Supplement to The Aspen Times
FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2022
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Opera Program, Full-Sized Orchestra Highlight Program Expansions Continued from Festival Focus page 1 four free song showcases, and the popular Saturday morning public opera coaching classes, now called Opera Encounters. Each Saturday features a different guest opera luminary coaching students in the various aspects of vocal performance, from standard opera repertoire, to art song, musical theater, and more. Another expansion this summer is a free community Mariachi concert on Wednesday, June 27. The Denver-based group Mariachi Sol de mi Tierra performs at the Benedict Music Tent with local music students and dancers from
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Folklórico. Says Fletcher, “The Mariachi tradition uses classical techniques to create its own unique voice. This suits our theme and also lets the many children studying in our year-round school programs see how many directions one can go with the instruments they are learning.” Asked what he feels looking forward to a full Festival once again, Fletcher says, “There is so much, but what really comes to mind is hearing a full Sunday orchestra again.” He adds, “we haven’t heard that in three years.”
To put an exclamation point on it, this year’s Final Sunday concert on August 21 will feature Berlioz’s Requiem, the largest work ever written for symphony orchestra. “I’ve wanted to do this since I came here 16 years ago,” says Fletcher. “It has 12 bassoons, where a normal symphony has 2, eight harps, triple brass, with some in a ring around the Tent, two full choruses,” he says. “With the forces required, most professional orchestras can afford to do it perhaps every 30 years. One can admire or even love a recording of it, but nothing is like being in the tumultuous midst of the live sound.”
GET THE MOST MUSIC FOR THE BEST PRICE! CALL TODAY FOR YOUR SEASON PASS. ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL BOX OFFICE: 970 925 9042 OR ASPENMUSICFESTIVAL.COM Open daily, 12 pm – 4 pm or concert time or intermission, if applicable.
FREE LIVESTREAMS RETURN STAFF REPORT
This summer, the Aspen Music Festival and School will once again present a series of free livestreams of select concerts. Broadcast in real time from the Benedict Music Tent, the livestreams will be available to view on the AMFS Virtual Stage: aspenmusicfestival.com/virtual-stage. What started as pre-recorded virtual events in 2020 developed into last year’s livestreams—marking the first time the AMFS broadcast real-time events from the iconic Tent venue. “The response to those 2021 livestreams was great,” says AMFS VP for Marketing and Communications, Laura Smith. “We had people tune in from all over the world who had been students here in past decades, former audience members who can no longer come to Aspen, musicians’ families, artist fans . . . there was a lot of joy generated by those broadcasts.” Last winter the AMFS continued offering free virtual music with the debut of its Aspen Armchair Concerts—a series of online recitals by artists with deep Aspen roots, which covered a variety of genres, from all-Beethoven piano sonatas to a solo saxophone evening. “Again, we had such a nice response from people who enjoyed connecting with these artists in these intimate presentations. Through these concerts, they were reconnecting with their Aspen experience; we got so many letters of deep appreciation,” says Smith.
2022 Livestream Schedule: Aspen Chamber Symphony July 1, 5:30 pm MT The rising young jazz pianist Matthew Whitaker joins celebrated Aspen alumna and renowned conductor Alsop for the Aspen Chamber Symphony’s first concert of the season. Program includes Barber’s First Symphony and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra July 11, 4 pm MT This year’s Piano Competition Winner will perform Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor. Also on the program, Brahms’s Second Symphony. Aspen Chamber Symphony July 15, 5:30 pm MT Acclaimed by the Baltimore Sun as “one of the biggest pianistic talents to have emerged in this country in the last
25 years,” pianist Terrence Wilson makes his Aspen debut in Liszt’s uber-virtuosic First Piano Concerto led by AMFS Music Director Robert Spano. Aspen Festival Orchestra July 24, 4 pm MT In her Aspen debut, outstanding violinist Diana Adamyan takes on Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto in D minor. Conductor Lionel Bringuier leads the AFO in three works by Ravel. Aspen Festival Orchestra July 31, 4 pm MT Hear the extraordinary Augustin Hadelich perform the Violin Concerto by Sibelius. Music Director Robert Spano leads Mahler’s First Symphony. Aspen Chamber Symphony August 5, 5:30 pm MT British pianist Paul Lewis plays Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto. Aspen alumnus Kerem Hasan leads a program that also includes violinist Fiona Shea performing Bruch’s First Violin Concerto. Aspen Festival Orchestra August 14, 4 pm MT AMFS alumna and pianist extraordinaire Joyce Yang returns to Aspen for a performance of pianistic pyrotechnics in Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto. Mozart’s Don Giovanni August 18, 7:30 pm MT Acclaimed Mozartian and conductor Jane Glover leads the magnificent singers of the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS program in Mozart’s provocative work. Aspen Festival Orchestra August 21, 4pm MT AMFS Music Director leads the AFO and special guests in Berlioz’s Requiem—a season finale that offers a monumental, rarely performed work designed for a 188-piece orchestra a 210-member chorus.
Whitaker, Alsop to Perform Together Continued from Festival Focus page 1
and AMFS alumna Marin Alsop is not only a celebrated champion of American music, but, of local note, is the Aspen Institute’s 2022 Harman/Eisner Artist in Residence. Chamberlain says, “She’s really one of our great conductors of American music and one of our great American conductors, period.” He continues, “the opportunity for a really seasoned conductor and young artist coming together on this iconic work is something I’m particularly excited to see.” Audiences can enjoy the July 1 performance on the Benedict Music Tent stage, as well as the AMFS Virtual Stage. The concert will be GRANT LEIGHTON the first of this season’s many Marin Alsop, an AMFS alumna, livestreamed performances, will conduct the Aspen available to view on the Festi- Chamber Symphony on July 1. val website. Following Whitaker’s appearance with the Aspen Chamber Symphony, he switches gears on Saturday, inviting bandmates Marcos Robinson, Karim Hutton, Raphael Torn, and Johnny Steele to the Tent stage for a performance by the Matthew Whitaker Quintet. “As far as my set is concerned, it’s going to be a lot of things—originals, different arrangements, and in all styles of music. It’s going to be a lot of songs from my albums as well, all three of them. But I don’t want to say too much!” Whitaker says. Chamberlain notes these two programs give Aspen audiences a chance to see the different facets of Whitaker’s personal musicality. “That’s one of the things I love about Aspen,” he says, “that we offer multiple opportunities to engage with specific artists. As listeners we can really get to know who these artists are and what makes them special in a way that’s unique among performing arts festivals.” When it comes to performing, Whitaker simply lets the music flow from his heart to his hands. As an artist, he believes there is a deep and direct connection between a person’s art and the expression of their true self. With much in store for his two expressive evenings of music, Whitaker says, “I can’t wait to perform. I’m ready.”
