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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Patrick Sutton began his journey with the guitar at the age of 11 in Evergreen, Colorado. He completed his Bachelor and Masters in classical guitar performance at the Lamont School of Music, studying with Ricardo Iznaola, Masakazu Ito and Jonathan Leathwood. While at Lamont, he received several honors including, first place in the 2009 Lamont chamber music competition, three recital of distinction awards and induction into the Pi Kappa Lambda national music honor society. Patrick is a two-time prizewinner in the Denver Classical Guitar Society Solo Competition and has performed in master classes for many top guitarists and pedagogues, including, Sharon Isbin, Elliot Fisk, Fredrick Hand, Richard Wright, Fabio Zanon, Marcin Dylla and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. Chamber music is Patrick’s favorite musical outlet. His extensive repertoire includes a wide variety of genres and mixed ensembles. He has received chamber music coaching’s from some of today’s most important composers for the guitar, such as, Robert Beaser, Gilbert Babarian and Stephen Goss.
Patrick maintains a passionate interest in a wide variety of musical styles and is sponsored by Godin Guitars. He is currently on the music faculty at Community College of Denver and is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder as a teaching assistant.
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Deborah Marshall, clarinet, has performed with artists ranging from Peter Serkin to Yo-Yo Ma. She lived in Germany for 22 years where she performed with many of the country’s best-known orchestras. She served on the faculty of the Hochschule fur Musik in Munich and the Richard Strauss Conservatory for 14 years and has coached and given master classes throughout Europe. She has recorded for practically every German broadcasting corporation, as well as Austrian Radio ORF, Swiss Radio SRG and Radio Orfeo Moscow. The following 11 years were spent in Budapest and Moscow, where she continued her active career as soloist and chamber musician. She now resides in Boulder, Colorado.
