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.

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On Freedom

Saturday March 21, 2026, 6:30 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. The evening starts with Shane Courville (trumpet, electronics, composer) and Nathan Hall (piano, electronics, composer) presenting solo, duo, and improvised works on themes of freedom: freedom of nations and sovereignty, freedom to express our own identities, and the freedom of creative collaboration.

Program

On Death by Nathan Hall

A work from interviews by senior citizens in Ireland reflecting on their lives, with lots of added hand claps and stomps.

Iluliaq by Nathan Hall

 Layers of harmonium recordings from Greenland, evoking how an is a complex collage of microclimate, melting, physics, cultural necessity, politics, and rarely, but sometimes, it flips over dramatically. 

Til the End of Time by Nathan Hall

A piece written by Nathan for Shane for trumpet and electronics, about Shane's family and their love and acceptance. 

Toothache by Shane Courville

Composed by Shane and incorporating samples of teeth as percussion, based on a real life event. “Toothache came about from a situation when I lived in the French Quarter in New Orleans.  It's about finding my freedom.” — Shane Courville

Improvisation by Nathan Hall & Shane Courville

Nathan Hall and Shane Courville in a mini set of improvisations.