Ayers and Hancock: History of Benedict Music Tent naming

Perhaps there are some in the community who wonder why the Aspen Music Festival Tent was named for Fritz and Fabi Benedict. Here is some history.

Around 1985, the Board of Trustees had a donnybrook with the then-administration over fiscal management. Around two-thirds of the trustees resigned, several suggesting that the festival should be allowed to collapse, then would rebuild it from scratch. Among the few who did not resign was Fritz Benedict.

For those of you who didn’t have the pleasure of knowing him, he was an icon of the community. One of the founders of both the 10th Mountain Hut System and Aspen Valley Land Trust, an incessant, but highly-respected, advocate of making public use of the Roaring Fork River waterfront in town, a land developer, architect, and community builder.

His stature helped rebuild the festival board with like-minded community members. He led the festival for years as chair and gave it the community credibility that it lacked at a critical time. Funds were raised by a community that understood the uniqueness of the festival and school and the value of its enviable summer economy. The students and faculty returned, and concerts were performed for delighted audiences. By 1989, the New York-based administration was given the recognition it justly deserved for creating a world-class festival and school that Aspen could be proud of.

Then-President Gordon Hardy gave his support to a leadership transition process, and new administrative leadership was chosen. Robert Harth, at 34 years old, took on the job, full of enthusiasm and drive. He knew Aspen well. His parents had been music faculty members, and he spent years in Aspen as a boy. He wanted to fix the tent, which would bring greatly needed improvements for faculty and guest performers and for those who sat through concerts under an umbrella when it rained. He also recognized the need for student housing, a decent rehearsal hall, and an endowment fund to provide scholarships for the world’s best student musicians.

As like now, Aspen was changing then.

For years, community members with a spare bedroom had housed a student in their home. As more and more newcomers came to town, those spare rooms were no longer available. Student housing became a crisis. The festival couldn’t afford Aspen’s land prices on which to build student housing.

Fritz, in his inimitable way, saw a solution. The Marolt Deeded Open Space that provided a green entrance to town was just down the road from the music school campus. It was a logical place for the students to live. The Benedicts knew the community would never allow the Marolt Open Space to be sacrificed for such a project, but the Benedicts owned considerable land in one of Aspen’s favorite hiking areas: Hunter Creek Valley.

They offered to deed some of their land as open space if the community would allow the student housing to be built. The community voted to accept the trade.

Today, the Marolt Student Housing and Dining Hall not only accommodates young musicians, but also houses workers in the winters. Note that there is no financial record of the gift at the festival. No money changed hands because the festival never owned the Hunter Creek property. The debt to Fabi and Fritz, however, was – and continues to be – substantial. The way chosen to acknowledge it was to name the tent after them.

Herbert Bayer designed the previous tent. It was called the Bayer tent to distinguish it from the earlier Eero Saarinen-designed tent. Although Bayer and Fritz were married to half-sisters, they did not seem to share in their architectural endeavors. The tent was called the Bayer Benedict Tent until the new tent – designed by Harry Teague – was built. Then this was appropriately called the Benedict Tent.

There is value in remembering a community’s roots and the people who contributed to making it the kind of place we enjoy calling home. There is also value in acknowledging those who continue the tradition of enriching our lives with their generous gifts of time, talent, and funds.

Debra Ayers is a former communications director, and Judy Hancock was a former development director at Aspen Music Festival. The Benedict Music Tent was recently renamed the “Michael Klein Music Tent” ahead of AMFS’ 75th season. The main entrance of the Music Tent was named the ‘Benedict Entrance’.