Review: Festival Orchestra brings down the house at CC Summer Music Festival – Colorado Springs Gazette

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Violinist/conductor Scott Yoo leads his Festival Orchestra for the Mendelssohn Violin Concert.
The Festival Orchestra wind section performs for Stravinsky’s Pétrouchka. Photo by Serena Ngyen, Colorado College
Assistant Conductor and Festival Fellow Elias Miller leads the William Tell Overture. Photo by Serena Ngyen, Colorado College

Violinist/conductor Scott Yoo leads his Festival Orchestra for the Mendelssohn Violin Concert.
The Festival Orchestra wind section performs for Stravinsky’s Pétrouchka. Photo by Serena Ngyen, Colorado College
Assistant Conductor and Festival Fellow Elias Miller leads the William Tell Overture. Photo by Serena Ngyen, Colorado College
Form an orchestra. Assign it a formidable musical challenge. Ask it to accompany a soloist without a conductor on the podium. Give it seven days of rehearsals and then a performance on the next day.
This seemingly insane mission has become business as usual for the Festival Orchestra of the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. The musicians are the festival’s fellows or students. But, there’s an ace in the hole: They are prepared and conducted by Maestro Scott Yoo.
First up on Tuesday night in a packed Richard F. Celeste Theatre: Pétrouchka by Igor Stravinsky. This is a rollicking, kaleidoscopic modern score. The orchestra of 60, 11 of whom are regional professionals, hurled themselves at this irresistible buffet of sound with joyful abandon.
Yoo ran a tight but inspired ship although there were a few missteps in the timing of strings and winds at the outset. But when the going got tough, the magic was magic. Special mention must be made of Christine Ott, horn; Terri Rauschenbach, trumpet; Christopher Dechant, clarinet; Haley Hoffman, English horn; Emily Claman, flute; and Erica Haas, bassoon.
Yoo broke into the music business as a violinist. At age 12, he performed Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony. Playing that same concerto, this master shared his genius in front of the Festival Orchestra, sporadically conducting when his violin did not require his complete attention.
The soloist was mesmerizing, finding common ground between the historic and modern interpretations this beloved work has inspired. The rare slip of focus between Yoo and his band could not diminish how entertaining the performance was.
Assistant conductor Elias Miller took the podium to lead the charge of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” as Yoo slipped into the second violins. Miller offered an elegant but precise reading of this popular gem with stalwart assistance from cellist Ethan Blake, oboist Caroline Becker, flutist Julie Park, and an orchestra playing on the edge of their seats.
What: Colorado College Summer Music Festival
When: Through June 21
Where: Colorado College Packard Hall, 5 W. Cache La Poudre St., and Celeste Theatre, 825 N. Cascade Ave.
More information can be found by calling 719-389-6552 or at coloradocollege.edu/other/summermusicfestival.
Festival Artists Concerts (Packard Hall):
7 p.m. Thursday
7 p.m. Monday
7 p.m. June 20
Festival Orchestra Concerts (Celeste Theatre):
7 p.m. June 21
Pre-Concert Recitals (free, non-ticketed, Packard Hall):
5:45 p.m. Thursday
5:45 p.m. June 20

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