November 3, 2023
Freyer-Newman Center, Denver Botanic Gardens

4-5pm MST - Ticketed Concert (advance registration required)
- $12 for Gardens Members
- $15 for Non-members

Register to watch ONLINE
Register to join IN-PERSON (includes entrance to the Gardens)

5-10pm MST - Free Event (no registration required)

Join The Playground Ensemble for 2 events to celebrate Denver Arts Week!

We will begin the program with a concert premiere of Shades of Colorado, a new string quartet by Montana-born composer Jessi Harvey, in the Sturm Family Auditorium at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

After the performance and artist talk, join us for a free event in the Freyer-Newman Center in partnership with Denver Arts Week's Night at the Museums. The Playground String Quartet will explore and reimagine Harvey’s Stages of Water in an ambient atrium experience, while Playground Director Conrad Kehn leads an interactive, drop-in workshop; participants will place contact mics on everyday objects and objects found in Colorado's beautiful natural environment, finding ways to 'play' them and answer the question - what does it sound like?

THE PROGRAM

Ticketed Event: 4-5pm in Sturm Family Auditorium

Shades of Colorado – Jessi Harvey
Featuring:
Sarah Whitnah, Violin
Robyn Julyan, Violin
Allyson Stibbards, Viola
David Short, Cello

Shades of Colorado is a 7-movement string quartet based in research on Colorado’s past, present, and future natural world.  Written during the 2022 Denver Botanic Gardens’ Landline Residency and performed by the Playground Ensemble, data from the research areas form the structure, rhythms, motives, and melodies heard.  The first six movements are based on Colorado’s state butterfly, the Colorado Hairstreak, the Rocky Mountain Locust, the Colorado River, heritage apple trees, the Bristlecone Pine, and plant and insect relationships.  The final movement is dedicated to the people working at the Denver Botanic Gardens and across the world, learning from nature's past and present, to find hope for the future.  

Free Event: 5-10pm throughout Freyer-Newman Center

Stages of Water – Jessi Harvey
Featuring:
Sarah Whitnah, Violin
Robyn Julyan, Violin
Allyson Stibbards, Viola
David Short, Cello

Originally written as part of the music for Karin Stevens Dance, Stages of Water is an examination of water in its various forms, climate change, and humanity’s relationship to both.  Through its five movements, the quartet examines the process of creating sea ice, rising sea levels, types of tidal patterns, and the breaking of cyclical natural patterns.  The beginning introduction works backwards through these processes to return home.

What does it sound like? – Interactive workshop with Conrad Kehn