High Notes: Pianist Jeremy Denk

By Chris Mohr

Published August 5, 2020 at 2:24 PM MDT

When audiences complained that Charles Ives's music was difficult to understand, Ives would snort, "Use your ears like a man!" Jeremy Denk has a deep understanding of Ives's brilliantly quirky music, and this Sunday he and Stefan Jackiw will tackle three of Ives's piano sonatas.

Denk talks about the musical challenges of Ives as well as the challenges of life in the age of COVID-19 in this fascinating interview with Aspen Music Festival and School President Alan Fletcher. Also: Harpist and teacher Nancy Allen (whose students perform on the Music Festival's virtual season this evening (August 5) at 5:00 p.m., and oboist/teacher Elaine Douvas (her students perform Saturday, August 22 at 5:00 p.m.).

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High Notes from the Aspen Music Festival and School High Notes

Chris Mohr

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 ninth summer working for Aspen Public Radio.

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