Aspen Music Festival Reveals Summer 2016 Lineup

<p>(Photo: Decca/Timothy White)</p>
<p>Soprano Renee Fleming is set to sing music by Richard Strauss at one of the first concerts of the 2016 season at Aspen Music Festival and School.</p>
Photo: Renee Fleming
Soprano Renee Fleming is set to sing music by Richard Strauss at one of the first concerts of the 2016 season at Aspen Music Festival and School.

released its summer concert calendar.

The schedule includes what you'd expect from one of the world's biggest summer classical festivals: orchestra concerts, chamber music, solo recitals, three staged operas and other unusual classical performances.

A few highlights:

  • July 3: Soprano Renee Fleming sings Richard Strauss’ “Four Last Songs” in a concert conducted by Music Director Robert Spano.
  • July 15: Violinist Joshua Bell performs Camille Saint-Saens’ Violin Concerto accompanied by the Aspen Chamber Symphony.
  • July 19: The Emerson String Quartet plays a 40th anniversary concert featuring music by Joseph Haydn, Johannes Brahms and Alban Berg.
  • July 28: Violinist Sarah Chang, an alumni of the festival’s school, performs Astor Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.”
  • Aug. 7: A performance of John Luther Adams’ “Inuksuit” for 99 percussionists, presented in partnership with the Bravo! Vail music festival
  • Aug. 21: Spano conducts a season-closing performance of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” featuring the Aspen Festival Orchestra, Colorado Symphony Chorus and Colorado Children’s Chorale.

View the Aspen Music Festival's complete schedule. It follows the Monday release of the Colorado Symphony's 2016-17 lineup.

For a snapshot of what music students learn in the Roaring Fork Valley each summer, check out CPR Classical’s conversations with violinist Natalie Hodges from 2015.

Or hear interviews with musicians featured at last year’s festival, including guitarist Sharon Isbin, violinist Daniel Hope and the Pacifica Quartet.