Festivalfocusweek2

YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

Supplement to The Aspen Times

Be a Part of Music Festival History!

Join us for the Matthew and Carolyn Bucksbaum Campus opening on Monday, July 8, at 10:15 am.

Please use free bus service, as parking will be limited.

Call (970) 925-8484 for bus details.

FESTIVAL FOCUS Monday, July 1, 2013

Vol 24, No. 3

Joyce Yang Returns to Play Rachmaninoff a work as memorable as the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Piano virtuoso Joyce Yang was 13 “When one hears the Paganini variayears old when she first learned Rach- tions, you spend the rest of your day maninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of or evening unknowingly singing it to Paganini. yourself,” Rachleff says. “Rachmaninoff “I don’t think I really knew what I knew how to create a beautiful musical was getting myself into when I first en- hook without losing any sense of procountered the piece,” Yang says. “It’s fundity or gesture.” a showstopper whether you hear it for Yang says she thought the piece was the first time or the easier when she was millionth time and in her teen years. as a kid, it blew my “When you’re just mind away.” starting to learn it, Fourteen years it’s like going to a later, the work still beautiful scene to holds the same appaint it for the first peal for her. time with ten cray“It grabs you ons,” she says. “The by the throat and more you live with doesn’t let you go it, you start discovuntil the last note,” ering thousands of she says. “It’s honshades in between estly one of my fathe crayons you Joyce Yang vorite things to play.” once had. You can Pianist and AMFS Alumna Yang, an alumna split hairs until the of the Aspen Music end of time, and Festival and School and the silver med- your palette just grows exponentially. alist of the 2005 Van Cliburn Interna- It’s not the primary colors you once tional Piano Competition, will perform thought it was.” this breathtaking work with the Aspen But the intricate and difficult work of Festival Orchestra at 4 pm on Sunday, finding new approaches to great music July 7, in the Benedict Music Tent. is what motivates Yang as a pianist.

Larry Rachleff, also a Festival alumnus “I’m sure this piece will evolve unand current music director of the Rhode til the end of my life,” she says, “and Island Philharmonic, will conduct. that’s why we musicians do what we Rachleff has not conducted Yang before and says he is “tickled” to do so in See YANG, Festival Focus page 3 GRACE LYDEN

Festival Focus writer

It grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let you go until the last note. It’s honestly one of my favorite things to play.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LARRY FORD

Pianist and Aspen alumna Joyce Yang (above) will play Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Aspen Festival Orchestra at 4 pm Sunday in the Benedict Music Tent.

Pink Martini Makes Music for All GRACE LYDEN

Festival Focus writer

Pink Martini knows no boundaries. The band’s music combines classical, jazz, and old-fashioned pop, and in one concert, audiences might hear songs in ten different languages.

“It’s a love letter to the great music in the world,” says lead singer Storm Large.

The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) will present Pink Martini in association with Jazz Aspen Snowmass at 8 pm on Saturday, July 6, in the Benedict Music Tent.

Founded by aspiring politician and pianist Thomas Lauderdale in 1994, the band was originally intended to provide music at political functions that would appeal to both liberals and conservatives. But the group’s popularity ended up having an appeal beyond the world of American politics.

Thanks to its multilingual repertoire and the influence of world music, Pink Martini enjoys global popularity.

The band’s first song, “Sympathique,” remains a mantra for striking French workers to this day.

“Music transcends really everything,” Large says. “It’s one of the most powerful art forms in the world. It’s such a unifying force when a song touches the human heart and rings true, even if it’s in a language you don’t understand.”

On Saturday, Large will be singing in English, Farsi, Romanian, Turkish, Croatian, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese.

Lauderdale is still the leader of the group and arranges most of Pink Martini’s music from songs he finds while hunting through old albums.

“Thomas is like an ambassador to the world of great See PINK MARTINI, Festival Focus page 3

PHOTO COURTESY OF AUTUMN DE WILDE

Storm Large (above) will be performing as the lead singer of the cross-genre ensemble Pink Martini this Saturday night.

Buy tickets now! (970) 925-9042 or www.aspenmusicfestival.com

Page 2 | Monday, July 1, 2013

FESTIVAL FOCUS: Your Weekly Classical Music Guide

Supplement to The Aspen Times

Stephen King Helps Opera Students Find Their Voices GRACE LYDEN

Festival Focus writer

Stephen King has performed opera in Rome, song recitals in China, and solos with more than twenty orchestras throughout the United States. But you will never hear him mention his own accomplishments when he is working with a student.

“I think, to be successful, you have to let your own singing ego go,” he says. “I don’t think you can take that into somebody else’s realm.”

King switched focus from performing to teaching when he was about 40 years old, when he realized his travel schedule was making it difficult to raise a family. He is now chair of vocal studies at Rice University, director of vocal instruction at the prestigious Houston Grand Opera Studio, and a vocal instructor with the Los Angeles Opera Young Artist Program.

King has been on the artist-faculty for the Aspen Opera Theater Center, which is part of the Aspen Music Festival and School, since 2007. Aspen audiences can see him teach a vocal studio class for the Festival at 1 pm on Sunday, August 11, in Edlis Neeson Hall on the Bucksbaum Campus.

In addition to these positions, King has about fifty private students who are professional singers. He says he enjoys the variety that comes from teaching students at all levels of experience.

“It’s a whole different level of conversation when someone is singing at the Met or La Scala than when they’re starting out,” he says. “It’s fascinating. Every day

is different.”

Many of King’s students have won major roles and international awards, such as mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, a Festival alumna who recently won the first prize in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. She also won the song prize, making her only the second singer in history to achieve both.

“I get excited by that,” Kings says. “But I get just as excited by a kid here at Aspen who has a big breakthrough or does something and really goes to another level.”

King says he tries to help his students “find a uniqueness in their voice where they can best express the music so they don’t sound like copycats or cookie cutters.”

His philosophy is that when singers try to copy other voices, they inadvertently distort their own.

“We’re people, but we’re not alike as people,” he says.

“Most great singers are very individual in their sound.

They have a unique idea, a unique imprint in their voice, and they’re able to express something with that.”

Amanda Woodbury, a 25-year-old young artist with the Los Angeles Opera, has been studying with King since last August.

“Dr. King has helped me to find a unique sound this year, but more than that, he is helping me to be true to my own sound and to find ways to bring out my most beautiful sound,” she says.

Woodbury says she has found King to be not only a vocal instructor, but also a person she can go to with her problems.

“He is more than just a teacher. He is a mentor, and

ALEX IRVIN / AMFS

Stephen King, of the Aspen Opera Theater Center vocal faculty, is pictured working with a student during the 2011 season.

he is ready to help you outside of your lessons when you need it,” she says. “I feel like I can trust him completely with my struggles, and he is always ready to impart some of his wisdom.”

King says the cornerstone to a good teacher-student relationship is trust. “They’re letting you deal with something that’s very much a part of who they are,” he says. “It’s a very special journey.”

Buy Music Festival tickets now: (970) 925-9042 • www.aspenmusicfestival.com

Supplement to The Aspen Times

FESTIVAL FOCUS: Your Weekly Classical Music Guide

YANG: Paganini Variations Continued from Festival Focus page 1

do, because we are never done. It can always be illuminated a little better and brought to the audience in a different light every time you encounter it. It’s very rewarding work.”

The piece fits the evening’s program with its emphasis not only on the soloist, but also on the rich orchestration.

“I think this Rachmaninoff is one of the most both dark and glittering works of the piano-orchestral vein,” Rachleff says.

“It requires deep virtuosity on the part of the soloist, but the orchestra part is so proactive and engaged in the music, and when you pair it with these other works on the concert, it’s a kind of fireworks of musical sounds and rhythmic vitality.”

The concert will open with Debussy’s La mer, the brilliant orchestral work that continues to thrill audiences with its modernity and subtle nuances.

The piece’s French title translates to “the sea,” and in the piece, Debussy takes his listener on a three-movement journey through the many moods of the ocean, from the “play of the waves” to the “tumult of the ocean,” Rachleff says.

The program will also include Respighi’s Pines of Rome, a symphonic poem that celebrates the ancient empire’s past glories, from the mystery of the catacombs to a triumphant army in the final movement. The work calls for large orchestral forces, offstage brass, and a recording of a nightingale’s song.

“Respighi, like Rachmaninoff and Debussy, was a master of orchestral sound and color, and unique in his Italianate approach,” Rachleff says. “It doesn’t take long before you realize you are tasting and feeling not the impressions of the sea but the impressions of Rome: its powers, its gardens, its pines. It’s there for you to take in.”

Aspen Music Festival and School Box Office Hours

Monday, July 1, 2013 | Page 3

String Showcase in New Hall

MICHELE CARDAMONE / AMFS

Come see a performance in one of the new buildings on the Matthew and Carolyn Bucksbaum Campus. The String Showcase, a free weekly event at 8:30 pm on Thursdays, features the finest string players at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and this year, the concert will be held in Edlis Neeson Hall. Above: A student performing in a 2012 String Showcase.

Harris Concert Hall: 9 am through the intermission of the evening concert, daily.

Wheeler Opera House: 9 am–5 pm daily.

PINK MARTINI: Continued from Festival Focus page 1

ALEX IRVIN / AMFS

Conductor Nicholas McGegan (above) will return to the Festival on Wednesday, joined by violinist Gil Shaham and others.

McGegan, Shaham Reunite to Play Baroque GRACE LYDEN

Festival Focus writer

For conductor and harpsichordist Nicholas McGegan, Baroque music is timeless. Even after hundreds of years, he says, audiences still love to hear catchy tunes, delightful rhythms, and, most of all, human emotion expressed through music.

“Just because someone like Bach wore a fancy wig and the sort of coat you’d see on Elton John, doesn’t mean he wasn’t a passionate human being like all the rest of us,” McGegan says. “Emotions never go out of date.”

The enthusiastic McGegan will be joined by an ensemble of Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) students and artist-faculty, as well as several soloists including violinist Gil Shaham, for a special event at 8:30 pm on Wednesday, July 3, in Harris Concert Hall. The program will consist of Baroque music by composers such as Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel, including selections from Handel’s Water Music Suite.

British-born McGegan is a Baroque specialist and has been the music director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for twenty-seven years. The London Independent has called him “one of the finest Baroque conductors of his generation.” McGegan says he was

first drawn to the Baroque era, which encompasses the music from approximately 1600 to 1750, when he was in college and started to play the harpsichord.

The harpsichord is a predecessor of the modern piano, but its lighter timbre and softer dynamic are more suited than the piano’s to early chamber music, McGegan says.

Other soloists on the Wednesday concert include Grammy-nominated mandolinist Avi Avital and 16-year-old violinist Simone Porter, an AMFS student.

Shaham’s wife, Adele Anthony, is also playing violin as a guest artist on the program. McGegan has worked with both before and says he looks forward to doing so again.

“It’s like inviting your best friends to dinner: great conversation, a great evening, and a lot of fun,” McGegan says. “Making music with friends is one of the greatest pleasures of my life.”

McGegan has been coming to conduct at the Aspen Music Festival and School for years, and he says that the supportive community members and dedicated students at the Festival are a testament to the fact that classical music continues to thrive.

“All of us who teach at Aspen are handing on a tradition to the next generation,” he says. “And that’s a great responsibility, but it’s also a great joy.”

pop music,” Large says. “He just goes through records like a miner, tirelessly finding gems.

Although the Pink Martini music is unlike its 2013 Festival season counterparts, AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher says that the programming of a cross-genre group is not unusual.

“Each year we offer our audiences music with an ‘edge effect,’” he says. “This is music on the boundary of different genres, often performed by classically trained musicians or deeply influenced by classical forms even if it resides more in the folk, or jazz, or pop worlds … Pink Martini includes many classically trained performers in a brilliant, entertaining synthesis of musical styles.”

Large is actually one of few musicians in the group who is not classically trained. She does not read music, though she plans to learn.

Large’s fame took off when she was a finalist on the CBS show Rock Star: Supernova in 2006, but her band, Storm and The Balls, already had a cult-like following in the Pacific Northwest. She made her orchestral debut in 2010, and after performing with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall this May, the New York Times referred to Large as a “show stealer” and “sensational.”

For Large, who joined Pink Martini in 2011, singing with the group gives her a purpose and a goal that is larger than when she performs as a soloist.

“Some audience members love the singer and really relate because the singer is the person delivering the message and the words, but really, in Pink Martini, it’s so much more of a collective than a singer and a band,” she says. “I take a backseat to the collective and the music itself.”

Large has spent time in recording studios, but she says they don’t compare to live performance.

“When you’re recording, you’re just sort of imagining someone listening to the recording at some future mysterious date,” she says.

But at a concert, Large says, “You get to fill up people’s minds and ears and hearts with rhythm and melody. It’s an instant exchange of energy.”