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Steamboat Springs — The iPod is a wonderful device. I own one - it's a shiny black 80 GB. It's a thing of beauty. But no combination of mp3 player and headphones can replace those chills you feel when you experience the sound waves actually entering your body while you listen. The expression on an artist's face when she is pouring out her emotion through her instrument. The goosebumps you get when the chord he hits is perfect.

So why miss even one chance to experience live music at its best?

On Wednesday night, the Strings Music Festival Casual Classics series includes sparkling pieces by four French composers noted for the varied timbres, or colors, in their music. These light-as-air works, featuring virtuoso visiting classical musicians playing flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin and piano in varying combinations, provide light and scintillating entertainment for a summer evening.

Friday night features Steamboat's favorite part-time resident Brent Rowan, two-time Academy of Country Music Guitarist of the Year and one of the most prolific studio guitar players around. This year, he is joined by singer/comedian Bill Whyte and vocalist/actor Gary Morris. Rowan has chalked up more than 200 million CD sales among his many collaborations, including George Strait, Shania Twain, Sting, Randy Travis, Neil Diamond and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Whyte is a Cincinnati radio personality, singer and comedian. He is currently recording four redneck-themed albums for Wal-Mart.

Gary Morris is best known for his award-winning rendition of "Wind Beneath My Wings" and for playing the lead role of Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables" on Broadway. He also sang in Puccini's "La Boheme" opposite Linda Rondstadt, and he won the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music Song of the Year awards.

Saturday night features one of the best string quartets in the world - really. The Takács Quartet is quartet-in-residence at the University of Colorado-Boulder and perhaps the best performers of Beethoven's String Quartets. So what better repertoire for Saturday night than Beethoven's "Razumovsky" Quartet No. 3. They also will perform Schubert's last quartet, Op. 161. Together these two monumental quartets made most previous string quartets seem modest by comparison.

Beethoven storming the heavens, and Schubert charming the earth with lyricism - this is great music performed by great musicians, and is not to be missed!

Of course, after attending these fine concerts, you very well may want to purchase the artists' CDs so you can upload them to your mp3 player and play them over and over again. Having heard these artists perform in person, you can draw on that experience every time you hit the "play" button.

Elissa Greene is information technology director and development coordinator for the Strings Music Festival. Contact her at (970) 879-5056, Ext. 100, or elissa@stringsmusicfestival.com.