Colorado Symphony Starts Summer Season With Explosive Civic Center Fireworks

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Photo by Hyoung Chang, The Denver PostDenver's City and County Building was ablaze with color and the sky alight with Fireworks while the Colorado Symphony brought the audience to their feet with the ever popular Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture

Photo by Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post

The Colorado Symphony, under the baton of consummate showman Scott O'Neil, Associate Conductor, performed for a huge crowd at Civic Center Park last night. Using Denver's City and County Building as a backdrop, the symphony played an American themed patriotic concert for an Independence Eve Celebration. The Colorado Symphony performed popular pieces by American composers such as Souza and Copland to create a festive evening primed for the fireworks. Scott O'Neil encouraged the crowd to clap during particularly popular numbers or helped them find the words during "America the Beautiful" to create the celebratory atmosphere of the evening.

The symphony was well mic'd so the speakers at the side of the stage could provide amplification. Unfortunately, the crowd was so much larger than expected, stretching back to the Capital steps, nearly 1/4 mile away. The amplification was nice but not enough to reach the extensive, enthusiastic crowd. Combine that with a colorful light show that didn't just light up the City and County Building, but changed to reflect the changes in music, some of the drama of the event was lost on the far reaches of the crowd.

Those minor quibbles aside, the Independence Eve Celebration was a perfect first year event. From the sea of spectators relaxing on the lawn, to the people milling about amid the vendors enjoying a variety of foods, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

The fireworks display began at the culmination of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and continued through Souza's Stars and Stripes Forever and beyond. Hundreds of pocket cameras captured the event for people who will be talking about this event for years to come.

What's even better is this concert was the first of several FREE concerts by the Colorado Symphony. On Monday they perform again at the picturesque Red Rocks Amphitheater. See you all there!

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