EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

LEFT Students and mariachi specialists perform together on the Benedict Music Tent stage at the summer’s free Mariachi Celebration.

ABOVE The Mariachi Celebration welcomed families from throughout the Roaring Fork Valley.

Summer Highlights

The summer season included perennial favorites like the annual free Family Concert, which featured Gail Kubik’s rollicking musical rendition of Dr. Seuss’s Gerald McBoing Boing at the Benedict Music Tent. Families also enjoyed Tunes and Tales, the long-running musical story-telling collaboration with the Pitkin County and Basalt Regional Libraries; two free sessions of Gotta Move! on the Tent stage; and the immersive early childhood music education program, Sing Play Move. Thanks to sustained support from US Bank and Les Dames d’Aspen, P.A.L.S. (Passes and Lessons Scholarship) and Festival Lessons provided private music instruction to 170 students this summer, with students and instructors spending more than 450 hours in private lessons!

AfterWorks and Musical Connections

AfterWorks programs returned to in-person instruction for the 2021–22 school year, offering programs designed to complement the music instruction students receive in schools and from private instructors.

Beginning Strings had its largest enrollment yet with 207 students and fourteen teachers—including ArtistYear Resident Teaching Artists Erica Ogihara cello and Camille Backman violin —making music at eight schools.

Lead Guitar had ninety-six students from grades 4–12 participating at six schools, with instruction by Lead Guitar Regional Director Nick Lenio and six teachers, including ArtistYear Resident Teaching Artist Maryam Hajialigol.

NEW! Chamber Music Lab launched at the start of the school year to help twenty-six older strings students (grades 5 and up, half of whom were Latina/o) develop ensemble skills and expand independent musicianship. The students formed six chamber music groups (trios, quartets, sextets) coached by Beginning Strings staff, and participated in workshops at the Basalt Regional Library with border band Jarabe Mexicano in October and the Leftover Salmon bluegrass band in January.

The Musicians in the Schools program brought the Ivalas Quartet—AMFS alumni and the University of Colorado – Boulder’s graduate string quartet in residence—to engage with students in elementary schools from Aspen to Glenwood Springs and presented a free recital at Basalt Regional Library.

Glenwood Springs Elementary

Sopris Elementary

Glenwood Springs Middle School in

the Roaring Fork Valley

AYA AY

Basalt Regional Library

Lead Guitar

Chamber Music Lab

Mariachi Workshop

Jarabe Mexicano

Leftover Salmon Workshop

Ivalas Quartet

School with an ArtistYear Resident Teaching Artist

Carbondale Middle School Aspen Middle School

AY AYA ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL 2022 ANNUAL REPORT 21 21

Aspen Community School