Martha Sandford-Heyns, DMA is the organist/pianist, director of small ensembles for the Presbyterian Church of Boulder. She holds a BM in Organ Performance from Syracuse University, a MM and a DMA from the University of Colorado, Organ Performance, Early Music and Choral Conducting. Her organ teachers have included Arthur Poister, Everett Hilty and Don Vollstedt, Sandra Souderland, harpsichord, Lynn Whitten Choral Conducting, and Gordon Sandford, Early Music Performance.
Dr. Sandford is a well known recitalist having performed on the United States Air Force Academy Artists’ Series, University of Denver, University of Colorado, Syracuse University Artist’s Series, and many large church artist’s series. Her most recent teaching position was as Adjunct Professor of Organ and Harpsichord, University of Denver.
Dr. Sandford-Heyns lives in Lafayette with husband, Garrett and musically inclined Wheaton Terrier, Teddy.
The Playground Ensemble, Artists-in-Residence at DU’s Lamont School of Music, is a force for new music in the Rocky Mountain region. We are a group of professional musicians and composers dedicated to presenting classical music as a living art form.
In addition to an annual concert season that features the work of recognized composers, we cultivate a thriving local composition community and we conduct dynamic educational programs with youth and people of all ages. With exciting outreach programs like “Living Music, Living Composer” and “American Made” the Playground is working to show young people that classical music is not a museum piece. It is vibrant, adventurous and relevant to the world they live in.
Now in its 6th year, our Colorado Composers Concert (CoCoCo), has featured 49 works by 39 different Colorado-based composers including a number of K-12 composers. Be watching our web site for the next deadline and be sure to alert any composers you know to this opportunity.
The Playground has performed at many notable venues and festivals including the Arvada Center, the Denver Art Museum, the International Society of Improvised Music Annual Conference, the National Performing Arts Convention, the Mile High Voltage Festival, and the Denver Music Summit. We have performed with, or shared a bill with a number of new music luminaries including So Percussion, Evan Ziporyn, Tatsuya Nakatani and Ron Miles. Our efforts have been recognized with awards and funding from the American Music Center, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado, as well as numerous regional foundations and individuals.
In the Spring of 2011 The Playground released its debut CD, Dreams Go Through Me. This project features a number of Colorado based composers and is supported by the American Music Center’s CAP Recording Program, made possible by endowment funds from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and with funds from The Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, along with the Newman Center, and Colorado Public Radio.
The Playground’s mission is to provide stimulating performances, expand common perceptions of both contemporary music and the chamber ensemble, and nurture a community around this music that we love.
If you want to get involved, please write us at playground@du.edu or visit www.PlaygroundEnsemble.org.
Artistic Director and Conductor Brian Patrick Leatherman, now in his 17th year with the Chorale, leads a multi-faceted life as conductor, teacher, singer, and clinician. A fully certified Orff-Schulwerk teacher, Mr. Leatherman is a vocal/general music specialist in the Douglas County Colorado schools. His students have performed at the National Conference of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association and the Colorado Music Educator’s Association annual Clinic/Conference. He is active as a choral clinician and adjudicator. Mr. Leatherman has appeared as tenor and counter-tenor soloist with the San Juan Symphony, National Repertoire Orchestra, Colorado Springs Symphony, Greeley Philharmonic, Aurora Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Fort Collins Symphony, Breckenridge Music Institute Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Chorale, Columbine Chorale, Repertoire Singers of Colorado, Larimer Chorale, Pueblo Chorale, Desert Chorale of Santa Fe, the Robert Shaw Festival Singers, and the Robert Shaw Festival Chorus.
Bitten by the conducting bug in high school, he was the first junior to conduct the pep band, as well as the first student to conduct both the Concert Chorale and the Symphonic Band in concert. Prior posts include directorship of the Pueblo Choral Society and the Douglas County Children’s Chorus. He has been guest conductor for the Greeley Chorale, the Colorado Springs Chorale, the Arapahoe Philharmonic and the Pueblo Symphony. He has conducted opera and ballet with Opera Fort Collins, the Colorado Opera Troupe, and the Colorado Ballet.
Mr. Leatherman has served on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association and the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Orff Schulwerk Association. He holds the BME and the MM degree, with emphasis in choral conducting, from Colorado State University, and cites as his two greatest influences Barbara Grenoble in pedagogy and Robert Shaw in choral work.
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