Heart of Broomfield Award
By
Broomfield Community Foundation
Ron was a recipient of the 2008 Heart of Broomfield award presented jointly by the Broomfield Community Foundation and the Broomfield Enterprise at the annual Heart of Broomfield award banquet on April 6, 2009.
Heart of Broomfield:
Williams knows music is meant to be shared
Broomfield Enterprise Newspaper
By Julie Baxter (Contact)
Sunday, March 29, 2009
BROOMFIELD, Colo. — Ron Williams would never tell you this, but he’s a bit gifted. Some would even call him a “musical genius.”
Williams, however, would just say he’s a lucky guy who does what he loves.
What he loves is bringing music to the masses.
And not just any music — the kind of music most people think is out of their reach, the kind that fills great halls and ornate ballrooms, the kind that has been delighting and daunting for hundreds of years.
Williams, along with being this year’s Heart of Broomfield Arts Award-winner and director of the Colorado Repertory Singers, is the driving force behind the annual Broomfield Choral Festival. The festival throws open the doors to all singers and all listeners. The festival is open to any singer who wants to participate. The culmination is a free show open to all, held as close as possible to the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The past two years it featured the works of Brahms and Beethoven.
“That’s really my one passion, to democratize music that would otherwise be inaccessible; the major choral orchestral works,” Williams said.
” … If you can fog a mirror, you’re eligible to sing.”
Whether they’re teenagers or octogenarians, Williams has a way of bringing out the best in singers, said Jean Rosecrans.
“He really is a musical genius, he has a way about him that makes singers feel really comfortable,” said Rosecrans, a past member of the Repertory Singers who is now with Broomfield-based ASTER Women’s Chamber Choir and president of the Broomfield Council for the Arts and Humanities.
Michael Williams, who nominated Ron Williams (no relation) for the award, said he has sung under some esteemed conductors, but none can hold a candle to Williams’ charm.
“He has a quality and approach that is engaging,” said Michael Williams, who is president of the Boulder Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “He easily captures your interest and somehow has a way of pulling out of a group of amateurs an amazing production. … It’s amazing the opportunity he provides to average people in the community, people like me.”
Marilyn Howard said Williams has attended national conductors’ gatherings and has not found another example of such a community-focused effort.
“And it works beautifully,” said Howard, a member of the Repertory Singers, which Williams also led on a trip to famed Carnegie Hall in New York City. “What an example of heart, what a beautiful example of giving.
“And what a risk he takes in doing that, but he does it. Why, because he’s so passionate about the music, he wants it to happen for everybody.”
Williams, Howard said, “is not just generous, he’s absolutely outstanding as a musician.”
And humble, too. “I don’t think he knows how to spell ego,” Howard said. “He truly is the exemplification of humility. And Broomfield has him.”
