Hit Pick

Related Content

• Reader: Randy Layman pours out some love for the cocktail scene
  April 10, 2012
• Colorado Symphony cancels five shows in an effort to conserve cash
  October 6, 2011
• Bartending superstar Jim Meehan descends upon the Mile High City next week
  March 29, 2012
• Dina Berta reveals five lessons learned after transitioning from restaurant journalist to restaurant owner
  November 9, 2011
• The Colorado Symphony regroups with extra spring shows and a promise to stick around
  November 16, 2011

More About

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• Johannes Brahms
• Specialty Eateries
• Shopping
• Radio

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

If you frequent upscale coffeehouses or shopping malls or listen to a lot of public radio, it’s possible that you have heard the music of Darren Curtis Skanson -- Friday, September 22, through Sunday, September 24, at FlatIron Crossing -- without even realizing it. The classical guitarist, who formerly served as one-half of the local instrumental duo Watson and Company before striking out on a solo career, plays a soft, lilting form of modern classical music that is designed to be as soothing as it is engaging. Skanson, who sometimes augments his arrangements with a string section, displays strands of traditionalism while avoiding the austere presentation that sometimes frightens away the uninitiated. His new disc, Classica, is a good example of his modernist approach: It includes works by composers Brahms and Beethoven, as well as his own compositions. In the end, what he plays is simply beautiful acoustic music, the kind braved only by the rarely talented.