Colorado Symphony will mix standard fare with new sounds — and few celebrity appearances

The Colorado Symphony will celebrate its 100th year next season and, in some ways, it is starting over. There is a new principal conductor, Peter Oundjian, on the podium for major performances and a new CEO, Mark Cantrell, in the main office directing operations.

The two leaders, along with Tony Pierce, who programs music from the background, will lead an organization that seems to be in a constant state of mission redux. That is not unique; every serious orchestra in the country constantly shifts and wiggles trying to figure out how to make the music resonate and the money jingle in an era when tastes change continuously.

There is some stability in the organization. The musicians are, by and large, veterans who are tuned in to their work well by long-time concertmaster Yumi Hwang-Williams. The orchestra’s second public face, Christopher Dragon (who goes by the title resident conductor), has been around long enough that audiences know his skills, and he understands what makes them happy customers.

There is also the music, of course, and that has been around for what feels like forever. The orchestra unveiled its 2023/24 season this week and it relies, as this organization always has, on the great European composers of the past (though the orchestra does make efforts to shake things up where it can).

The lead-off concerts, scheduled for Sept. 15-17, are a little splashier than the norm, though they sum up the something-old, something-new, something-flashy strategy that defines the playbook.

Oundjian will conduct a program built around the showpiece of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Heating up the program, and the stage as they say, will be traveling piano star Hélène Grimaud, who will solo on Brahms’ First Piano Concerto. The fresh notes come from “Fate Now Conquers,” a recent work by of-the-moment composer Carlos Simon.

From there, the year will be powered by the usual names that bring out the crowds. Highlights include Tchaikovsky’s Sixth, Stravinsky’s “The Firebird,” Mahler’s Third and Beethoven’s Ninth.

The Colorado Symphony Chorus is also marking a milestone with its 40th anniversary and will perform programs featuring Mozart’s “Requiem” and Handel’s “Messiah,” and a special concert built around Vaughan Williams’ “A Sea Symphony.”

The orchestra, which has presented some big-name performers over the years, will have three notable guests: Renee Fleming, probably the only opera singer most people could name, appears on Oct. 7 for a night of “opera favorites.” Yo-Yo Ma, everyone’s favorite classical superstar, comes around May 5 with Elgar’s magical Cello Concerto. A little off-topic, but most appealing of all, will be Broadway’s Audra MacDonald singing titles from the American musical theater songbook, on Sept. 23. It is easy to get excited over the prospect of one of the country’s most talented artists singing this material at a high point of her career.