Festival Focus Week 7

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MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 2021

VOL 31, NO. 7

Yang, Cox Breathe Music into Motion JESSICA MOORE

AMFS Director of Marketing

Once an alumnus of the AMFS, always an alumnus of the AMFS. Whether it’s a professional debut, or an anticipated yearly return, there is a certain energy that surrounds a performance by a former Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) student. And so, the Aspen Chamber Symphony performance on Friday, August 13 has the makings of a truly spectacular concert with the return of the sparkling pianist and season regular, Joyce Yang, and the professional Aspen debut of globally in-demand conductor Roderick Cox. Last year’s pandemic put the brakes on another trip to Aspen that Yang, now 35, describes as “the heart of my summer since I was 19.” Initially planned for last season, Yang will at last get to perform Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, a piece she describes as “truly like a roller coaster. You never know where Liszt is going to take you.”

A piano virtuoso himself whom Yang describes as the “keyboard version of Paganini, a Michael Jackson of that time,” Liszt began sketching out the concerto as early as the 1830s although it wasn’t premiered until years later in 1855.

In this work, Cox says “we see him already toying with the form. The orchestra and the piano are certainly very much intertwined in this specific concerto and they play off each other quite a bit.” He explains, “This is still revolutionary for this time where the orchestra typically is very much in the backdrop and the piano is the lead voice.”

“You can really feel Joyce’s presence on stage as a conductor.

You can hear her breathing the music into motion and that is what makes her an incredible artist to work with.”

Roderick Cox Conductor and AMFS alumnus

CARLIN MA

Joyce Yang often exudes sheer delight during her performances, as she did on Opening Sunday 2019 with the Aspen Festival Orchestra.

Yang echoes this, saying that this first concerto shows the composer “bending the rules of traditional piano concerto form and testing the boundaries of piano technique and virtuosity.”

She continues, “Nestled in between big and flashy bravura moments are poetic melodies and bold recitatives where one instrument suddenly pops out of the texture like a character that just appears.”

It’s in the close interaction between orchestra and soloist where Yang and Cox see the potential for a great collaboration. Says Yang, “This is the kind of piece that—because it’s so

Roderick Cox conducts the Aspen Chamber Symphony featuring pianist Joyce Yang on Friday, August 13.

interactive—could very well take on a new life depending on how it gets interwoven with different musicians.” Although this performance will be their first of the Liszt concerto, the two artists have worked together in the past and eagerly look forward to melding their interpretive visions together to bring this work to life.

Of her past performance with Cox, Yang recalls being struck by “the waves that he could create from the orchestra.” It is this memory that makes her feel that “with this piece, where there’s a storm at sea on the left and the right, he will really be able to navigate it and bring it to its heights.”

For his part, Cox says “you can really feel Joyce’s presence on stage as a conductor. You can hear her breathing the music into motion and that is what makes her an incredible artist to work with.” He continues, “She really leaves it all out on the stage and gives herself, all of herself, to the audience.”

See Cox, Yang, Festival Focus page 3

James Ehnes to Perform Final Beethoven Sonatas SHANNON ASHER

Festival Focus Writer

Violinist James Ehnes concludes his survey of Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas on August 11.

This week, internationally renowned violinist James Ehnes returns to the Aspen Music Festival and School stage for two concerts showcasing Beethoven: a recital with pianist Andrew Armstrong on August 11, and with the Aspen Festival Orchestra and conductor Jane Glover on August 15. It’s not just audiences looking forward to these events. Says Ehnes, “Both the setting and the history of the Aspen Music Festival are incredibly inspiring. It’s a rare opportunity to make music for incredibly passionate audiences in one of the world’s most spectacular locations.”

The AMFS’s Vice President for Artistic Administration and Artistic Advisor Asadour Santourian says, “James Ehnes is one of the

most self-effacing, friend-next-door violin stars you will ever meet. He is the loveliest, most easy-going person. Then, when he puts the violin under his chin and puts bow to string, he’s a star. He’s just a star.”

Ehnes started playing music around the age of five. With a father who was a professional musician (trumpet) and a mother who was a ballet dancer, he was surrounded by music and artists his whole young life. “It was natural for me to get involved in music,” Ehnes says. “I don’t remember why I specifically chose the violin, but it was very much my choice. I’ve always been drawn to the sound, but also to the incredible breadth of the repertoire for the violin.”

In preparation for Beethoven’s 250th birthday celebrations in 2020, Santourian asked

Ehnes to survey all 10 of the composer’s violin sonatas. In this summer’s recital, Ehnes will conclude a musical endeavor that he and Armstrong—who Santourian calls “a phenomenal partner”—began in 2018. When they first began the project, the Aspen Times praised their “gold standard performances [for] technical precision and keen musical insight.”

“Beethoven is such a central figure in music; it’s a great privilege as a violinist to have so many of his greatest works for my instrument,” Ehnes says. “The program concludes with his most famous sonata of the set, the so-called ‘Kreutzer’ sonata—one of the most celebrated pieces in the entire literature.”

See Ehnes and Armstrong, Festival Focus page 3

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MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 2021

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Jonathan Haas Leads Percussion Ensemble Recital explains. “When you’re a percussionist, you must learn up to 300, 400 different types of percussion instruments. The timOn Wednesday, August 11, timpanist and longtime Aspen pani extend unto themselves, although they’re part of the perMusic Festival and School (AMFS) artist-faculty member cussion family, but are regarded in orchestras as having their Jonathan Haas leads the Percussion Ensemble in a free own principal chair, which makes it very special.”

Spotlight Recital at 2:30 pm in Harris Concert Hall.

As a student at the AMFS for three years in the 1970s, Haas is AMFS’s Vice President for Artistic Administration and Artistic now in his 39th summer as a faculty member. His favorite thing Advisor Asadour Santourian and Haas worked together to about the Festival is the opportunity to perform side-by-side develop the program for this specific performance. “This is with his students. “It’s the reason I’m a musician,” Haas conthe first year that the program is basically going to be chamber veys. “I came here as a student and played side-by-side with music—percussion with solos,” Haas explains. “Usually, we do some of the most iconic teachers, and then paying that forlarge works for up to 18 percussionists, sometimes 20, but with ward, I now have the opportunity to do the same thing. There’s only 8 percussion students this nothing better than playing next summer, the obvious choice to your students. It’s the best was to select chamber music experience you could have.” pieces.”

Also performing Wednesday The overarching theme of are Haas’s longtime collabothe concert “centers around rators and friends, and fellow protesting, as well as recogartist-faculty members, Nadine nizing current events in the Asin and Timothy Adams, Jr. world that are essential to all “Nadine and I have known each of us moving forward in a uniother throughout our careers, fied manner,” Haas says. “This and whenever there’s an opporis a statement for this particular tunity to play with Nadine, I conconcert, and I think it’s a very sider it to be the most importpositive statement.” ant and fun-filled opportunity,” AMFS artist-faculty member Jonathan Haas Haas’s professional interest Haas says. hinges on bringing the timpani from its location behind the Adams and Haas follow somewhat of the same story. “We orchestra up to the very front. “With a percussion ensemble, haven’t known each other quite as long, but Tim is one of the there are usually only four or five timpani on the stage,” Haas most influential percussionists in the world,” Haas reveals.

SHANNON ASHER

Festival Focus Writer

“During the pandemic, and especially during the time in which Black Lives Matter took place, I needed a colleague to be able to discuss, plan, and find ways in which to create this repertoire and celebrate the lives of important musicians of color, and Tim Adams was my first call.”

AMFS artist-faculty Timothy Adams Jr. and President and CEO Alan Fletcher during a summer 2020 virtual High Notes Discussion.

Haas continues, “He and I have deepened our relationship because of this. Most interesting, and I think important, is that the AMFS and NYU commissioned a very large percussion ensemble piece from Tim as a tribute to George Floyd called the Music 8:46 Project. It will receive its world premiere next summer at the AMFS. It’s written to both memorialize and commemorate, and to bring to everybody’s attention all that’s gone on in the past year. Hopefully, having composers such as Tim writing these significant pieces is going to be part of our future. It’s opened up a whole new world for us.”

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Ehnes and Armstrong: Continued from Festival Focus page 1 Armstrong and Ehnes have a long history of performing together that extends back almost 20 years. The Melbourne Recital Center described them as having “an almost telepathic connection.” The duo has recorded all of the Beethoven sonatas and “performed them extensively, so there’s a great deal of personal history with the works that I hope will come across for the audience,” Ehnes says.

On Sunday, Ehnes will perform Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major with the Aspen Festival Orchestra—one of his favorite pieces and quite possibly the piece he’s performed the most in his career. “As a distinction and honor in the Beethoven year, we asked him to perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto,” Santourian says.

He continues, “His playing is remarkable—he has such a beautiful sound and beautiful conception of the piece. The Beethoven is by no means not a showpiece, but it is one that is complete and replete with nuance. It’s virtuosity in service of music, not virtuosity for its own sake of display. A great violinist can convey the messages invented in this music. I would say James is a great violinist and I’m thrilled that he will be here to perform this work.”

MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 2021

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A RECITAL BY Robert McDuffie violin THURSDAY, AUGUST 12 7 PM MDT Benedict Music Tent Celebrated for his brilliant technique, charismatic stage presence, and adventurous repertoire, Grammy nominee Robert McDuffie will be joined by AMFS artist-faculty member and cellist Brinton Smith, pianist and Peter Mennin Prizewinner Derek Wang, and baritone Ian Rucker for a recital sure to delight and inspire.

The program includes Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, and Paulus’s The Long Shadow of Lincoln. Don’t miss this performance by some of Aspen’s favorite soloists!

Pianist Andrew Armstrong performs with violinist James Ehnes Wednesday, August 11.

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The Brothers Johnston: Australian Guitar Duo As Isbin is also the AMFS’s classical guitar director of over 30 years, the Johnstons are excited to continue learning from On Wednesday, August 18 at 2:30 pm, Australian guitar duo her this summer, and especially to have an in-person class Ziggy and Miles Johnston perform in the free Spotlight Guitar experience again. Ziggy explains, “Sharon holds her lessons Recital at Harris Concert Hall. Both are in Aspen this summer as big master classes, so every guitarist watches everyone’s studying at the Aspen Music Festival and School. lesson. You learn more that way from watching different peoConsidered to be among Australia’s finest young concert ple play. Being around the environment with the guitarists artists, brothers Ziggy, 25, and Miles, 23, have been perform- and Sharon in this way is going to be very exciting.” ing together since they were young children. Growing up on Not only is this the Johnstons’ first summer in Aspen, but the classic rock and roll of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and also their first summer at all in two years. Because the seathe Beatles, it was only a matter of time before they picked sons are reversed in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, up the guitar. Their parents, a sound technician dad and traveling back and forth between New York and Melbourne music-loving mother, encouraged them to take classical gui- during the year meant enduring what they say felt like, “a tar lessons to build their perpetual winter.” technique and appreciaAs with most siblings, tion for the instrument. it can be hard at times to Starting small with local get along, but fortunately concerts in Melbourne, the for the Johnston brothers, pair quickly gained attenthey are more supportive tion, eventually performof than competitive with ing at national and intereach other. “We always national venues. “We’re try to do what’s best for experienced in organizing the music, and someall of our performances times we have different because we haven’t had views on what that is, so the luxury of having a manwe’ve worked over time ager. In Australia, pretty to do that in the healthiest much every performance possible manner. Even if (except two), we’ve had to we have heated discusorganize ourselves, which sions, it’s never personal, was a great learning expe- Australian classical guitarists and AMFS students Ziggy and Miles Johnston it’s always for the music,” perform at a free Spotlight Guitar Recital on Wednesday, August 18. rience,” Miles said.

Ziggy said.

With greater success comes greater responsibility and As they move into the next stage of their careers, Ziggy higher expectations. This led the Johnstons to attend Monash and Miles look forward to creating long-term performance University in Australia and later the Juilliard School in New opportunities for themselves in New York and abroad. Miles York, where they completed their master’s degrees in June. concludes, “We’re very passionate about playing as soloists Due to the pandemic, all but seven months of their Juilliard and as a duo, and we want to be known as people who can experience were conducted remotely. Studying under mul- do both. Having that sense of individuality and togetherness tiple Grammy-winner Sharon Isbin, founding director of the makes us stronger.” school’s guitar department, each week they emailed her practice recordings, to which Isbin would respond with detailed, producer-style score markings and feedback.

PIPER STARNES

Festival Focus Writer

Cox, Yang:

Continued from Festival Focus page 1

Also on the program is Brahms’s Third Symphony—the shortest of the composer’s four symphonies—which Cox likens to the Liszt in that “they really test every realm of orchestral technique, and it takes a lot of power to play both.”

Each represents the work of an experienced composer, packing a lot of punch in a condensed time frame. “Brahms was a middle-aged man at this time, certainly feeling the weight of not being in his youth anymore, but also very much confident in his writing ability,” explains Cox. “Liszt, as a seasoned virtuosic pianist and as a composer, this concerto represents him as a person who’s also charting new territory with stretching form, even in what is considered a short concerto.”

Cox will also conduct Kodály’s Dances of Galánta—referencing the Hungarian town where the composer, an ethnomusicologist, was exposed to folk tunes that he incorporated into his music. The inclusion of Kodály completes the evening’s Hungarian thread, “with Liszt being a Hungarian composer and Brahms very much a German composer that was highly influenced by Hungarian music and people,” he explains.

For his part, Cox looks forward to reliving his student memories of Aspen, acknowledging the significance of returning as a professional: “I imagine it’s certainly a special feeling to conduct at a place that’s been your training ground, where you can envision yourself conducting as a student and having all these questions.”

Surely his performance with Joyce Yang will be one worth remembering.

CARLIN MA

CARLIN MA

Joyce Yang poses for a selfie with students backstage at the Benedict Music Tent in 2019.