COLORADO SYMPHONY 

Denver 

News: The Colorado Symphony has enjoyed several defining moments over the past several months, most notably its New York tour, featuring critically acclaimed concerts at Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall. 

The orchestra added further notoriety on May 9 when Jon Batiste headlined the 2026 Symphony in the City Gala, a dinner and concert expected to raise $1 million. 

Batiste, the former bandleader/music director for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, has more Grammy, Academy, Golden Globe, BAFTA, NAACP Image and Critics’ Choice awards than you can shake a songbook at, joined the symphony for a performance that had the Boettcher Concert Hall audience clapping, smiling and on its feet for multiple standing ovations. 

The concert hall had barely emptied before Facebook and Instagram feeds started blowing up with pictures and congratulatory posts that ranged from “Wow. Wow. Wow!” to “We got to witness a genius.”  

Which made it perfectly OK for Daniel Wachter, the symphony’s president and chief executive officer, to brag. The night, he said, was the perfect occasion “To celebrate how this arts organization inspires and unites humanity through live symphonic music, connecting communities across Colorado and beyond, and expanding the access and impact that defines us today.” 

The symphony, Wachter added, “Is the living heartbeat of our state, expressing its beauty, creativity, vitality, and inclusive spirit.” 

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, in videotaped remarks, noted that the evening “Is about supporting something that connects everyone, the Colorado Symphony. It moves the city forward, and when it thrives, Denver thrives.” 

Symphony in the City began with a cocktail reception and silent auction in the lobby of the Helen Bonfils Theater Complex. Then everyone moved upstairs to Seawell Ballroom for dinner, live auction bidding and presentation of the 2026 Margaret Phipps Award to Dr. Paula Bernstein. 

Bernstein, a psychologist who has taught at the Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis and other schools for 50 years, has served on the boards of the Colorado Symphony and its predecessor, the Denver Symphony, for a grand total of 45 years. She retired from the latter post in 2024 and continues as a life trustee of the Aspen Music Festival. 

“Today I will be saying goodbye, but I retire knowing the Colorado Symphony is reaching communities better than ever before.” 

John Street, who chairs the Colorado Symphony board, introduced the paddle-raise conducted by J.J. Raterink that added $163,500 to the evening’s proceeds. Additional funds came from ticket sales, sponsorships and a $100 “paddle sweep” of the ballroom. 

The committee planning the gala included Britany Chism of Tapestry Productions; Grace Heneveld, senior accounting manager for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment; Dr. Marta O’Grady, division administrative director at the University of Colorado School of Medicine Department of Surgery; Ryan Sanders, of Design Within Reach; artist Topher Straus; Alex Thomas, an attorney at Taft Law; and community leader Jamie Tsui.  

Among the guests: Former Denver Mayor Federico Pena and his wife, Cindy; Mary Rossick Kern, who with her late husband, Jerry, had led the orchestra as co-CEOs; Margaret Hoeppner, who retired from the symphony after 63 years as its cellist; Nancy Accetta, whose mother, the late Erna Butler, was the Margaret Phipps Award recipient in 2012; Dr. Richard Krugman and Julie Rubsam, the award recipients in 2025. 

About the organization: Established in 1989 as the successor to the Denver Symphony, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra performs in Boettcher Concert Hall and throughout the Front Range, presenting education and outreach programs; masterworks; pops, holiday and family concerts; and the Inside the Score and Symphony on the Rocks series. 

Website: coloradosymphony.org 

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