GRACE LYDENFestival Focus writer

The Greek myth of Icarus has cap-tured the imagination of writers, poets, and musicians for centuries. In the age-old story, Icarus is a young boy who explores the skies wearing wings made of feathers and wax. His father warns him not to fly too close to the sun, but Icarus disregards this advice, melting the wax and sending him plummeting to the sea below.

The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) will open its 2013 season this Thursday, June 27, at 7:30 pm with Icarus at the Edge of Time, a multimedia performance piece and modern inter-pretation of the Ica-rus story in which the boy travels not to the sun, but to a black hole.

The work, which premiered in New York in June 2010, combines a nar-rative by theoretical physicist Brian Greene and playwright David Henry Hwang, orchestral music by renowned composer and Aspen alumnus, Philip Glass, and a film by Al and Al.

Mei-Ann Chen, an alumna of the American Academy of Conducting at

Aspen, will conduct the performance in the Benedict Music Tent.

“The work Icarus at the Edge of Time is about human capacity for exploration, for experimentation, the imperative to confront the unknown,” says AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher.

Greene wrote Icarus at the Edge of Time first as a children’s story, then

adapted the work for live symphonic presentation. The piece was partial-ly commissioned by the World Sci-ence Festival, which Greene co-founded.

“The emotional center of the piece is the transformation of a boy who’s going out in space, who’s going to explore a black hole, and I could just sort of hear, roughly in my mind, Philip Glass’s music pounding

and driving and pushing this forward,” Greene said in the work’s trailer.

In addition to Icarus, the opening concert will include Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a famously dif-ficult piece, played by AMFS alumnus Conrad Tao.

LAURA SMITHFestival Focus writer

All music was once new music. Beethoven’s sympho-nies shocked audiences with their radicalism, Stravin-sky’s now much-loved The Rite of Spring famously caused a riot at its premiere 100 years ago, and even Tchaikovsky’s score to The Nutcracker received a luke-warm reception at its début in St. Petersburg in 1892.

But over decades, tastes expand, ears change, and these works are all now central to the Western classical music canon.

Another now-standard Tchaikovsky work, Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique,” will be performed at the Aspen Mu-sic Festival and School (AMFS) opening Sunday concert alongside a contemporary violin concerto by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Finnish composer and former music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This deliberate pairing of old and new was conceived by AMFS Music Director

Robert Spano, who will be conducting the concert at 4 pm June 30 in the Benedict Music Tent.

Spano is known for championing living classical mu-sic, but he is deliberately not academic or esoteric in his approach. Says AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher, “In just about every concert he’s conducting this sum-mer, there is an important new work. What Robert is after are substantial new works that he believes have a chance to enter the repertoire, and his advocacy will assist in doing that.”

Spano also leads the Aspen Chamber Symphony on Friday, July 12, with a program that combines Mozart’s popular “Jupiter” Symphony with Christopher Rouse’s Prospero’s Rooms. On Wednesday, July 17, he conducts the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto along with the world premiere of

Pianist and Aspen alumnus Conrad Tao is pictured at the open-ing concert of last year’s Music Festival season. He will play Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 this Thursday.

‘Icarus at the Edge of Time’ and Conrad Tao

Buy tickets now! (970) 925-9042 or www.aspenmusicfestival.com

AMFS Music Director and champion of new music Robert Spano conducts the Aspen Chamber Symphony during the 2012 season.

FESTIVAL FOCUS

Spano Offers Vital New Works

YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

Supplement to The Aspen Times Vol 24, No. 2Monday, June 24, 2013

See ICARUS, Festival Focus page 3

ALEX IRVIN/AMFS

See SPANO, Festival Focus page 3

Music Fest Begins in 3 Days!

Buy Your New

Locals’ Pass NOW!Just $60—a great deal. Call for details.

(970) 925-9042Restrictions apply.

ALEX IRVIN / AMFS

The emotional center of the piece is the transformation

of a boy who’s going out in space,

who’s going to explore a black hole.

Brian GreeneAuthor of Icarus at the Edge of Time

ALEX IRVIN/AMFS

Page 2 | Monday, June 24, 2013 FESTIVAL FOCUS: Your Weekly Classical Music Guide Supplement to The Aspen Times

GRACE LYDENFestival Focus writer

From comedy to corruption, extreme optimism to desperate ambition, and American show music to Brit-ish modern opera, the 2013 season of the Aspen Opera Theater Center (AOTC) might be the most diverse in the history of the program.

“I like that the pieces are so very, very different,” says longtime AOTC director Edward Berkeley. “I mean musi-cally different, stylistically different, and I think that will be good for our audiences.”

The productions at the Wheeler Opera House for the 2013 season are Bernstein’s Candide (July 11 benefit performance, July 13 and 15), Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi (August 1, 3, and 5), and Monte-verdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (August 15 and 17).

Aspen’s opera season typically includes three operas, as well as weekly opera scenes master classes with Berkeley. This year, though, the Festival offers more.

In addition to three fully staged operas, the 2013 Fes-tival will present a semi-staged production of Britten’s Peter Grimes in the Benedict Music Tent, conducted by AMFS Music Director Robert Spano and featuring major opera stars such as soprano Susanna Phillips and tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, who performed the opera’s title role to critical acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera.

Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) President and CEO Alan Fletcher calls Peter Grimes an “iconic twentieth-century opera masterpiece.”

Fletcher agrees with Berkeley that this year’s pro-

grams cover broad territory, from Leonard Bernstein’s delightfully singable Candide, which was originally sketched as a musical but is now primarily regarded as an opera; to the quintessential operatic repertoire of Puccini; to a work by one of the earliest major opera composers, Monteverdi.

“Monteverdi was in at the be-ginning of the creation of what we now see as opera,” Fletcher says.

The four productions have no-tably different storylines, but all of them strongly represent the theme of the AMFS 2013 season: “Conscience and Beauty.”

“In fact, once we had the theme for this season,” says Fletcher, “we realized that opera was going to be the richest source of works involved with ‘Conscience and Beauty.’”

The story of Candide ties to the theme through its characters’ exploration of moral-ity and how they all ask the question, “How should we live?” Conversely, L’incoronazione di Poppea explores the theme through its characters’ lack of morality and con-science in their quests for power.

Fletcher says, “Suor Angelica tells a story about beau-tiful actions motivated by conscience and what hap-pens to you if you live that way.” But, he says, Peter Grimes is the best example of the theme, for it is “about

trying to persist in a loving attitude when you’re being opposed by society.”

The works will be performed by talented young sing-ers, some of whom have already begun professional careers. Past AOTC productions have received critical

acclaim from publications such as the New York Times and the opera world’s go-to publication, Opera News.

Performers in the AOTC have un-dergone a rigorous process to join the program. Berkeley travels to major cities to hear live auditions, and applicants send in recordings, resumes, and headshots.

Once they get to Aspen, stu-dents’ schedules are packed not only with rehearsals, but also an intense curriculum of classes in music, acting, song repertory, and movement; weekly voice lessons

with the artist-faculty; and various other workshops and coaching sessions.

Berkeley says people sometimes assume the AOTC has hired singers for the major roles in its operas, but “the truth is that all of the players are students,” from the lead roles to the members of the ensemble.

Many of the singers are just embarking on their pro-fessional careers, and performing for the audiences in Aspen is their first step in that direction.

Buy tickets now: (970) 925-9042 • www.aspenmusicfestival.com

AOTC Presents Diverse Season of Bernstein, Puccini

Once we had the theme for this season, we realized that opera was going to be the richest source of works involved with ‘Conscience

and Beauty.’

Alan FletcherPresident and CEO of the AMFS

Monday, June 24, 2013 | Page 3Supplement to The Aspen Times FESTIVAL FOCUS: Your Weekly Classical Music Guide

LAURA SMITHFestival Focus writer

Those close to the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) know that one of its greatest strengths is its deeply talented and devoted artist-faculty members.

These 130 individuals, who represent the top tier of classical music instruction in America, play in the Festival’s orchestral and chamber concerts as well as privately teach the 630 students who come to study each summer.

This summer the Festival unveils a plaque in the Benedict Music Tent to honor the contributions of the outstanding artist-faculty who have served the institution for twenty-five years or more. The plaque is a natural extension of the internal recognition of this group that the Festival started seven years ago.

Explains AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher, “Every year, since I started in 2006, we have honored faculty who have been with us more than twenty-five years at the summer’s opening convocation ceremony. It is very striking how many there are and what continuity there is in Aspen’s faculty.”

Last fall, a group of donors stepped forward who were willing to support the creation of a plaque in the Tent to make that recognition public and share it with audience members.

The Festival’s records revealed there are seventy-six artist-faculty who have served for twenty-five years or more since the Festival began in 1949. Together the honorees represent a colossal 2,460 years of service to the AMFS. About half of those listed are still on the faculty today. “The loyalty this list represents is astounding,” comments Fletcher.

The longest tenure is that of double bassist Stuart Sankey, who served fifty-one years and taught the current artist-faculty member and bass star Edgar Meyer, among countless others. Sankey passed away in 2000.

Also on the list are Per Brevig, a trombonist who currently is the longest-serving artist-faculty member at forty-four years this summer; the late Gordon Hardy, who led the AMFS as chief administrator for twenty-eight years as well as serving on its faculty; and numerous current artist-faculty who first came to the Festival as students, including Nadine Asin (flute, thirty-five years), Jonathan Haas

(percussion, twenty-nine years), Robert McDuffie (violin, thirty-two years), Sylvia Rosenberg (violin, thirty years), and George Tsontakis (composition, thirty-eight years).

Cello artist-faculty member Alan Harris, who has served thirty-nine years, is touched by the recognition. “Aspen has meant so very much to me for all these years,” he comments. “The Festival has changed

so much, yet, in its heart, it remains the same … dedicated to the aspiring music students and to ultimate excellence in making music. I have been constantly nourished and inspired … and am intensely grateful.”

Former faculty member Paul Sperry (voice, twenty-seven years) remembers that, “I started going to Aspen as a student in 1953, and it was the only music school I ever attended. It was tremendously important to me and my family.”

The plaque will be located on the west side of the Tent’s inside perimeter and will be in place in time for the June 30 opening Sunday Aspen Festival Orchestra concert.

ICARUS: Opening Concert Features TaoTao, 19, made his concerto début at

age 8 and attended the AMFS every year from 2004 to 2009, in piano, violin, and composition. This will be his fourth time returning as a guest artist.

“It’s a bit like going back to a second home,” Tao says. “Just being part of that great community that was fostered there is really special.”

Tao is in the midst of a blooming pro-fessional career, having recently per-formed for audiences throughout Europe and the United States to rave reviews. A New York Times article published in May 2013 bore the headline, “So What Will He Do When 20?”

“Conrad is clearly emerging as one of the great talents,” Fletcher says.

In 2011, Tao was named a Gilmore Young Artist and the next year, he was awarded the highly prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

All the while, he is currently attending

the Columbia University-Juilliard School joint degree program in New York.

Tao will also perform chamber music

at 8 pm Saturday, June 29, in Harris Hall. The program includes Mahler’s exquisite Piano Quartet in A minor.

ALEX IRVIN / AMFS

AACA alumna Mei-Ann Chen will conduct the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra and pianist and alumnus Conrad Tao on June 27 to open the Aspen Music Festival 2013 season.

Adam Schoenberg’s Bounce.“It is certainly a hallmark of Robert’s career that he is not

a new music specialist in the way of keeping contemporary works apart; he’s a mainstreamer,” Fletcher says.

The Salonen Violin Concerto was written for and will be per-formed by dynamic Canadian-American violinist Leila Jose-fowicz.

“She’s an artist who plays all of the standard repertoire but has been actively commissioning major new works,” Fletcher says. Josefowicz premiered Salonen’s Violin Concerto in 2009 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This year, incidentally, she will perform the piece on Salonen’s birthday.

Josefowicz last appeared with the AMFS in the summer of 2010 when she performed Thomas Adès’s 2005 work, Con-centric Paths.

In a 2010 Festival Focus interview, Josefowicz noted that her interest in new works goes back to her teenage years, when she began thinking about her traditional violin education and where she would fit into the professional musical landscape. She realized that countless other violinists were performing the same standard pieces she was. So, to help set herself apart, Josefowicz began exploring contemporary works. She quickly fell in love.

“When you look back two hundred years to when the pieces we’re familiar with were just written, they were new to people back then,” she said. “I want to make sure I contribute to great music that’s being written today that’s as great as music from 200 years ago. I love Beethoven. I love Shostakovich and Pro-kofiev. But my real passion lies in what you will hear me play in Aspen.”

Leading off the opening Aspen Festival Orchestra concert is Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten, whose centenary is being celebrated by Aspen this year with more than twenty works performed throughout the summer.

Upcoming Britten works include the Piano Concerto, op. 13 with pianist and artist-faculty member Wu Han (July 12), the Violin Concerto performed by guest artist Daniel Hope (July 14), and a semi-staged production of Peter Grimes (July 27).

SPANO: New WorksContinued from Festival Focus page 1

Plaque to Honor Longtime Artist-Faculty

Aspen Music Festival and School Box Office Hours

Continued from Festival Focus page 1

Harris Concert Hall: 9 am through the intermission of the evening concert, daily.Wheeler Opera House: 9 am–5 pm daily.

Volunteer Sunday!

Sunday, June 30, the Aspen Music Festival and School invites all Valley nonprofit volunteers to attend a free Sunday dress rehearsal.

Please sign in at the Benedict Music Tent at 9:15 am to receive a complimentary voucher for admission and intermission cookies and lemonade.

Aspen has meant so very much to me all these years. The Festival has changed

so much, yet, in its heart, it remains the same.

Alan HarrisCellist and AMFS artist-faculty