Generations of alumni returned to the Aspen Music Festival and School this summer for the organization’s 75th anniversary. The festival celebrated the milestone with parties, reunions and special “reminiscence” concerts — drawing attendees like former student and current National Council member Bettie Miller.
“Aspen has shaped my life musically in ways that I can't even begin to tell you — it's just been fabulous,” Miller said in a phone call with Aspen Public Radio this week.
She first came to the music school in 1963 and 1964, at the suggestion of festival administrator Gordon Hardy, so she could spend her summers after college studying piano with big-name faculty like Grant Johanssen.
“I never worked so hard in my life. … We practiced our brains out, and we played our brains out,” Miller said.
It was a “primitive” time in Aspen — with unpaved streets, grazing sheep, a leaking music tent and structurally questionable housing for the music students — but Miller says it was all worth it.
Her time in Aspen played an instrumental role in her lifelong appreciation for music.
“It was absolutely unforgettable, and I made friends that I still keep up with,” Miller said, adding appreciation for the chance to reunite with fellow alumni this summer.
Aspen — and the festival — have come a long way since Miller was a student. The organization now has a designated teaching campus on Castle Creek Road, plus not one but two major concert venues at Aspen Meadows (Harris Hall and a newer Klein Music Tent, which no longer warrants an umbrella inside).
Miller, for her part, remains an avid pianist and now contributes to the festival as a member of the nonprofit’s National Council. She started returning to the festival as an attendee in the 1980s and ‘90s. And after several decades away from the piano, raising children and working as a chef, Miller returned to the instrument in her 60s — in part thanks to encouragement from Irish pianist and music festival performer John O’Conor.
She’s become an acolyte of sorts for the organization, too. Miller gives a lot of credit for the festival’s success to the impressive faculty and leadership like president and CEO Alan Fletcher.
“One summer, … I had to walk past Alan on my way out of the tent, and each time I said, ‘Well, that's just the best thing I've ever heard.’ (And the next time:) ‘Well, now that's just the best thing I heard,’” Miller said. “And at the end of the summer, ‘Well, it just doesn't get any better.’ And the next summer, it would be better.”
The Aspen Music Festival and School held its final concert of the season on Sunday, and they’re already thinking about next summer and the years to come. This year’s theme was “Becoming Who You Are;” according to Fletcher, the working title for 2025 is “Concerning the Spiritual in Art.” (It’s a nod to the book by visual artist Wassily Kandinsky that introduced Herbert Bayer to the Bauhaus; Bayer, an acclaimed architect and designer, would later move to Aspen and have a large hand in the design of the Aspen Meadows campus.)
In a separate interview, Fletcher shared his thoughts on the festival’s legacy and its future; the transcript below has been edited and condensed.
'This is a place for you, and not only can you be part of it, but we will change because you are part of us.'Alan Fletcher, on the message driving efforts toward inclusion and belonging at the Aspen Music Festival and School
Kaya Williams: Let's start with the theme of the 75th anniversary season. It was “Becoming Who You Are,” a reference to an Albert Schweitzer speech. How would you describe the festival's current state of becoming? What are you becoming now and becoming next?
Alan Fletcher: Well, I love the question, because it's always apt. Albert Schweitzer was paraphrasing, or quoting, in a way, from Goethe, who said, “To be human is to be in a state of becoming.” And then a corollary to that is that, ideally, one makes choices about who to be. And so we do really feel that way, after 75 years. We just finished a strategic plan, and it's exciting. It's very forward-looking, it's very confident. So, we're looking ahead to who we will be.
Williams: As you reflect on the history of the organization and look toward the future, what do you think are some of the greatest challenges that you're grappling with?
Fletcher: Housing is issue number one, and that is true for all nonprofits, and it's true for all for-profits, for that matter, in the valley. Everybody needs to be thinking about this. And happily, we have been for a while, and so we're ready with some, to us, exciting plans: Some construction on our teaching campus down Castle Creek Road, some proposed construction to go to the city this fall, which would be in the West End on our site here.
Other than housing, which is always a challenge, we want to be thinking about the kinds of careers these young people will have. And the world is changing, sometimes in very good ways, sometimes in very unpredictable ways. But what a young person needed — well, when I was their age, if I may say — is different from what is needed today, and I think we need to be very sensitive to that. A lot of it is listening and watching the young people themselves.
One thing I will observe about this summer is, the past two summers emerging from the pandemic, I really felt their worry about what had happened in their lives. You know, many of them were just starting college when the pandemic hit, and are now just finishing college. This summer, I did not feel it anymore. I felt tremendous commitment, energy, even joy in the work, and we all felt great all summer.
Williams: Now I am curious, the announcement of the change of the music tent name (from the Benedict Music Tent, in honor of the late architect and former board chair Fritz Benedict) to the Klein Music Tent, honoring (recent board chair) Michael Klein's contributions to the organization, a very generous gift. There was some community consternation about that when the news was announced. But did you feel that trickle over at all to the festival?
Fletcher: Well, first of all, I certainly understand it, and when people were saying we should not have done this, I never thought that was an inappropriate response, because it's a change, and the Benedicts were wonderful people and left a great legacy that should be honored.
I did feel that our community and people who care about our work did rally around. And there are definitely still people who wish we hadn't done it, and I get that. But the more important thing is the support. We did have, by a significant margin, our best fundraising year in our history, both in terms of real dollars and adjusted dollars, so that showed through as a strength and a confidence.
Williams: Now you've been around Aspen long enough to know that everybody around here is always lamenting about the way things are changing and the way things used to be. What do you think is the value of having something that's been here for 75 years, still here in a community that's always maybe craving a little bit of permanence and consistency?
Fletcher: Now we hope that we have a part in that. You know, our wished for slogan is, “Let's go to the tent,” just meaning, “Something good is bound to be there. Let's just go check it out.”
Classical music is a tradition, and yet, there's a beautiful quote by (composer Gustav) Mahler that “tradition is not the ashes of fire, it is the fire itself.” And so when we think about our tradition, we are always, always thinking about what is next, what is new, and even in the past couple of years, what are aspects of classical music that need to be changed to make the tradition viable and healthy?
Williams: What are some of those elements of classical music that you think warrant change, that the music festival is trying to change?
Fletcher: Well, I would say access is a big one. Studying classical music for children is very expensive, and we felt as though classical music in the valley needed some real support. And so just in the past, say, 10 years, we have entered and we now have programs in every school from Glenwood (Springs) up to Aspen. And we are offering the teaching of music, the experience of making music.
In terms of 500 or so students who come to us from 40 countries around the world to be the young artists in the summer, we were not doing nearly well enough in terms of diversity, and so that is something that we're working on in a very concentrated, committed way.
And also in the classical music world, in some areas, there is real gender equity now, and in some areas, there still totally is not. And it is precisely organizations like ours that should be at the center of work to remedy that, because we are ushering people into their careers.
Williams: Could you give some examples of what it looks like to try to diversify student bodies or ensure some more equity?
Fletcher: A lot of it is going out there in search of the talent, because very many times I hear from people — either the young musicians themselves or their teachers — and they say, “Well, we know how great Aspen is. We just never thought it was a place for us.” And so that is on us to go into, you know, urban magnet arts schools, for instance, which is a very great source of talent, but to go in there and say, “This is a place for you, and not only can you be part of it, but we will change because you are part of us.” So it's not just, if you will, inclusion — it's belonging.
Williams: What gives you hope about the future of classical music?
Fletcher: Well, first of all, the energy and the dedication that they have, and this is happily one of those constants. You know, some things change, some things don't change. What does not change is that a young person determined to have a life in music gives so much attention to it, and I see that just shining through the work of the people who were with us this summer, just as I saw it 15 years ago in Aspen. And that's a wonderful constant.
