Colorado College Summer Music Festival

Colorado College established its first summer music program in the late 1880s. Since then, a succession of brilliant performers and gifted student musicians has been summer guests of the college.

The present Summer Music Festival was founded in 1984 by: John Giordano, conductor and music director of the Fort Worth Symphony; Elmer Peterson, Dean of the CC Summer Session; and Michael Grace, Chair of the Music Department and the first festival director. In 1987, Susan Grace, artist-in-residence at Colorado College, took over the directors duties.

Outstanding young musicians from around the world spend three weeks working closely with world-renowned faculty coaches in small groups, attending orchestra rehearsals, master classes, and taking private lessons. These talented  festival fellows perform in both  orchestra and chamber music programs.

The Festival Artists Concerts, an integral component of the Summer Music Festival, give fellows and music lovers an opportunity to hear superb chamber music performed by the festival’s virtuoso faculty. These concerts have been acclaimed to rival the finest chamber music performances heard anywhere in the world and are broadcast on KCME-FM, Colorado Public Radio and American Public Media’s “Performance Today.”