Aspen Music Fest moves winter concert series online

The Aspen Music Festival and School is canceling its in-person Winter Music Series planned for February in Harris Concert Hall, due to tightening public health restrictions resulting from local outbreaks of the novel coronavirus. The performances will be broadcast for free online instead, the festival announced Tuesday.

“While we all dearly miss music, we have been closely monitoring local public health conditions and the discussions of the Pitkin County Board of Health,” reads the announcement. “Due to the latest information, we have decided to present our Winter Music Recitals this February as virtual only.”

The shows will be free to view at aspenmusicfestival.com.

Tickets for the in-person series had been scheduled to go on-sale Wednesday.

The series will begin on Feb. 11 with a performance by violinist Robert McDuffie and Aspen Music Festival music director Robert Spano on piano, with an encore Feb. 12.

It continues with Music Fest alum pianist Tengku Irfan (Feb. 18) and concludes with the Calder Quartet (Feb. 25). All performances are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.

Rather than performing in Harris Concert Hall as planned, a festival spokesperson said the trio of artists are not expected to travel to Aspen and will give their recitals from home studios or closer halls.

The Music Fest had planned to produce virtual broadcasts of the performances regardless of whether an in-person audience was permitted. After canceling its in-person 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Music Fest built an online platform and produced a series of live and recorded virtual concerts.

It has not hosted an in-person concert since the Winter Music Series concluded in February 2020.