FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES
A CONCERT OF REMEMBRANCE FOR EDWARD BERKELEY Featuring the young artists of the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS Program
AUGUST 7 | 7 PM MDT Benedict Music Tent Join us as the young artists of the 2021 AOTVA program share works in remembrance of Edward Berkeley, longtime leader of Aspen’s opera program. The program will run approximately 75 minutes, and be performed without intermission. The event is free and unticketed; please respect seating protocols for vaccinated and distanced sections in the Tent. The event will also be livestreamed on the AMFS Virtual Stage (aspenmusicfestival. com/virtual-stage) and the AMFS Facebook page, with an opening selection performed by Renée Fleming and Patrick Summers for livestream audiences only.
MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021
VOL 31, NO. 6
Alum Zlatomir Fung Returns Sunday SHANNON ASHER
Festival Focus Writer
On Sunday, twenty-two-year-old cellist and Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) alumnus Zlatomir Fung will perform at the Benedict Music Tent under the baton of three-time Grammy-nominated conductor Hugh Wolff. It will be a chance for the AMFS audience to celebrate one of its own, as well as hear an astonishing talent on the rise. Fung is the first American in four decades and the youngest musician ever to win First Prize at the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition in the Cello Division. Says Alan Fletcher, AMFS president and CEO, “He was with us two summers and was just a teenager, but he was a complete standout, the kind of person about whom someone would come running into my office and say, ‘You’ve got to come hear this kid.’ He had tremendous intensity and concentration.” Of Bulgarian and Chinese heritage, Fung began playing cello at the age of three. “It was my parents’ decision, although apparently I had shown interest in plucking the strings on my sister’s violin,” Fung explains. “Neither of my parents played musical instruments (both were trained mathematicians), and in a way, I am grateful for that, since they weren’t in a position to put pressure on me. This allowed me to naturally develop my own interest and love for music. I decided I wanted to become a musician when I was 13 years old.” Fung was a student in Aspen during the summers of 2014 and 2015, playing in the
International Tchaikovsky Competition prizewinner Zlatomir Fung performs that composer’s Variations on a Rococo Theme this Sunday, August 8, with the Aspen Festival Orchestra.
Aspen Chamber Symphony and the Aspen States, and it had been my dream to particContemporary Ensemble. “Both summers, ipate in the competition since I was 12 years old. Being in Russia and I worked with incredible teachers and colleagues and After such a long seeing how everyone had come from all the corners learned a great deal,” Fung hiatus from live of the earth to gather around said. “But the strongest and a common passion was most powerful feelings of performances, powerful.” inspiration from the Festival He continues, “The most I’m ready to put my were at the many concerts I memorable moment of attended. Witnessing great heart on my sleeve. the trip was getting to artists from diverse backplay the Shostakovich grounds play day after day Zlatomir Fung Cello Concerto No. 2 was an education in itself.” Cellist and AMFS alumnus with the St. Petersburg Of the Tchaikovsky Competition, Fung says, “The competition Philharmonic. Knowing the deep connection has a rich legacy and reputation in the United
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See Fung, Festival Focus page 3
Golda Schultz Talks about Overcoming Obstacles SHANNON ASHER
Festival Focus Writer
Soprano and AMFS alumna Golda Schultz sings Barber and Stravinsky on August 6.
South African soprano Golda Schultz returns to the Aspen Music Festival and School stage this Friday with the Aspen Chamber Symphony under the baton of Benjamin Manis. An AMFS student in 2010 with a leading role in John Corigliano’s Ghosts of Versailles, Schultz made her professional AMFS debut in 2018. Schultz has since gone on to an international career and been recognized by The New York Times for her “radiant-voiced and tenderly innocent Sophie” in Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera. The New Criterion wrote she possesses, beyond good voice and technique, “an inner light, a spirit: an obvious love of music, love of
the audience, and love of life.” AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher says, “She’s just a radiant person in manner and the sound of her voice is very reminiscent of Renée Fleming. It is the same voice type and personality type, just so communicative, so open. So much love comes from her when she’s on stage.” Of her past experiences in Aspen, Schultz says, “Being in Aspen is always so joyful. When I came back in 2018 as a performer, I was taken back to all my happy memories here as a student. I loved being asked to work on rep that, until then, I didn’t know about. It was such a special musical discovery, which, when coupled with the beauty of the place, made it even more so.” Friday’s concert features “a program full of
modern wonder,” says Schultz. She begins with Anne Trulove’s aria from Stravinsky’s neo-classical nod to traditional opera, The Rake’s Progress, which Schultz describes as “an evocative aria full of brilliant imagery and thrilling musical moments.” After the Aspen Chamber Symphony performs Clarice Assad’s orchestral work Sin Fronteras, Schultz returns with Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, op. 24—a dreamy summer evening walk where the great questions of life are pondered. “I have been an avid listener of both [the Stravinsky and Barber] pieces for many years; now being able to perform them in front of an audience fills me with a deep sense of gratitude,” Schultz explains.
See Schultz, Festival Focus page 3
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MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021
FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
Supplement to The Aspen Times
Key’mon Murrah: A Voice Rising to Any Challenge PIPER STARNES
Festival Focus Writer
With a voice soaring high above the rest, singer Key’mon Murrah rises to any challenge. Murrah is one of this season’s fifteen Fleming Fellowship Artists—and the only sopranist— participating in the 2021 Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS (AOTVA) Program. Hand-selected by AOTVA co-artistic directors Renée Fleming and Patrick Summers, Murrah is thrilled to learn alongside rising opera talents and seasoned professionals and perform in Handel’s Rodelinda, regina de’ Longobardi on August 21. Since childhood, Murrah has always found joy in singing, especially with his twin brother. After a teacher encouraged them to pursue music in college, the brothers went on to attend the University of Kentucky on performance scholarships, despite having never sung opera before. Interestingly, Murrah enrolled as a tenor, graduated as a countertenor, but is actually a sopranist (or Sopranist Key’mon Murrah is King Bertarido in the AOTVA production of male soprano). Fleming says, “People Handel’s Rodelinda, August 21. are sometimes surprised to hear men sing in the falsetto range, so much higher than other male voice types, but we actually celebrate this range for men in pop music today—think of
Michael Jackson, Andy Gibb, Prince, and Smokey Robinson.” is so extensive, lending more virtuosity to [Baroque opera] Summers adds, “[Key’mon’s] range easily encompasses more repertoire than one typically hears. He has an extraordinary than three octaves. His depth and beauty of tone is memo- instrument—warm, full, and even throughout—and he exudes a rable, and though he is still a young singer, he has profound calm self-possession on stage. He will continue to grow artisinterpretive gifts and a rare ability to go right to the heart.” tically, and I believe he has an important career ahead of him.” Summers points out that, although Murrah explains that the AMFS envimost sopranist repertoire has remained ronment is something you can’t find He has an extraordinary untouched since the eighteenth century, anywhere else, pointing out, it’s “per“Impresarios and conductors of imaginaformance-driven, but you get that full instrument . . . and tion and knowledge will have no problem balance of education, support, and he exudes a calm selffinding a huge array of music for Key’mon professional accountability.” In master to sing and for twenty-first-century audiclasses, he has been able to work with possession on stage. . . . I ences to discover.” Fleming and Summers; guest artists believe he has an important Larry Brownlee, Julia Bullock, and Golda When the pandemic struck, Murrah took the initiative to research and create Schultz; as well as Kenneth Merrill, head career ahead of him. his own opportunities, deciding that if he acting coach and director of Handel’s wasn’t working, he would network and Rodelinda. Renée Fleming co-artistic director, AOTVA build his social media presence, where Taking place Saturday, August 21, he’s already accumulated nearly 200,000 this Handel opera is where we’ll see views on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Murrah’s hard work and preparation pay off. Performing as Murrah’s manager Jeffrey Larson, founder and president of Bertarido, King of Lombardy, Murrah is eager to delve into L2 Artists, recalls his first impression: “Key’mon drew my inter- Handel’s music and story. As Rodelinda is one of the final est in about ten seconds. I was blown away by the ease with events of the season, Murrah intends to make the most of which he performed.” With a rare gut feeling, Larson knew the Festival’s last three weeks before pursuing his graduate immediately that he needed to work with Murrah. Making diploma at Juilliard this fall. connections with industry professionals and participating in Reflecting on learning and growing with his fellow opera competitions, Murrah says, “really helped me to be able to be students, Murrah says gratefully, “We’ve become a big here today.” group of friends, supporting each other in everything. We’ve Fleming says, “Hearing Key’mon live for the first time at his become like a tight-knit family.” This, of course, is a family and audition in Aspen was revelatory, especially because his range experience Murrah will surely cherish.
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Supplement to The Aspen Times
FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
Golda Schultz
After weeks of continued performances in front of her classmates and faculty, Schultz learned her obstacles were “all tied to getting over the mental blocks that prevent us Continued from Festival Focus page 1 from our true gifts as interpreters.” She continues, “I am forCapping off the program with its themes of childhood and ever grateful to the faculty and students who stood by me and imagination is Ravel’s exquisitely orchestrated Mother Goose showed me that fear can never truly win. None of us are alone. Suite, a depiction of several fairy tales That’s the thought that gets me out of which he originally wrote for piano for bed wanting to tell stories through music. None of us are alone. I want to prove that no one is alone.” four hands, for the children of the composer’s friends. On that front, Schultz speaks to the That’s the thought that Despite her sensational career thus question of diversity in classical music gets me out of bed, far, performing hasn’t always come easand whether it’s fair to say the situaily for Schultz. While a student at Rhodes tion is improving. “It is beguiling to think wanting to tell stories University in South Africa, she suffered that things are improving, because that from “fainting goat syndrome”—a severe would give us the sense that we could through music. stage fright that causes her to faint after take our foot off the pedal of change,” Golda Schultz performing. Schultz says she eventually Schultz says. “But we can never think Soprano and AMFS alumna overcame her fear, “with a lot of help we have done enough. I hope things from the supportive music department. are changing, and I see young musicians There was a dean on the music faculty who saw beyond my doing more than I ever imagined possible. Speaking out and fear and challenged me to grapple with it. He told me that my calling for action and then acting themselves as agents of talent was bigger than my fear and I just had to find a way to change.” do it, although the fear would try to get in the way.” After such a long time without live music for many people,
MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021
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Schultz says of her upcoming performance, “I think we are all longing to feel connected again without a computer standing between us and an experience.” She adds, “I look forward to seeing faces in the seats again and being able to make eye contact. What people can mainly expect is an evening of joy and gratitude. A celebration of hope that has kept us all going through some very dark times.”
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ALEX IRVIN
The 2010 AMFS production of John Corigliano’s Ghosts of Versailles featured Golda Schultz as Rosina, a role sung by Renée Fleming in the opera’s 1991 premiere at The Met.
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2021 Festival at a Glance
Photos by Carlin Ma
FUNG:
Continued from Fung Returns page 1
The Aspen Music Festival and School celebrated its return to the Benedict Music Tent with Beethoven’s Ninth—culminating
in “Ode to Joy”—with Music Director Robert Spano and much of the Aspen Festival Orchestra performing “en masque” and the Kantorei Chorus singing not from the choir loft above the orchestra, but from the Tent’s 400 section.
A thunderstorm that
transformed the Tent roof into a percussion section forced a frantic, last-minute move of artists and audience alike from the Benedict Music Tent to Harris Concert Hall at the start of classical singer Julia Bullock’s July 13 recital, but it set the stage for some rare moments of intimacy and delight. Ten days later, when torrential downpour–induced mudslides forced the closure of I-70, The Concert Truck found itself traversing Independence Pass on its way to co-present Music on the GO with the AMFS.
Devotees of Edward Berkeley’s
popular Opera Scenes Master Classes were able to witness the late mentor’s delight during one of those revelatory moments when singers find their characters’—and their own—voices.
NICK LUBY
A ponytail made a rare appearance on the podium
as Aspen Conducting Academy alumna Gemma New established herself as a conductor to watch. Daniil Trifonov electrified the Tent audience with Skryabin’s Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor on July 25.
that Shostakovich’s music had with Leningrad, it was like the music and energy was already there in that place, and the performance was merely tapping into it.” On Sunday, Fung will perform Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra. “This work is close to my heart because it is one of the first works for cello and orchestra that I studied intensely during my teenage years,” Fung says. “Musically, the work is characterized by a charmingly classical attitude, inspired by Mozart, but my favorite moments are the bursts of operatic lyricism, which are all Tchaikovsky, and quintessentially Russian.” Also on the program, conductor Hugh Wolff leads the Aspen Festival Orchestra in Jessie Montgomery’s Coincident Dances, where the audience will hear nods to a diverse array of twentieth-century musical genres, and Schumann’s Second Symphony, an uplifting and triumphant piece the composer wrote despite personal Hugh Wolff conducts as struggles with poor health and Zlatomir Fung performs with depression. the Aspen Festival Orchestra August 8. Fung has played with Wolff before as a member of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra at the New England Conservatory where Wolff served for a year as the interim conductor. He actually took Fung and the ensemble on tour to Argentina in the summer of 2013. “He was one of the first great conductors I had the chance to play under,” Fung said. Recalling the most memorable lesson he’s learned so far throughout his studies, Fung says, “Many of my teachers have come at this same concept from different angles. The most important and impactful thing I have ever learned is that beauty and expression are two different things in music. Beauty can be neutral, sometimes even static, but expression can never be. It always takes a point of view, and that is what we as artists have to strive for in our playing.” Fung continues, “After such a long hiatus from live performances, I’m ready to put my heart on my sleeve. I’m really looking forward to playing for everyone in Aspen.”
