Check out the 2025-26 Stratus Season!
The human mind holds endless stories—brilliant, joyful, twisted, and bold—and Stratus Chamber Orchestra is telling them all this season. Across four concerts, you’ll explore the complicated state of the human mind - what inspires us, unites us, unsettles us, and propels us forward.
Explore the unending creativity of the human mind as the sun sets around you at a Stratus Signature Immersive concert. You’ll be surrounded by music written for film, video games, and the concert stage. This program will include:
World premiere of Three Pieces for Chamber Orchestra by Eric Lagergren
Music from The Legends of Zelda: Ocarina of Time by Koji Kondo
Starburst by Jesse Montgomery
Star Trek: Through the Years arranged by Calvin Custer
Symphony no. 5 by Ludwig van Beethoven
This concert includes both immersive and picnic seating.
Saturday, September 13th | 6PM | Heritage Belmar Park Ampitheater
It’s the holiday season, and you’re in control this December with the world premiere of A Holiday Adventure by Stratus Chamber Orchestra’s Music Director Adam Torres. Alongside this choose-your-own-adventure story, you’ll celebrate the season with other holiday classics and festive singalongs.
Join us before the concert for hands-on music and holiday activities.
This concert is for the young and the young at heart.
Saturday, December 6th | 3PM | St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, Centennial
The human mind is extraordinarily complex and at this concert we’ll dive into some of the complicated and twisted conditions of the human mind, from insomnia to infatuation and beyond. This concert includes:
The world premiere of Symphony Insomnia by Joshua Decker
Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor, op. 54 featuring pianist Bryan Wallick
Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz
Saturday, March 7, 2026 | 7PM | Augustana Lutheran Church
Artists often look to the future in their art, obsessed with progress and inspired by technological advancements. In a world of AI, how will music change? Hear the future of music with the premiere of an audience-interactive piece, DarkRace for Orchestra, Electric Violin, and AI by Gregory Walker alongside works by other composers who pushed boundaries of their own:
Concerto Grosso No. [TBD], from L'estro Armonico, op. 3 by Antonin Vivaldi
Creation du Monde by Darius Milhaud
Prometheus (Symphonic Poem No. 5), S. 99 by Franz Liszt
Sunday, May 3, 2026 | 2PM | MSU King Center
Want to join us for all four Stratus concerts during 25-26 season?
Purchase a Stratus season pass and receive $5 off the suggested ticket price for each of this season's four performances. You won't miss a beat on our dazzling journey through the human condition. One and two-ticket passes are available.
Unexpected and Unconventional
In 1998, Musica Sacra Chamber Orchestra was established to provide a creative outlet for local talent. The orchestra continued evolving into an expressive, contemporary music experience, prompting the name change in 2015 to Stratus Chamber Orchestra.
It was at this point that Stratus began truly changing the rules of engagement with audiences by performing music in unexpected ways and in unconventional places.
We believe that the past of the orchestra does not have to dictate its future.
Stratus is committed to redefining the canon of classical or orchestral music. We intertwine newly commissioned works, music by composers from diverse backgrounds and identities both living and from the past, and pieces from varied genres, alongside traditional orchestral repertoire.
Many Stratus concerts are presented in an immersive seating format: audiences sit amongst the musicians, fully surrounded by the music and performers during the duration of the concert. This creates a provocative orchestral music experience that removes the boundaries that have held musicians and audience apart for centuries.
We can’t wait to perform with you, for you, and alongside you.
About the Director
Adam Torres, a Denver-based artist, is quickly emerging as a significant musical voice in the United States and beyond. His robust contributions to the state of Colorado include appointments as Music Director for Denver’s Stratus Chamber Orchestra, as Artistic Director of the Colorado Springs Chorale, and as a Senior Instructor with the Colorado State University School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, where he additionally serves as Director for the Summer Residency MM Program (Conducting) for Music Educators.
Highlights of other recent conducting engagements include Colorado Symphony (Cover Conductor), Fort Collins Symphony (Cover Conductor), Cheyenne Symphony (Guest Conductor), St. Louis Symphony (Cover Conductor), and the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music (Assistant Conductor). Other conducting opportunities have included work with Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Opera Fort Collins, Opera Steamboat, Colorado Pops Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the Springs, Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Loveland Opera Theatre, Denver Young Artists Orchestra, and Hyperprism Music. Beyond the US, Adam served as a rehearsal pianist and assistant conductor for Opera Orvieto (Italy) and recently completed a trip to Paris and Köln to apprentice with conductor Cristian Măcelaru, the Orchestre National de France, and WDR Sinfonieorchester.
For Adam, music offers insights into the greatest aspects of our shared humanity, and his conviction in the transformative power of music emanates in all that he does, including in his advocacy for music education. Beyond his work with graduate students, music majors, and nonmajors at CSU, Adam has assisted with community programs such as El Sistema Colorado and served as a clinician for honor orchestras and in public schools throughout the country. Other community and student engagement projects include work with ensembles such as the Alpharetta Symphony, Fort Collins’ Health and Wellness Orchestra, Bas Bleu Theatre, San Angelo Symphony Chorus, Colorado State University Orchestra and CSU Opera, Angelo State University Wind Ensemble, and Angelo Civic Theater.
Musicians of Stratus
*Denotes Principal
Violin I
Arlette Aslanian-Townsend, Concertmaster*
Kathy Langston, Assistant Concertmaster
Kelsey Hoover
Julie Bruchs
Ruth Ann Coy
Violin II
Leah Quigley*
Carrie Beeder
Emily Huntsman
Kenny Orr
Ellen Persiko
Viola
Heidi Snyder*
Lindsay Genadek
Elizabeth Ellis
Melissa Escobar
Cello
Adam Riggs*
Jared Minaga
Stephen Weidner
Annastasia Psitos
Bass
Tom Virtue*
Maria Brotherston
Flute
Tamara Maddaford*
Amanda Rusten
Flute/Piccolo
Wendy Sloan
Oboe
Sarah Short*
Caitlin Hilzer
Clarinet
Ted Homan*
Howard Van Dam
Bassoon
John Richardson*
Sarah Wise
Horn
Johanna Burian*
Amanda Montgomery
Trumpet
Roberta Goodall*
Josh Decker
Trombone
Bryce Reiber*
John Sandusky
Steve Gehring
Timpani
Sandy Fauth*
Tuba
Jack Hoeksema
Percussion
Kurt Ochsner*
Sandra L. Van Dam
Musicians of Stratus
*Denotes Principal
Violin I
Arlette Aslanian-Townsend, Concertmaster*
Kathy Langston, Assistant Concertmaster
Kelsey Hoover
Julie Bruchs
Ruth Ann Coy
Violin II
Leah Quigley*
Carrie Beeder
Emily Huntsman
Kenny Orr
Ellen Persiko
Viola
Heidi Snyder*
Lindsay Genadek
Elizabeth Ellis
Melissa Escobar
Cello
Adam Riggs*
Jared Minaga
Stephen Weidner
Annastasia Psitos
Bass
Tom Virtue*
Maria Brotherston
Flute
Tamara Maddaford*
Amanda Rusten
Flute/Piccolo
Wendy Sloan
Oboe
Sarah Short*
Caitlin Hilzer
Clarinet
Ted Homan*
Howard Van Dam
Bassoon
John Richardson*
Sarah Wise
Horn
Johanna Burian*
Amanda Montgomery
Trumpet
Roberta Goodall*
Josh Decker
Trombone
Bryce Reiber*
John Sandusky
Steve Gehring
Timpani
Sandy Fauth*
Tuba
Jack Hoeksema
Percussion
Kurt Ochsner*
Sandra L. Van Dam
