FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES
MONDAY, JULY 14, 2025
VOL. 35, NO. 3
Dance All Night with My Fair Lady in Concert BY CINDY HIRSCHFELD Festival Focus Writer
There’s a reason Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady endures as one of the most beloved musicals almost 70 years after its Broadway debut. In addition to unforgettable songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” “I Could Have Danced All Night” and “Get Me to the Church on Time,” the storyline of love and transformation holds timeless appeal. “It’s one of the most golden of golden age Broadway shows,” says Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) Munroe
COURTESY PHOTO
Julie Benko, known for her sensational understudy-to-star trajectory as Fanny Brice in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl, comes to Aspen as Eliza Doolittle in the AMFS/Theatre Aspen production of Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady In Concert.
President and CEO Alan Fletcher. famously pompous professor who aims And that makes it a perfect fit for AMFS’s to transform Eliza from artless flower girl annual collaboration with Theatre Aspen to sophisticated lady. Anne L. Nathan (as (TA). My Fair Lady in Concert comes to the housekeeper Mrs. Pearce) returns after her Klein Music Tent stage on Tuesday, July 15. triumphant performance as Golde in last Indeed, Theatre Aspen Producing Director year’s AMFS/TA collab of Fiddler on the Jed Bernstein calls Roof. Another bonus: this classic, based Maggie Burrows, as“It’s really a on George Bernard sociate director for Shaw’s 1913 play Pyg2018’s widely praised commentary on class malion, “one of the Broadway revival of that transcends time. best adaptations of My Fair Lady, will diplay to musical in rect the Aspen perThe same issues Shaw Broadway history.” formance. For Julie Benko, Though a one-night was commenting on who broke out in show doesn’t give acBroadway’s Funny tors the same room in England in the early Girl in 2022, playing for experimentation 20th century still exist Eliza Doolittle is a and familiarity with a dream part. “I think role as an extended and are exacerbated it’s one of the greatrun, it offers them a est roles for a musibecause we are living in different opportucal theater actress,” nity, one that is quinta new gilded age.” she says. “It requires essentially Aspen. “I so much of you as an get to perform with actor and a singer. It’s a 60-piece orchesJulie Benko so complex, so smart, tra [conducted by Actor starring as Eliza Doolittle in the AMFS/TA presentation of Lerner and and so funny.” leading music direcLoewe’s My Fair Lady In Concert Benko also recalls tor Andy Einhorn],” watching the 1964 enthuses Benko, movie version and listening to the cast al- “I could never do that on Broadway.” bum on repeat as a child. “The show meant Coming to Aspen means leaving her a lot to my family,” she says. “I have a video seven-month-old daughter behind with of us singing songs from the musical to my her husband in New York—Benko’s first grandmother [diagnosed with Alzheimer’s]. time away from her child (in the meantime, She came back to us a little bit.” an orangutan puppet in the household Four-time Tony nominee and TV actor now “speaks” with a Cockney accent). Raúl Esparza will play Henry Higgins, the See A Special Place, Festival Focus page 3
Aspen Public Radio Broadcasts Sunday Concerts for the 2025 Season Aspen Public Radio (APR) is once again partnering with the AMFS to present live broadcasts of the Aspen Festival Orchestra’s Sunday concerts, beginning July 6. Now in its third year, the collaboration offers listeners access to these iconic Aspen performances via 91.5 FM in Aspen, 88.9 FM throughout the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys, online at aspenpublicradio.org, and through the APR app. Longtime classical host Chris Mohr will lead the broadcasts and provide daily updates through “Festival Notes,” airing each morning. Weekly “High Notes” lectures will be available for streaming on APR’s website.
Introduce Kids to Classical Music with Free Family Concert SARAH CHASE SHAW Festival Focus Writer
Ever wondered what it sounds like when lions roar, hens cluck, and kangaroos hop? This year’s edition of the Aspen Music Festival and School’s annual free Family Concert on Saturday, July 19, answers all those musical questions and more with a performance of Saint-Saëns’s The Carnival of the Animals offered in a brief 25-minute concert suitable for young attention spans. “Our family concert is thoughtfully designed with children at the heart of the experience,” says Heather Kendrick Stanton, AMFS Vice President for Education and Community Programs. “We invite kids and families to find a comfortable seat in the Tent and enjoy the performance in a relaxed
DIEGO REDEL
The AMFS’s free Family Concert on July 19 offers a fun, relaxed musical experience for all ages.
and welcoming environment—where a little movement or noise is perfectly okay!” Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals is a playful 14-movement suite filled with musical jokes and vivid animal portraits. Originally scored for a small ensemble and intended only for private performance, the composer feared its lighthearted nature might harm his serious reputation—so it wasn’t published until after his death in 1921. Today, it’s one of his most beloved works, often performed by full orchestra. The piece begins with a royal roar from the lion and moves quickly through humorous and energetic sketches—from clucking hens and galloping donkeys to hopping kangaroos and, most famously, the serene
cello solo in “The Swan”—the only movement Saint-Saëns allowed to be published in his lifetime. Conductor Paul-Boris Kertsman says this piece is a unique opportunity for kids to use their imagination to engage with the activity on stage. “Saint-Saëns was brilliant in the way he created this perfect musical experience for kids. Every animal has a character and a specific instrument that is featured.” An alumnus of the Aspen Conducting Academy and winner of the Aspen Conducting Prize, Kertsman was invited to return to Aspen this season as assistant conductor and member of the AMFS artist-faculty. “A family concert is very dear to me beSee Family Concert, Festival Focus page 3
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