FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES
MONDAY, JULY 24, 2023
VOL. 33, NO. 5
Spano, O’Connor Bring Mahler’s Third to Aspen BY EMMA KIRBY
Marketing Coordinator
Marking the midpoint of the Aspen Music Festival and School’s (AMFS) 2023 summer season is one of the largest of all symphonies: Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony. “It truly just encompasses the world,” says AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher. “It’s right in the middle of our summer and on purpose: it’s a centerpiece.” AMFS Music Director Robert Spano leads the Aspen Festival Orchestra in the performance on Sunday, July 30 that features Kelley O’Connor as the mezzo-soprano soloist. Members of the Colorado Children’s Chorale and students from the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS (AOTVA) program make up the chorus.
Spano and O’Connor are frequent collaborators and close friends, having known each other for almost 20 years. “He’s such a joy to work with,” says O’Connor. O’Connor and Spano performed Mahler’s Third together just last year in Spano’s final concert as the music director of the Atlanta Symphony after a 22-year tenure. This week presents an opportunity for the pair to reunite and share the stage, and O’Connor is delighted to perform the work with Spano once again, this time in Aspen.
“You just look outside the Tent and know that Mahler was in a similar setting when he was writing this.” Kelley O’Connor guest artist and mezzo-soprano soloist
BEN DASHWOOD
Mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor is the featured soloist in Mahler’s Third on July 30.
The setting makes for a special and organic experience. Mahler composed his Third Symphony during the summer, surrounded by nature in a one-room hut at Steinbach on the Attersee, near Salzburg, Austria. “You just look outside the Tent and know that Mahler was in a similar setting when he was writing this. You think, he was seeing what I am seeing. It really helps you to connect to the music,” says O’Connor. In this 100-minute, six-movement Symphony—the longest symphony in the stan-
DON’T MISS THESE UPCOMING SPECIAL EVENTS! Star Wars, E.T., and More: Film Music of John Williams Tuesday, July 25 | 7 PM
ALEX IRVIN
AMFS Music Director Robert Spano conducts what could be considered the centerpiece of the 2023 Season—Mahler’s Third—on July 30.
dard repertoire—Mahler aims to “encompass all of humankind and its relationship with the world and with each other,” says AMFS Vice President for Artistic Administration Patrick Chamberlain. Unpublished programmatic titles that Mahler originally assigned to each movement give insight into how the composer structured the work as a “portrait of nature” and “picture of the universe” says Fletcher. “Summer Marches In,” “What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me,” and “What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me” are orchestra-only. The human voice is introduced in the fourth movement: “What Man Tells Me.” The text, sung by O’Connor, comes from “Midnight Song” of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra. In the
Wear your costumes and enjoy this family-friendly evening of music from Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and much more.
Broadway Star Audra McDonald with Orchestra Thursday, August 3 | 7:30 PM Enjoy a spectacular evening of classic songs as performed by this once-in-alifetime vocalist.
solo, “I’m asking people to realize that our grief may be deep, but we will also have joy, and it will be better than the grief,” says O’Connor. “In the end, it’s about accepting your feelings and having hope for the See A Portrait of Nature, Festival Focus page 3
Free Community Mariachi Celebration Returns July 26 BY SARAH SHAW
Festival Focus Writer
Building on the tremendous success of last summer, the Aspen Music Festival and School brings back its threeday Mariachi Workshop culminating in a free community concert at 5:30 p.m. on July 26 at the Benedict Music Tent. The lead sponsor of the workshop and community concert is Querencia Private Golf & Beach Club. A pre-concert fiesta beginning at 4 p.m. on the Karetsky Music Lawn will include food and drinks from Taqueria El Yaqui and Señor Mango, and booths and activities from community partners: the Pitkin County and Basalt Regional Libraries, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen Family Connections, Buddy Program, English in Action, Family Resource Center—Roaring Fork Schools, Latinx House, the Art Base, and Valley Settlement. As one of the many family-friendly summer offerings of the Festival, the Mariachi Workshop is an exten-
GRAHAM NORTHRUP
The free Community Mariachi Celebration on July 26 is one of the many family friendly offerings of the 2023 Festival.
sion of the AMFS’s music education programs offered in schools from Aspen to Glenwood Springs. “Bringing the Mariachi Workshop to the Roaring Fork Valley has been a long-standing dream of ours,” says AMFS Dean of Education and Community Heather Kendrick. During the school year, the AMFS’s Education and Community team runs weekly after-school and in-school music education programming throughout the valley. More than 400 students participate in programs ranging from beginning strings to choir. “We are boots on the ground,” Kendrick continues. “When we learned from band directors and our teaching artists that introducing mariachi would be a natural extension of our program, it made sense to fulfill that community need.” Last summer, the Mariachi Workshop launched with 35 participating students. With the additional funding provided by lead sponsor Querencia —a private, See Music Education, Festival Focus page 3
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