The CSU Orchestras strive to invite everyone within and beyond our CSU community to create, experience, and respond to performances that enrich and deepen our ties to humanity and one another.
Events
Spring 2026 Student Recitals / FREE
Trumpet Studio Recital / FREE
Book Talk: "Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain"
Jazz Combos Concert: Combos III, IV, and V
Opera: Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi
Opera: Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi
2026 Spring Game Extravaganza with the CSU Marching Band
2026 CSU Jazz High School Honor Band
Woodwinds Chamber Ensemble Concerts / FREE
Brass Area Chamber Recital / FREE
Guest Artist Concert: Emily Martin, Soprano / FREE
Woodwinds Chamber Ensemble Concerts / FREE
Flute Studio Recital / FREE
Jazz Combos Concert: Combos I and II
2026 Color Guard Pre-Audition Clinic (optional)
Trombone Choir Concert / FREE
Virtuoso Series Concert: Tiffany Blake, Soprano
Humanities Research Day
Guitar Studio Recital / FREE
All-Choral Finale Concert
Moved & Combined:Undergraduate Chamber Music Concert / FREE
MOVED: String Chamber Music Concert / FREE
Wind Symphony Concert: Enigma!
2026 CSU Percussion Solo and Ensemble Competition and Festival
Percussion Ensemble Festival Concert
Double Reed Studio Recital / FREE
Saxophone Studio Recital / FREE
Concert Orchestra Concert: The Birds and the Bees / FREE
CANCELLEDVirtuoso Series Concert: Patricia Goble, Soprano, and Juhyun Lee, Piano
CANCELLEDGuest Artist Concert: Andrew Lynge, Percussion / FREE
Jazz Ensembles Concert: With Guest Artist Jonathan Kreisberg, Guitar
Virtuoso Series Concert: Drew Leslie, Trombone, and Brian Sugrue, Euphonium & Tuba, with Juhyun Lee, Piano
Symphonic Band Concert
Symphonic Band Concert
2026 CSU Color Guard Auditions: In-person and Online Options
World Percussion Ensemble Concert
Trombone Studio Recital / FREE
2026 CSU Drumline Auditions
Concert Band Concert: Of the People / FREE
String Area Honors Recital / FREE
Keyboard Area Studio Recital / FREE
Music in the Museum: CSU Graduate Students / FREE
University Symphony Orchestra Concert: Virtuoso Voices
2026 CSU Percussion Camp
2026 Organ Week at Colorado State University
2026 Colorado Harp Seminar
2026 Colorado Kodály Institute
2026 Colorado Cello Intensive
2026 International Keyboard Odyssiad® and Festival, USA
2026 Alumni Band at CSU Homecoming and Family Weekend
News
Following reviews by a panel of national music educators, Dr. Rachel Waddell, Colorado State University Director of Orchestras, was named one of twenty-five semifinalists for the Recording Academy and Grammy Museum’s Music Educator Award. Dr. Waddell was chosen from a national pool of 2,000 initial nominations and is the only semifinalist from the state of […]
Ensembles
University Symphony Orchestra
(MU 302)
Our Symphony Orchestra serves as a model for the 21st-century orchestra and is CSU's premier orchestral ensemble. We strive to celebrate the talents of our diverse student body, including music majors, minors, and non-majors. We offer a variety of performance experiences, including opera, dance, theatre, Colorado All-State, and other interdisciplinary collaborations. Our programs explore and expand the existent canon with new music and music by historically under-programmed composers. Recent performances include Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, Jerod Tate's Ghost of the White Deer bassoon concerto with Cayla Bellamy, and Englebert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel.
Auditions for all instruments are held at the beginning of the fall semester. Winds, brass, and percussion must reaudition in the spring. String players who participate in symphony in the fall are not currently required to re-audition for the spring; however, new string players are welcome to audition at the start of the spring semester.
- Audition required
- Rehearses: T/TR, 2:30–5 p.m., UCA G 106 (Griffin Concert Hall)
- Course Code: MU 302
- Director: Rachel Waddell
Concert Orchestra (MU 206)
Our Concert Orchestra provides performance, educational, and collaborative opportunities for all CSU students in a supportive and nurturing environment. This is an excellent ensemble for music minors, non-performance music majors, music majors on secondary instruments, and students in other degree programs interested in continuing orchestra performance for leisure and personal fulfillment. All are welcome!
- Please register for the class. At the start of the semester, you will receive further instructions from the instructor via email.
- Rehearses: M/W, 1-2:30 p.m., UCA Organ Recital Hall
- Director: Rachel Waddell
