Strings Music Festival

Strings Music Festival, in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, is a world-renowned Music Festival featuring classical,jazz, blues, Americana, country and youth performances over an 8 week period every summer.

About

Strings Music Festival is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization and operates with the support of sponsors and individual donors. Strings Music Festival hosts more than 90 classical and non-classical music events the majority of which take place in eight weeks every summer from June to August. Concerts are also presented in other months of the year. The Festival includes orchestra, chamber music, contemporary music, jazz, blues, Americana, youth events, lectures, outreach performances and free events.

Strings Music Festival was founded in 1988 as Strings in the Mountains with 8 classical performances held on the deck of the Steamboat Athletic Club. In 1990 the first non-classical acts Leo Kottke and Karla Bonoff were presented. In 1992 Strings erected a tent at Torian Plum property to host the festivals performances. Strings then changed from a 300 seat venue to a structure that could accommodate 500 people. In 1992 Strings Music Festival was put on the map when world-renowned conductor of the St. Louis Symphony, Leonard Slatkin, came to conduct a Chamber Orchestra. CBS Morning News covered the event and gave Strings Music Festival their first national news recognition In 2003 Strings purchased seven acres of land for its new home at the current location of 900 Strings Rd. In 2007 The Festivals name was officially changed to Strings Music Festival, and a year later a permanent Music Pavilion was constructed. The pavilion was a 4.3 million dollar capital project and with the help of Steamboat Architectural Associates and D.L Adams Associates of Denver the project was complete in just nine months.

Classical Music Directors

Strings welcomed the year 2015 and the upcoming 28th Season by collaborating with a new music director, Michael Sachs. For the past 26 years, Sachs has been Principal Trumpet for the Cleveland Orchestra and fell in love with Colorado years ago when he spent a summer in Aspen. He and harpist Yolanda Kondonassis were later married in Aspen and are looking forward to spending their summer with their 11-year-old daughter creating new memories in Steamboat Springs spending the summer away from their hometown of Cleveland. Did you know that the Cleveland Orchestra continues to be one of the most sought-after performing orchestras in the world? Strings couldn’t be more thrilled to have such an accomplished musician leading the Strings Classical Series. Praised by critics for his “spectacular chops” and “radiant tone,” he is recognized internationally as a leading soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, teacher, author and clinician.

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