MahlerFest and COVID-19
April 6, 2020
Dear MahlerFest Friends and Supporters,
I’m sure it will come as no surprise to you all that we have been forced to cancel this year’s MahlerFest due to the coronavirus outbreak. Concern for your safety and that of our musicians means we had no other 
choice. Additionally, all of our concert venues are also now closed until the summer at the earliest.
Canceling this year’s festival was a particularly painful step. Ethan, the board, and I had worked all year to put together what we all felt was the most dynamic and ambitious program the festival has ever delivered. MahlerFest, and the sense of fellowship and discovery it brings, has come to be one of the cornerstones of my professional life, and I shall miss you all this year.
We’ve been working hard to figure out a pathway forward from here, a process complicated by a huge degree of uncertainty about what the coming months will bring. Nobody yet knows how long the virus will continue to disrupt our lives, nor can we say with any certainty what the social and economic costs will be. Nevertheless, we all feel strongly that the more challenging the circumstance, the more important it is to be pragmatically optimistic and to look to the future with hope and vision.
We have looked at the possibilities of rescheduling this year’s festival later in 2020 or early in 2021, but this has not proved to be practical. We’ve also had to take into account a clash of repertoire with the Colorado Symphony, who will be performing Mahler’s Second Symphony in May 2021.
We now plan to regroup and focus on next year’s festival in May 2021, which will run May 16-23 . We’ll be focusing on Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, a hugely uplifting piece with which to renew the festival. In 2022, we plan to present the program we had planned for 2020, including Mahler’s Second Symphony, Philip Sawyers’s Hommage to Kandinsky and Act One of Wagner’s Die Walküre. Going forward after that, we plan to continue our cycle in order from the Fourth Symphony.
We plan to present a modest selection of online content during what would have been the festival week this May. We’ll be updating you via email about what to expect, and do keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter feeds and our website.
Heartbroken as I am to miss seeing you all, and to miss out on this year’s immersion in Mahler and friendship, Suzanne, the kids, and I are thinking of you and looking forward to lots of music and joy in 2021. Please keep in touch, stay safe, and stay well in these strange and uncertain times.
With love and gratitude,
Ken Woods, Colorado MahlerFest Artistic Director
TICKET REFUND INFORMATION
MahlerFest and our partner venues are offering full refunds for all purchased tickets. However, like many of our partners in the arts, we ask that you consider donating your ticket purchase to Colorado MahlerFest to help sustain us through these difficult times. We understand that this not possible or desirable for everyone. If you would like a refund, please follow the steps below. Unless otherwise requested, all tickets will be converted to donations after Friday, May 1, 2020. If you have any questions about your tickets please don’t hesitate to contact us at Ethan.Hecht@MahlerFest.org
Tickets Purchased Directly from MahlerFest
Includes Weekender and Full Season subscription packages as well as individual tickets for Underground Opera and the Lieder Recital. Contact Ethan.Hecht@MahlerFest.org or 720-310-8946.
Tickets for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 Purchased from Macky Auditorium
Contact tickets.macky@
Tickets for Chamber Music or the Film at the Dairy Arts Center
Contact office@thedairy.org wi
March 26, 2020
Envisioning MahlerFest deadline extended – MahlerFest is still evaluating our options for our May festival in light of the COVID-19 situation. In the short term, we are inviting artists to participate virtually/digitally, and we will “display” submissions online during our May festival week, regardless of whether the festival continues as planned or is rescheduled/cancelled.
The new deadline for submissions is April 30, 2020
March 18, 2020
Pop Up Mahler, our program scheduled for April 4 with Opera on Tap Colorado, has been postponed. We hope to reschedule soon.
March 12, 2020
Dear MahlerFest Community,
I hope you are all staying well as we move through the current coronavirus pandemic.
Things are changing rapidly, and we are working hard to understand the situation. I ask for your patience while events unfold and we determine a strategy for MahlerFest XXXIII.
The University of Colorado at Boulder, where much of our festival takes place, will be holding all classes online after spring break. Additionally, they have cancelled all events with more than 150 attendees for at least six weeks.
MahlerFest does not fall within the current window of cancellations. That is good news for now, but it does leave us with some decisions to make.
We are currently looking at all of the options for the festival and the impact any decision would have on all the members of our community as well as the festival itself. If you would like to share your thoughts with us as we evaluate the situation, please send them to us at COVID-19@MahlerFest.org.
Our board is currently collecting information and evaluating the situation. We will update you as soon as we have any more information to share
Thank you and take care,
Ethan Hecht
Executive Director