In celebration of our 20th season, The Playground is planning a 20-hour MARATHON! This event will be broken into four blocks, each at a different venue in Denver. MARATHON will be structured to highlight all that we do as an ensemble and organization: concerts, community music-making, sessions for music educators, healing arts events, and an improvised communal cool down in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Like what you see/hear? Consider donating to support our programming for our 20th anniversary!

Modern Art Song

Saturday March 21, 2026, 7:15 PM
MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater
2644 W 32nd Ave, Denver, CO 80211
$20 Tickets

Hosted by MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater, this evening series of concerts is the heart of MARATHON. 

When you look through the kaleidoscope of your childhood, what do you see? Do the bright spots of hope, nature, and laughter stand out, or does darkness prevail? Join Leah Podzimek (vocals) and Joshua Sawicki (piano) for a 30-minute program of (mostly) contemporary art songs that recall childhood and gently remind us never to stop playing, even amidst the gloom and doom of life today.

This program is sponsored by Art Song Colorado.

Program

Find lyrics and program notes for each song here.

“Creation” from Natural Selection by Jake Heggie

Selections from I Hate Music!: A Cycle of Five Kid Songs by Leonard Bernstein

II. “Jupiter Has Seven Moons”
III. “I Hate Music!”

“Over the Fence” from Summer. Life. Song. by Adolphus Hailstork

How Graceful Things Are, Falling Apart by Sarah Kirkland Snider

“Iltarukous” from Four Leino Songs by Kaija Saariaho

“A Route to the Sky” from Paper Wings by Jake Heggie

“My Mother Has Recovered” from Within These Spaces by Lori Laitman

Goodnight Moon by Eric Whitacre