the work in 1946, but it spoke directly to choreographer Sandra Brown about the current American moment:

"I could feel and hear parts of the music that were just crying out to me about the pain and the sorrow that people are dealing with right now. It's our job as artists to take what we're feeling and present it to the community and empathize with the community."

The resulting work, Lyric for Life, first aired on Friday, July 3 as part of the Colorado Symphony’s Independence Eve program, and may now be viewed on demand.