The Aspen Music Festival and School has announced its 2015 summer season. The organization’s 300 events will center around the theme “Dreams of Travel.” The Music Festival holds classical music performances for eight weeks and instructs students from around the world. This year, the organization attracted more student applications than ever before. Aspen Public Radio’s Marci Krivonen spoke with Festival CEO Alan Fletcher.
Here's a list of offerings from the Aspen Music Festival and School this summer:
- Verdi’s mega-masterwork Aida will be presented in the Benedict Music Tent with professionals singing alongside the bright talents of the Aspen Opera Theater Center and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Chorus (8/7)
- Operas presented include four fully staged productions: Gounod’sRoméo et Juliette (7/16, 7/18, 7/20); a double-bill featuring The Cows of Apollo or The Invention of Music and The Classical Style (7/30, 8/1) and Mozart’s Così fan tutte (8/18, 8/20, 8/22) as well as a semi-staged production of Verdi’s Aida (8/7)
- Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra return, presented in association with Jazz Aspen Snowmass (7/6)
- Cutting edge pianist Vijay Iyer and his trio come to Aspen for the first time (7/27)
- Classical guitarist Sharon Isbin celebrates 25 years of summers in Aspen and joins two other superstar guitarists, Stanley Jordan and Romero Lubambo, in a program of Latin, Brazilian and jazz music, titled Guitar Passions (8/6)
- International super-star pianist Yundi makes his Aspen debut, (7/7)
- Violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist ShaiWosner explore the cross-cultural influence of Beethoven in Bridge to Beethoven (7/15)
- Pianist Vladimir Feltsman delves into the “Russian Experiment” (8/12, 8/13)
- Joshua Bell plays with -- and conducts! -- the Aspen Chamber Symphony (8/14)
- Composition students gain rare opportunity to study with six highly distinguished composers: Sydney Hodkinson, Shulamit Ran, Christopher Rouse, Steven Stucky, Christopher Theofanidisand GeorgeTsontakis
- National radio shows Performance Today (7/26) and From the Top (7/12) tape live shows at Harris Concert Hall
- Conductors include AMFS Music Director Robert Spano, Joshua Bell, Johannes Debus, Jane Glover, Jeffrey Kahane, KirillKarabits, HannuLintu, George Manahan, Jun Märkl, Nicholas McGegan, LudovicMorlot, Stephen Mulligan, Rafael Payare, Larry Rachleff, David Robertson, Michael Stern, Patrick Summers, OsmoVänskä, Joshua Weilerstein and Hugh Wolff
- Soloists and ensembles include: pianists InonBarnatan, Jean-EfflamBavouzet, Lise de la Salle, Jeremy Denk, Vladimir Feltsman, Marc-AndréHamelin, Steven Hough, Vijay Iyer, Jeffrey Kahane, VadymKholodenko, Jan Lisiecki, Nikolai Lugansky, Anton Nel, John O'Conor, Steven Osborne, OrliShaham, Conrad Tao, ShaiWosner, Wu Han, Joyce Yang and Yundi; violinists Adele Anthony, Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, AugustinHadelich, Daniel Hope, Stefan Jackiw, Fabiola Kim, Jennifer Koh, Robert McDuffie, Simone Porter, Gil Shaham and Joseph Swensen; violist Roberto Díaz; guitarists Sharon Isbin, Stanley Jordan and Romero Lubambo; cellists David Finckel and Alisa Weilerstein; double-bassist Edgar Meyer; vocalists Sasha Cooke, Tamara Wilson; and ensembles the American Brass Quintet, the American String Quartet, the Emerson String Quartet, the Jupiter Quartet, the Pacifica String Quartet and the Takács Quartet Cecilia Hall, Isabel Leonard, Luis Alejandro Orozco, Susanna Phillips, Issachah Savage