February 28, 2017
Halle Thornton
Music unites even the oddest of couples, including that of UCCS and Colorado College.
The second annual Crosstown Collaboration Concert on March 2 will feature the UCCS Music Program, Peak FreQuency, the Creative Arts and Colorado College at Packhard Hall on the CC campus at 7:30 p.m.
Faculty from both schools, along with individual guests from the Philharmonic, will perform, according to Colin McAllister, director of the Music Program at UCCS, who will perform and conduct at the concert.
Classical and contemporary classical music will be performed, said McAllister.
“It’s not what you think of classical music. I’ll actually be playing the electric guitar in one piece. It almost has a rock groove to it,” said McAllister.
UCCS students Ashley Ellis and Katherine Kendrick will also perform in the creative music ensemble directed by Glen Whitehead, associate professor of music at UCCS. CC professor Marc Niehofwill play double bass in the recital.
Susan Grace, associate chair of the music department at CC, said that the idea of collaborating with UCCS came about last year when associate professor in VAPA Glen Whitehead and Ofer Ben-Amots, professor and music chair at CC, discussed the idea of a concert together.
“They thought, wouldn’t it be great if we put together our resources and talents to make great music?” said Grace.
Grace participated in the concert last year and said that the turnout was great. She will play the piano in the concert this year.
This year, percussionist Vanessa Tomlinson will be featured. Tod Machover, MIT professor and composer, was the featured guest last year.
In addition to the UCCS student music ensemble, seven students of the CC music ensemble will be participating in the concert.
“We are hoping this will be an annual thing, and if the ENT Center is ready by next year, we hope to host it there,” said Grace.
The program will also include Judd Greenstein’s “Change” for electric guitar, flute, clarinet, piano and bass; Canadian composer Claude Vivier’s “Et je reverrai cette ville étrange;” and works by Erik Griswold, Pauline Oliveros and CC’s own Ofer Ben-Amots, professor of music composition and theory.
For more information about the event, visit uccs. edu/vapa/index/music/peakfreq/.