Beloved Colorado Ballet Academy composer killed in Arvada car crash | Arts news
Father of two 'had a nurturing, joyous spirit that touched the lives of countless students, dancers and staff'
Kresten Wolff, who arranged compositions for musicians worldwide, leaves a legacy of creativity, compassion and boundless kindness, Colorado Ballet Artistic Director Gil Boggs said Wednesday.
Wolff died Monday in a horrific crash involving at least three cars at the intersection of West 64th Avenue and Lamar Street in Arvada. He was 44.
Wolff’s two children, ages 10 and 7, were taken to the hospital, one with serious injuries. Police believe both speed and alcohol were factors in the crash.
Boggs called Wolff, who served as a pianist and accompanist for Colorado Ballet Academy, a beloved friend, colleague and mentor.
“His passion for music and his nurturing, joyous spirit touched the lives of countless students, dancers and staff, leaving an indelible mark on our community,” Boggs said. “He will be dearly missed by all.”
Wolff’s wife, Alicia Castillo, is a registered nurse at North Suburban Medical Center. Wolff had just picked up his children from Peak Expeditionary School in Wheat Ridge and was just a few miles from home when the collision happened.
“This family has been completely shattered and will now face unimaginable hardship,” said family friend Elyse Massey, who has organized a GoFundMe campaign that by Friday afternoon had raised $125,000. “Alicia is now the sole provider for her family and is having to step away from work as a nurse to be with her children in the hospital and to grieve the loss of her husband.”
Police say 23-year-old Juan Ortega Torres Jr. is in custody pending the filing of official charges in connection to the crash. They believe Torres, driving a GMC pickup truck, ran a red light at 3:40 p.m. Monday, collided into Wolff’s Toyota sedan and sent it into the side of a home on the northeast corner of the intersection at 6399 W. 64th Ave.
That home is owned by Cynthia Hammel-Knipe who is, herself, a voice teacher and former opera singer who appeared in a Broadway production of “Fiddler on the Roof.” She was in the kitchen when the back end of Wolff’s car was propelled into her house just under her bay window. She said it was like an earthquake.
“I was sitting there making a list to go to Costco when I heard screech, and then a crash, and the next thing I know, my house started shaking, and then I heard a couple of things fall over. So I ran into the living room and saw the back end of a car inside my house.” Her living room wall, she said, is destroyed.
Hammel-Knipe called 911 and was still on the phone with emergency workers when police and fire trucks arrived less than five minutes later. “It seemed like every cop in Arvada showed up,” she said. “It was a literal zoo from the moment of the crash on.”
Hammel-Knipe, who has sung on tour with Foreigner and has coached vocal students ranging from kids to the legendary Hazel Miller, was grateful that she wasn’t conducting a lesson in her living room at the time of the crash.
But she was devastated to learn that the driver was pronounced dead at the scene, and added that seeing Wolff’s young son in the car calling for his father is something she will never forget.
Hammel-Knipe moved into the home just a few years ago after living for 30 years in the house next door. That the victim in this tragedy was a father and fellow artist, she said, “just absolutely breaks my heart.”
Casper Kobke, who grew up with Wolff in a small town in Denmark, told Denver Gazette media partner 9News “a massive, massive musical talent has been taken away from us.” He said Wolff possessed “a talent in the world of music that very few people can comprehend.”
Before moving to Colorado, Wolff worked at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen for 20 years. Kobke told 9News that Wolff moved to Colorado to be closer to his wife’s family. A neighbor told The Denver Gazette “the school community is just a mess and grieving.”
Kobke said Wolff was a family man who put his wife and two children ahead of his promising career.
“We cannot fathom, in our family, how much pain these children are going through now,” he said. “They are injured, horrifically, and they have lost their dad at the same time. For him to be taken out by a bloke who decides to drive under the influence – that is as selfish as you can be.”
Boggs said Wolff will be remembered “with love and gratitude for his enduring impact on all who had the privilege of knowing him. Our hearts and love go out to his family as they navigate this devastating loss.”
The Colorado Ballet Academy posted a montage tribute that includes video of Wolff’s farewell message to his summer students: “I love playing for you guys. You give me so much joy and passion and compassion and connection that I just want to play all day and all night for you. I don’t want this summer to end at all.” After which you can hear multiple students saying, “We love you.”
“In these shoes I touched the sky
Danced on every cloud
And your hearts and hands stood by
Made me strong and proud.
“Gave me wings to fly and live
Dare to go beyond
That’s what true friends always give
And that will live on
“In these words you wrote for me
Ev’ry mem’ry sings
Telling whom I’ll always be:
Dancer — borne on wings”
-Kresten Wolff
Phamaly’s curious season change
The disability-affirmative Phamaly Theatre Company has changed course by switching up a previously announced title that had been scheduled for later this fall. That is not, in itself, all that unusual. What is curious is the subtext-laden verbiage that came with Wednesday’s announcement:
“The strength of our community is its ability to make a shift when a current course seems untenable,” Artistic Director Ben Raanan and Managing Director Corinne Denny said in a joint statement. “Recently, there have been events within Denver’s wider theatrical community that have led Phamaly to make a change to our current 35th anniversary season.
“In the interest of community healing, the leadership team at Phamaly has made the difficult decision to suspend our production of ‘The Mamalogues’ currently slated to open at the People’s Building in mid-October. In its place, Phamaly is proud to produce ‘The Glorious World of Crowns, Kinks, and Curls’ by Keli Goff.”
“Glorious World” follows in the footsteps of Eve Ensler’s seminal work, “The Vagina Monologues,” focusing, Raanan said, “on the sometimes complicated relationship between Black women and the way society views – and often regulates – their hair.”
The statement ends with the Phamaly leadership team’s hope “that this decision will allow space for the greater Denver theatrical community to start to heal.”
Kahane appointed to San Antonio post
Jeffrey Kahane, who served as music director for the Colorado Symphony from 2005-08, has been named to the same position with the San Antonio Philharmonic.
“It is tremendously thrilling and genuinely moving for me to have been asked to assume the role of music director of this wonderful orchestra at a critical juncture in its history, in one of America’s largest, most fascinating and historically important cities,” said Kahane, who made his much-anticipated return to Boettcher Concert Hall both as featured soloist and conductor on Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto last fall.
Follow that story: Colorado Music Hall of Fame
Just a week after the Colorado Music Hall of Fame broke the news that its 2024 induction class will focus on Central City Opera and Colorado high-country opera in general, it dropped an unnerving little tease on Instagram saying simply: “After nearly a decade, the Colorado Music Hall of Fame is no longer at the Red Rocks Trading Post. We will have an announcement soon about our exciting new location.”
Briefly …
Christina Sajous has been cast as Gypsy (aka the Acid Queen) in the newly announced Broadway revival of “The Who’s Tommy,” opening March 28 in New York City. Sajous rattled the rafters playing Mary Magdalene in the DCPA Theatre Company’s 2015 world premiere musical “The 12,” and later played a lawyer in the incendiary 2017 drama “Disgraced.” Sajous follows in the footsteps of the iconic Tina Turner, who sang “The Acid Queen” in the 1975 movie. “Tommy” will be her sixth Broadway credit …
An open-house memorial gathering for Denver actor Eli Stewart, 34, will be held from 4-7 p.m. Saturday Feb. 10 at the King Center black-box theater on the Auraria campus, 855 Lawrence Way.
And finally …
Easy come, easy go: A few weeks ago, we told you about a new comedy festival called The Inverness Jest Fest coming to the Denver Tech Center Feb. 17-18 with “Saturday Night Live” alum Kevin Nealon headlining. Well, as Emily Litella might say: Never mind. The fest has been postponed, without explanation.
