Aspen Peak - Niche Media - Aspen living at its peak
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX IRVIN (SHAHAM); PAUL MOORE (FRISELL); RICK DIAMOND/GETTY IMAGES (UNDERWOOD); ALEX IRVIN (TENT); ANTHONY PIDGEON/GETTY IMAGES (BENNETTS) Culture Shock SINGULAR SENSATIONSTHE ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL SUMMER SEASON AND JAS ASPEN SNOWMASSELEVATE TOWN'S MUSICAL MÉLANGE. BY LINDA HAYES A RIOT OF ROMANTICISM AT ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL SUMMER SEASON June 26–August 17 Music is all around us—especially in summer, when even the Aspen trees seem to quake to the rhythm of the breeze. The perfect backdrop to our unique mountain lifestyle, it inspires creativity, serenity, and romance. With its 65th anniversary season, entitled "The New Romantics," the Aspen Music Festival and School will acknowledge the return to Romanticism in music by many of today's composers as well as the works of the 19th-century greats. "Romanticism is a way of viewing the world," says Robert Spano, Aspen Music Festival and School music director. "It's a lens through which to peer at life's great arcs. You can look through that lens or you can shun it, but just as humanity repeats itself, so our musical obsession with Romanticism is a sound wave that ebbs and f lows. Yet it is always there, a refrain that, perhaps, marks our humanity." The anniversary season opens on June 26 with maestro Spano and vio- linist Robert McDuffie performing Aspen alumnus Philip Glass's "The American Four Seasons." Other season highlights include crooner Tony Bennett with his daughter Antonia Bennett on June 28; violinist and Aspen alumna Midori performing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major on July 20; and jazz guitarist Bill Frisell revisiting the Mississippi River f lood of 1927 in collaboration with filmmaker Bill Morrison on July 21. In a special event on July 24, acclaimed singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright offers a selection of his personal favorites. On closing night, August 17, the season will culminate with Beethoven's (the father of musi- cal Romanticism) Symphony No. 9, directed by Spano. Also included in the season will be fully staged operas, including Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Liebermann's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Bizet's Carmen; seven world premiere works by composers including Mason Bates, Dejan Lazic, and Matthias Pintscher; and programs by resident ensembles, including the Aspen Philharmonic, the Aspen Chamber Symphony, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. "The 2014 season represents Aspen at its best," says festival President and CEO Alan Fletcher. "Combining the vibrancy of young emerging tal- ent with the seasoned voices of the masters has always defined the experience in Aspen, as it does this year. I look forward to basking in the familiar story of masterworks by Beethoven, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, continued on page 82 EVENTFUL Culture OneRepublic takes the JAS Aspen Snowmass stage on August 30. Five-time Grammy Award winner Carrie Underwood headlines JAS Aspen Snowmass's Labor Day weekend shows. ASPENPEAK-MAGAZINE.COM 81 080-082_AP_SC_Eventfull_SUM_FALL_14.indd 81 5/6/14 5:06 PM