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FESTIVAL FOCUS: McGegan leads Bullock and Waarts, Friday
SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES MONDAY, JULY 5, 2021 VOL 31, NO. 2
McGegan leads Bullock and Waarts, Friday
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SHANNON ASHER
Festival Focus Writer
Longtime guest conductor at the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) and one of the world’s leading Baroque specialists, Nicholas McGegan, returns to Aspen for his signature energetic performances on July 9 with classical singer Julia Bullock and violinist Stephen Waarts and on July 14 leading an evening of Brandenburg Concertos.
McGegan first came to Aspen in 1999 (the last year the Bayer-Benedict Tent was in use) and has been coming back to teach and conduct ever since. “It’s the most exciting thing that the Festival is going to happen this year,” McGegan says. “Having had a year off when it didn’t happen last year, I felt as if there was something wrong with my year. Aspen is always one of the highlights in my musical year.”
Beyond the performance aspect, McGegan looks forward to meeting the new crop of conducting students at the AMFS. “I’m there to teach effectively but I find that teachers also learn just as much.”
A native of Great Britain who studied at Cambridge and Oxford, McGegan served as music director of San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale, completing his tenure with the 2019–20 season. “I was supposed to be doing all sorts of things for the last 14 months, but that hasn’t happened,” McGegan conveys. “I have to say I’ve been pretty lucky. I feel immensely fortunate to have been able to make as much music as I have during this pandemic year.”
The July 9 performance will consist of mostly eighteenth-century programming. Starting things off is an overture by a Mozart contemporary, the pioneering black composer Joseph Bologne, whose charming chamber opera, L’amant anonyme, was recently performed by the Los Angeles Opera. (See more about Bologne in “DeLay Prize Winner” story, page 2.)
Honored by Musical America as a 2021 “Artist of the Year: Agent of Change,” classical singer Julia Bullock will transport audiences to India in Delage’s song cycle Quatre poèmes hindous, inspired by the composer’s travels. “I’m dying to meet Julia,” McGegan confesses.
“She’s a brilliant woman,” says Asadour Santourian, AMFS vice president for artistic administration and artistic advisor. “Julia has not chosen a traditional path to her career.
By that I mean neither winning competitions or auditioning at major houses and being in featured roles. She has chosen her own path. She is very much now in demand worldwide. Her ability to bring in, as you can see from her own program, such an eclectic mix of composers and periods is incredible. They’re thematically arranged, and they tell a story.” “I’m very much looking forward to working with Stephen [Waarts] as well,” McGegan adds. “It’s wonderful to meet these new up-andcoming young soloists each year like Stephen. We’re doing a piece that I know very ALLISON MICHAEL ORENSTEIN well. I’ve recorded it twice Classical singer Julia Bullock and it’s just lovely.” Waarts performs July 9 and 13. will be taking on Mozart’s elegant and enchanting Third Violin Concerto.
In addition to his performance on Friday, be sure not to miss McGegan in a Baroque evening on July 14. Here, he takes on four of Bach’s beloved Brandenburg Concertos, which the composer dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg and brother to the King of Prussia.
Performing these gems is an ensemble of hand-picked stellar talents including Simone Porter and Stephen Waarts on violin; Nadine Asin and Alejandro Lombo on flute; Rachel Ahn, Rachel Domingue, and Elaine Douvas on oboe; Erik Ralske and Tanner West on horn; Jacob Dassa on harpsichord; and Stuart Stephenson on trumpet.
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