Today, we’re excited to chat with composer Alex LaMotte! Alex LaMotte is the winner of the Fort Collins Symphony’s 2025 Composer Competition. His original orchestral piece, Land of Open Skies, was selected for its vivid orchestration, emotional depth, and evocative storytelling.

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If you’ve peered your eyes to the back of the orchestra, you’ll see all these shiny brass instruments. Well, one of those in particular may stand out the most — it’s shiny, it’s coiled, it has this unmistakable rich and mellow sound.

To help us explore this amazing instrument, we’re joined by one of our very own FCS musicians, french horn player Ayo Derbyshire.

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Today we’re joined by the featured guest artist for our upcoming Signature Concert 2 on Saturday, November 8th, at 7:30pm. She’ll be performing Knoxville: Summer of 1915 by Samuel Barber. We are so excited to welcome soprano Dr. Stefanie Anduri! Stefanie has been teaching voice for over 15 years, performing across three continents, and giving workshops and presentations all around the world.

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Today we’re here to chat with a very special guest.

He’s the featured guest artist for our Signature Concert 1 on October 4th, 7:30pm, where you’ll hear him perform Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4. He’s also the Principal Horn of the Fort Collins Symphony and the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra, Professor of Horn at Regis University. He’s an incredibly talented performer along the Front Range.

We are thrilled to welcome horn player Ben Shafer!

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Join Norman Menzales, the Marketing and Community Engagement Director, and Alyssa Roggow, the Education and Patron Development Director, as they take you behind the scenes of the professional music world and explore why music is for everyone!

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Zhu Wang started playing piano at age five when his grandfather recognized his early talent. Since then Zhu has gone on to study with some of the world's best piano teachers, perform award-winning concerts around the U.S., and make his Carnegie Hall debut, all before the age of 27.

In this episode of the Open Notes Podcast, Zhu shares the most impactful lessons he learned from his teachers, why you should listen to recordings and attend live music, and the amazing story of his first time performing Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto.

Zhu Wang joins the FCS for a live and live-streamed performance of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 on Saturday, May 11, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. Mountain Time. Learn more and find tickets at FCSymphony.org.

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Dvořák's violin concerto is one of the hardest and greatest pieces for solo violin and orchestra. So why doesn't it get played more? Yumi Hwang-Williams doesn't know, but she has a few theories.

Since many audiences don't know Dvořák's violin concerto, we wanted to sit down with Yumi to learn more about her and the music and history of the piece.

In this interview, Yumi shares how she started playing the violin, moved to Colorado to become the Colorado Symphony's Concertmaster over 20 years ago, and why she loves the underserved violin concerto by Antonín Dvořák.

Yumi will perform the Dvořák violin concerto with the Fort Collins Symphony on Saturday, February 3rd, 2024. Tickets and more information can be found at https://fcsymphony.org/events/dvorak-discovery/

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Guitarist Jason Vieaux joins us on the Fort Collins Symphony's Open Notes Podcast to talk about his early fascination with jazz and the Beatles, the piece he's played more than any other, and the poignant beauty of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra.

Jason will perform with the Fort Collins Symphony on Saturday, November 4th, 2023, in-person and via live-stream. Tickets and more information are available at https://fcsymphony.org/events/rodrigo-reverie/.

Watch this interview on Youtube at https://youtu.be/JbEadCqwLEE.
See Jason's Tiny Desk Concert from NPR: https://youtu.be/Kf_Lolpumi4?si=2QClTDC_M40buKx-

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