Boulder festival puts musicians in ‘paradise’
By Marc Shulgold 
| July 29, 2009 | 10:01 AM
Musicians Dominique Corbeil and Gerald Scholl and their son Olivier spend summers in Boulder for the Colorado Music Festival. (RMI photo by Marc Shulgold)
BOULDER – There’s no need to feel pity for young Olivier Scholl, even though he has spent each of his six summers far from home and his friends.
Instead of playing in the sweltering Kansas heat, he travels each June with his parents from Wichita to the cooler climes of Boulder. Summers are spent living in a rented house close to the grounds of Chautauqua Park, where his mom and dad — Dominique Corbeil and Gerald Scholl — are musicians with the Colorado Music Festival.
“Everyday, we wake up in paradise,” Scholl, CMF principal percussionist, said, gesturing to the pastoral surroundings of the Boulder park.
For 13 years, he and his violinist wife have taken advantage of their time off from their regular orchestra jobs — first in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and now with the Wichita Symphony — to enjoy the beauty of Colorado and the pleasure of performing with a top-notch, hand-picked orchestra.
Each summer, the festival performs four nights a week for six weeks in Chautauqua Auditorium, attracting players from across the country and as far off as Australia. This year’s festival runs through Aug. 7.
Although the 95 members of music director Michael Christie’s orchestra each have their own reasons for making the trip to Boulder, most would agree with Scholl and his wife, who said that the experience of making great music in such a picturesque setting is more than worth the travel time.
“At first,” Scholl said, “Dominique and I thought it would simply be a way we could make a little extra money. But now, we come because it’s such a super orchestra.”
Seated next to her husband on a bench near the century-old Chautauqua Dining Hall, Corbeil nodded in agreement.
“I think we’re all here because we want to play,” she said. “But it’s more than that. Each year we come back, we make lots of personal connections. There are friendships, there are families.”
Players average from $2,900 to $3,200 for the summer season — although Scholl and Corbeil earn more, since he receives extra as a principal and the couple are paid an additional sum for their services as orchestra librarians, posts they’ve held for the past five years.
However, “no one comes here just for the money,” Scholl said. Since members of this ensemble of polished professionals likely could audition and be accepted at any number of summertime music festivals, there is a special pull that brings many of them back year after year — some for even longer than Scholl and Corbeil.
“We always arrive with high expectations,” Corbeil said. “The programming is a challenge. There’s a lot of work and a lot of music: We’ll play five different programs in eight days.”
No one approaches music-making with a casual attitude, Scholl added. “Everyone plays to a high level — you see that, even at the very first rehearsal. And that’s certainly been true since Michael (Christie) got here (nine years ago). There’s a real passion with these players.”
That commitment, he said, is mirrored in the contributions of CMF board members, who often provide housing for visiting musicians and who treat them to meals and take them on outings. The board, he said, also is working to raise the summertime salaries of orchestra members.
None of that matters to young Olivier, who’s been playing violin since he was 3. For him, summers in Boulder are pure pleasure, even if mom and dad are rarely around.
“He’s still too young to be on his own,” Scholl said, “so every year we arrange for a nanny to take care of him while we’re rehearsing, performing or taking care of our library chores. But he has made a friend here, and he’s been involved in the festival’s Classically Kids.”
That program, offering youth-oriented workshops built around CMF concerts, takes place Wednesday afternoons in the Chautauqua Community House. With a shy grin, Olivier says they’re “boring.” But his parents know better.
“Being here each summer has been a great experience for him,” Scholl said.
IF YOU GO: Colorado Music Festival concerts continue on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays at 7:30 p.m. in Chautauqua Auditorium, Ninth and Baseline streets in Boulder, through Aug. 7. Information: 303-449-1397
boulder, chautauqua, classically kids, colorado music festival, dominique corbeil, gerald scholl, wichita symphony
