Throughout its history, the Aspen Music Festival and School had gained a great reputation in the world of music. It is best known as a high-level training ground for the world’s next generation of professional musicians, and a premier classical music festival that presents over 200 musical events in just nine weeks. The Aspen Music Festival and School is even well-known as the perfect summer sanctuary for a number of the world’s superb musical minds.
The Aspen Music Festival and School was founded in the year 1949, and was internationally known since then as a music festival that presents world-class music in an intimate and small town setting. It was particularly founded by intellectuals and visionaries Walter Paepcke and his wife Elizabeth of Chicago and originated from the main idea that it is the blending of art and nature that encourages the growth of the human spirit. It is this guiding principle of the Aspen Music Festival and School that informs every aspect of the foundation for fifty-some years following its inception.
The Aspen Music Festival and School, in the first place, had set a new level of standard in the world of music, and what sets it apart from the other summer programs for students, according to its proponents, is the awesome breadth of musical experience the Aspen Music Festival and School offers to the young musicians. It is basically their capability to offer programs that range from orchestra to opera, conducting to the modern music, piano, guitar and a lot more that makes it a superb musical world of its own.
In addition to its programs, the Aspen Music Festival and School is actually composed of distinguished faculty with enough experience in almost every facet of music making and industry. It currently has a large student body composed of people ages 8 to 68 from 39 countries and virtually every principal conservatory. With these great factors, there is no wonder why the Aspen Music Festival and School was able to perform more than 200 world-class concerts, master classes, and lectures. It is also due to such strengths that the Aspen Music Festival and School was able to show a crucible of artistry that has formed young performers of the classical era for over fifty years.
Today, the Aspen Music Festival and School is lead by music director David Zinman who usually presides over the nine-week summer festival that covers more than 200 events that include chamber music, orchestral performances, contemporary music, opera, lectures, master classes, and kid’s programs. And, whatever the future holds, the Aspen Music Festival and School will continue to make a big difference to the lives of most people.
