Weeklong Event to Include Jazz and Broadway Performances, Performer Meet-and-Greets, Lodging & Ticket Packages, and More

This summer, YMCA of the Rockies will host the inaugural Arts at Altitude Festival in partnership with the renowned Cleveland Pops Orchestra. From August 10-17, members of the Cleveland Pops will take over the Estes Park Center location with artist meet-and-greets, instrument showcases, music education sessions, open mic nights and solo pop-ups. The residency will be punctuated by two signature performances – a jazz evening on August 10 and a Broadway program on August 17.

“We are thrilled and honored to welcome the Cleveland Pops Orchestra to our mountain retreat,” says Susan Taylor, program director of YMCA of the Rockies. “By offering an immersive music festival, members and guests will experience the Rocky Mountains with a new lens. Many of the events will be outdoors, or inside our wide variety of historical amphitheaters, chapels, and programming spaces. We’re hoping attendees will walk away inspired by this unique cultural experience.”

For more than three decades, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra has entertained audiences of all ages and developed a shared love and appreciation of music through its orchestral performances, which feature the most popular music of Hollywood, Broadway, rock, jazz and light classics. The Arts at Altitude Festival will be the organization’s first series of performances outside their home state, featuring an ensemble from the Cleveland Pops that includes singers Connor O’Brien and Natalie Green, as well as Maestro Carl Topilow – who will lay aside his baton to perform as clarinetist and saxophonist.

“I have personally experienced Colorado’s strong love of and dedication to the arts,” says founding conductor, Carl Topilow, who spent 42 years as Conductor and now serves as Conductor Laureate of the National Repertory Orchestra, a summer festival in Breckenridge, CO. “We are beyond excited to bring the Cleveland Pops to Estes Park and people from around the region for our first-ever festival outside of Ohio.”

The weeklong music festival kicks off on August 10 with a feature performance of jazz, tunes from The Great American Songbook, and more. Tickets are $10 and can be found here. Music lovers can then enjoy instrument showcases, solo pop-ups, and Maestro meet-and-greets all week long for free.

Tickets to the feature August 17 Broadway program at Reusch Auditorium are $20 for adults, $10 for children, and can be purchased here.