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The graduate ensemble 40th Parallel, featuring Leanne Hampton, flute, Abby Yeakle, oboe, Peter Bauer, clarinet, Yahaira Nieves, bassoon, and Katherine Smith, horn.

CU Opera will open its 2014-15 season with Gilbert and Sullivan’s beloved comic operetta, “The Pirates of Penzance,” at Macky Auditorium Oct. 24-26. “This is one of the two or three most important pieces by Gilbert and Sullivan, and we’ve got just the right students to fill these roles,” says Leigh Holman, director of CU Opera. “This is a delightful piece and audiences just go crazy for it.”

Prior to his appointment at CU-Boulder, Matthew Dockendorf studied at Michigan State University, where he wrote drill and arranged music for the Spartan Marching Band and Spartan Brass. He served as conductor of the Campus Band and guest conducted the Wind Symphony, Symphony Band, Concert Band and Musique 21.

Andrea Ramsey comes to the College of Music from the The Ohio State University in Columbus, where she is currently teaches choral methods and undergraduate conducting, and conducts the University Chorus.

Paul McKee received a BME from the University of Northern Iowa and an MM in composition from the University of Texas at Austin. In 1984 he joined Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd and appeared on several Grammy-nominated recordings. Over the years McKee has served on the jazz faculty at schools including DePaul University, Youngstown State University, Northern Illinois University, the University of Missouri at Kansas City and Florida State University.

As a tenor, Matthew Chellis has appeared to critical and popular acclaim throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and South America. He has performed with the New York City Opera, National Symphony, Atlanta Opera, Opera de Bogota, Frankfurt Opera and many others. He has served leading roles in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Don Juan in Prague, Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance and numerous others.

Charles Wetherbee, assistant professor of violin, spoke with Jean Inaba of Colorado Public Radio about his recent appointment as concertmaster for the Boulder Philharmonic.

Students from the College of Music joined other CU-Boulder musicians in an impromptu concert at the Center for Community.

‘Side by Side’ is more than just a musical review BOULDER, Colo. — Imagine hanging out with legendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim and a few of his closest friends—Bernadette Peters, Leonard Bernstein, Mandy Patinkin and others—as they chat and swing into some of his greatest works. That’s what you’ll experience onstage when CU Opera performs “Side by Side by Sondheim” April 24-27.

Akira Endo, former director of orchestral studies at the University of Colorado Boulder College of Music, died April 3, 2014. He was 75. He was born Nov. 16, 1938 in Shido, Japan to the late Hikataro and Reiko Endo. In 1954 he moved with his family to the United States, where he completed his high-school education.