Blog – Colorado Symphony

More than four centuries ago, a man named Gaspar Yanga was taken from his homeland in West Africa and enslaved in colonial Mexico. History tells us he was of royal lineage, an African prince who refused to accept the life imposed upon him. After escaping enslavement, he led a community of formerly enslaved people into the mountains near Veracruz, where they resisted Spanish f...

There are few pieces of music that can stop the world in its tracks. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is one of them. For more than two centuries, audiences have risen to their feet as its final notes resound through concert halls across the globe. Its triumphant “Ode to Joy” has become a universal symbol of hope, peace, and our shared humanity and it’s been performed at moments of...