ARTISTIC HIGHLIGHTS

Led by Music Director Robert Spano, the Aspen Music Festival and School celebrated its 2022 Season with the theme, Tapestries: What We Talk About When We Talk About Ourselves, which engaged the ways we use art to create identity.

The summer’s theme was an ideal vehicle for the AMFS’s ongoing initiative to bring more works by underrepresented voices to its audiences. The season’s programming also showcased a number of important young performers who are embarking on promising careers, pairing many of them with well-loved seasoned artists.

Pianist Matthew Whitaker returned to Aspen, joining veteran conductor and alumna Marin Alsop to perform George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Aspen Chamber Symphony on opening weekend. From the first trill of artist-faculty member Michael Rusinek’s unforgettable clarinet glissando to Whitaker’s final flourish, the Tent audience was captivated by a truly rhapsodic pairing of profound classical and jazz artistry. In a work that rewards interpretive freedom, Whitaker did not disappoint. Alsop also led a moving rendition of the Ukrainian National Anthem at the start of the concert.

Soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Rod Gilfry also delighted opening week audiences with a Broadway evening, and joined Spano and the Aspen Festival Orchestra to “sing” the letters of painter Georgia O’Keeffe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz in Kevin Puts’s The Brightness of Light