Welcome to a new academic year in the Colorado College Music Department! We are very excited to welcome all our new and returning students to Packard Hall. It has been way too quiet around here without you! 

“On the Beat” is an email newsletter we send to all music students at the beginning of every block. They are an informational “pulse” to keep us all in “rhythm” as we navigate the different time signatures of CC. Each edition contains essential information on upcoming performances, convergence sessions, informal and formal gatherings, masterclasses, and important deadlines. Please take a moment at the start of each block to review “On the Beat” and take note of what’s upcoming.

The Music Department’s website also contains all the information students need to navigate the department. The landing page always promotes what is coming up next.  Elsewhere on the site you will also find our course grid for the upcoming year. Or you might want to explore our fantastic list of dedicated and talented academic faculty and studio faculty. And don’t forget to sign up for music lessons if you haven’t already!   

We are excited for the concerts, events, gatherings, and guests planned for you this academic year, with much more to be shared as we move forward. Importantly, moving forward our mandatory concert attendance will be replaced by a more-organic model: where each course taught in the music department will incorporate one or more department concerts as part of the overall framework for the course. In addition to in-class reflections, the Music Department will be hosting several outside-of-class gatherings focused on informal conversation, music, and food – including a Music & the Menu gastromusicology food series before, and after, some of our upcoming concerts and convergences. We hope you will join us.  

Finally, the Seay Music Library is a wonderful resource for our campus community and houses a collection of musical works in physical and digital format. Here you can ask for help in specialized research for your musical assignments and projects. 
 
We are so glad you are here. We look forward to making your musical experience at CC as enlightening, inclusive, creative, and unique as you are. 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly with any questions, concerns, or ideas!  
 
Sincerely, 
 
Liliana Carrizo, Associate Academic Chair 
Sue Grace, Associate Chair of Performance 
Ryan Bañagale, Chair 

Register for music lessons by Wednesday, Sep. 3, 4 p.m.  

Fill out the Lesson Intake Survey to begin the process.  

Bring some Broadway magic to CC! The Music Department, in association with the Colorado Springs Conservatory, will be presenting the musical Anastasia this December. We are seeking performers, stage managers, spot operators, prop designers and crew members. Please prepare 32 bars of a musical theatre selection, appropriate for the style of Anastasia.

TIME: 5-6 p.m., callbacks 7-8:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Packard Hall 

During Block A, Bluegrass Instructor Keith Reed took students “On the Road” to explore the roots and branches of folk music in the U.S. During Block B, Keith’s Advanced Topics in Music class traveled to Ireland and Scotland to explore how Irish and Scots-Irish history and culture have significantly influenced American folk music.

The US Air Force Academy Band (including CC’s own Monica Ding, Tim Stombaugh, Alex Vieira, and Bobby Wolfe) toured the Front Range, culminating in two performances at Mount Rushmore.  

Assistant Professor Dr. Lidia Chang and Research Assistant Alia Dahleez ’27 spent the month of June examining and cataloguing musical instruments, objects, and iconography at some of Vienna’s most important art and history museums: the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Belvedere, the Secession, the Albertina, the Museum of Science and Technology, the Austrian National Library, and the Beethoven House Museum. They met with curators and restoration specialists to learn about the priorities and challenges on the minds of museum professionals today, and built a strong foundation for Dr. Chang’s upcoming block abroad, “Music and the Museum” (Block 6). They will be presenting their findings on September 26 at Student Research and Internship Symposium. In July, Dr. Chang travelled to Boston, MA where she taught for her 15th summer at the South Shore Conservatory’s Summer Music Festival.

Collegium Musicum Director Elisa Wicks attended the Amherst Early Music Festival as the opera orchestra coordinator and principal second violinist. The opera project this summer focused on a rarity, the modern world premiere of Georg Reutter’s Dafne. Students, early-career singers and professional instrumentalists brought this ancient tale to life.

Jon Cowherd, Brian Blade, and Tony Scherr
Thursday, Sep. 11 at 7 p.m.
Celeste Theatre

Three of the most imaginative, sensitive and wide-ranging artists in modern jazz: pianist Jon Cowherd, bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Brian Blade.

United States Air Force (USAF) Academy Band Chamber Recital
Songs & Echoes
Monday, Sep. 29 at 7 p.m.
Packard Hall

A musical tour de force, the program features the talents of the United States Air Force Academy Premier Band performing an eclectic program from composers of the Romantic era to minimalism and modern jazz.