Sunset Season Reveal (2025)

“Sunset Season Reveal" - Food, Wine, Music, & the MahlerFest 39 Season Announcement
Sunday, October 19, 2025 | 6:30 PM | $150
At a Private Home in Boulder

 

Please join us for an evening of food, wine, music, and our MahlerFest 39 Season Announcement. 

This exclusive evening will be held in a unique contemporary home in central Boulder adorned with beautiful artwork and enhanced by MahlerFest Principal Flutist Hannah Porter Occeña and pianist Emely Phelps. They will be joined by our Artistic Director Kenneth Woods. Maestro Woods will offer a first look at the programming for the May 13-17, 2026 festival and share how he curated this upcoming season. The evening features music by female composers Jennifer Higdon, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Amanda Harberg, Gertrude Rivers Robinson, Chen Yi, and Amanda Maier.

 

Featured Artists
Hailed by the New York Times as possessing “rich tone and deft technique,” Festival Artist Hannah Porter Occeña has won national competitions and prizes. As an orchestral player, chamber musician, and soloist, Dr. Occeña has worked to bring to life hundreds of new works. She gave the world premiere performances of flute concertos by Arturo Rodríguez and Joseph Kern, and the European premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s “The Light That We Can Hear.” Dr. Occeña is an active recording artist whose performances can be heard on major music streaming services. She specializes in recording recently published works as well as student-accessible works outside the standard canon, often in collaboration with her duo partner, pianist Emely Phelps. Dr. Occeña is a 2018 DMA graduate of Stony Brook University, where she studied with Carol Wincenc. She holds a Master of Music Dip.RAM from the Royal Academy of Music and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. When not performing, Dr. Occeña enjoys distance running and spending time outdoors with her family. Dr. Occeña is a Miyazawa Artist and plays on a Miyazawa Elite.

Praised by the Boston Globe for her “fleet, energetic, and bright-toned” playing, pianist Emely Phelps enjoys a versatile career as a chamber musician, soloist, and teacher. Second prize winner of the 2023 Ernst Bacon Prize for American Music, she made her solo orchestral debut at the age of 16 with the National Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Phelps is currently recording her third CD with Hannah, with previous releases including Discovering Her Voice and Confluence, and also appears on the Delos label with violinist Dawn Wohn (Unbounded, 2023), all highlighting duos by female composers. Dr. Phelps earned her B.M. and M.M. from the Juilliard School as a student of Julian Martin. She holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University, where she studied with Christina Dahl, and a Graduate Diploma in chamber music from NEC, where she had the privilege of being mentored by Vivian Weilerstein.

Food
This year's event will feature catering by A Spice of Life. The menu is still being prepared but expected to include Miso garlic mushroom canapé, charcuterie, coconut fried shrimp, potato pancakes, ruby deviled eggs, marinated vegetables, and marinated chicken skewers. The registration form includes the option to tell us about dietary restrictions.