FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES
MONDAY, JULY 31, 2023
VOL. 33, NO. 6
McDonald Sings Broadway; Sondheim, Porter, Gershwin community and is well known for his work throughout the years with Theatre Aspen Summer evenings in the Benedict Music and as a teacher to students at the AMFS. Tent are always enchanting, but Aspen Mu“He’s an artist and thinker and conducsic Festival and School (AMFS) fans are in for tor who takes the Broadway musical repa special treat when Broadway star, six-time ertoire completely seriously and also pairs Tony, and two-time Grammy Award winning that with an infectious joy,” Chamberlain soprano Audra McDonald takes the stage says. Thursday, August 3 at 7:30 p.m. The performance will include very acMcDonald, a Juilliard-trained soprano cessible repertoire that is not so much who is well known not only for her lumi- nostalgic for a simpler time as it is a unique nous voice, but also for her roles in Carou- and joyful nod to American culture. sel, Ragtime, and Porgy and Bess, will per“I grew up in love with the Great Ameriform selections from the Great American can Songbook and with Broadway musiSongbook and beloved Broadway shows. cals of the Golden Age,” says Einhorn. “You Accompanied by a full orchestra con- are talking about a canon of work that is as ducted by her Music Director Andy Ein- timeless and relevant as ever.” horn, the perforA canon of the mance will feature most important and music from cominfluential American “No matter what else posers such as Duke popular songs and Ellington, Stephen standards from happens in my life, after this jazz Sondheim, George the early twentieth Gershwin, Harold Arcentury, The Songconcert I will die a len, and Cole Porter, book brings audihappy man.” among others. ences on a lifelong “Audra exudes an journey. absolute and utterly “The most interAndy Einhorn captivating stage esting thing about Audra McDonald’s Music Director presence,” says Patthis repertoire is that rick Chamberlain, we will have people vice president of artistic administration at in the audience of various ages who have AMFS. “To hear this music played by a full heard the music at various points in their orchestra—there’s nothing like it. And with lives,” Einhorn says. “We hear and listen to a commanding performer like Audra, it’s a the music differently after we’ve lived a treat.” little. I can’t think of another form of music Einhorn, one of the great conductors of that transcends time and matures with you the Songbook, is no stranger to the Aspen as you age.” BY SAMANTHA JOHNSTON
Festival Focus Writer
AMFS ARTIST-FACULTY CHAMBER MUSIC SATURDAY, AUGUST 5 | 7 PM HARRIS CONCERT HALL AMFS artist-faculty, all top musicians from renowned orchestras and conservatories, come together for a dynamic program that includes brilliant 19thcentury piano trios by Saint-Saëns and Dvořák, and a new work by American composer Kyle Rivera.
ALLISON MICHAEL ORENSTEIN
Audra McDonald will be joined by a full orchestra for a one-night-only performance.
McDonald is known for treating her performances as if the audience is sitting in her living room. She has an uncanny ability to connect to individuals through music and to make people in the audience feel as if they truly know her. “Audra is the quintessential humanitarian entertainer,” Einhorn says. “The magical thing about Audra is that when she walks onto the stage, she finds a way to communicate with the audience in such a direct and beautifully cutting way. She is a person of the moment and everything she does is as genuine as it could ever be.”
Among the afternoon’s performers, violinist Adele Anthony will join pianist Anton Nel and cellist Brinton Averil Smith for Dvořák’s Dumky Piano Trio. Anthony says, “they’re very favored and loved colleagues. It’s so easy to make music with them and always such a joy.” Listening to this gorgeous piece, you’ll understand why it’s one of the most popular in the entire chamber music repertoire.
The evening will include many songs that are fun and familiar. Einhorn is particularly proud of an arrangement of John Kander’s Cabaret that he and Audra finished at the end of the pandemic. “It’s a powerful reminder to get out there See McDonald, Festival Focus page 3
Gil Shaham, Steven Banks Return for Weekend Concerts BY JESSICA MOORE
Director of Marketing
Fulfilling part of its mission to introduce audiences to brilliant works they may not know, the Aspen Music Festival and School brings Steven Banks and Gil Shaham to the Benedict Music Tent this weekend to perform saxophone and violin concertos, respectively, that Aspen audiences may be hearing for the first time. Banks will join the Aspen Chamber Symphony on Friday, August 4 for the Aspen premiere of Billy Childs’s Saxophone Concerto—a work that the AMFS co-commissioned. On Sunday, August 6, Shaham—one of the world’s foremost violinists and a regular in Aspen—takes the stage with the Aspen Festival Orchestra to perform the Korngold Violin Concerto in D major, not played in Aspen since 2018. Banks made his Aspen debut last summer with two appearances in Harris Concert Hall. AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher describes Banks as “an amazing talent, a truly
CHRIS LEE
Gil Shaham performs “pure violin magic” with the Aspen Festival Orchestra on August 6.
thoughtful person, a truly spiritual person, who brings tremendous emotion to his music-making.” With regards to the work that Banks selected for his debut in the Benedict Music Tent, AMFS Vice President for Artistic Administration Patrick Chamberlain says: “When we got wind that he wanted a new orchestral work to be written for him, we instantly joined the commission. The work premiered this past spring to tremendous reviews, and we really look forward to presenting that.” Described as a tone poem that chronicles the African American experience—past, present, and future—listening to this through-composed, three-movement work is “almost like watching a movie,” says Banks. Each movement is inspired by a different poem: “Africa’s Lament” by Nayyirah Waheed, “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay, and Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise.” While people may know him primarily as a jazz musician, See Korngold, Festival Focus page 3
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