A Major Artistic Premiere: Siddhartha, She
BY CINDY HIRSCHFELD Festival Focus Writer
The Aspen Music Festival and School certainly doesn’t shy away from presenting big, complex productions (think operas like Ghosts of Versailles or Aida), but the world premiere of Siddhartha, She on August 2 at the Klein Music Tent may well outrank all of them. “It’s possibly the most ambitious performance in my 20 years here,” says AMFS Munroe President and CEO Alan Fletcher.
Billed as an “immersive theatrical experience,” the production includes not only singers, a full orchestra, and the Kantorei choir but also video installations and movement artists. Based on Herman Hesse’s classic novel Siddhartha, the opera’s music was written by AMFS Composer-in-Residence
Christopher Theofanidis with a libretto in English by acclaimed poet Melissa Studdard.
This specific story of one man’s spiritual quest for enlightenment in ancient
“It’s possibly the most ambitious performance in my 20 years here.”
Alan
Fletcher Munroe President and CEO, Aspen Music Festival and School
India has been interpreted by musicians as varied as Pete Townshend and the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan. But Siddhartha, She —commissioned by the AMFS, the Yale University Glee Club and Yale Choral Artists, and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance—adds a gender twist: the main character is now female.
“Chris told me to just write what was in my heart and what felt resonant and true,” explains Studdard. “That was one of the ways in which Siddhartha ended up shifting into womanhood.”
But depicting Siddhartha in a different light is only part of the production’s innovative approach, thanks to the involvement of director and multidisciplinary artist Anne Patterson and soundscape composer Patrick Harlin.
What Theofanidis calls “visual assists to the drama” will flesh out some of the story’s more supernatural aspects through abstract video projections and sounds from nature that Harlin recorded in India.
Says Studdard, “The idea was to create an immersive, multisensory experience in a way so that it feels like it’s surrounding the audience,” a concept that will play especially well in the Music Tent.
The project has a long and somewhat serendipitous history. Theofanidis began conceiving the idea some 20 years ago, with the support of close friend and colleague Robert Spano, who became the AMFS’s music director in 2011 and will conduct the premiere. “It took this amount of time to get the right group involved,” Theofanidis says.
That included a convergence of the creative team at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Florida several years ago that led to them working together on Siddhartha, She. “We all did a studio tour at the end of the residency,” recalls Studdard. “Chris approached and asked if I would be interested in writing [the libretto]. It was a real meeting of hearts and mind and spirit.” The result is what Studdard calls “a cross-pollination of ideas” that she found particularly inspiring. “We all had our own roles, but we were all collaborating through the entire process,” she adds.
Theofanidis and Studdard were handson with selecting the cast, and Studdard wrote some of the libretto with these
One Night Only!
Piano Superstar LANG LANG
August 5 | 7:30 p.m. Klein Music Tent
“Hottest artist on the classical music planet.”
The New York Times
Don’t miss a rare opportunity to hear an icon of the piano world as Lang Lang returns to perform in Aspen for the first time since 2006!
This appealing program includes Chopin’s mazurkas, as well as Faure’s popular Pavane and Schumann’s Kreisleriana
Siddhartha , Festival Focus page 3
Birdsong Inspires Three Free Outdoor Concerts
BY DAVID HOYT Festival Focus Writer
Aspen is one of the best places on earth to combine excellent music with a love of nature, whether it’s listening to the wind whisper through the trees during a performance in the Klein Music Tent or taking a reflective stroll in the woods after emerging from the subterranean Harris Concert Hall. But nature lovers can blend these two passions more closely than ever before on Monday, August 4, beside Hallam Lake at the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES), when pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard plays French composer Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux in three free outdoor concerts.
Messiaen’s “catalogue of birds,” written in the late 1950s, is one of the most unique works in contemporary solo piano music. Messiaen had a lifelong fascination with birds and worked birdsong into many of his compositions. The 13 pieces in Catalogue d’oiseaux are inspired by species of bird found in each province of France and include painstaking transcriptions of each bird’s vocalizations while also evoking the climate and landscape of each region. Listen as the piano trills an imitation of the Eurasian wren (“authoritative, clear, fast and decisive”) and slides down the descending scale of the European robin (“tender, confident”).
As part of his debut appearance at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Aimard will perform selections from the catalog
three times throughout the day—at 7:30 a.m., 1 p.m., and 7:30 p.m.—as the mood of Hallam Lake changes between morning, afternoon, and evening. Amateur birdwatchers and expert ornithologists alike will enjoy the songs of local birds as they lend their own improvisations to the concert. Messiaen’s “immense love for nature and bird songs brought him to compose these pieces,” Aimard said in a 2018 video. “This is singing music—this is not anymore a human voice, but this is bird voices, and it sings all the time It is his way of expressing music that is not centered to the individual—man himself—but is open to the universe He has found his way to create a new musical language, new sounds, new syntax, new forms.”
See Birdsong, Festival Focus page 3
In addition to his own composing work, AMFS composer-in-residence Christopher Theofanidis (center) is a mentor, with music director Robert Spano (right), to the young artists in the AMFS’s composition program.
DIEGO REDEL
French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard presents an intimate evening in Harris Hall on Wednesday, July 30, as well as three outdoor birdsong recitals on Monday, August 4.
MARCO BORGGREVE
Upcoming Harris Concert Hall Recitals
Acclaimed pianist Mikhail Voskresensky performs a beautiful collection of sonatas by Beethoven, Chopin, and Grieg; selections from Tchaikovsky’s sublime Les saisons; and Mozart’s Fantasia in C minor in a not-tomiss recital on Monday, July 28. The Boulder, Colorado–based Takács Quartet returns to Aspen for a recital of Haydn, Beethoven, and Janáček in the acoustically prime Harris Concert Hall on Thursday, July 31.
Audience favorite and renowned violinist Gil Shaham returns for two performances this week: He performs Bruch’s First Violin Concerto with the Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra on Sunday, August 3; and reprises an evening of music with Adele Anthony in a Harris Hall recital on Tuesday, July 29 after last summer’s sensational performance together. On the adventurous program are works ranging from Bach and Vivaldi to Arvo Pärt and Avner Dorman.
THIS SEASON: FREE FRIDAYS FOR YOUNG ADULTS, 19-35!
Continued from Festival Focus page 1
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DIEGO REDEL COURTESY PHOTO
DIEGO REDEL
Young Artist Spotlight: Violinist Ana Isabella España
BY EMMA KIRBY Marketing Manager
Each summer the Aspen Music Festival and School brings nearly 500 young musicians to Aspen for a summer of education and performance with professional artists from around the world.
One of this year’s young artists is violinist Ana Isabella España. She can’t imagine her life without music. She began taking violin lessons from a close family friend (and the violinist who performed at her parents’ wedding) at the age of four; shortly after, she was enrolled in the Special Music School in New York City, a musically and academically rigorous program that she attended from kindergarten through high school.
“I don’t come from a musical family, but we all love music,” says España, and her parents encouraged her to start violin from a young age. As the end of high school loomed, she knew she had to make a tough choice: Would she continue studying music and attend a conservatory, or pursue another route for college?
“I just could not make that decision,” she says. “I knew I wanted to pursue academics but also have a really fulfilling time with music because I love it so much. I could not leave it—there was no way I was going to abandon all the time I had with this instrument I love so much.” So, España found the perfect combination in the Columbia University and The Juilliard School dual enrollment program, where she just completed her first year of studies in psychology and violin performance.
“Through my time pursuing other things, I’ve come to realize that I see everything I study through a lens of music,” she says. And while España plans to pursue a career in violin performance, she sees music as much more than acing an audition or winning a competition. “To be able to share music with people that you’re close with and for them to just enjoy it—I think that’s the point of music.”
España first came to study in Aspen as a high schooler, and she returns this year for her third summer. “There’s so much to like, that’s why I came back three times,” she says. “One of the best things for me is all of the performances we get to see here. There are so many chances to see some of the best musicians in the world. You’re never bored. There’s always going to be a concert at the Tent, Harris, or on [Bucksbaum Campus].” And having the chance to share the stage with renowned guest artists is “so inspiring,” she says.
In addition to the immersive orchestral experience, España also sees the summer in Aspen as an opportunity to focus on her individual studies with artist-faculty violinist Masao Kawasaki, with whom she also studies at Juilliard.
One of Kawasaki’s recent suggestions to España: “Remember to enjoy the music, and remember that you enjoy playing this piece. You want to savor every moment.”
“I’ve always lived by this philosophy,” she says, “but it’s great coming from him.”
These words of wisdom from her teacher must have resonated: A few days later, España was named the winner of the 2025 AMFS Violin Concerto Competition.
Siddhartha: Serendipitous Casting
particular performers in mind. “We looked for very specific singer/actors, not just voice types but people’s presence on stage,” Theofanidis says. The role of Siddhartha, he notes, called for someone with a lot of depth who could show the struggle the character encounters. “We found that in Caitlin Lynch,” he says.
Meanwhile, AMFS alumnus Key’mon W. Murrah, who will play the Buddha, “has the most transcendent male soprano voice,” adds Theofanidis. “It’s so particular and haunting and brings such a calm center to what he does.”
And Kelley O’Connor, who will appear as Siddhartha’s lover Kamala, is “full of sass, but also has a deep richness of voice,” Theofanidis notes.
If Siddhartha perfectly embodies this season’s theme of “Concerning the Spiritual in Art,” that’s because the commission actually inspired it, says Fletcher. “Once we decided the centerpiece of was going to be this project, then it made sense to say, ‘Let’s think about spirituality throughout the summer.’”
Moreover, the spiritual journey in the novel, as Siddhartha learns how to listen to his own needs and values, parallels the circuitous process of artistic self-discovery. “Nobody can tell you how to be yourself as an artist—there has to be an awakening within you,” Theofanidis says.
Though the performance will be a can’t-miss multimedia experience and the libretto is worth reading on its own, at its heart, Siddhartha, She still comes down to the essence of the Festival. “It’s just gorgeous, beautiful music,” says Fletcher. “I think the audience will be entranced.”
Aimard: Birdsong
In addition to ACES, the National Audubon Society and the Birdsong Project—a collection of new music by diverse artists, all inspired by the beauty of birdsong—are also collaborating with AMFS to co-present this innovative event.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for our organizations to partner, and just a really special kind of only-in-Aspen experience,” says AMFS Vice President for Artistic Administration Patrick Chamberlain. “It’s really meant to be a full-day experience. You come in the morning, you go about your day, you come back at lunchtime and hear more, and then you come back at twilight and get the last bit.”
On Wednesday, July 30, Aimard will display his worldrenowned facility for contemporary music in a more traditional recital in Harris Hall, performing works by his countrymen Messiaen, Debussy, and Boulez, as well as the groundbreaking Austrian modernist, Schoenberg. Attendees who heard the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble’s performance of Boulez’s sur Incises earlier this season will be especially interested to hear Aimard play Incises, the solo piano work that inspired the later piece for ensemble.
As the AMFS celebrates the centennial of Boulez’s birth this summer, Aimard brings to Aspen a direct connection to both Boulez and Messiaen—he had the opportunity to study under, learn from, and work with both great composers during their lifetimes.
“He’s one of those people who can say, ‘Well, the composer told me he wanted it like this.’ And it’s amazing to have an artist with that direct link,” Chamberlain says. “[Aimard] can digest the most complex scores and bring them to life He’s a real thinking person’s artist, and somebody that will fit right in with the sort of intellectual and social community we cultivate here in Aspen.”
Ana Isabella España is one of 480 young artists studying at the Aspen Music Festival and School this summer.
DIEGO REDEL
Key’mon W. Murrah countertenor (above) sings the role of the Buddha. His last Music Festival appearance was in 2021, as King Bertarido in Handel’s Rodelinda while a Fleming Fellowship Artist with the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS program.
ELLE LOGAN
Kelley O’Connor mezzo-soprano (above left), who sings the role of Siddhartha’s lover, is familiar to Music Tent audiences from her many appearances with AMFS Music Director Robert Spano and the Aspen Festival Orchestra.
ELLE LOGAN
Caitlyn Lynch soprano (left) sings the title role in the world premiere of Siddhartha, She in the Klein Music Tent on August 2.
COURTESY PHOTO