Inspiring Conversations with Bruce And Jean Lemmon

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bruce And Jean Lemmon

Hi Bruce and Jean, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Our story began with two students (later employees as well as husband and wife) performing with the Colorado College Collegium Musicum throughout the 1970s. Fast-forward to a musical life in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a one-off early music event in the early 1990s, providing entertainment for a Tulsa Opera fundraising event. Soon thereafter we established ourselves as an instrumental and vocal trio concertizing on a regular basis.
We grew through the years as personnel came and went, and by the time of our last Tulsa concert, in 2019, we were comprised of over 15 singers and instrumentalists performing medieval and Renaissance music all across northeast Oklahoma.
Jean and I moved to Loveland in August 2020, when virtually no live music was happening in the midst of COVID. As we began to become aware of the myriad musical ensembles in and around Denver waiting out the pandemic, we realized that we might just be able to fill an early music niche here in northern Colorado. We were also receiving continual encouragement from Grammy-nominated vocalist Ryland Angel, with whom we had collaborated three times in the past, to mount another concert, this time in our new home.
So in the fall of 2023 we “rebranded” ourselves Pro Musica Terrae Amoris (“For the Music of Loveland”) and began assembling musicians for our inaugural concert. On October 26, 2024, Ryland joined us once again, bringing one of the first oratorios ever written, Giacomo Carissimi’s “Jephte,” to Fort Collins, very probably its premiere in the area. The concert was so well received that we are already looking forward to what comes next, perhaps showcasing the music of the great High Renaissance composer Josquin des Prez.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Life (careers, kids, etc.) intrudes, but music has always remained central to our relationship. The best thing about it has been that we’ve never been competitive in terms of “who’s the best musician.”
This kind of early music is seldom heard outside university settings and major cities. In Tulsa and now here in northern Colorado, our audiences tend to be relatively small but always appreciative. In a very real sense, most attendees are discovering these musical gems for the first time. A privilege, not a challenge!

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know more about you?
As we said, careers come and go, but the music lives on. I spent my career managing international scientific conferences and tradeshows and Jean helped establish Oklahoma’s highly successful and much copied citizen-based water quality testing and monitoring program, part of that state’s Conservation Commission.
What are we most proud of professionally? Jean likes to say her job description didn’t even exist before she and her colleagues wrote it. And the teaching aspects of her job excited her most — be it a group of college students or ranchers or a home owners association.
I also enjoyed teaching, capping my career traveling the world and instructing fledgling organizations in the events industry on the intricacies of event sales, security, marketing, and operations. It’s easy to see why all of our concert programs have an element of explanation and illumination in them.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProMusicaTulsae