2018 Festival Focus June 25, 2018

FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

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Music Festival explores ‘Paris, City of Light’ theme CHRISTINA THOMSEN

Festival Focus Writer

The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) opens this Thursday with a season curated around the theme “Paris, City of Light.”

The season runs from June 28 to August 19 with two post-season choral recitals August 20 and 22. Many programs include works of famous French composers such as Ravel, Debussy, and Fauré, as well as works written in or inspired by Paris. The season also marks the 25th anniversary of Harris Concert Hall, the advent of two new training programs, new and familiar creative collaborations, several musical cycles, and even a partnership with Disney on a world-premiere event.

Each summer, the theme gives flavor and character to the season. This year’s is especially Romantic. “For quite some time in the late 19th century and early 20th century, the spotlight of cultural activity moved to Paris,” says Asadour Santourian, AMFS artistic advisor and vice president for artistic administration.

According to AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher, the Paris theme, “gives us a huge range of music and kinds of music and composers.”

Signature works include Debussy’s dreamy La mer (August 12), Stravinsky’s unabashedly modern Petrushka (July 31), Bizet’s prodigious masterpiece Symphony No. 1 in C major (July 6), and Mozart’s “Paris” Symphony (July 6).

Berlioz’s revolutionary Symphonie fantastique, a larger-than-life response to unrequited love, concludes the season (August 19).

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the AMFS’s beautiful Harris Concert Hall, a jewel-box style hall which has been called

AUBREE DALLAS/AMFS

The Aspen Music Festival and School’s 70th season opens on Thursday, June 28, and features the theme of “Paris, City of Light,” exploring the artistic blossoming that happened in Paris during the 19th and 20th centuries.

“the Carnegie of the Rockies” and is now used for upwards of 24 recitals each summer and a small winter concert series. Its opening in 1993 changed what was possible for the AMFS, and its resonant acoustics and warm, intimate space has provided the setting for countless live presentations and even commercial recordings. The anniversary will be commemorated with a recital by violinist and alumnus Robert McDuffie (July 28).

Two new educational programs launch at the AMFS this summer. The first is an institute for choral training run in partnership with the Grammy Award–winning vocal ensemble Seraphic Fire. Forty-one students will attend this new two-week program, the only summer program in the country of its kind. Seraphic Fire and the program’s students will perform Mozart’s Requiem with the Aspen Chamber Symphony on August 17 and two recitals in

Harris Concert Hall August 20 and 22. Additionally, the AMFS is launching a new brass chamber music program led by the American Brass Quintet, one of the world’s leading brass ensembles which has been in residence in Aspen since 1970. Twenty-one students will receive lessons and intensive coaching, culminating in three recitals (July 9, 16, 21).

See Season, Festival Focus page 3

Hundreds of students, artist-faculty arrive in Aspen CHRISTINA THOMSEN

Festival Focus Writer

As summer arrives in Aspen this week, so do almost 800 musicians who come to study, teach, and perform at the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS).

More than 650 students from the top music schools and conservatories around the world gather in Aspen for a summer full of practice, performance, and instruction. They learn from more than 100 artist-faculty members from the most prestigious U.S. institutions—including The Juilliard School, Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music—and major orchestras around the world. Joining the faculty this year are players from MIKE GRITTANI/AMFS the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Hundreds of students and artist-faculty members arrived in Aspen San Francisco Opera, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Detroit Symlast week to begin training and performing in a season celebrating phony, the Finnish Radio Orchestra, and more.

“Paris, City of Light.”

Students come from as far as Iran, Spain, Turkey, and Serbia to study during the Festival’s eight-week season. They represent the field’s best young talent with many having already begun their professional careers, like tenor Roy Hage, an Aspen Opera Center fellow who will play the title role of Hoffmann in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann (August 14, 16, and 18). Hage is a two-time Grammy-nominated artist who has already performed more than forty roles in opera productions across the country.

Many others are just on the cusp of their careers, such as nineteen-year-old pianist Nadia Azzi, who made her debut at Carnegie Hall at age twelve and has since been performing as a soloist in orchestras across North American and Europe (she is also fluent in Japanese and a member of Mensa).

William Walker, a twenty-six-year-old conducting student from

See Arrival, Festival Focus page 3

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Georgia on my Mind, tribute to ‘genius of soul’ Ray Charles AMY HEGARTY Festival Focus Writer

The Aspen Music Festival and School and Jazz Aspen Snowmass have joined forces every summer for the past eight years to present major productions that feature legendary artists such as Tony Bennett, Smokey Robinson, and Wynton Marsalis or to pay tribute to icons like Ella Fitzgerald. This summer, on June 30, both organizations celebrate the enduring genius and one-of-a-kind artistry of Ray Charles (1930–2004) with Georgia on My Mind, a multifaceted show that ran to to great acclaim in 2014 at The Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Ray Charles was unique in American music because he bridged a set of American genres in a way that no one ever had before, specifically jazz, soul, blues, and country,” says James Horowitz, president and CEO of Jazz Aspen Snowmass (JAS), which he founded in 1991. “There are very few artists who are as iconic as Ray Charlesand who are affiliated with such a wideranging songbook.”

Horowitz first heard about Georgia on My Mind last year, when two of the show’s headliners—the ten-time Grammy Award–winning a cappella group TAKE 6 and the six-time Grammy Award–nominated singer Nnenna Freelon—performed as part of the JAS Café series. While doing research for a pre-concert interview with Freelon, Horowitz read about the show and decided to ask her about it.

“During our interview,” he recalls, “Nnenna raved about how great Georgia on My Mind was and how proud of it she and the members of TAKE 6 were. I turned to the audience and said,

‘Folks, this sounds like a great show!’ And then I filed it away in my head. The tribute we did for Ella Fitzgerald last summer, which was in honor of her 100th birthday, was so well received that I thought we should do another tribute this year, but this time it should be for Ray Charles.”

Georgia on My Mind ran in Las Vegas for several weeks, but TAKE 6, who created and organized the show, “never intended it to be a touring production, per se,” Horowitz says. “I told them that we wanted to present it here in Aspen, and they liked the thought of doing it at the Festival’s Benedict Music Tent.”

When it comes to the show’s repertoire, “I can guarantee it will be the Ray Charles hit parade,” Horowitz continues. “Ray Charles had a lot of hits, and many of them were songs that were in the Great American Songbook but that he made his own. His version might be the single-most definitive one, like with the song ‘Georgia on My Mind.’ That’s the kind of artist he was.” Audiences will be treated to favorites such as “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “I Got a Woman,” and “Let the Good Times Roll.”

One of the takeaways from the show is sure to be an appreciation of Charles’s legacy as a live performer. “He was a legend not just for producing great records but for putting on great shows, too,” Horowitz says. “A Ray Charles show was very exciting. He was singing at the piano and had a big band behind him that was like a locomotive. It was like, fasten your seat belts, here comes a Ray Charles show! If you saw him live, you never forgot it.”

In addition to TAKE 6 and Freelon—both of whom, Horowitz says, “Jazz Aspen has a very long relationship with”— Georgia on My Mind features the world-class talents of singer

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SEASON: Operas, collaborations, Disney premiere Continued from Festival Focus page 1

Georgia on my Mind: A Tribute to Ray Charles will be at the Benedict Music Tent on June 30.

Clint Holmes, Grammy Award–winning saxophonist Kirk Whalum, and the H2 Big Band.

“When planning everything, I just thought, ‘Well, TAKE 6 is anchoring this show, and we’re going to bring in a big band and other great singers,” Horowitz says. “Nnenna is a brilliant vocalist and a very engaging, electric entertainer who really connects with the audience. And we just worship TAKE 6. Anything they do, we know it’s going to be off the charts because they’re not capable of doing anything else. So this sounded like a great, can’t-miss show, and I’m looking forward to seeing it like everyone else!”

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The Aspen Opera Center (AOC) presents two fully staged operas this summer, Rossini’s comic masterpiece The Barber of Seville (July 12, 14, and 16) and Offenbach’s dark and emotional The Tales of Hoffmann (August 14, 16, and 18). Members of the Aspen Opera Center will also perform during a concert performance of Bernstein’s one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti, paired with the Charlie Chaplin silent film, A Dog’s Life (August 2). The AOC also welcomes several rising opera alumni back to Aspen,includingsopranoGoldaSchultz(July27),mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton (August 5), mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (August 9), tenor Ben Bliss (August 10), as well as soprano Tamara Wilson and bass-baritone Ryan McKinny who will perform scenes from Wagner’s Die Walküre on Final Sunday (August 19).

Several musical cycles are taking place this year. Pianist Jonathan Biss completes his three-year journey to perform all of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas in Aspen (August 16 and 18), while violinist James Ehnes embarks on a three-year odyssey through the compete Beethoven Violin Sonatas (July 21). Additionally, cellist and alumna Alisa Weilerstein tackles all six Bach Cello Suites, a pinnacle of the cello repertoire, in one recital (July 31).

The AMFS continues to collaborate with other organizations

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to expand the musical experience for its audience. The AMFS presents a program with Aspen Santa Fe Ballet dancers, accompanied by pianist and AMFS alumna Joyce Yang, performing a new work by Jorma Elo and choreographed to Schumann’s Carnaval (August 10 and 11). The AMFS and Jazz Aspen Snowmass co-present a brassy, swinging tribute to the iconic “genius of soul,” Ray Charles, featuring a cappella group TAKE 6, Nnenna Freelon, Clint Holmes, Kirk Whalum, and the H2 Big Band (June 30). The Science of Music lecture series returns this year in collaboration with the Aspen Science Center (July 26, August 2 and 9).

A new collaboration this year is the Le Cinema, La Musique Film Series, co-presented with Aspen Film, and inspired by the AMFS’s Paris season theme. The four-film series will consist of classic French films centered on music (August 6, 13, 20, and 27). Another new collaboration is An Evening of Organ Works with Gail Archer, free and presented with the Aspen Community Church (July 8).

The AMFS is proud to host the world premiere of a new Disney production, Walt Disney Animation Studios: “A Decade in Concert” (July 30). This film-and-live-orchestra experience at the Benedict Music Tent brings the magic of your favorite

Harris Concert Hall: 9 am through the intermission of the evening concert, daily.

Wheeler Opera House: 9 am–5 pm daily beginning June 26.

Biss plays ‘eye-popping,’ ‘profound’ Beethoven JESSICA CABE

Festival Focus Writer

Pianist and Beethoven scholar Jonathan Biss agreed to step in as a replacement on Sunday’s program for Yuja Wang when she had to cancel her Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) performances, but Biss doesn’t feel like he’s doing anyone a favor.

“I have a really long and really happy relationship with Aspen,” he says. “I’ve been coming to the festival on and off for close to 15 years now. I don’t want to say I was happy to help out because that sounds like I’m doing someone a favor; I’m just always delighted to come to Aspen.”

Biss will join the Aspen Festival Orchestra and AMFS Music Director Robert Spano to perform Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto—the perfect way to kick off the AMFS’s Sunday orchestra series, according to AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher.

“Beethoven is just a favorite for everybody,” he says. “You can never go wrong with Beethoven.”

Biss, who has more or less dedicated his life to studying this beloved composer and mastering the piano music he penned, says Beethoven’s early work is marvelous to witness.

“In his early music, there’s this quality where the personality is there already,” he says. “There are pieces like the First Piano Concerto where you get these little moments of him demonstrating what he can do, both in terms of instrumental virtuosity, but also in terms of compositional virtuosity. There are moments that are kind of eye-popping, like you can’t believe the music took that twist or that turn.”

In the case of the First Piano Concerto, Biss calls attention to a cadenza that “can only be described as outrageous,” he says.

“It’s about two minutes longer than it ought to be, and it’s as if he said to himself, ‘I’m not going to let the orchestra come back in until I have modulated into every possible key and I’ve explored every corner of the piano,’” Biss says. “It’s a piece that’s both a delight and also profound, both to listen to and to play.

There’s a tremendous sense of physical fun.”

Biss’s performance on Sunday is not his only celebration of Beethoven this season. On August 16 and 18, the pianist will perform recitals of Beethoven sonatas as the cap on an ambitious,

Disney movies to life right on stage. “We’ve never done anything like this,” says Fletcher. With clips from Frozen, Moana, Tangled, and more, this special event will delight families and people of all ages.

World-famous guest artists complete the AMFS season calendar. Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov returns as both performer and composer (July 15) as well as for a recital (July 10). Violinists and alumni Sarah Chang (August 10 and 15) and Midori (August 5) return, violinist Augustin Hadelich performs Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto (July 22), and a recital (July 18), while Daniel Hope plays a recital that features AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher’s Violin Concerto (July 17). The Emerson String Quartet performs a special event recital (July 11) and classical guitarist Sharon Isbin and mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard perform a Spanish-inspired program (August 9). Additionally, there will be performances by renowned pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet (July 13), Inon Barnatan (July 27), Vladimir Feltsman (August 12), Lise de la Salle (August 13 and 17), and many more!

There is something for everyone this season. Says Fletcher, “Our devoted audience will really find a lot of surprises this summer.” Mark your calendars!

ARRIVAL: Artist-

faculty, students Continued from Festival Focus page 1

three-year project which Biss played all of the composer’s piano sonatas. He kicked off this project in Aspen in 2016.

“Living with music that is that intense and that profound has really changed me; it’s been one of the most powerful things to happen with me,” Biss says. “Starting to get near the end of it, it’s an incredibly emotional journey to have been on and to be reaching the culmination of.”

The Aspen Festival Orchestra program on Sunday wraps up with Shostakovich’s intensely powerful “Leningrad” Symphony, a work that Fletcher says had a premiere comparable to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

“Shostakovich wrote this during the siege of Leningrad, and it was smuggled out,” Fletcher says. “Toscanini, who was an extremely committed anti-fascist, gave the premiere as a worldwide radio broadcast. It was immediately considered to be a piece of tremendous importance. Great, great emotion and power.”

See Jonathan Biss and the Aspen Festival Orchestra perform under Robert Spano at 4 pm Sunday, July 1, in the Benedict Music Tent.

Jackson, Mississippi, who recently graduated from the Royal College of Music in London and the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna, is excited to begin his first season at the AMFS, “I want to grow as an artist,” he says, “and I’ve always heard that Aspen is really the place to go as a conductor.” As an Aspen Conducting Academy fellow, Walker will have the opportunity to conduct the Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra on Tuesdays at 4 pm, “I want to learn and absorb as much as possible from maestro Spano and the guest conducting faculty, and improve to become the best conductor that I can. This summer will put me on a very nice path to that.”

In preparation for the Festival’s 400-plus events this summer, 175 Steinway pianos have been delivered, tuned, and spread across AMFS venues, the 2,050-seat Benedict Music Tent has been opened and prepped for performance, and 100 summer staff members have been hired—from audio engineers to costume designers and orchestra managers.

“The build-up to what promises to be a transformative experience for all who are touched by the Aspen Music Festival and School is palpable,” says AMFS Vice President and Dean of Students Jennifer White.

AMFS alumni rising in their professional careers and returning as guest artists this summer include violinists Stefan Jackiw, Ray Chen, and Simone Porter; pianist Conrad Tao; vocalists Jamie Barton, Tamara Wilson, Ryan McKinny; and the Pacifica Quartet. Some of these performers were students just a couple of years ago. White says, “It is incredibly inspiring for our students to observe the careers of their peers being launched. This is a regular occurrence at Aspen and a real feather in the caps of the institution and the community.”