FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES
MONDAY, JULY 12, 2021
VOL 31, NO. 3
Mozart’s Magic Flute on Saturday
NEW THIS YEAR!
AMFS Livestreams
SHANNON ASHER
This summer, the AMFS shares select concerts with the world in a series of free livestreams direct from the Benedict Music Tent. For tips on how to view the livestreams on your devices, visit aspenmusicfestival. com/virtual-stage.
LIVESTREAM SCHEDULE: Mozart’s The Magic Flute Saturday, July 17 | 7 PM MT
Aspen Chamber Symphony Friday, July 23 | 5:30 PM MT Gemma New conductor Tengku Irfan piano
Aspen Chamber Symphony Friday, Aug. 13 | 5:30 PM MT Roderick Cox conductor Joyce Yang piano
Aspen Festival Orchestra Sunday, Aug. 22 | 4 PM MT Robert Spano conductor Augustin Hadelich violin
Festival Focus Writer
The Aspen Opera Theater Center and VocalARTS (AOTVA) program will mount a special version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Benedict Music Tent this Saturday evening at 7 pm. The performance will be sung by the young singers of the program, conducted by Patrick Summers, directed by Edward Berkeley, and narrated by Renée Fleming. It will also be livestreamed free at aspenmusicfestival.com/virtual-stage. Abridged and semi-staged, this version was created by Berkeley and Summers to fit the Aspen Music Festival and School’s 2021 90-minute window for safety in performance. “Making sure it worked musically within the limitation of time was the first consideration,” says Berkeley. After that, Berkeley’s task was to find a way to keep the connection to the story and to “keep something buoyant happening.” The answer was an original narration, saturated with Berkeley’s signature sharp wit, and to be performed by none other than Fleming, who is co-artistic director of the AOTVA program along with Summers. Berkeley points out that even though abridged, “it is The Magic Flute, still,” and notes there will be a “playfulness in the staging” and “a certain loosey-goosey-ness” to retain the joy and whimsy for which Mozart’s beloved work is so well-known. Set in ancient Egypt, the story centers around Tamino, a young prince who enters a quest to win the hand of the princess,
Sarah Vautour, a soprano studying this summer in the Aspen Opera Theatre and VocalARTS program with Renée Fleming and Patrick Summers, sings the unforgettable role of the Queen of the Night.
Pamina. Her mother, the Queen of the Night, is ruthless in her determination to keep them apart, though ultimately love triumphs. This part-myth, part-fairy tale focuses on themes of love and good versus evil. Sarah Vautour, a soprano studying at the AOTVA, will be singing the formidable role of Queen of the Night, a part known for having some of the highest notes sung in all of opera. One might describe the Queen of the Night as an overprotective mother who goes too far. She would do anything to protect her daughter, Pamina. “I am definitely looking forward to playing the ‘evil’ character in an opera for once, being that in most of my
repertoire, I am playing the ingenue,” Vautour says. “The Queen of the Night is a powerful and awesome force to be reckoned with. It is so exciting to sing one of the most famous roles in opera history. Even if you aren’t an opera fan, one can pretty much guarantee that you will recognize the melody of her key aria, ‘Der Hölle Rache.’ That aria is like a rock song. It’s impossible to have a bad time listening to it.” Vautour’s first leading role in Aspen came at the young age of 20 when she sang the role of Mozart/Donna Anna in AMFS’s production of Steven Stucky’s The Classical Style.
See Vautour, Festival Focus page 3
Conductor James Conlon’s Much-Anticipated Return LAURA E. SMITH
Vice President for Marketing and Communications
Conductor and AMFS alumnus James Conlon
Sunday, July 18, sees the return to Aspen of conductor James Conlon, a longtime favorite presence, Aspen alumnus, music director of the Los Angeles Opera, and world-famous conductor and music advocate. He will lead a program of brilliant works he hand chose, anchored by William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony and Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto played by soloist Yefim Bronfman. It is a much-anticipated reunion—Conlon’s Aspen roots run deep. “The year 2024 will mark 50 years from my first year conducting in Aspen as an adult,” he says. He came to Aspen in 1968 as a young conducting student. “It was my first trip away from home,” he remembers, “and basically where I first really conducted.” His experience here led to enrolling at The
Juilliard School, to early conducting engagements in Europe, and then on to a legendary career on both sides of the pond. Asked about programming the lesser-known Dawson work, Conlon is direct, “It came about because of the increasing consciousness of the last year and the murder of George Floyd,” he says. Conlon has long been passionate about advocating for silenced voices, including those of Jewish composers oppressed or erased by the Nazis. His longtime work in that area helped lead to the establishment of the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at the Colburn School. Citing the recent national wake-up call around racism, he says he immediately began
looking for new works to bring to light by composers sidelined or diminished because of racism. “It’s an amazing work,” he explains of the Dawson, which was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1934. “It’s accessible, melodic, rhythmic, emotionally touching, and very exciting.” AMFS Vice President for Artistic Administration and Artistic Advisor Asadour Santourian agrees. “It’s a magnificently conceived work,” he notes. “Dawson uses three spirituals as schematic material, which he synthesizes, brilliantly crafted.” Says Conlon, “I think audiences will not only enjoy the work, they will want to know ‘where
See Conlon, Festival Focus page 3
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MONDAY, JULY 12, 2021
FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
Supplement to The Aspen Times
Classical Singer Julia Bullock Makes Her Aspen Debut SHANNON ASHER
One of the newest works that Bullock will share on Tuesday
Festival Focus Writer
is music by Connie Converse. “Originally I just sang one of her
Fast-rising star and American classical singer Julia Bullock makes her debut performance at the Aspen Music Festival and School this summer. After performing last Friday with Nicholas McGegan, Stephen Waarts, and the Aspen Chamber Symphony, Bullock will be performing a recital on Tuesday evening with pianist John Arida. Bullock’s recent positions have included prestigious artistic partnerships and residencies with Esa-Pekka Salonen at the San Francisco Symphony, London’s Guildhall School, the San Francisco Symphony, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was also honored as a 2021 Artist of the Year and “agent of change” by Musical America. This will be Bullock’s first time performing a full recital in almost two years, and her first time back in the United States since March of 2020. “The recital format is one that I just look forward to tremendously,” Bullock said in a recent phone interview from her home in Munich, Germany. “It’s all material that I love very much, and some of the songs I’ve been singing for several years.” When it comes to programming, Bullock looks for specific themes that can be echoed throughout the evening. “Whether that be through themes of the poetry, words themselves, the musical language, folk songs, women living and liberating themselves and how that impacted their creative output,” Bullock says. “All of those things are certainly echoed throughout this concert. I think that those things are explicit, at least in this program.”
songs as an encore, as a part of a program,” Bullock explains. “I heard a recording of her that was made in somebody’s
Classical singer Julia Bullock presents a beautifully curated recital with pianist John Arida on July 13.
living room in the 1950s and when I heard this CD, she just reminded me of some of the greatest art songs, both lyrically and musically in terms of harmony and all of that.”
Bullock continues, “It specifically reminded me of Schubert, and so I wrote to this arranger, pianist, and composer friend of mine, Jeremy Siskind, whose other arrangements are also on this program. I said, ‘Hey, I really love this tune. Could you set it with Schubert in mind?’ He came up with this beautiful arrangement.” Bullock and pianist John Arida were originally roommates in New York City for five years while Bullock was studying at Juilliard. “We were both looking for a new apartment, so we ended up sharing a place with another pianist, Brent Funderburk,” Bullock explains. Bullock and Arida did not end up working together, though, until just a couple years before she moved out of the city. “One thing that I just loved about working with him was that I was able to witness his work ethic, his commitment to rehearsing, and just the way that he embodied the music,” Bullock says. “I feel very comfortable and at home with him where I’m able to take risks.” After taking several months off from performing, Bullock explains that the muscle memory of performing and dealing with the stress of that is something that musicians must work back up to again. “The Festival is about the process of just being able to share space and time with people,” Bullock conveys. “I’m really looking forward to sharing resources and tools. I love being with musicians and being surrounded by creative people. This is going to be a very intense time. I just hope that we can cherish the time that we have together, come with openness, lots of questions, and some joy.”
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CONLON RETURNS Continued from Festival Focus page 1 has this been and why have I never heard it,’ which of course, Of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, Conlon notes the really is the big question.” undeniability of all of Beethoven’s works. “I do love it,” he Opening the concert is a work by Alvin Singleton, a com- says of the concerto. “And I go back a very long way with poser Conlon has known personally since the 1960s. From Fima [Bronfman] and it’s always an honor and a pleasure to Brooklyn, and steeped in the jazz worlds of Thelonious Monk collaborate with him.” and Charlie Parker, Singleton also Conlon equally loves colholds impeccable traditional laborating with Aspen’s music classical credentials including students who play in the Aspen “I love working with young a degree from Yale, a Fulbright Festival Orchestra alongside Scholarship, and a long period of their preeminent teachers who people. It’s a great time of life. studying and working in Europe. are leading orchestral players in They are fresh, they are open, Singleton’s works are known the world. Notes Alan Fletcher, for touching his own deep AMFS President and CEO, “James they are enthusiastic.” truth, and for a certain amount is ideal for our students because of flair. The work on the July he’s super demanding at a world James Conlon 18 program, 56 Blows (quis level, yet he understands how to Conductor and AMFS alumnus Custodiet Custodes?), referwork with people who are playing ences the Rodney King beating a piece for the first time. He can of 1991. Conlon points out conduct the Berlin Philharmonic, that the Latin translates to “who watches the and also conduct our students.” watchers?”—a perennial question and one especially powerful Notes Conlon, “I love working with young people. It’s a great at this moment. time of life. They are fresh, they are open, they are enthusiastic.”
ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL BOX OFFICE:
JULY 1 – AUGUST 22:
LAURA E. SMITH
On Friday, July 16, soprano Renée Fleming graces the stage at the Aspen Music Festival and School’s Benedict Music Tent with the Aspen Chamber Symphony, sharing the tender song cycle Winter Morning Walks by acclaimed jazz orchestra leader and composer Maria Schneider. It is a work Fleming deeply loves and has found audiences respond to enthusiastically. “Sometimes you just fall in love with pieces. There are works that I remember where I was when I first heard them and that is true for [Schneider’s] recording, which won three Grammys when it came out. I just so fell in love with it,” she says. Fleming asked Schneider, who is a longtime personal friend, to write a version she could perform with piano. It is this version she performed just weeks ago in Costa Mesa with pianist Inon Barnatan. “It Soprano, AMFS alumna, and cogot a standing ovation,” she artistic director of the AOTVA notes. “It was just five of program, Renée Fleming. the songs, but it resonated with people so much. Her music is beautiful, it’s evocative. She is incredibly fastidious, a perfectionist about every pitch.” Schneider released Winter Morning Walks as a studio recording in 2013, drawing inspiration from the poetry of Ted Kooser and his 2001 collection of 100 poems of the same name. Kooser won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 2005, and served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. Schneider, who will attend the Aspen concert, has commented that she also fell in love with Kooser’s poetry. She has
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Bronfman: Beethoven and Beyond In addition to his performance of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto with James Conlon and the Aspen Festival Orchestra on Sunday, July 18, pianist Yefim Bronfman presents a recital on July 20. The program in the Benedict Music Tent will feature Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-flat major, as well as Ustvolskaya’s Piano Sonata No. 4, and concludes with Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3.
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Fleming Shares Tender Schneider Work Vice President for Marketing and Communications
MONDAY, JULY 12, 2021
said: “His poetry is so expressive, it captures humanity and just the simple things about people. It makes you almost feel like crying.” The poems speak of the quieter aspects of nature— the birds, the moon, the glowing eyes of nighttime creatures. Says Fleming of another element shared by her, Schneider, and Kooser, “Maria and I share this incredible passion for the natural world. She’s an avid birder and has taken me birding in Central Park on many occasions.” Schneider is a creative force acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. She frequently writes for her 18-member jazz collective, tours as a jazz band leader, and is a highly successful recording artist. Her latest double-album, Data Lords (2020), was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, winner of two Grammy Awards, named Jazz Album of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association and NPR, and won France’s prestigious Grand Prix de l’Académie du Jazz. “I just love her musical Grammy-winning composer language,” Fleming says. It and jazz orchestra leader, Maria Schneider. will be the first time she has sung the version with chamber orchestra. “It’s hard to program,” she comments, “because it needs a jazz trio in addition to the orchestra.” But from a master who knows the full span of music for soprano, she says this piece is worth it. “It really speaks to me,” she says. Also on the program is Michael Abels’s Delights and Dances and Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Haydn. AMFS Music Director Robert Spano conducts the Aspen Chamber Symphony.
VAUTOUR:
Continued from Magic Flute page 1
She is thrilled to be returning to Aspen for her third summer. “It truly is such an inspirational, artistic oasis. The way the mountains clear your head and heart leaves you open to creativity and inspiration. Seeing the mountains every morning reminds me of how awesome it is to be human and living in a world where we connect with each other through vibration and energy.” On studying with Fleming and Summers, Vautour says, “Renée Fleming’s ability to cut through the excess and really hone in on what is important for the singer’s growth and what is crucial for the industry as a whole is such a gift. To learn from her is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” She adds, “I’m amazed at Maestro Summers’s “The energy we ability to balance striving exchange . . . during for excellence within a deep and compassionperformance is ate acknowledgment of something I really humanity.” felt the lack of during That approach is one Vautour shares. “I think the pandemic, and the most amazing thing something I will never about this job is that take for granted again.” it requires that I wake up every day and ask myself what it looks like Sarah Vautour to be the most authentic AOTVA Fleming Fellow and open-hearted version of myself,” she says. “And from there, how I can bring that to my voice, performance, and audience in a way that expresses our shared humanity. There is a very special bond between performer and audience. The energy we exchange through sound and through silence during performance is something I really felt the lack of during the pandemic, and something I will never take for granted again. It is such a gift to serve the world through connection.”
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MONDAY, JULY 12, 2021
FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
Supplement to The Aspen Times
