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MONDAY, JULY 5, 2021
FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
Supplement to The Aspen Times
DeLay Prize–Winning Violinist Performs Monday recording work during this time, but I miss the energy of a live audience.” Returning for her fifth summer at the Aspen Music Festival As the winner of the AMFS’s prestigious Dorothy DeLay and School, violinist and 2019 Dorothy DeLay Prize Winner Prize, Kastner has the opportunity to play a work on the stage Gallia Kastner will perform with the Aspen Conducting of the Benedict Music Tent with the ACA Orchestra. She Academy (ACA) Orchestra on Monday, July 5. This will be chose to perform Joseph Bologne’s Violin Concerto No 9. in Kastner’s first live performance since February of 2020. G major, op. 8. “This is a charming work that has joy, nostalgia, “Aspen is my second home,” Kastner explains. “The mo- and cheerfulness,” Kastner says. “This piece has meant so ment I set foot in Aspen every year, I feel comforted by the much to me in the past year, as it’s given me strong motivamountains and by all my friends I get to see again or meet for tion to continue working throughout the pandemic.” the first time. I get to work with my teacher, Robert Lipsett, AMFS Vice President for Artistic Administration and Arand play in an incredible orchestra all summer. Aspen has tistic Advisor Asadour Santourian notes, “Joseph Bologne, given me so much in the past few years. It Chevalier de Saint-Georges, is a black is all I could ever ask for.” eighteenth-century composer, a contemKastner started playing the violin when porary of Mozart’s. In fact, he actually was “Music is my safe she was four years old after a failed atslightly older. He was a colorful charactempt at tennis lessons. Her grandfather in place. . . . The violin ter—a great fencer, he even fought in wars. Indonesia suggested to Kastner’s mother He was the concertmaster of the Royal that she sign her up for violin lessons. “LitOrchestra in France. He was a wonderful is my voice.” tle did she know that I was going to stay up composer and a great violinist as well. He all night practicing violin to the point where was certainly prolific, and just between Gallia Kastner you and me, Mozart stole the idea of the she had to force me to put it away for the 2019 Dorothy DeLay Prize Winner multiple instrument concerto from him.” night,” Kastner says. AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher Kastner spent her pandemic year completing her master’s degree on Zoom at the Colburn predicts grand things for Kastner and her career. “Every sumSchool. “While I was devastated that I couldn’t be there to mer we have standout violinists, that’s never failed, but Gallia have lessons, academic classes, and perform music with my is in the Simone Porter, Will Hagen, Joyce Yang, Conrad Tao incredible colleagues, knowing that I was headed to Aspen category,” he notes, citing Aspen alumni who are rising stars in the summer kept me motivated.” Kastner conveys. “I am in the field. “You know instantly when you hear her play what most excited to see an audience again. I was able to do some kind of career she is going to have. When these artists were SHANNON ASHER
Festival Focus Writer
Gallia Kastner, 2019 Dorothy DeLay Prize Winner.
ELLE LOGAN
students you thought, not only will they have truly important careers but they are simply such fabulous people and people you want to be with. They’re so magnetic and positive and Gallia was like that from her first summer. I predict she will be one of the great ones.” Kastner admits that music is the one part of her life she can always depend on. “Music is my safe place,” Kastner says. “It has given me comfort, motivation, and consistency in my life. If there is one thing that has repeatedly kept me on my feet, it’s the violin. The violin is my voice.”
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