FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES
MONDAY, JULY 13, 2026
VOL. 36, NO. 3
E.T., Toy Story, Lord of the Rings, and More in the Tent BY EMMA KIRBY Marketing Manager
Get ready to have your heart strings pulled, nostalgic childhood memories reignited, and fantastical worlds come to life with a medley of film favorites in an evening of Soaring Film Scores on Saturday, July 18, in the Klein Music Tent. Experience the magic of recognizable melodies like “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story, “Married Life” from Up, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” from Disney’s iconic Fantasia, and classic tunes from E.T., The Lord of the Rings, The Incredibles, and more, played by a full orchestra. “We’ve had great success with film evenings,” says Aspen Music Festival and School Munroe President and CEO Alan Fletcher, and this one “is particularly far-ranging.” The concert has something for everyone, from “young families to older adults to generations above mine who watched these films when they first came out,” says AMFS Assistant Conductor Ken Yanagisawa, who will be on the podium for the evening. “Of course, we’re still doing John Williams: he’s the gold
standard of film music. But before John Williams there were other titans of film. So I said, okay, what if we did an exploration of the history of film in a concert setting?” says Yanagisawa.
The first half of the concert is a sort of homage to the history of animation, kicking off with “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” (picturing Mickey Mouse and magic brooms, anyone?) and “Married Life” from Up.
“[That the emotions from these animated films shine so effusively through the music] speaks to how powerful music can be.” Ken Yanagisawa AMFS Assistant Conductor
DIEGO REDEL
Last summer’s family-friendly evening of beloved film music brought out Harry Potter enthusiasts. This summer’s concert at 7:30 pm on July 18 in the Tent is sure to please fans of E.T., The Incredibles, Toy Story, and more.
He’ll then pay homage to his upbringing as a Japanese American with Joe Hisaishi’s “My Neighbor Totoro,” from the Japanese anime of the same name. Audience members who are unfamiliar with the composer are in for a treat: “Hisaishi is the John Williams of Japan,” says Yanagisawa. Instantly recognizable tunes from Toy Story and The Incredibles follow. Even without the visuals, the emotions from these animated films shine effusively through the music. “It speaks to how powerful music can be,” says Yanagisawa. “Because these scores are so iconic, you can infer what’s going on even without the visual element of the film or the dialogue.” The second half of the concert moves into live action film, journeying from the Wild West of The Magnificent Seven, to outer space with John Williams’s E.T., and the idyllic hobbit-filled shire of The Lord of the Rings. Seventeen-year-old William Yeh—the youngest-ever winner of the prestigious Dorothy DeLay Fellowship whom Yanagisawa calls a “wunderkind”—joins the orchestra to perform Waxman’s Carmen
ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL AND THEATRE ASPEN PRESENT
JULY 13 & 14 | 7:30 PM KLEIN MUSIC TENT
Broadway stars descend on the Music Tent for Guys and Dolls in Concert—the classic Broadway musical comedy about gamblers, showgirls, and unlikely romances—filled with vivid characters and iconic songs, including “Luck Be a Lady,” “Bushel and a Peck,” and “Sit Down, You’re Rocking The Boat.” Two-time Tony-nominee Jeff Calhoun directs, with esteemed Broadway conductor Andy Einhorn on the podium. Julie Benko returns as Sarah Brown, joined by Broadway notables Bonnie Milligan, Michael James Scott, Christopher Sieber, and Ryan Vasquez; and featuring the artists of DanceAspen. See Film Scores, Festival Focus page 3
MacArthur Fellow Premieres First Symphony in Aspen BY DAVID HOYT Festival Focus Writer
MacArthur Fellow Matthew Aucoin is the first composer to take part in a new AMFS initiative that will commission symphonies from today’s greatest musical talents. Imagine that your favorite composer from centuries past— be it Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, or anyone else—had never had the opportunity to write a symphony. What would today’s world be like without these iconic pieces of music? The Aspen Music Festival and School’s First Symphonies Project aims to make sure future audiences do not miss out on symphonies from the greatest composers living and working today. “It really grew out of conversations with [AMFS Munroe President and CEO] Alan Fletcher and [Wall Family Music Director] Robert Spano around the observation that the composers we were most excited about had largely not
STEVEN LAXTON
Composer and MacArthur Fellow Matthew Aucoin returns to Aspen July 19 when the Aspen Festival Orchestra premieres his first symphony, Two Thresholds (Symphony).
written a symphony,” says Patrick Chamberlain, AMFS vice president for artistic administration. “It’s a well-known phenomenon: if you talk to composers, they’ll say they get asked to write a lot of 10-minute openers and a lot of concertos. We realized that so many composers we loved had simply never been asked to write a symphony.” On Sunday, July 19, the very first of these newly commissioned first symphonies—a work by Matthew Aucoin titled Two Thresholds (Symphony)—will premiere in the Music Tent. Performed by the Aspen Festival Orchestra under the baton of AMFS alumnus Cristian Măcelaru, Aucoin’s symphony turns text by the poet Jorie Graham into a significant vocal part for mezzo-soprano. “One thing Aspen has, in addition to an abundance of talent, is that things of grand scale are no problem, because of the sheer number of talented young musicians who are See Two Thresholds, Festival Focus page 3
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MONDAY, JULY 13, 2026
FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
Supplement to The Aspen Times
The Many Seasons of Patrick Summers BY SAMANTHA JOHNSTON Festival Focus Writer
Renowned American conductor Patrick Summers is having a moment—and Aspen gets to be a part of it. With the end of the 2025–26 season, Summers stepped down from his role at Houston Grand Opera and assumed the title of music director emeritus. For some, this might be the first step in a slower career pace, but for Summers this is just the start of his renewed focus on performances, literary work, and his passion for helping emerging opera singers navigate a challenging industry. As part of that renewed focus on performance, Summers, co-artistic director of Aspen’s opera program, will make a rare appearance at the piano on July 15 in an “only-in-Aspen” recital with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and pianist Myra Huang in Harris Concert Hall. It’s a reunion of sorts for the two who first met at Costanzo’s career-launching Metropolitan Opera National Council audition in 2009 (which Summers conducted), and then collaborated several times at the Houston Grand Opera. “Anthony Roth Costanzo has a very unique place in the opera world, both as an astounding singer, but also as an entrepreneur who has carried opera to the public in very innovative ways,” says Summers. “For me, Anthony represents the very best of his generation and he’s finding ways to strengthen opera’s public profile.” This recital with Costanzo is “filled with unexpected delights,” says Summers, and gives him an opportunity to return to his roots at the piano. “My whole musical life started as a pianist, and I’ve always used piano as an
instrument through which I study the scores I will conduct,” says Summers. “I vowed to myself to get back to my piano roots and to play more.” Summers’s Aspen recital only adds to his pivotal role at the AMFS championing the careers of young artists through Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS, which is blossoming as it reaches the five-year mark. The program receives over 500 applications annually, ultimately selecting 25 to 35 each summer. Together with superstar soprano and co-artistic director Renée Fleming, Summers helps each class of vocal artists prepare for a future in the opera and classical music industry: an increasingly difficult field to enter, especially as the industry contracted from its pre-pandemic scale.
COURTESY PHOTO
Patrick Summers, renowned conductor and co-artistic director of the AMFS’s opera program, introduces us to his roots as a pianist in a recital with Anthony Roth Costanzo on July 15. He conducts this summer’s production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute on Aug. 21.
“The career is still there to be had, but it’s complicated and Renée and I are committed to not prescribing someone’s experience but preparing them as best we can for the realities,” said Summers. “The best preparation is to be the best artist they can be—not with delusions or illusions, but with real information and real technical training.” While there are many summer opera programs for students, Summers says he feels honored and gratified that so many students are interested in AOTVA: “Ultimately, we have to choose them, but they have to choose us first.” For Summers, performing, conducting, and teaching have never been separate from thinking deeply about music. Published in March 2026, Tapestries: Connections From An Artistic Life, is a collection of personal essays originally written for patrons of the Houston Grand Opera during the COVID-19 pandemic. “When the world shut down, I needed a weekly discipline that would replace my rehearsals. I tasked myself with completing a weekly essay about something related to opera that would interest a wide range of people,” said Summers. He originally thought he would write for about six weeks. He ultimately wrote 185 separate essays in a year and a half. “You never know where someone will connect with art. As an artistic director, my duty is to help them find a way in,” Summers says. “One of the thrills of my life was seeing the index of all of the subjects I had covered—it was like taking a tour of all the passions of my life.” Explore Books will host a book signing event with Patrick Summers at 5:30 pm, Thursday, August 8.
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FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
Supplement to The Aspen Times
MONDAY, JULY 13, 2026 3
This Week: Two Violin Superstars in Aspen Hadelich to Play Tchaikovsky, Barber Always a sought-after artist for Aspen audiences, violinist Augustin Hadelich (left) shares the Harris Concert Hall stage on July 16 with some of the AMFS’s top strings students for a recital of works by Telemann, Perkinson, Ysaÿe, and Paganini. Closing the program is Tchaikovsky’s ear-pleasing sextet, Souvenir de Florence, op. 70—upon completion of which the composer wrote: “It’s frightening to see how pleased I am with myself.” Then, on Sunday, July 19, Hadelich joins the Aspen Festival Orchestra with conductor and AMFS alumnus Cristian Măcelaru in the Klein Music Tent for Barber’s only Violin Concerto.
McDuffie Celebrates Bernstein
BLAKE NELSON
Violinist Augustin Hadelich presents a recital in Harris Concert Hall on July 16, and plays Barber’s Violin Concerto with the Aspen Festival Orchestra in the Klein Music Tent on July 19.
Celebrate one of the foremost names in American music with this Leonard Bernstein extravaganza! The Aspen Chamber Symphony led by Wall Family Music Director Robert Spano performs an all-American program featuring AMFS alumnus and violinist Robert McDuffie (right) in the composer’s Serenade, after Plato’s Symposium on July 17 in the Klein Music Tent. The program also features An American Song, composed by AMFS Munroe President and CEO Alan Fletcher.
DIEGO REDEL
Alumnus Robert McDuffie joins Robert Spano and the Aspen Chamber Symphony July 17 in the Klein Music Tent to perform Bernstein’s Serenade, after Plato’s Symposium.
MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR SUMMER WITH A SEASON PASS!
ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL BOX OFFICE: 970 925 9042 or ASPENMUSICFESTIVAL.COM Now–August 23: Daily, 12–4 PM MDT, or concert time, or intermission, if applicable.
Two Thresholds: Dreaming Big
Film Scores
Continued from Festival Focus page 1
Continued from Festival Focus page 1
present,” Aucoin said. “It allowed me as a composer to dream big, both in terms of the temporal scope of the piece and in terms of the instrumental forces. This is going to be a very richly colored and lush musical experience.” Listeners who heard Aucoin’s Music for New Bodies in the 2024 season—another AMFS co-commissioned work that also incorporated Graham’s poetry—may notice some thematic connections to the new symphony.
PETER ADAMIK
GRAMMY® Award–winning conductor and Aspen Conducting Academy alum Cristian Măcelaru will lead the Festival Orchestra in the world premiere of Aucoin’s first symphony on July 19.
“[Music for New Bodies] was concerned with pretty intense, quasi-apocalyptic questions of where we have ended up as a species. This symphony operates on a much more individual, personal scale,” Aucoin says. “The texts I drew from are, in a way, bookends: an encounter with death and an encounter with birth, which is why the piece is called Two Thresholds. I decided, maybe counterintuitively, to put the encounter with death first. It’s like a close call that makes you grateful to be alive, and that opens the symphony. Then there’s a kind of musical journey back through time, back through a life, and we end with this beautiful poem about our first memory, about emerging into consciousness as a very young child. So it comes full circle in that way.” Although symphonies have most commonly been composed as purely instrumental works with four movements, plenty of composers have put their own spin on the form. Two Thresholds consists of three movements, and Aucoin took inspiration from Mahler by adding voice in two of them. “As the symphony evolved historically, it’s been so many things, and so many composers have approached it very differently. The idea of creating a symphonic form now doesn’t necessarily mean that of Beethoven,” says Spano. “So, this is also an opportunity to explore what a symphony is in the minds of these composers we’ve asked to write these pieces.” Aucoin may be the first person to write a first symphony for Aspen, but he certainly won’t be the last. AMFS leaders look forward to commissioning several more installments with a goal of having at least five years of annual premieres, giving Aspen audiences multiple opportunities to hear the very first performances of major new works. “I think we’re doing a tremendous service to the whole world of music,” Fletcher says. “There will now be this body of fantastic pieces by major composers that the field can actually see, evaluate, and program.”
Fantasie, a medley of favorites for violin and orchestra from Bizet’s Carmen. “I’ve always loved that piece,” says Yeh. “Because it’s from an opera, there are so many different colors and voices.” Yeh first came to Aspen at age 12 and won the Dorothy DeLay Prize at the incredibly young age of 15. “I’m very excited to solo with the orchestra in Aspen this year.” The evening concludes with Hollywood Golden Age composer Korngold’s King’s Row Suite—a work that just might be mistaken for John Williams. “The instant you hear it, everyone thinks, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s Star Wars,’” says Yanagisawa. In fact, it has so many musical parallels that it was used as a temporary (‘temp’) track during production of the Star Wars film. The night of film music also serves a key educational function for the young artists studying at the AMFS DIEGO REDEL this summer—giving students AMFS Assistant Conductor Ken Yanagisawa leads experience playing these an evening of unforgetfilm scores that are increastable movie music in the ingly popular nationwide. Music Tent on July 18. The music is “notoriously difficult,” says Yanagisawa. “A lot of orchestras will have excerpts from [film music] on their audition lists. It’s expected that you know these standard film scores now.” With a mix of classics and a handful of works that might be new to audience members, the evening is a testament to the power of music and enduring melodies. Children’s tickets for Soaring Film Scores are available for just $25!