Aspen Music Festival and School announces 75th anniversary season

Aspen Music Festival and School released its program for the 75th anniversary season which will run from Wednesday, June 26 through Sunday, Aug. 18. Tickets go on sale on Monday, April 22.

According to a news release, this season’s theme is “Becoming Who You Are,” which will explore “Aspen’s impact on the musical and personal development of thousands of important musicians over the past 75 years.”

The season is set to honor its strengths, past present, and future with events featuring alumni performers from the past 50 years, events that will feature artists discovered early and nurtured on Aspen stages, events that support new music, experimentation, and new composers, and events that spotlight stand-out works of genius.

As always, more than 450 young artists from around the world will join the artist faculty, drawn from the major orchestras and music schools around the country, along with an array of guest artists for almost 200 public events in eight weeks.

Some highlights below as per Special to The Aspen Times, Harvey Steiman:

A starry first weekend includes two performances by pianist Daniil Trifonov, including an evening of Rachmaninov works, and soprano Renee Fleming on Sunday with “American Songs” by festival director Alan Fletcher and music by Richard Strauss. On the following Monday “Music for New Bodies,” a staged song cycle by composer Matthew Aucoin and director Peter Sellars that just got its premiere, takes the Wheeler Opera House stage.

In the festival’s 75th year, the schedule features a welcome list of artists long associated with Aspen, including conductors James Conlon and Leonard Slatkin, violinists Augustin Hadelich and Gil Shaham,  cellist Alisa Weilerstein, pianists Trifonov, Conrad Tao and Bronfman, and the American Brass Quintet. Some of them haven’t been seen here for a while, among them violinist Pinchas Zukerman and Midori, violist Lawrence Power, and the American String Quartet.

Aside from the above here are just a few performances to watch out for:

July 3: Alisa Weilerstein’s Fragments II, in which she juxtaposes works by contemporary composers with J.S. Bach’s unaccompanied cello sonata No. 2.

July 14: Joshua Bell (violin), Steven Isserlis (cello), and Jeremy Denk (piano) play the Beethoven Triple Concerto on a program, conducted by Jane Glover, that includes Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra.

July 17: “As We Speak,” world music from Béla Fleck (banjo), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Edgar Meyer (bass) and Indian bansuri master Rakesh Chaurasia. Their recent performance at SFJAZZ was beyond magical.

July 24, 26: Composer Missy Mazzoli in a recital of music she wrote for violinist Jennifer Koh and a performance by them of her violin concerto with the Aspen Chamber Symphony

July 29: The Percussion Ensemble plays the music of Frank Zappa

Aug. 18: The season’s final concert tops things off with music director Robert Spano conducting Act III of Wagner’s “Die Walküre” with soprano Christine Goerke and bass-baritone Greer Grimsley. 

For a full schedule and more information: aspenmusicfestival.com