Rocky Ridge News:

New Music Center Director is named by the Board of Trustees. SoYoung Lee, a concert pianist, teacher and arts administrator, is Rocky Ridge’s new music director. She has held director positions at Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory Adult Education/Preparatory Department, Millikin University Preparatory Division and the Boulder Arts Academy/Boulder Ballet.  Ms. Lee served on the music faculty at Millikin, State University of New York, Fredonia, and recently, served as visiting Piano Pedagogy faculty at the University of Colorado, Boulder.  SoYoung received a Doctorate in Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  She attended the University of Birmingham and the Birmingham School of Music in England, the University of Southern California and the University of California at Santa Barbara on a full music scholarship.

SoYoung was born in Korea, into a family of musicians. She began her piano music studies at the age of four, and the family moved to the U.S. six years later. She received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of California – Irvine, as well as a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Piano Performance from the University of California – Santa Barbara. Ms. Lee will continue as artistic director of the Notes at 9000: Emerging Artist Series at Winter Park, and she is involved with a number of innovative music and dance projects (including a Bach2Brazil chamber ballet in collaboration with choreographer Viki Psihoyos, a newly commissioned of chamber opera by composer/librettist Daniel Felsenfeld titled The Bloody Chamber based on the fairytale of the Bluebeard’s Castle, and a multi-disc recording project of Schumann’s piano works with pianist Sergio Gallo and baritone Daniel Ihasz).

“When I first visited Rocky Ridge Music Center I knew in my heart that it was a special place.  I felt the magic and wonder of the past and imagined a myriad of possibilities for the future of Rocky Ridge. I look forward to creating a harmonious community dedicated to the intense pursuit of music making.” -- SoYoung Lee

A former student, Jim Crump, has been elected president of the Rocky Ridge Music Center Foundation. Jim, who attended the music center as a piano student in the summer of 1965, succeeds Norman Paulu, who served as for the past five years. Norman, who taught at the music center for nearly 15 years with Beth Miller Harrod and is Emeritus Professor-Artist in Residence of the University of Wisconsin, heads a committee that is searching for a new music center director to replace Connie Glen, who held that post for the past two years. Finding a new music center director is the board’s top priority and it is committed to having Rocky Ridge deliver unique music instruction, friendships and concerts in our glorious mountain setting.

Anthony “Hutch” Monteson is the new director of development at Rocky Ridge. For the past 8 years, Hutch has directed  Arts For All Children, a scholarship provider for Boulder County young artists. Other members of the Rocky Ridge Music Center Foundation are: Bob Berzok, vice president and chief operations officer, whose connection with music goes back to a solo appearance in an “All (New York) City High School Choral competition in the 1950s; Charles Wright, treasurer and chief financial officer; Michael Holmes, who plays viola and manages Chamberre of the Rockies. The Chamberre program meets at Rocky Ridge after the RRMC season; Kamilla Macar, a community choir director, violinist, singer in the Boulder Bach Festival and Colorado Music Festival Chorus; and Paul Saunders, founder and station director of KREV 104.7 Estes Park. Paul is the tuba player for The Estes Park Village Band and the Riverside Ramblers Dixieland Jazz band.

Rocky Ridge’s historic lodge, the Hewes-Kirkwood Inn, served as a resting place for hikers and tourists to enjoy nearby Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park’s only fourteen-thousand foot peak. 

Throughout the entire summer, the public can enjoy Rocky Ridge’s Music in the Mountains Concert Series, featuring our distinguished faculty and guest artists performing chamber music every Sunday at 3:00 p.m., as well as selected evenings. Guests enjoy these concerts in our performance hall overlooking the Tahosa Valley, just nine miles south of Estes Park on Highway 7.  See our website for directions).

Rocky Ridge Music Center provides an exhilarating summer opportunity with sessions geared for many age groups: our Young Artist Seminar (YAS) for 15-24 year olds; the Junior Student Seminars (JSS) for ages10-14 and Adult Seminars. Through private lessons, chamber groups, and masterclasses, each student develops musically, socially, and personally in an inspirational setting. Founded in 1942 by pianist Beth Miller Harrod, Rocky Ridge Music Center has a rich history, being one of the oldest music centers of its kind in the nation.

Rocky Ridge Music Center’s summer events are supported, in part, with funds provided by the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), the Colorado Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, KREV Estes Park, and Wells Music.