{"id":2370931,"date":"2026-04-13T10:57:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2370931"},"modified":"2026-04-13T10:57:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:57:25","slug":"a-summer-of-classical-music-for-all-arts-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/a-summer-of-classical-music-for-all-arts-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"A summer of classical music \u2018for all\u2019 | Arts & Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Robert Spano conducts the Aspen Music Festival and School Symphony Orchestra. This summer he is introducing the First Symphonies Project, a multiyear initiative that will commission symphonies from emerging and established American composers. The first symphony will be performed July 19 with the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin\u2019s Symphony No. 1, an AMFS co-commission that Spano also will conduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n Photo by Diego Redel<\/span>
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Aspen Music Festival and School will be celebrating its 77th year as more than 450 young artists from around the world will come together with artist-faculty and guests from the foremost orchestras and music schools nationwide for almost 200 public events in venues throughout the area.<\/p>\n

The theme of this year\u2019s season is \u201cFor All,\u201d which is a nod to the closing words of the Pledge of Allegiance and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n

For AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher, the theme goes beyond just commemorating an anniversary, but is more of an exploration of how American musical identity has been shaped and what it means today.<\/p>\n

\u201cPractically everyone in the performing arts is doing something honoring the ideals of the founding of the country this summer,\u201d Fletcher told the Aspen Daily News. \u201cWe took the last two words of the pledge of allegiance and said, \u2018Let\u2019s emphasize the fact that this great culture is for all.\u2019 We’ll especially be looking at the creation of musical identity in the United States which was something that people were thinking about even before the Revolutionary War happened.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

AMFS has participants from 35 different countries, which is particularly meaningful; as Fletcher said, from the earliest days of the nation, its musical identity has been heavily influenced by music from other countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo-hundred-fifty years later, American music has been shaped by wave upon wave of immigration of different kinds of people coming into the country with their own ideas about music,\u201d Fletcher said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As examples, he pointed to the influence of Germans and Scandinavians, who led the great westward expansion, Scots-Irish folk songs, West African drumming and European Jews who emigrated in the early 20th century and created Tin Pan Alley. Many different peoples and styles of music came together in America to shape its unique musical culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just layer upon layer of different ideas about music that came from all over the world and interacted with each other and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to explore this summer,\u201d Fletcher said.<\/p>\n

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Music lovers enjoy a picnic outside the Klein Music Tent as part of the Aspen Music Festival and School\u2019s 2024 summer season. Tickets go on sale for the 2026 season on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n Aspen Daily News file<\/span>
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World premieres and commissions\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Tickets for the 2026 summer season go on sale at noon Tuesday. This season there will be several world premieres and commissioned works, including the launch of the First Symphonies Project championed by AMFS Music Director Robert Spano.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a multiyear initiative that will commission symphonies from emerging and established American composers. The first symphony will be performed July 19 with the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin\u2019s \u201cSymphony No. 1,\u201d an AMFS co-commission.<\/p>\n

Other major premieres include a new oratorio by composer and former AMFS student David Lang called \u201cThe Wealth of Nations,\u201d which comes to Aspen on the heels of its premiere in New York in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think it\u2019s a major, major work in the genre of \u2018Handel\u2019s Messiah,\u2019 which is a pretty bold comparison, but there it is,\u201d Fletcher said.<\/p>\n

AMFS has developed a reputation for commissioning new works that have gone on to be important works in classical music. Other commissioned works this season include Sarah Kirkland Snider\u2019s \u201cHildegard\u201d (July 31); Jessie Montgomery\u2019s \u201cCello Concerto,\u201d performed by the South African cellist Abel Selaocoe (Aug. 9); Reena Esmail\u2019s \u201cConcerto for Violin and Piano,\u201d performed by Gil Shaham and Orli Shaham (Aug. 14); and Jake Heggie\u2019s \u201cEarth 2.0,\u201d featuring counter-tenor and AMFS alumnus Key\u2019mon W. Murrah, which will be performed at the Aspen Chamber Symphony\u2019s opening program (July 3).<\/p>\n

Alongside contemporary premieres and commissions, the season will feature iconic repertoire by American composers such as Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, as well as European masters like Beethoven, whose \u201cSymphony No. 9\u201d will be performed alongside Bernstein\u2019s \u201cChichester Psalms\u201d(Aug. 23). According to Fletcher, the two works paired together speak to the idea of \u201ca brotherhood for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeethoven paired with Bernstein is a very strong statement about the pinnacle of the Western tradition and the pinnacle of the American tradition,\u201d Fletcher said.<\/p>\n

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Alan Fletcher, president and CEO of Aspen Music Festival and School, is stepping down from those roles after this summer but will stay with the organization as its president emeritus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n Photo by Diego Redel<\/span>
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Opera, musicals and more<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One of the standout performances from last summer was the AMFS-commissioned world premiere of the opera \u201cSiddartha, She,\u201d which has continued to draw positive reviews since premiering in Aspen last summer, cementing AMFS\u2019 reputation as a beacon of world class opera.<\/p>\n

Fletcher pointed to a fully staged production of Benjamin Britten\u2019s \u201cA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u201d as one of the highlights of this summer\u2019s opera slate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only Shakespeare\u2019s words. There is no adaptation,\u201d Fletcher said.<\/p>\n

The production, which takes place at The Wheeler Opera House July 20 and 22, will be led by conductor Dame Jane Glover, whom Fletcher noted has a personal connection to Britten\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

\u201cGlover first met the composer when she was 16 years old and Britten became a mentor and guiding influence for her as she grew into her illustrious career,\u201d Fletcher said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The festival also will present, in partnership with Theatre Aspen, the musical \u201cGuys and Dolls,\u201d expanded this year to two performances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just think that it\u2019s going to be a huge draw,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the most iconic American musicals.\u201d<\/p>\n

High-profile guest artists will return to Aspen as well, including pianists Yuja Wang and Emanuel Ax, both student alumni of the festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cYuja Wang hasn\u2019t been back in 20 years,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cI think her performances (July 29 and Aug. 1) along with Emanuel Ax (July 25), who will perform an all Mozart program, will both be two of the highlights of the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soprano Ren\u00e9e Fleming will open the season performing selections from John Adams\u2019 \u201cNixon in China\u201d (July 5), reprising a role she has recently performed internationally and keying into the 250 years of American history theme.<\/p>\n

The end of an era<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The 2026 festival marks Fletcher\u2019s final summer as president and CEO after more than two decades leading the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be my last summer in the role of president,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then I became president emeritus. I will be moving on but not retiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fletcher said his hope has always been that concertgoers have a memorable experience when attending an AMFS event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I most wish for is that people just say, \u2018That was such a profound and fun experience,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cA musical evening can be inspiring, it can be moving, it can be consoling, it can be exciting. But overall, you should feel as though it was just a great time.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information or tickets, visit aspenmusicfestival.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aspendailynews.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Spano conducts the Aspen Music Festival and School Symphony Orchestra. This summer he is introducing the First Symphonies Project, a multiyear initiative that will commission symphonies from emerging and established American composers. The first symphony will be performed July 19 with the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin\u2019s Symphony No. 1, an AMFS co-commission that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2370932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2370931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/A-summer-of-classical-music-\u2018for-all-Arts.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2370931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2370933,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370931\/revisions\/2370933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2370932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2370931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2370931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2370931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}