When Scott Dunn got performance anxiety, he quit music and became an eye surgeon, but music called him back. He laughed when I told him that if things go wrong in a concert, you hit a wrong note, but in the operating room, your patient could go blind!

Renee Fleming and Patrick Summers run the opera and vocal programs at the Aspen Music Festival and School. They talked with APR's Chris Mohr about Fleming's successful directorial debut with Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte and much more.

You may have seen Matthew Polenzani singing in the live Met broadcasts; he's now in Aspen preparing to sing with our top opera stars of tomorrow in Puccini's La Boheme, the opera that inspired the Broadway musical Rent. He talks with APR's Chris Mohr ahead of the August 19 performance. Bring your Kleenex!

Alan Fletcher speaks with conductors Vasily Petrenko and Enrique Mazzola as part of the 2025 High Notes series.

Enrique Mazzola was only seven years old when he sang in La Boheme as part of the children's chorus at La Scala in Milan. He thought the theatrical candy vendors were really there to give him candy! Now he's in Aspen preparing to conduct Puccini's most beloved opera August 19 at the Klein Music Tent. He dropped by APR to chat with Chris Mohr about the upcoming production, and to ask if he could please take an Aspen Public Radio coffee cup home with him!

Grammy-winning Violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery is a composer-in-residence this summer at the Aspen Music Festival and School. In addition to her recent performance of Hymn for Everyone and working with the composition students, Jessie has been granted some extra time to drink in the beauty of Aspen while composing her next piece. She was recently awarded Composer of the Year by Performance Today and Musical America. She recently talked about her music, both here and around the world, with APR's Chris Mohr

Nico tells APR's Chris Mohr he is taking a break from composing while up here in Aspen, creating music for only two or three hours a day instead of the usual 8 hours back at home!

Alan Fletcher speaks with pianist and noted AMFS alumnus Jeremy Denk and conductor Stéphane Denève.

Three time Grammy Award winning guitarist Sharon Isbin returns to Aspen for her immensely popular annual concert August 13 at Harris Hall, showcasing tunes from her new CD Romantico. She's joined by conductor Elizabeth Schulze and AMFS percussionist Jonathan Haas for a performance of the lushly lyrical and rhythmically joyous Miami Concerto. Last week, she and Elizabeth dropped by the Aspen Public Radio studio to chat about her recent guitar explorations.

Percussionist Jonathan Haas has played with Frank Zappa, Philip Glass, Phil Collins and countless other great musicians, and Monday evening at Harris concert Hall, he and 18 of his students will be playing hundreds of different percussion instruments in a wildly varied program of music. He chats with Aspen Public Radio's Chris Mohr about his concert and his work drumming his way through decades of summers here in Aspen.