Colorado Symphony’s Oundjian is here ‘for the long haul’

What’s in a title? Sometimes you just gotta ask.

The Colorado Symphony has announced the elevation of Peter Oundjian to “Music Director” as the company heads into its season-opening weekend on Friday.

This kerfuffled me a bit, as I had assumed Oundjian has been the big cheese all along since the orchestra gave him the newly created title of Principal Conductor back in 2022. How do you elevate the already most highly elevated?

“In essence, Peter has been the big cheese all along, just with a less traditional title,” said symphony spokesman Nick Dobreff. At most orchestras, principal conductor is a role typically called music director. So this brings his title in line with national standards and assumptions.

“This elevation shows more than anything that he’s here as the head guy for the long haul,” Dobreff added.

The new season begins with Dvorák’s “New World Symphony” with Oundjian conducting Friday through Sunday at Boettcher Concert Hall. That title is literal. The “New World Symphony” incorporates Native American musical rhythms and African American spiritual influences.

Also new: The symphony’s acquisition of a new concert grand piano. For info, go to coloradosymphony.org.

Pithy or petty? You decide.

Local live theater companies’ schedules change all the time, and for all kinds of reasons. But seldom do they play out as publicly as the ongoing dustup between Vintage Theatre artistic director Bernie Cardell and Give 5 Productions founder Julia Tobey.

This week, Give 5 should have been starting rehearsals for a remount of its hit 2023 comedy “Murder for Two,” which was scheduled to reopen at Vintage on Oct. 11. But Tobey found Cardell to be unresponsive to her tenant needs, she said, so she abruptly voided the contract and called him out on social media. Feelings were bruised on all sides.

A Vintage collective even launched a coordinated series of social posts exhorting Cardell not to quit his job over the whole ugly affair. If you missed the opening salvo of this hurly-burly, you might have thought Cardell had left, you know … “altogether.”

Tobey did not back down when she sat down with Alex Miller and Toni Tresca to talk about all things theater on this week’s OnStage Colorado podcast – including lessons learned from her recent underdog success story mounting “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

“I think that clear communication, basic respect and transparency cost us nothing,” Tobey said. “It just costs us just a little bit of time. And that’s all I was expecting in this contract. Unfortunately, the contract was not honored and communication got disrespectful and counterproductive. So we as a team … decided to cancel the contract.”

Rather than engage publicly, Cardell invited any interested parties to drop by Vintage for a series of open “office hours” lobby conversations, as he put it, “to create the start of new intentions and new visions.”

But Give 5’s pullout did create an opening in Vintage’s studio theater space, and Cardell may have gotten in the last salvo today when Vintage announced that, taking the place of Tobey’s “Murder for Two,” will be a hastily assembled remount of Cardell’s own. Drum roll, please: Cardell will be directing Jeffrey Hatcher’s “Murderers,” which he last staged in 2020, from Oct. 18-Nov. 17.

In a news release that does not mention the canceled booking, Cardell elaborated: “When we tried to mount ‘Murderers’ in October 2020, we only got through three performances before the COVID numbers closed us down again. It’s a darkly funny show and perfect for our fall season.”

In other news, Vintage has extended its current new play “Della Doucet” by one week, through Sept. 29.

Briefly …

The theater community is mourning the death of Stephen Maestas, a graduate of Loretto Heights College and a member of the once prolific Hunger Artists Ensemble Theatre, which was a collection of mostly DU students who banded together to form an envelope-pushing company in 1979 and raged on through about 2010. Maestas died Aug. 30 at age 64. A service will be held at 10 a.m. at Olinger Highland Mortuary, 10201 Grant St., in Thornton …

AXS is cutting the face value of all concert tickets 40% for the narrow window of 8 a.m. Thursday to 8 p.m. Friday for those who use code AXS40 at checkout. Go to axs.com/fallforaxs …

As part of its 20^th anniversary season, the Boulder Chamber Orchestra will perform at Carnegie Hall on May 18, 2025. “This milestone is a monumental moment for our orchestra that showcases the dedication, development and passion of our musicians,” said spokesman Reggie Winters. The new season, meanwhile, kicks off Oct. 6 at Boulder Adventist Church.

And finally …

We’re fortunate to have Levitt Pavilion, located at the base of Ruby Hill, as part of our cultural ecology. Levitt provides access to more than 50 free concerts and community events each summer — the equivalent of more than $10 million in concert tickets every year.

Last Friday was a rare treat to see Mariachi Sol De Mi Tierra with Fiesta Colorado Dance Company joined by both “El Javi,” a noted modern flamenco guitarist from Mexico City, and  Denver’s Mexican Elvis, who owns Gregorio’s Mexican restaurant at 1910 Wadsworth Blvd. in Lakewood – and told us he will be entertaining Denver Broncos fans on the sidelines at home games this season.

We’re talking eight mariachi musicians and 14 dancers performing nearly three hours of fully choreographed and costumed numbers. With concert ticket prices soaring out of reach for many, we’re lucky to have the nonprofit Levitt Foundation, which has events like these written into its core mission statement.

There are at least seven more free concerts this season, including Friday through Sunday, starting with The War and Treaty with Sauce. Go to levittdenver.org/free-concert-series.