FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES
MONDAY, JULY 29, 2024
VOL. 34, NO. 5
Dorothy DeLay: Celebrating a Legacy of Mentorship BY CINDY HIRSCHFELD
When people informally refer to the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) as “the Music Fest,” they inadvertently omit one of the organization’s most important functions—as a school. And not just any music school. “So much of our identity is built on the amazing partnership between teacher and student,” says AMFS Vice President for Artistic Administration Patrick Chamberlain. That partnership in-
CHARLES ABBOTT
Dorothy DeLay pictured with a young Midori.
cludes opportunities to perform side by side with artist-faculty members, a unique component of a young musician’s education in Aspen. To honor its long tradition of mentorship, AMFS celebrates Dorothy DeLay Week July 29–August 4, commemorating the legacy of the renowned violin teacher who taught in Aspen from 1971 to 2001 (she died in March 2002). Events include concerts by Midori and Gil Shaham—just two of the many luminaries who studied with DeLay—
open studio classes, and a High Notes nique, she had a knack for guiding stupanel discussion on mentoring. dents toward interpretation, rather than “Dorothy DeLay could take a student dictating, says long-time AMFS artist-facfull of talent and promise and really help ulty violinist Masao Kawasaki. “She would mold them into a full-fledged artist,” adds only mention one or two things,” says KaChamberlain. “We thought we would use wasaki, who studied with DeLay at Juilher as a lens to pay tribute to the wonder- liard, where she taught the rest of the year. ful teaching that continues to happen in “But afterward, they would expand in my that way every summer in Aspen.” brain. I realized I had to make the [musical] “Miss DeLay,” as her students knew her, decision as a student. She always gave expertly tailored her me the choice to deapproach to each stucide how.” When he “Dorothy DeLay didn’t dent’s strengths and started to teach himhave a playbook that learning style, says self, coming to Asacclaimed violinist pen in 1978 to assist she used for every Midori, who came to DeLay, Kawasaki unAspen from Japan as derstood this gentle single student. She saw a student in 1981 at approach even more something different in the age of nine. “We and calls DeLay a each had a different “great mentor.” each of us. That’s what set experience with her,” “She was able to inshe notes in a video still an incredible disher apart.” interview given for a cipline without beshort feature on Deing draconian,” says Robert McDuffie Lay at the AMFS. “The AMFS Music Director Violinist, and former student way I prepared for Robert Spano. “What of Dorothy DeLay the lesson and what I a special gift that is, learned in my lesson, to be able to coax was not the same for the other students the best out of people yet hold them to an she worked with.” incredibly high standard.” Fellow AMFS violin alum-turned-internaThe best mentors often positively intional-star Robert McDuffie, speaking in the fluence their students well beyond the same video, agrees. “Dorothy DeLay didn’t music. Spano recalls the impact of his have a playbook that she used for every sin- first piano teacher, with whom he started gle student. She saw something different in studying at age six. By the time Spano was each of us. That’s what set her apart.” in his teens, he says, “we talked about Though DeLay was strict when it came everything, and he would recommend to mastering basics like bowing tech- books to read.” Midori credits DeLay with
2024 SEASON BENEFIT A FEAST OF MUSIC
THE AMFS AT
75
AND BEYOND
SATURDAY, AUGUST 3 | 6 PM MATTHEW AND CAROLYN BUCKSBAUM CAMPUS An unforgettable evening of fine dining, excellent wines, and special performances by talented artists in honor of our founders, Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke. For more information and to purchase tickets and table sponsorships, contact Chandler Martin, Director of Annual Giving and Special Events, at 970 205 5065 or cmartin@aspenmusic.org.
teaching her how to multitask. “She was always encouraging,” says AMFS artist-faculty violinist Naoko Tanaka, who studied with DeLay during three summers in the 1970s as well as at Juilliard, and then assisted her for many years. “She was almost never negative, but somehow at the end of a lesson I had a strong idea of what I should do to improve.” One summer, See DeLay, Festival Focus page 3
Gill Shaham, James Conlon Shine in Chamber Symphony BY EMMA KIRBY
Conductor James Conlon returns to Aspen to lead the Aspen Chamber Symphony on Aug. 2 in the Klein Music Tent.
“I am always happy to return to Aspen,” says James Conlon, one of the great American conductors of his generation. It was in Aspen where he took his first formal conducting lesson at the age of 18. The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) “gave me my start,” he continues. “It was an inspiration and fundamental step [ . . .] the camaraderie with the other students, the openness of the faculty members, and the omnipresence of music every day for nine weeks, was completely new for me.” So, when considering this year’s theme of Becoming Who You Are, “you can’t help but think of James Conlon,” says AMFS Vice President for Artistic Administration
Patrick Chamberlain. The AMFS alumnus has kept Aspen as a frequent stop on his busy travel itineraries and has “been at the helm of so many memorable performances” over the years, says Chamberlain. He continues this legacy of memorable performances on Friday, August 2, when he leads the Aspen Chamber Symphony in a lively program that includes Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. Joining Conlon on stage for Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto in A major is beloved violinist and fellow AMFS alum, Gil Shaham. “Gil’s annual appearances in the Tent are hotly anticipated,” says Chamberlain. “EvSee Conlon, Festival Focus page 3
DIEGO REDEL
Violinist and AMFS alumnus Gil Shaham performs Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto on Aug. 2 with Conlon and the Aspen Chamber Symphony.
CELEBRATE THE AMFS’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON, THROUGH AUGUST 18