A commemoration overture written in honor of the Colorado School of Mines 125th anniversary.

Music by David Ackerman

Commemoration Overture is a newly commissioned work that celebrates the Colorado School of Mines 125th anniversary and presents the following moods:

1. The awakening of a Dream (with fanfare): The dream of a University becomes a reality in 1874. Colorado Territory will become a state and is recognized for the unusual beauty of its mountains and plains, and as a newly emerging source of valuable minerals.

2. The Building of a University: Colorado School of Mines is build by the labor and dedication of the people.

3. School Days: This includes 'Ramblin" Wrecks of Georgia Tech' (school song) and 'Gaudeamus Igitur' in a musical statement of learning, fun, and purpose, juxtaposed into an antiphonal march.

4. Colorado School of Mines Anthem (Words):

  'Amid the foothills to the Rockies, headway to the plains,
  There stands our alma mater strong, we sing they praised refrain.
  Guardian of our precious earth and protector of our seas,
  Our Colorado school of Mines, we hail to thee.'

5. Guardians of the Earth: A final march and fanfare of the mission and destiny of the Colorado School of Mines.


Colorado Suite is a programmatic piece performed by the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra that depicts a "sunrise to sunset" impression of Colorado. It opens with woodwinds imitating the many birds found in the mountains and plains of Colorado, gradually heralding into the sunrise.

As the day progresses with the tasks at hand, Coloradoans always appreciate the end of the day with the magnificent sunsets over the Rocky Mountains which initiates a dramatic climactic finale to the Colorado Suite.


David Ackerman

David Ackerman has been teaching music technology, arranging, orchestrating, composition and multimedia studies at the University of Colorado at Denver since 1990, and has been a resident of Colorado since immigrating from the Pacific Northwest in 1970.

He is currently engaged in completing a Doctor of Arts degree from the University of Northern Colorado in Composition/Theory and Music Technology.

As Associate Conductor and Composer in Residence of the Jefferson Symphony, he has composed, arrange, and/or conducted in the Denver area as well as orchestras throughout the United States since 1979.

Contact: dackerma@carbon.cudenver.edu  (303) 427-8307


The Jefferson Symphony Orchestra

The Jefferson Symphony Orchestra was founded by faculty members at the Colorado School of Mines in 1953.

The CSM campus in Golden, Colorado is the home of the winter concert series of this 85 piece symphonic orchestra.

Contact: (303) 278-4237