Jennifer Koh and Missy Mazzoli: Friends on the Edge
BY KIMBERLY NICOLETTI
Composer Missy Mazzoli, who is making big waves on the contemporary classical music scene, is the Aspen Music Festival and School’s guest composer-inresidence this season. Since 2009, she has composed a variety of virtuosic pieces for violinist Jennifer Koh. They bring their collaborations, and deep friendship, to Harris Concert Hall on July 24 for a joint recital, with the composer at the keyboard.
“It’s not the kind of show you see all the time. We’ve collaborated for the last 15 years, but most of that time I’ve been writing for Jenny,” Mazzoli says. “It’s a rare chance to see that deep evolution that comes out of working with a friend.”
The evening aptly opens with Dissolve, O my Heart, a piece that Mazzoli wrote for Koh before they really knew one another. “I was intimidated by her—I’d only known
her by reputation,” Mazzoli says about their first in-person meeting, over Chinese food and cupcakes. “Within minutes, all of that intimidation dissolved and I knew, this is someone I could be vulnerable with.”
That closeness has inspired innovative compositions that push boundaries, leading National Public Radio’s Turning the Tables to refer to Mazzoli as “the 21st century’s gatecrasher of new classical music.”
“Music has the power to connect us. It gives us a language for things that we don’t have words for, (and my aim for the audience) is to be united with each other and with me.”
Missy
Mazzoli AMFS Guest Composer-in-Residence
“With every piece, I try to raise the stakes. I try to push (Koh’s) virtuosity,” she says, adding that doesn’t always mean faster playing. “It’s not always a technical thing. Having a great deal of focus, or silence to hold that space, also requires virtuosity.”
Procession Ascending showcases one part of Mazzoli’s Violin Concerto (Procession), which she composed in 2022, inspired by Koh’s personality. Each of the
five movements conveys a healing ritual, such as spells, chants and hymns, reminiscent of medieval times. Coming out of the pandemic, Mazzoli had been considering the power of music to heal, as well as the idea of Koh acting as a sage, leading the orchestra through rituals—or, sometimes, being consumed by the orchestra. (Koh will perform the complete Violin Concerto (Procession) with the Aspen Chamber Symphony July 26 in the Klein Music Tent.)
“I see Jenny as a leader who takes her own initiative—just as someone working for the greatest good, working to elevate the community,” she says. “She works harder than anyone I know. She’s always practicing and always thinking about how to improve things as a whole. There’s just this insane technical ability, and there’s this fearlessness to that. She’s a great music citizen and just a great citizen of the world. She did Everything Rises with Davóne Tines—a searing commentary on the role of artists, particularly artists of color, in society. She doesn’t have to do any of this,
See Mazzoli, Festival Focus page 3
GREAT ARTISTS PLAYING GREAT CHAMBER MUSIC
July 27, Aug. 10, 17 | 4:30 PM Aug. 5 | 6 PM
Harris Concert Hall
Featuring renowned artists who play with the world’s top orchestras, operas, and conservatories, these recitals are an opportunity for AMFS artist-faculty to come together as friends and artists to play works purely for the joy of them. From sublime to quirky, these concerts are creative and personal, and showcase their skills in wide-ranging chamber music programs.
Selections include:
• Beethoven’s Piano Trio in E-flat major (July 27)
• Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence (Aug. 5, arranged by Timothy Pitts, double bass artist-faculty member)
• Brahms’s Third Piano Quartet in C minor (Aug. 10)
• Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major (Aug. 17).
Free Community Mariachi Celebration Returns July 24
BY SARAH SHAW
Building on its tremendous success over the last two summers, the Aspen Music Festival and School brings back its free community Mariachi Celebration on July 24 in the Klein Music Tent. The concert is the culmination of the AMFS’s popular three-day Mariachi Workshop.
As one of the many family-friendly summer offerings of the Festival, the Mariachi workshop is an extension of the program’s music education programs offered in schools from Aspen to Glenwood Springs. “Bringing the Mariachi Workshop to the Roaring Fork Valley has been a longstanding dream of ours,” says AMFS Vice President of Education and Community Programs Heather Kendrick Stanton.
During the school year, the AMFS’s Education and Community team runs weekly after-school and in-school music education programming in schools throughout the valley. About 520 students participate in programs ranging from strings to choir. “We are boots on the ground,” Stanton continues. “When we learned from local music teachers and teaching artists that introducing Mariachi could be a natural extension of our existing programs and meaningful for local families we moved forward to fill the community need.” The program launched in 2022 with 35 participating students. With additional funding from title sponsor Querencia Private Golf and Beach Club in Los Cabos,
Denver’s Mariachi Sol de Mi Tierra and Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Folklórico will return to join Roaring Fork Valley youth participating in the AMFS’s Mariachi Workshop for a Mariachi Celebration on the Klein Music Tent stage on July 24.
BLAKE NELSON
Composer Missy Mazzoli presents a recital with violinist Jennifer Koh on July 24. Earlier that day she talks about composing with AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher and fellow composer Christopher Theofanidis in a High Notes panel at the Hotel Jerome.
Violinist Jennifer Koh plays Procession, Missy Mazzoli’s Violin Concerto, with the Aspen Chamber Symphony on July 26.
Shaham, Anthony, and Friends—An Aspen Reunion
BY CINDY HIRSCHFELD
When violinists Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony perform a recital in Harris Hall on Thursday, July 25, they will share the stage with friends new and old. It’s a wholly appropriate way of honoring the couple’s long-time association with the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS), from their time as students to now-frequent visits as renowned soloists.
Sure, Shaham and Anthony will dazzle the audience on their own, playing a movement of Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor and Australian composer Ross Edwards’s Ecstatic Dance for Two Violins. But they’ll also welcome AMFS students to accompany them for a trio of pieces (including an arrangement of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody) as well as pianist and AMFS faculty member Anton Nel for Moritz Moszkowski’s Suite for Two Violins and Piano. Four
other AMFS artist-faculty will join for Brahms’s masterful Clarinet Quintet in B minor, one of Shaham’s favorite works.
“The way Gil and Adele approached the project is so beautiful,” says AMFS Vice President for Artistic Administration Patrick Chamberlain. “They could have just done a duo recital of music they love, but this program really shows the amazing things that happen in Aspen. You have world-traveling stars at the height of their power alongside the faculty, many of whom are principal players in major orchestras themselves, and then the next generation—the students who will one day assume those roles. It’s the core of what makes the AMFS community special year after year.”
Shaham and Anthony randomly connected in Aspen in 1990, says AMFS artist-faculty cellist Brinton Averil Smith. “I met Gil at a party,” recalls Smith, also the principal cellist with the Houston Symphony, who spent five summers studying at AMFS. Smith was headed with other students to play in Banff, Alberta, for a week and Shaham, in Aspen for an early-career solo appearance, wanted to stay longer. Smith offered up his room in a downtown apartment. Meanwhile, Anthony arrived as a student in need of housing. One of Smith’s female roommates, also headed to Banff, gave Anthony her bed for the week. “That was the beginning of us all knowing each other,” says Smith, who has since performed many times with the now-married couple. “They’re some of my closest friends from those days. When we had kids, we taught them to ride bikes together in Aspen. Aspen has been the central hub in our lives.”
Clarinetist
Joaquín Valdepeñas, resident conductor of
the Glenn Gould School’s Royal Conservatory Orchestra in Toronto and AMFS artist-faculty, also met Shaham and Anthony in Aspen. “We would run into each other and talk,” he says. That was well after the day in 1988 when Valdepeñas came home after rehearsing with the Toronto Symphony, where he was principal clarinet, and told his wife, “I heard a teenage violinist who will probably become one of the most famous violinists in the world.” (It was Shaham, of
course.) Valdepeñas will join for the Brahms on Wednesday, along with Smith and violist Choong-Jin Chang. Despite their well-deserved fame, both Anthony and Shaham remain humble. Says Smith of the latter, “Gil is not only one of the best musicians I know, but also one of the best people. You see that on the stage. People react so much to his warmth and honesty. He doesn’t have an ounce of show business in him—he just loves music.”
Continued from Festival Focus page 1
Violinists and AMFS alumni Adele Anthony and Gil Shaham, horsing around.
Over the many years he has returned to Aspen as a guest artist, Shaham has become a popular role model for AMFS student artists.
DIEGO REDEL
Percussion Ensemble Plays Zappa
BY EMMA KIRBY
When AMFS artist-faculty percussionist Jonathan Haas first put on a show of Frank Zappa music played by a percussion ensemble at Aspen’s popular rock music venue Belly Up, he had no idea how successful it would be.
“The place went crazy,” says Haas. He reprises the same show at Harris Concert Hall next Monday, July 29, promising to deliver a lively evening entitled, “Percussion Ensemble Plays Zappa.” Frank Zappa fans, percussion aficionados, and music enthusiasts alike are sure to find something to love about this performance.
The annual Percussion Ensemble recital has been an en-
ergetic, not-to-miss evening since its inception 39 years ago. Taking on a new theme each year, it often moves away from classical repertoire to take advantage of the cross-genre qualities of percussion instruments. Recent years have included an evening of Philip Glass’s music with movies and a night with xylophonist Ian Finkel, often referred to as the “world’s greatest xylophonist.”
This year’s recital, possible in part due to Haas’s serendipitous connection-turned-friendship and collaborative relationship with Zappa (Haas obtained the highly coveted permission to transcribe Zappa’s music), will be no exception.
The transition from rock band to percussion ensemble is a natural one, and the evening will be structured like a Frank Zappa concert, running seamlessly from piece to piece. It employs 18 percussionists and too many instruments to count. In addition to the standard marimbas, vibraphones, and drums, unique instruments like sirens, a lion’s roar, metal pipes, and steel pan are used to create a high-energy sound environment.
The evening also features works by Edgard Varèse, a composer whom Zappa was largely inspired by, including Ionisation, which “remains the most famous percussion ensemble piece ever composed,” says Haas.
Infamous for his outspoken and fiery lyrics, Zappa was a counter-culture icon and his songs were often censored or pulled from the radio entirely. Monday night’s performance will seamlessly include clips from interviews and discussions on free speech in records during and be-
tween pieces.
The percussionists on stage are classically trained musicians. But performing this style of music is not only fun, it’s also a great way for the students to learn. Simply put, “there’s a lot of notes and a lot of great music,” says Haas. And it’s not like it’s out of their element, he continues. “Every drummer knows rock and roll, if they don’t, get out of town!”
An-all percussion ensemble creates an unmatchable sonic energy. One year, “we had the audience dancing in the aisles of Harris,” says Haas. Come to this year’s performance to see firsthand why the percussion ensemble has been a hit at the AMFS for almost four decades.
CELEBRATE THE AMFS’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON!
ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL BOX OFFICE: 970 925 9042 OR ASPENMUSICFESTIVAL.COM
Now–August 18: Daily, 12–4 PM MT, or concert time, or intermission, if applicable.
Mariachi: Community and Music Take Center Stage
Continued from Festival Focus page 1
the program accommodated twice as many students in 2023. This summer, nearly 100 students have registered and there’s a waiting list.
“Local educators from the valley are invited to work alongside a team of statewide mariachi teaching professionals,” says AMFS Education and Community Coordinator Veronica Lopez. “Professional development and family assistance are a large part of our ongoing goals in this program,” she explains. Built into the curriculum for the threeday workshop are events for parents. “We want families to meet our guest artists and teachers and learn what students are doing and how they can support them.”
Additionally, this year, music educators and professionals are invited to audit the workshop as a continuing education opportunity, so they have access to the tools and curriculum to start mariachi music education programs in their own schools.
Impetus for the workshop came from Michael Linert, Director of Orchestras and Mariachi at Westminster Public Schools in Denver. “He has incorporated Mariachi in his programs for years and is a tremendous educational asset to the AMFS,” explains Stanton.
Because Linert has created arrangements for any instrumentation, the workshop is able to incorporate students of all abilities and interests—a fifth grader just learning to play the flute and an eighth grader with a bit more facility on the trombone are both able to learn how their instrument works in the context of a specific song. Mariachi educators from around the state—such as
Isahar Mendez-Flores, program director of the Colorado Youth Mariachi Program—are on hand to help students learn everything from fundamentals to performance techniques and teach them how to play traditional instruments like the guitarron and vihuela. “It’s a process that makes the musical experience that much richer for the students,” Stanton says.
The three-day workshop culminates in the free community concert at the Klein Music Tent with performances by Denver-based Mariachi Sol de Mi Tierra and Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Folklórico, directed by Francisco (Paco) Nevarez-Burgueño and Jesus Rowendolas.
Incorporating time for families to tell their own stories about mariachi is paramount to the workshop experience. Calling it an “intergenerational conversation around mariachi music and culture,” Lopez says program participants and their families are invited to share their experiences with mariachi music. “It is a special tender moment for parents and community members.”
Building community has been integral to the success of the program. The celebration will include festivities before and after the concert on the Karetsky Music Lawn, including food, drinks, dancing, and more than 18 community partners.
The AMFS’s energy and excitement for the program is palpable. Stanton said, “Last year, we had all the families in the audience dancing and singing together. It was just such a beautiful feeling to see friends and families from different backgrounds interacting and celebrating music and community together.”
Mazzoli: Fun Virtuosity
Continued from Festival Focus page 1
but she chooses to [take risks].”
Mazzoli rescored Procession Ascending for the synthesizer to present it without a full orchestra for the pair’s recital program. “It feels like this epic, almost psychedelic, situation when the two of us play it together,” she says.
While the evening includes 11 compositions, she regards Tooth and Nail as the most difficult on the program, referring to it both as “very fun” and “very virtuosic.” Also included is Hail, Horrors, Hail, produced for Koh’s Grammy Award-winning recording and recital series, Alone Together
“Missy’s music is very, very complex, but it’s also very, very easy to love,” says Patrick Chamberlain, AMFS vice president of artistic administration. “The first time you hear it, it grabs you. It’s not thorny or unapproachable. Like all great music, the more you hear it, the more it rewards you. I think our audiences will really love the opportunity to take a deep dive into one of these really important composers working today.”
Much like Koh, within her own performances and compositions, Mazzoli strives to be bold and fearless, even in times of uncertainty.
“Now is not the time to play it safe. In these times, unique self-expression is what people crave. People are interested in the personal, the vulnerable and the unique,” says Mazzoli. “I’m trying to find the music that only I can write, and that illuminates, and what must be written at this time. Music has the power to connect us. It gives us a language for things that we don’t have words for, [and my aim for the audience] is to be united with each other and with me.”
Frank Zappa performing with The Mothers of Invention at Musikhalle Hamburg in December 1971.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The Percussion Ensemble’s July 29 recital will feature 18 percussionists and too many instruments to count.
BLAKE NELSON