Impact

The transformative power of music

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 07:00:00 +0000

The transformative power of music Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/16/2021 - 00:00

The goal of the music+ campaign is to raise funds for the College of Music’s people, programs and initiatives, including through scholarships, community outreach, faculty research and program development.

Kedrick Terrell Armstrong is one of the students benefiting from scholarship support as he works toward a master’s in orchestral conducting. Check out the following video of Kedrick’s recent rehearsal with the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Philharmonia Orchestra and see how your gift can support students' daily lives:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6cy5z0NyC0]

As a conductor, Kedrick uses joy and curiosity for all music to foster understanding and fellowship within diverse communities. He has conducted the Chicago Opera Theater and Knox-Galesburg Symphony and is an alumnus of the Chicago Sinfonietta’s Project Inclusion Freeman Conducting Fellowship program, where he also served as assistant conductor during the 2018-19 season.

Kedrick is on the Board of Directors for the International Society for Black Musicians and uses his voice and platform as a Black conductor to advocate for the performance, publication and preservation of minority voices in classical music. He graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois with a Bachelor of Music degree in music history and literature, and he’s now working toward his master’s in orchestral conducting here at the College of Music.

We thank our donors for supporting students like Kedrick and empowering ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder communities to create the future of artistry! To further support Kedrick and other students like him, consider making a gift to our music+ campaign by the end of the year.

Give to music+

Kedrick Terrell Armstrong is one of the students benefiting from scholarship support as he works toward a master’s in orchestral conducting.

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Legendary scientist, lover of music

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 20:31:36 +0000

Legendary scientist, lover of music Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/13/2020 - 14:31

Sabine Kortals Stein

In this article

Bill Weber's early life and exposure to music in New York City
Weaving together music and science
Honoring a centenarian

For William A. Weber—a renowned botanist and ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder professor emeritus who passed away on March 18, 2020, at the age of 101—his early exposure to music was people singing on the streets of the Bronx.

“New York had music,” said Weber (right, photo couresty of Boulder Daily Camera), a former curator of the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Museum Herbarium who received three lifetime achievement awards for his research on lichens and mosses. “It wasn't expensive, either. You could stand outside the Metropolitan Opera until the boxes were filled and then go in for a dollar.”

In a wide-ranging, intimate interview at his home in Boulder in February, Weber shared more musical memories. “One of my aunts had a player piano and when people walked by the house, they'd wonder ‘who's playing?’

“Radios weren’t common, then, so my father made his own radio. I remember the Met’s first radio performance of Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck. That was my first music.”

From there, Weber’s mother taught him the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor “Quasi una fantasia,” Op. 27, No. 2 (“Moonlight”). And as an undergrad at Iowa State University, he joined a chorus where he met his wife, Selma, who sang alto. “For more than 60 years, we sang in choruses together,” he said, lovingly noting his wife’s courage upon being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis two years after they married. “We sang again in 1967-68 when we lived in Australia, in the chorus of Canberra.”

The couple came to Boulder in 1946 and joined the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Festival Chorus when it was just getting started. “We rehearsed in a little house on campus and our first big concert had to be George Frideric Handel’s Messiah, of course,” he mused.

And so began Weber’s long love affair with the musical arts on the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder campus—well beyond his retirement in 1990. “We staged operas, operettas, and Gilbert and Sullivan,” he recalled, citing Princess Ida, The Gondoliers and The Mikado as his favorite works by the Victorian-era theatrical duo. “We had chamber music, too.”

An admirer of French Romantic composer Louis-Hector Berlioz, Weber fondly remembered visiting France, Italy and Switzerland where he not only deepened his musical interests, but also worked with a group of botanists. He went on to describe a brief encounter with late-Romantic pianist, composer and conductor Sergei Rachmaninoff at Iowa State, as well as his great admiration for Danish tenor—and later baritone—Aksel Schiøtz, considered one of Europe's leading ‘Lieder’ singers, post-World War II. “His singing helped keep morale high,” Weber said. “He was much better than any other tenor I've ever heard.

“[Schiøtz] came to Boulder to teach [1961-68] and his wife became the curator of the music library. They were a wonderful couple and I was so lucky to celebrate Christmas with them—their Christmas tree had real candles.”

All three of Weber’s daughters—Linna, Heather and Erica—inherited their parents’ love of music, graduating from the College of Music and pursuing their own musical paths.

Weber’s inquisitive mind not only served him well in his professional life as a botanist and naturalist but also drove his insatiable quest to know and understand music. “I've been thinking about the origin of music,” he said, as our conversation drew to a close. “It seems to me that music has probably been around as long as people have.”

An ardent fan of the College of Music, Weber regularly attended our Faculty Tuesdays concert series and was honored at a concert in January 2019—celebrating his 100th birthday—with a special seat in Grusin Music Hall and a tribute from Professor of Piano Daniel Sher, former dean of the College of Music.

As the college celebrates its own centennial this year, we remember William Weber with affection, admiration and gratitude.

Remembering a longtime College of Music supporter and ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder professor.

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Donors and endowments 2020

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 16:36:50 +0000

Donors and endowments 2020 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/09/2020 - 10:36

Thank you.

Everything at the College of Music is enhanced by the incredible generosity of our community. This list celebrates those whose gifts, pledges, bequests and pledge payments totaled $5,000 or more in fiscal year 2020 (July 1, 2019-June 30, 2020). Anonymous gifts and donors have been excluded.

Every effort has been made to present this list as accurately as possible; if there is an error or omission, please contact musicplus@colorado.edu or 303-492-3054.

Alice and Leonard Perlmutter Foundation

Joanie and David Andrews

Charlene Archibeque

Pamela Barsam Brown and Stanley Brown

Sondra and Bill Bechhoefer

Bettina Baruch Foundation

John Dunham and Alison Blackman

The Bourne Yaroush Family Fund

Kathy and Dave Bowers

Amy Skinner and Richard Brandon

Joe and Shirley Burford

Bob Burnham and Gail Promboin

Jan Burton

Pat Butler

Mike Ortlip and Allison Callicott

Carson-Pfafflin Family Foundation

Bob and Judy Charles

The Clinton Family Fund

Marty Coffin Evans and Robert Trembly

Brent and Dana Cohen

Debbie and Dan Day

Gina and Frank Day

Steve Dilts

The Dorothy and Anthony Riddle Family

Foundation

The Dr. C. W. Bixler Family Foundation

Paul and Kristina Eklund

Brad and Diana Ekstrand

Andrea Ekstrand

Norma Ekstrand

Elevations Credit Union

Ella Gayle Hamlin Foundation

Bill Elliott

Xan and John Fischer

Jonathan and Shari Fox

Dave Fulker and Nicky Wolman

Lloyd and Mary Gelman

George Lichter Family Foundation

Robert Stuart Graham (Estate)

Albert and Betsy Hand

Gene Harsh

Laurie Hathorn

Diane and Stephen Heiman, Sr.

John and Sandra Heyer

Suzanne and Dave Hoover

Shelley Hyde

Nan Joesten and Hank Leeper

Judy and Gary Judd

Allan McMurray and Judy Kaffka

Kenneth & Myra Monfort Charitable

Foundation Inc.

Bob and Alice Korenblat

Gregory Lefferdink

Nancy and Kim Malville

George Charles Mulacek (Estate)

Ben and Pattie Nelson

Ann Oglesby

Paul Bechtner Foundation

Vivianne and Joel Pokorny

Mikhy and Mike Ritter

Becky Roser and Ron Stewart

Peg and Chuck Rowe

Firuzeh and Navid Saidi

Katherine Schimmel

The Schramm Foundation

SeiSolo Foundation

Dan and Boyce Sher

gReg Silvus

Mary and George Sissel

David Skinner

Frank Spaid

Galen & Ada Belle Spencer Foundation

Alan Stanek

Al and Marty Stormo

Lynn Streeter

Doug and Sandy Tashiro

Avlona Taylor

Jeannie and Jack Thompson

Kathy and Peter Van Arsdale

Viola Vestal Coulter Foundation

Taylor Welshimer

Mary Lou West

Nurit and Jim Wolf

Thank you to our donors who helped contribute to and support the College of Music in 2020.

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Supporter spotlight: Jeannie and Jack Thompson

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Supporter spotlight: Jeannie and Jack Thompson Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/18/2020 - 00:00

Jessie Bauters

If you’ve been around the College of Music—or the west hallway on the first floor of Macky Auditorium—you probably know the name Thompson well. But did you also know that the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder couple Jack and Jeannie Thompson met in the same place that many current students are still meeting today?

“We actually met at the Sink,” Jeannie recalls. “But we didn’t start dating until senior year.”

That was 1964. Jeannie was a zoology major, and Jack was a history major. Fast forward to today, and their names are synonymous with generosity and excellence not only at the College of Music but across the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder campus as well. The Vaccine Development Neighborhood at the Caruthers biotechnology building, the Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology program, the writing awards at the Center of the American West and an American History fellowship in the history department. All exist, at least in part, because of the support of the Thompsons.

But here at the College of Music, it was the couple’s love of music that led to the first named program in college—and campus—history back in 2013: The Thompson Jazz Studies Program.

Full circle

Originally from Ohio, Jeannie Thompson played piano as a child and through high school before heading west to Boulder for undergraduate studies. She spent two summers at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and sang in the University Choir while she was a student at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ. While she majored in zoology and became a scientist, later earning an MA in counseling psychology and an MBA at Northwestern University, she has fond memories of making music at the College of Music.

“It was great fun. When I was in undergrad that was the only musical thing I did,” Jeannie says. “The warmth I felt going into the Imig building then is a fond memory.”

Jack Thompson, on the other hand, has never been a musician. But he’s always been fond of and understood all sorts of music—from classical to jazz.

“Jack was in ROTC after being enlisted in the Marines. He understands jazz better than I do. I sat in on the history of jazz class to get up to speed,” Jeannie says.

A ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ native, Jack graduated in 1964 and later returned to Boulder, after a tour in Vietnam with the Marine Corps, to earn an MA in American history. He went on to get a PhD in that discipline from the University of Michigan and subsequently became a professor, and later a dean, at Northwestern.

When the couple retired to Boulder in 2002, they set their sights on helping programs across their many disciplines and interests that continue to inspire them at their alma mater. In addition to the gifts listed above, they gave a major gift to name the Thompson Jazz Studies Program.

“The jazz program at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder was highly ranked, Chancellor Phil DiStefano had declared it one of the centers of excellence at the university, it had won DownBeat awards, we liked the faculty and we liked the students” Jeannie explains.

"Dean Daniel Sher was helpful in our making our decision as to where we could be most beneficial in building and helping a program at the college."

Jeannie, who currently serves on the College of Music Advisory Board, is also former chair of the board of the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Foundation. She says there’s something special about the community that supports music at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ.

"When we got further involved, there was strength with Dan Sher as dean and Becky Roser as chair of the board. And now there's equal ability with Mikhy Ritter and Laurie Hathorn. These three women have been so devoted to the place, spreading goodwill. It's a unique combination of energy and enthusiasm."

Recognizing excellence

As part of the 2018 capital campaign at the college, the Thompsons made their most recent gift to name the dean’s office in the expanded Imig Music Building, the Benson Office of the Dean, named for former University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ President Bruce Benson and his wife Marcy. Jeannie says she and Jack saw it as another opportunity to acknowledge quality.

“It had less to do with music and more to do with leadership and recognizing the strong leadership of the university system provided by the Bensons.”

She says as the college’s programs and reputation grow in the music education world, a breathtaking new home in the shadow of the Flatirons is a much-needed “feather in the cap.”

“When I think back to when we first got involved, the reputation of programs, the strength of the faculty, the talent of the students coming in—I’m not sure I can do a comparison. The programs just keep getting better and better.

“What this new building does is show that there is support at the campus level for this college, and that means all the world to people who are thinking of making contributions to its future.”

To read more about the gifts given as part of the College of Music’s 2018 capital campaign, visit the music+ impact story archive.

Longtime college supporters Jeannie and Jack Thompson gave a gift naming the dean’s office in the expanded Imig in honor of Bruce and Marcy Benson.

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How did we get here?

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 21:29:54 +0000

How did we get here? Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/21/2020 - 14:29

Jessie Bauters

From the early days of Macky Auditorium to the dawning of a new era in the expanded Imig Music Building, the history of music at the University of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder has been rich and interwoven with that of the surrounding community. Professor Emeritus Thomas Riis and College of Music students reflect on the first 100 years of music at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder and what the next century could hold as the college celebrates its Centennial.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1ST2Dr4U_g]

From the 1880s to today, how its history shaped the College of Music as we know it.

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Supporter spotlight: Mike and Mikhy Ritter

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 18:40:42 +0000

Supporter spotlight: Mike and Mikhy Ritter Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/03/2019 - 11:40

Jessie Bauters

When she was growing up in Manhattan, Michele Ritter was surrounded by music. Her mom was a singer on Broadway. Her dad was a talent agent who represented such household names as the Rat Pack. So it only makes sense that years later, the name Ritter would become something of a household name in its own right—among Boulder music lovers, at least.

“To me, it was Uncle Sammy [Davis, Jr.],” Ritter says. “My dad worked for William Morris and booked musical talent, starting with nightclubs and working his way up into TV and movies.”

Mikhy and her husband Mike—left, both New York City transplants who met as ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder students in the 1980s—have become a one-couple cheering squad for the College of Music over the years. Mikhy is the current chair of the college’s Advisory Board, the two endowed the Ritter Family Classical Guitar Program in 2014 and, for nearly three years, they have helped lead the college’s music+ campaign along with campaign chair Becky Roser. That included rallying the board in pursuit of the $1.6-million capital component that was matched by Chancellor Philip DiStefano at the end of 2018.

“Since Mikhy is chair, we discussed us taking a lead role in helping the capital campaign and the expansion of the facility to happen,” Mike explains. “I’ve gotten to know everyone on the board, and they’re team players who are willing to roll up their sleeves to be there for the students.”

Adds Mikhy, “And the fact that Phil was willing to step forward in that way made me personally feel that we all had to do something, starting with the board.”

As part of that capital push, the Ritters donated $200,000 to name a music education office in memory of Mikhy’s grandmother, Anastasia Berrodin. The couple says after a shared life together, through which music has weaved in and out for nearly 40 years, it was an important pledge to make.

“The College of Music is an incredible gift to the community,” Mikhy says. “And the word is out.”

East Coast swing

Anastasia Berrodin (right) was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1903. As the oldest of eight children, she was a rock for her immigrant family. When her mother was stricken with the flu and died when Berrodin was just 15, she had to step up.

“After her mother died, my grandmother raised her seven younger siblings. She was incredible from the time she was a child, stepping in to do things that were challenging and doing so with grace and an amazing sense of humor,” Mikhy says.

Berrodin went on to be a teacher. Later in life, she played a big role in Mikhy’s childhood, helping raise her while her parents lived the late-night lives of entertainers.

“My parents worked at night and slept during the day, so my grandmother really brought me up,” Mikhy recalls. “She played the piano, and my grandfather was also a gifted violinist.”

Across the East River, it was also Mike’s grandmother who brought music into his life, playing show tunes on the upright piano in her home and ushering him to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes. Growing up in Queens and Long Island—and at times internationally, thanks to his dad’s career at a multinational pharmaceutical company—Mike was raised on stories of his grandparents’ perseverance through the Great Depression.

“My grandfather was working on the New York Stock Exchange when it crashed,” he says. “While he was jobless, my grandmother met a man who offered her his union card in exchange for groceries. My grandfather took that card and became an electrician. He ended up working on the original Madison Square Garden and Holland Tunnel—and maybe the Empire State Building, according to family lore.”

When Mike and Mikhy crossed paths their senior year at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ—Mikhy a physical anthropology and history student who had studied abroad with a program run by the College of Music, and Mike a biotechnology student who had never heard of the college—it was on a blind date set up by Mikhy’s roommate.

From there, they began to write the symphony of their lives together.

“I was friends with some music majors,” Mikhy says. “When we got engaged, I went with them to the music library and they introduced me to some music they liked for our wedding. Then, Mike came in and we sat with our headphones and listened to vinyl records. We chose our wedding music together with two music students in the library at the College of Music.”

Rocky Mountain highs

Four sons and one adopted daughter later, the Ritters got involved at the College of Music in 1999, largely at the hand of the charismatic and passionate Dean Daniel Sher.

“Dan knew a lot of our friends and we’d see him at the Artist Series and the Boulder Philharmonic,” Mikhy explains. “He introduced himself and got to know us, and eventually invited me to join the board of the then-nascent Entrepreneurship Center for Music.

“Having had both my parents involved in music when I was a kid, the idea that business would be part of the training a music student would receive resonated with me.”

The Ritters say that to see the progress of the college over those years—and to see the Imig expansion reach toward the blue Boulder sky—is acknowledgement of something they’ve known for years.

“Next to athletics, music is the connection to the community,” Mike says. “When we first started going to Faculty Tuesdays, depending on the night, the audience might be a third full. Now, it’s standing room only.”

Continues Mikhy, “I think it’s acknowledgement of the fact that the College of Music is the gem on the Boulder campus. It was the quiet gem for a lot of years. But it’s the gateway to the community.”

Having just welcomed their second grandchild themselves, they say the contribution in Mikhy’s grandmother’s name is just what Anastasia Berrodin would have wanted.

“When she was retired, she ran a rudimentary school out of her home in Florida to teach immigrant children English and math. She saw education as a human right and didn’t question the legality of the children. The fact that it’s an office of education is really important,” says Mikhy.

“Anastasia would have loved this,” Mike adds. “It brings education and music together.”

To read more about the gifts given as part of the College of Music’s 2018 capital campaign, visit the music+ impact story archive.

College of Music Advisory Board Chair Mikhy Ritter and her husband Mike will name a music education office in honor of Mikhy’s grandmother when the new Imig Music Building opens.

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Supporter spotlight: Grace and Gordon Gamm

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 17:53:24 +0000

Supporter spotlight: Grace and Gordon Gamm Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/08/2019 - 11:53

Jessie Bauters

If the College of Music community and Boulder music insiders know one thing about Grace and Gordon Gamm, it’s that they’re always game for an impromptu piano-side singalong.

“Because I got into music early, I always enjoy listening to music. It’s a very uplifting part of my life. I feel lucky,” says Gordon.

The philanthropists—ardent supporters of a number of causes in the Boulder area—hold music in especially high esteem. Grace is a member of the College of Music Advisory Board, two renovated spaces at the Dairy Center for the Arts bear their names, and they’re involved with the Boulder Philharmonic and ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Music Festival.

In the past year, they’ve also joined the ranks of the generous College of Music supporters who pitched in to name the new facilities opening soon at Imig Music Building: Starting in fall 2020, ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder choirs will occupy the Gamm Choral Faculty Studio.

“We wanted to support the building and chose this area to do it. One of the strengths of the college is the voice and opera department,” Gordon says.

Gordon Gamm, who grew up in Louisiana and practiced law in Kansas City before moving to Boulder in 1993, says music has always held a special place in his heart.

“My father played trumpet at the same high school I went to,” he says. “My parents told me that when I was 3 or 4 years old, I would listen to the radio and bounce up and down to the music. When I was 5 or 6, I began piano lessons.”

Growing up, he says his piano teacher taught him to play by ear and enjoys playing old songs for sing-alongs with friends. He was first chair trumpet player and student conductor in his freshman year in high school, played in the honors band at Interlochen, and even made a name for himself jamming for fun in Kansas City bars. Now a retired attorney, he has devoted himself to supporting causes that he says ring true to his humanist ideals.

“Humanism as a philosophical perspective seems to be the best guiding light for how I live my life,” Gamm says. “It’s a belief that we can make value choices based on how we affect other people, rather than based on scripture or God’s agent on earth.”

Among those causes: bringing interdisciplinary studies to ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder’s College of Arts and Sciences, addressing food insecurity among local school children, and making it possible for low-income parents to send their children to daycare.

The longtime Boulder Rotary member and founder of the Boulder International Humanist Institute says the common thread is a sense of justice for all.

“It’s really satisfying to see a program I helped start have a long-lasting impact, because I felt there was something unjust that needed to be attended. Justice is a major word that embodies my life as a lawyer. And I see the law as a vehicle for resolving moral conflict.”

Music and the arts, Gamm says, reflect the transcendent aspect of religion, the metaphysical aspect of philosophy. “When I was struggling with doubts about whether God existed, I didn’t want to give up that connection because God represented an emotional connection with something greater, more awesome than the mundane, ordinary aspects of life. Then a friend suggested that I only found resonance with things I don’t understand, simply because I don’t understand them. He said that there’s no reason you can’t attach that same sense of awesomeness to a walk in the park, the overwhelming beauty of the cosmos, the birth of a child—or the great beauty of music. It is the inner life that is the source of bewilderment rather than invisible spirits. This aspect of humanism resonated with me. Music fits into that realm of transcendence.

“You can get just as emotionally charged by a beautiful poem or performance that challenges your thinking and makes you see new ways of understanding the world you’re living in.”

So for someone who almost always has a tune in his head, guiding him through his days, Gamm says part of giving back to a community he’s loved for 25 years must include a nod to that important piece of him.

“Music is part of what it means to be human. The creative instinct that flourishes within us is a manifestation of us as human beings and as our best selves. To me, I think that to live life without art is to have a lifeless experience that could be duplicated by machines. Music makes us uniquely human and reflects why the arts are of special importance to me, providing life with a sense of resonance and awesomeness.”

To read more about the gifts given as part of the College of Music’s 2018 capital campaign, visit the music+ impact story archive.

Boulder philanthropists Grace and Gordon Gamm are among the generous supporters who pitched in to name the new facilities that will open soon at Imig Music Building.

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Supporter spotlight: Ben and Pattie Nelson

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Supporter spotlight: Ben and Pattie Nelson Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/17/2019 - 00:00

Jessie Bauters

For the past 30 years or so, the Nelsons have quietly become one of the most important musical families in the Boulder-Denver area. Their involvement ranges from offering steadfast support of the College of Music and Golden Buffalo Marching Band, to helping create the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Campus Orchestra, to providing performance opportunities to amateur musicians, to teaching music to Jefferson County youngsters, to bringing a musical eye and ear to the design of some of the region’s most well-known fine arts venues.

ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder alumni Ben (BS’84, MS'88) and Pattie (BME’84, MME’08) Nelson have turned their mutual love of music into a decades-long passion project that has rippled throughout the community. But all that may never have happened if a teenage Pattie hadn’t asked her parents for a trombone for her birthday.

“Since my dad was a band director, we did everything with the band,” she says. “Even though I was a violinist, I asked for a trombone so I could be in marching band.”

The fortuitous gift led Pattie to join the marching band at Arvada West High School, where she and Ben met. Now—42 years later—Ben, a member of the College of Music Advisory Board, and Pattie, a recently retired music teacher, are part of the generous group of supporters who helped the college in its fundraising efforts by making a naming gift as part of the Imig Music Building renovation.

Rooted in music

Both Ben and Pattie Nelson come from musical families. Pattie’s grandmother was a music major at Ball State University in Indiana—a rare vocational path for women in the early 20th century. Her father, Robert Hurrell, taught music at Jefferson County Schools for 34 years and is a member of the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Music Educators’ Hall of Fame. Everyone in Pattie’s family plays an instrument: Her grandmother played piano, her grandfather played trumpet, her uncle plays baritone, her mother plays violin, her sister plays sax, her brother plays trombone, and Pattie herself plays violin. And her father, who recently turned 90, still plays trombone every day.

Ben can trace his musical lineage back to his grandmother in Sweden, who was the drummer in the family polka band. His mother played piano and while his father never played an instrument, he was always an avid fan and supporter. The Nelsons both credit their families with instilling a deep love of music, which they passed along to their daughters Emily and Andra, string bass and cello, respectively.

“My family has been in music for a long time,” Pattie says. “We still get together and play every year.”

After high school, Ben and Pattie both traveled up the road to attend ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder for college. While Ben’s studies led him to the College of Engineering, he marched all four years in the trombone section of the Golden Buffalo Marching Band along with music education major Pattie. When they graduated in 1984, Pattie picked up the torch from her father—who was just retiring from teaching—and began teaching orchestras.

“I started out in Adams County District-12, then went to Jefferson County Schools for 26 years,” she explains. “At first I was teaching high school, but I started to see that the foundation wasn’t there for children who wanted to play music. So I switched and taught in elementary school so I could be there from the beginning.”

In 2007, while earning her master’s degree in music education from the College of Music, Pattie was named ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ String Teacher of the Year.

Ben brought his love of music to engineering and design, where he’s now structural engineer and principal at Martin/Martin Consulting Engineers. He’s been part of the teams that designed the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and Buell Theatre at the Denver Performing Arts Complex, Parker Arts Center and the Black Box at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities. He also worked on Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

“Music has helped me as a structural engineer,” Ben says. “I had that knowledge of performance venues and what’s needed in terms of acoustics. It makes me more valuable to my clients who hire me for my music background.”

Music for all

In what little spare time they’ve had, the Nelsons have helped lead the Jeffco Community Band, which Pattie’s father founded in 1984. Pattie took over direction of the band in 2001 and founded the Jeffco Community Orchestra in 2012. Ben plays trombone in the band and created the Jeffco Brass ensemble in 1999. It’s been just one more way Ben and Pattie have brought a love of music to the people around them.

“There are doctors, lawyers, pilots, many different kinds of backgrounds represented in the band,” Ben explains. “It’s become a tradition and a way to connect. We’ve had three generations of families all play side-by-side in the same group. We’ve had people as young as 18 and as old as 92 all together.”

Following in their parents’ footsteps are Ben and Pattie’s daughters Emily and Andra. Emily, their eldest, helped create the Campus Orchestra when she was an education student at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder.

“She wanted to play but there was no place for her because there wasn’t an orchestra for non-majors. They created the Campus Orchestra her freshman year,” Pattie says. “It was a club at first, for no credit, but eventually it became a class. Emily was instrumental in forming the group and recruiting for it.”

By the time Andra started school for biochemical engineering in 2010, the group had gotten so large that there was a waitlist. “We’re proud that both girls continued playing music throughout school as a break and a sense of community outside teaching or the engineering rigors,” Ben says.

Cementing a legacy

After decades of championing music in the community, Ben and Pattie Nelson’s story has come full circle with the expansion of Imig Music Building: Ben is the structural engineer for the addition, and now the couple will dedicate one of the nine new practice rooms for non-major students who need a spot to practice.

“We wanted students like me, or like our daughters, to have a place to use to practice,” Ben says.

In addition to their naming gift, the Nelsons are also converting a marching band scholarship they founded in 1988 to an endowment geared toward supporting senior student leaders in the Golden Buffalo Marching Band and the Campus Orchestra.

“The scholarship recognizes and rewards returning seniors who are providing that leadership backbone to the ensembles—major or non-major, ” Ben explains. “It was important to us to see students want to continue playing throughout their school years.”

Adds Pattie, “We want to encourage students to be lifelong musicians, not just musicians for a moment.”

Golden Buffalo Marching Band alumni Ben and Pattie Nelson have made a huge impact on music in ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ already, and now they will add their name to a new practice room in Imig Music Building.

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Supporter spotlight: Anne Culver

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 17:31:27 +0000

Supporter spotlight: Anne Culver Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/15/2019 - 11:31

Jessie Bauters

Anne Culver always knew music would be a part of her life, even as a child growing up near the Adirondack High Peaks of New York.

“My mother used to hear me humming in time with recordings, so she knew I had an ear,” Culver says. “Almost from the beginning, music was always there.”

It was always there, but it was always a bit unclear what role it would take. Culver—pictured here with her brother and fellow ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder alum Roger Mitchall (BA ’59)—played the piano, but she also sang and had a keen interest in music theory and history. But whether she was singing or sitting at the piano, one thing was clear by the time she came to the College of Music as a piano performance major in 1955: She liked to practice. A lot.

“I felt at that time that I had room and time to grow, so I made a lot of use of the practice rooms. I spent more time there than most of my colleagues.”

That’s why Culver (BM ’59, PhD ’73) was happy to provide support for the new practice rooms being built at Imig—and to name one of them for her late husband, alumnus Richard A. Culver (BME, MME ’50).

The long and winding road

Though she somewhat reluctantly came to Boulder to study music (as a New York native, she originally had her eyes on the big East Coast music programs), Culver quickly found her place at the College of Music. Studying with such well-known former faculty as Storm Bull and Howard Waltz, Culver found a way to feed all of her musical passions as an undergraduate student.

“I loved singing in the choruses—the University and Modern choirs—and in some of the theatrical productions. And I got great training on the piano. I grew a lot there and I was grateful.”

After graduating with her piano degree, Culver went back east for her master’s studies. Again, she ended up on a different path than she anticipated.

“I lived for about five years in New York, teaching at a small school there while trying to start my master’s. Then I went to the Vienna Conservatory to study voice.”

After returning from Europe, Culver took advantage of the now-defunct National Defense Education Act to pursue PhD studies in music theory and music history back at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder. She got paired with yet another legendary faculty member, Bill Kearns.

“My speciality was 20th-century music. I taught two 20th-century music classes, aesthetics and orchestral literature, while teaching a course on American music at Metro State.”

Returning to ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder was a serendipitous move. Dick Culver, who already had two degrees from the College of Music, enrolled in one of Kerns’ seminar classes with Anne during her PhD studies. He was on sabbatical from his work at South High School in Denver.

“And then we got married in 1971, as I was close to finishing my degree.”

A leader is born

After receiving her PhD, Anne joined Dick in Denver, where she taught music theory and history for several years at Metropolitan State University before taking a job at the University of Denver in 1981. Thus began a prolific career in teaching and administration that carried her just through the new millennium.

“I became the director of the School of Music in 1985, serving until 1988. Then I was assistant dean for arts, humanities and social sciences, then acting dean. After that I went back to teaching at the School of Music until I retired.”

Culver is familiar with facilities issues like the ones the College of Music has been facing: During her time at DU, the School of Music was located in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood—about 10 miles north of the main campus—at the site of the old ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Women’s College. She says the distance had its drawbacks, but it was worth it.

“The music and law schools were both up in Park Hill. We were there for quite a while, from when I moved us there in 1985 until 2003 when the Newman Center opened.

“It was a mixed blessing, but we felt that the quality of the facility was far superior, so we had to do it. If we hadn’t, we may have lost our accreditation. We had to do something.”

Since retiring in 2000, Culver has continued playing music regularly, the grand piano in her living room motivation enough to keep practicing. And now the College of Music alumna is proud to be giving back to her and her husband’s alma mater.

“As an alum, I think the College of Music has done an outstanding job. The people that I worked with had a lot of integrity and I respected the faculty and the staff a lot. I made some lifelong friends there—not to mention I met my husband!”

Anne Culver is one of many in the College of Music extended community who has given generously to help turn our new wing into a home. For more information about the Imig Music Building expansion and to give yourself, visit the project page.

College of Music alumna and former University of Denver administrator Anne Culver made a gift to name one of the practice rooms in the expanded Imig Music Building in honor of her alumnus husband.

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Imig Music Building construction: Six months in

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 18:46:33 +0000

Imig Music Building construction: Six months in Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/06/2019 - 12:46

Jessie Bauters

If you’ve been around campus this summer, you probably watched as the gaping hole that had appeared south of Imig Music Building in the spring slowly disappeared with the warmer weather.

That’s because as Music Buffs have been off performing in summer festivals or interning at opera companies and orchestras, an army of engineers, architects, carpenters and contractors has been working diligently through the heat of summer to make the College of Music expansion come to life.

“Our contractors are making great progress, and it’s exciting to really start seeing the building take shape.”

Senior Associate Dean John Davis has been doing regular walkthroughs of the site along Wardenburg Drive since construction began in January. He says that although crews lost about two weeks due to snow during late spring, now that the ground level is finished, weather-related delays should be minimized going forward. As you can see from the photos below, first-floor beams are going up and outer walls will start to appear next—just in time for students and faculty to return to campus later this month.

Davis says the effort has been as heavy a metaphorical lift as the steel beams that make up the skeleton of the expansion. “It’s incredibly complex and vast. There are so many people involved: electrical, plumbing, OIT, the architects, the construction crews. They all have to be on the same page about everything.”

Through it all, the architecture firm that dreamed up the design, Pfeiffer Architects, has been working closely with every stakeholder to get things just right—including the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder campus architects at Facilities Management.

“The campus planners and architects are involved from the very beginning to make sure the design matches the rest of the campus,” Davis says.

That trademark ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ style—sandstone brick, limestone trim and red clay roof tiles—has been around for about 100 years. In response to calls for a campus master plan, Philadelphia firm Day and Klauder proposed the unique architectural design in 1919 based on local resource availability and the stunning backdrop of the Flatirons. And the new wing of the College of Music will fall right in line with that plan.

“The great thing about having that ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ connection is that the campus planners become our eyes and ears with Pfeiffer and Adolfson & Peterson Construction,” Davis says. “They’re really good at what they do. They made a point to truly understand us and our needs. I feel like they know our college as well as we do.”

The campus support, he adds, has been a hallmark of the project from its inception.

“Not only have they worked with us throughout on the new building, they also made space available for us while we’re displaced.”

Davis says the grand new entryway to the building, in addition to being a fitting welcome to members of the college community, will be a fitting gateway to the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder campus as well.

“Patrons are going to feel like it’s a more special place. It’ll still have the history, but it’ll be much more welcoming and classy. It’ll inspire a lot of people.”

And most importantly, when the expansion opens a year from now, it will be a source of pride for all the musicians who will call it home over the College of Music’s second century.

“The facilities will be something we can be proud of, especially knowing that the campus and the community value what we’re doing.”

Get a bird’s eye view of the construction 24 hours a day and read more about the expansion and what’s coming to the College of Music at the Expanding Imig Music Building page.

As Music Buffs have been off performing in summer festivals, engineers, architects, carpenters and contractors have been working diligently to make the new College of Music expansion come to life.

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