The woman whose photo graces the cover of the Aspen Music Festival and School’s calendar and brochures this summer is African-American violinist Melissa White, here in Aspen to conduct and perform Vivaldi’s "The Four Seasons" and a Bach Violin Concerto on August 11.
The classical music world is changing, with both composers and performers beginning to reflect a wider cultural range.
White fell in love with the violin as a four-year-old in Michigan watching Itzhak Perlman on "Sesame Street."
From Philadelphia, she went on to New York City when she was chosen as a founding member of the Harlem Quartet, where all four players were persons of color.
White, emerging from her childhood living-room-TV experience with "Sesame Street," is likely to bring a certain freshness of approach to the ever-familiar music.
The world of classical and fine music has begun to concede that new and different can be good, even if applied to the old and established.
