FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES
MONDAY, JULY 3, 2023
VOL. 33, NO. 2
Anton Nel Celebrates 25 Years in Aspen COMPILED BY JESSICA MOORE
Director of Marketing
Beloved pianist Anton Nel celebrates a milestone 25 years on the Aspen Music Festival and School faculty this summer and, to mark the occasion, he and some of his dearest colleagues will take the Harris Concert Hall stage Wednesday, July 5 at 7:30 pm for a joyful evening of music-making. Learn more about the man behind the piano in his own words . . . Q: When did you first come to the AMFS and what were your initial impressions? A: My first time in Aspen was as a guest artist in 1988 to play Mozart’s K. 467 Concerto with the Chamber Symphony, the Chopin Cello Sonata with the legendary Zara Nelsova, and teach some masterclasses. Even though I knew the AMFS by reputation, I had never been to Aspen before. It really was love at first sight: worldclass music-making in a beautiful setting. What could beat that? Q: What keeps you coming back year after year? A: I joined the AMFS faculty in 1997, and, since then, have always looked forward to being in Aspen during the summer. When you come to a place like Aspen for as many summers as I have, you subconsciously put down roots. Over the years I’ve developed close personal and musical friendships with so many of my colleagues whom I look forward to seeing. I can’t wait to make music, hear beautiful concerts, teach my students, and breathe in the mountain air! Q: What differentiates the AMFS from other festivals?
Special Event: An Evening with Renée Fleming and Inon Barnatan JULY 15 | 7:30 PM Benedict Music Tent
RYAN CUTLER
Hear artist-faculty member Anton Nel in a special, celebratory recital on July 5 in Harris Concert Hall. He also performs with colleagues in Saturday Chamber Music on July 8, July 15, and August 5.
A: One of my favorite parts of this festival is the educational component. What makes the AMFS unique is that student and teacher sit side-by-side in the orchestra, which I find spectacular and moving. Q: How did you put together the program for your celebratory recital? A: I was so happy to be asked to do this concert and honored that everyone agreed to be on it. I did have the option of playing a solo recital, but with a veritable smorgasbord of some of the world’s finest instrumentalists right here, I was not going to spend the evening alone on stage! The main work on the program is the Bartók Sonata for Two Pianos and Percus-
sion—an amazing piece which works very well at a festival, since the players and all the instruments are already here. I have spectacular colleagues who will share the stage with me: Joyce Yang, Ed Stephan, and Cynthia Yeh. I adore Mozart—especially the beautiful E-flat Piano Quartet in his piano/chamber music output—and I’m looking forward to playing this with dear friends Kathy Winkler, James Dunham, and Desmond Hoebig. In between the Mozart and Bartók I will take a solo turn with Debussy’s Estampes; both composer and piece are near and dear to me. Q: What do you enjoy about performing
Superstar soprano and Aspen Music Festival and School alumna Renée Fleming takes the stage with pianist Inon Barnatan to perform highlights from her recent album, Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene. The 2023 Grammy Award– winning album celebrates nature with works by Handel, Fauré, Liszt, Hahn, and more.
with your AMFS colleagues and Joyce? A: Over the years some of my most important chamber music relationships have been forged here in Aspen; I play together with these colleagues almost every summer. Joyce and I have a little history together with the Bartók Sonata. I was her teacher when she first came to Aspen at age 17, and she offered to turn pages for me at a performance I had that summer of the Bartók with Ann Schein, Jonathan Haas, and Doug Howard! Joyce’s career See Nel, Festival Focus page 3
Phylicia Rashad to Star in Terrence McNally’s Master Class SAMANTHA JOHNSTON
Festival Focus Writer
The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) and Theatre Aspen are teaming up once again this summer, this time to present Terrence McNally’s Tony Award–winning play, Master Class, July 9 and 10 at the Wheeler Opera House. Inspired by a series of master classes taught by Maria Callas at Juilliard toward the end of her career, the play follows Callas’s life through her personal reflections on the unforgiving early press, to her days performing at La Scala, to her doomed love affair with Aristotle Onassis. This fulllength drama captures the commanding, caustic, brilliant, and humorous opera diva as her star dims. Directed by Tony Award–winning actress and filmmaker Joanna Gleason, Master Class weaves the threads of a difficult, controversial, and internationally famous diva
COURTESY PHOTO
Phylicia Rashad stars as legendary opera diva Maria Callas in the Tony Award–winning play Master Class.
who is losing her voice. “Her star has dimmed and now her only future is to teach the future of the business,” Gleason says. “Imagine how catty, how gracious, how nurturing, how wonderful or how jealous you would be? Terrence created an affectionate and emotional fictional memoir.” Master Class represents the magic that happens when two revered arts institutions—Theatre Aspen and the AMFS—bring the scope and versatility of their individual programs to the collective stage. “For Theatre Aspen, we are able to do presentations on a scale we would never attempt in a small theater; and the AMFS can address and engage with work that would not be a normal part of their ‘meat and potatoes’ repertoire,” says Jed Bernstein, Theatre Aspen producing director. “This is the kind of performance where one plus See Master Class, Festival Focus page 3
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