The Boulder Philharmonic announced last week that longtime music director Michael Butterman would not be conducting this Sunday’s season opening concert. In a video directed to patrons of all his orchestras, the 58-year-old says he was diagnosed with lymphoma in late August and is not able to travel away from his Shreveport, Louisiana, home due to a prescribed course of chemotherapy.
“I feel very good. My doctors are feeling very positive and optimistic about the situation. They tell me they have very effective treatment, that this is curable and we’re getting right after it — and I’m right there with them in that plan, believe me,” Butterman said in the video. “But it means in the short term that I’m going to have to watch my energy. I’m going to have to stay away from crowds, and I’m going to need to stay put.”
The orchestra announced that Sunday’s afternoon concert at Macky Auditorium will proceed as planned with a program featuring young violinist Amaryn Olmeda. Boulder native Francesco Lecce-Chong will appear as guest conductor.
Butterman says that when he spoke with Lecce-Chong, the local musician shared how much the Boulder Phil inspired him growing up. “Francesco told me that it had always been his dream to conduct the orchestra,” Butterman wrote in an email to Boulder Weekly after the diagnosis.
Back to the Renaissance
Speaking several days before his diagnosis, Butterman outlined the 2024-25 season, which will be one of the orchestra’s most ambitious. The lineup includes two world premieres, three guest soloists and a closing performance of Beethoven’s gigantic “magnum opus” Missa solemnis with the Boulder Concert Chorale.
16-year-old Olmeda, who at age 13 won the Sphinx Competition for young Black and Latinx string players, was suggested to Butterman by former CU Boulder College of Music Dean Daniel Sher. Butterman says Sher “gushed about her charisma and stage presence.” She offered the great Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto from 1878.
“Surprisingly, it has not been done by the Phil since I arrived here 18 years ago,” Butterman says.
Looking for a symphony whose orchestration matched the Tchaikovsky work, Butterman landed on Felix Mendelssohn’s last, No. 5 from 1830, the so-called “Reformation,” which is not performed as often as the composer’s third or fourth symphonies, the “Scottish” and “Italian.”
“The Mendelssohn symphony was written to celebrate the anniversary of a Renaissance event, the Augsburg Confession,” Butterman says. “So I thought of including a Renaissance composition.”
The Lachrimae antiquae by English composer John Dowland was written for lute with a consort of viols in 1604, and will be played in an arrangement for string orchestra. In addition, the orchestra invited the audience to vote for a fourth piece that would open the concert. The winner was the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1910), which is based on music by a Renaissance composer.
Moons and planets
A Nov. 10 concert celebrates the 150th anniversary of Gustav Holst’s birth with the English composer’s 1916 masterpiece The Planets. It is paired with a world premiere by Broomfield native CU Boulder grad John Heins called Moons of the Giants.
Butterman says he came in contact with Heins through the Phil’s late concertmaster Charles Wetherbee, who shared works composed by Heins for his string quartet. “It’s contemporary, but compelling, tuneful stuff you can appreciate on first hearing,” he says.
The new orchestral work was not a commission. Heins, who was in contact with Butterman, wrote it with the hope that the orchestra would program it.
“He chose a selection of the most prominent moons of the outer planets whose names have mythological connections, and wrote a movement for each,” Butterman says. They are Proteus (Neptune), Ariel (Uranus), Enceladus (Saturn), Titan (Saturn), Europa (Jupiter) and Io (Jupiter).
Butterman says that a program with The Planets provided an opportunity for a thematic connection to include the 25-minute Heins composition set to a video by the Fiske Planetarium.
The music director is not certain he will be able to conduct in November following his recent health scare, but he has confidence in the musicians and patrons.
“It’s been a whirlwind of activity and emotions,” he says. “But they have responded quickly and supportively, for which I’m very grateful.”
ON THE BILL: Boulder Philharmonic 2024-25 season opener with violinist Amaryn Olmeda. 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8. Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. $29-$95
Boulder Phil Concerts in 2025
Violinist Tessa Lark, who has a special connection with folk music, joins for an Americana-themed program Jan. 12. She plays the bluegrass-inspired Sky Concerto, written for her by Michael Torke. The anchor work is Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, the America-inspired From the New World. Opening the concert is a commissioned piece by Stephen Lias, who partners with the National Park Service as composer-in-residence. Wind, Water, Sand pays tribute to Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park.
On March 30, pianist Alessio Bax will play Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, another piece Butterman says the Phil has not had opportunity to perform in his time. “I was blown away by Alessio, and he is one of my favorite collaborators ever,” Butterman says. Another Russian piece, Igor Stravinsky’s Petrouchka, anchors the program, and that score’s carnival theme is also reflected in the opener, Anna Clyne’s Pivot, inspired by the contemporary English composer’s experience at the Edinburgh International Music Festival.
The season concludes with Beethoven’s Missa solemnis on May 4. All concerts are Sundays at 4 p.m.