Christopher Dragon didn’t turn around much on the job on Feb. 22, which ’s probably a great thing.

“I had no idea about all the stuff going on behind me,” Dragon, the associate conductor of the Colorado Symphony, said of the sold-out series at Boettcher Concert Hall.  ”It was funny seeing Instagrams later and realizing (Wayne Coyne) was twirling a light around his head and throwing confetti. And nobody told me about the giant, pink inflatable robot. ”

In the front of Dragon was the 80-piece Colorado Symphony and 65-person Colorado Symphony Chorus. Behind him was Coyne, singer for the acclaimed, art-damaged rock band The Flaming Lips, and a couple thousand costumed, screaming fans.

Coyne and his group had shot Boettcher on a snowy night last month to perform their record “The Soft Bulletin,” with a grand flourish befitting the record ’s cosmic themes and 20-year anniversary: full orchestral and choral backing.

It’s something they’d only done once before — in Red Rocks Amphitheatre in 2016, a series which will be published as a concert video later this year. This was with the Colorado Symphony, also.

“I have never heard an audience so loud in Boettcher,” Dragon said of the Feb. 22 concert. “I felt like I needed earplugs just for the cheering. ”

It didn’t hurt that Coyne repeatedly invited the audience to clap and scream so loudly that the orchestra would need to stop playing (it never happened, but they tried) or that there was nearly as much marijuana smoke wafting through the air as at any Red Rocks concert.

These aren’t your typical symphony experiences — or they didn’t used to be.  But that’s the point, Colorado Symphony leaders say, not just because soda collaborations are shaking up staid traditions, but because they’re also so powerful they’re controlling a growing chunk of rehearsal and performance time. And that only broadens the symphony’s typically older, more classically oriented audience.

That’s true for many major U.S. orchestras, but the Colorado Symphony has been ahead of the curve with collaborations within the last decade ranging from Sarah McLachlan and Seal to digital and funk artists Bonobo, Lettuce and Pretty Lights.

“There’s no wonder we’re among the busiest orchestras in the nation right now,” stated Anthony Pierce, chief artistic officer for the Colorado Symphony. “We haven’t reduced our volume of purely classical content or sacrificed our core mission as curators of symphonic music. We’ve just diversified. ”

This year, the nonprofit symphony will keep on building on its years-long streak of attention-getting, revenue-generating collaborations with pop artists like “Weird” Al Yankovic (Aug. 1) and Tenacious D (July 25), folkies like John Prine (July 28) and Mary Chapin Carpenter (July 14), and more traditional collaborators Josh Groban (Aug. 28) and Andrea Bocelli (June 21), to mention just a few.

These shows take them from downtown Denver’s approximately 2,700-seat Boettcher into metro-area places with four to five times that capacity, such as Red Rocks, the Pepsi Center and the FirstBank Center.

Meanwhile, not only is Colorado Symphony still performing robust classical cuisine, they’ve also added film scores — paired with screenings of movies like “The Empire Strikes Back,” March 23-24 in the FirstBank Center — along with other themed events, such as “Beethoven and Brews” in Epic Brewing Company (March 21, and already sold out) and video-game scores.

That diversification comes with a risk, Pierce said, since the symphony spends big on pop artists and rehearsal time for its gifted, full-time players. While the symphony declined to discuss particular revenue or attendance figures for its pop collaborations, citing concern over apples-to-oranges comparisons across different venues and audiences, it has reported that an increasing number of sold-out shows that parallels its programming change.

“We earn less than half of what it costs to run the orchestra through ticket sales and subscriptions,” Pierce said of the symphony, which has seen three consecutive years of financial stability. “We’re determined on SCFD (the seven-country metro area’s Scientific and Cultural Facilities tax district) and individual philanthropy. So we believe the (collaborations) as audience development. ”

MORE: 2019 Red Rocks concerts announced for much

In the 2017 financial year, the Colorado Symphony Association had an operating surplus of nearly $200,000, on $12.8 million in revenue. Other income recorded out of its operating budget led to a net positive balance of $2.4 million, according to a financial overview provided by the symphony.

In its quest to attract younger, more diverse audiences, the symphony has benefited from a close relationship with promoter AEG Presents Rocky Mountains — the area ’s dominant player, and one which has a formal ticket-selling partnership with the city of Denver. That helps smooth the process of booking shows at attractive, city-owned venues like Red Rocks.

Pierce is on the telephone weekly with AEG’s top promoters like Chuck Morris, Don Strasberg and Brent Fedrizzi, resulting in relations with artists and their direction he may not otherwise have experienced.

“You’ve got to have effective relationships,” Pierce said. “I speak to people (AEG) men all the time about who’so trying to get hauled around, and I speak to agencies like William Morris and CAA all the time. It’s a business. ”

Pierce pointed to the upcoming John Prine collaboration as a series that came about thanks to Morris’ and Strasberg’s connection with Prine, who played the Buell Theatre in November. Vocalist Groban also was trying to find a Red Rocks “play” this summer, which was a no-brainer for its symphony,” Pierce said.

MORE: John Prine talks about shows with Nathaniel Rateliff, Trump and pork chops

“Tenacious D is another one,” Pierce said of Jack Black’s bombastic hard-rock group, a show that nearly sold out in its pre-sale period and is now completely sold out. “They had a date and we were into the collaboration, so the stars just kind of aligned. But it’s certainly not going to be a kid-friendly show. ”

Some collaborations really won’t work, he added, citing the volume of certain bands against the delicate, acoustically mic’d instruments of the symphony. In past rock collaborations, guitar amplifiers have been placed on stage for cosmetic purposes, while the real (plugged-in) things were off-stage in order to stop noise-bleed into the orchestra section.

Plexiglass dividers prevent boisterous drummers from drowning out the symphony, as do seasoned soundboard mixers.

“We’ve been working to consciously build a reputation as an orchestra where a non-symphonic artist has their great first encounter with an orchestra,” associate conductor Dragon said. “We can still do conventional programming while we bring in artists, even Colorado artists, like Gregory Alan Isakov and Elephant Revival. When you discover the right formulation and connection, it just creates something uniquely beautiful. You can’t recreate that experience anywhere else. ”

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