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Founded in 1949, the Aspen Music Festival and School is regarded as one of the top classical music festivals in the United States, noted both for its concert programming and its musical training of mostly young adult music students. The eight-week summer season includes hundreds of classical music events: concerts by four orchestras, recitals, chamber music, operas, classes, lectures, and family programs. In the winter, the AMFS presents recitals and robust music education programs for local youth and families, and in the summer the Aspen Music Festival and School host High Notes, lunchtime discussions featuring prominent performers, composers, and musicologists in lively discussions with AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher. Learn more at: aspenmusicfestival.com.

You have heard Nico Muhly's music

Nico Muhly records one note of a recent composition of his!

Nico Muhly has composed countless film scores, music for TV series, operas that have been staged at the Met, as well as all kinds of chamber and orchestral music. In a recent NPR tribute to the legendary John Williams, one of the people on the show suggested that Nico Muhly might be the heir apparent to the crown now that John Williams has turned 90. He recently performed in Aspen with violinist Pekka Kuusisto in a program that included several of his own chamber pieces. Nico tells APR's Chris Mohr he is taking a break from composing while up here in Aspen, creating music for only two or three hours a day instead of the usual 8 hours back at home!

Classical music reporter Chris Mohr has loved classical music since he was twelve. “And I owe it all to radio,” Chris explains. “I grew up in a farm town east of Cleveland. One day I turned on the local classical radio station. They were playing Vivaldi, and it was like the gates of heaven opened up to me!" Chris is also a composer, and is working on a 53-note-to-the-octave oratorio, "Melodies of the Shoreless Sea." This is his 11th summer working for Aspen Public Radio.