For a fourth year, Aspen Public Radio will partner with the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) to broadcast the 4 PM MT Sunday Aspen Festival Orchestra concerts live each week throughout the greater Roaring Fork Valley, beginning Sunday, July 5, 2026.
The weekly broadcast will be hosted by longtime classical music host Chris Mohr, allowing listeners wherever they are, the opportunity to hear these iconic afternoon concerts live on Aspen Public Radio at 91.5 FM in Aspen and 88.9 FM throughout the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys, from Aspen to Glenwood Springs, Rifle to Eagle; online at aspenpublicradio.org; and through the Aspen Public Radio app.
"For generations, the Sunday orchestral concerts at the Music Tent have been a defining part of the Aspen summer experience. We're proud to continue our partnership with Aspen Public Radio, bringing these extraordinary performances to listeners throughout our community and around the world through free live broadcasts," says AMFS Munroe President and CEO Alan Fletcher.
“The first Sunday concert has the huge Festival Orchestra and features music from Nixon in China, an opera with incredible rhythmic pulse, which will be sung with two absolutely world-class singers [Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson] and a choir,” shared Chris Mohr in anticipation of his return for a twelfth year hosting these broadcasts.
He continued, “...then Copland's monumental Symphony No. 3, which includes his 'Fanfare for the Common Man.' What a great American program. I love that our Music Director Robert Spano always conducts the opening and closing Sunday concerts every season!”
Mohr will also be producing and broadcasting “Festival Notes” each morning to inform the community what is happening at AMFS each day, beginning Monday, June 29.
“Looking across the 2026 season, I love the combination of works by living composers alongside the great classics. On August 9, Mahler's First Symphony is a spectacular tribute to his beloved Alps, where he hiked every summer,” says Mohr. “The same day, that vast orchestra also plays music of Carlos Simon and Jessie Montgomery. These days, it's incredibly easy to listen to music by composers we may not know and then try to guess why their piece might have some common theme with our beloved favorites.”
As an ongoing part of this partnership with AMFS, the station will also archive each week’s “High Notes” lecture series event and make it available online alongside recordings of the series dating back to 2022, as part of Aspen Public Radio’s “Ideas, Speakers & Lectures” initiative, available at aspenpublicradio.org/high-notes.
“This iconic Festival is such a big part of summer in Aspen, it’s been an honor to get a broadcast agreement in place to provide this live, local programming for our listening audience, thanks to the Aspen Music Festival and School,” shared Breeze Richardson, Executive Director of Aspen Public Radio.
She continued, “It’s absolutely become part of my morning listening each summer to hear what concerts are taking place each day, I am delighted we will have one more season of High Notes hosted by Alan Fletcher to go behind the scenes with Festival musicians and hear more of their stories, and I love how much long-time listeners and visitors alike enjoy these Sunday concerts on Aspen Public Radio.”
Concerts to be carried live take place at 4pm MT each Sunday and will include:
- July 5 | Festival Orchestra: Opening Sunday with Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson
- July 12 | Festival Orchestra: Weilerstein Plays Dvořák
- July 19 | Festival Orchestra: Hadelich Plays Barber
- July 26 | Festival Orchestra: Piano Sensation Daniil Trifonov
- August 2 | Festival Orchestra: Thibaudet Plays Gershwin
- August 9 | Festival Orchestra: Mahler’s First Symphony
- August 16 | Festival Orchestra: Malofeev Plays Rachmaninoff
- August 23 | Festival Orchestra: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
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ABOUT ASPEN PUBLIC RADIO
Aspen Public Radio is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization with the mission to support, nourish, and enrich our community by providing informative, entertaining, and educational radio and digital programming in a reliable and professional manner. Founded in 1980 as Roaring Fork Public Radio Translator, first broadcasting from Sy Coleman’s living room in 1981, Aspen Public Radio has now grown into one of the most relied upon news institutions in the Roaring Fork Valley. The station is located in the Red Brick Center for the Arts at 110 E. Hallam Street, Suite 134, Aspen, Colorado.
You can listen to Aspen Public Radio at 91.5FM and 88.9FM, along with other repeater signals depending on location throughout the Roaring Fork Valley, or by streaming the station at aspenpublicradio.org from anywhere in the world.
ABOUT THE ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL
The AMFS is the United States’ premier classical music center for performance and education, presenting more than 400 musical events during its eight-week summer season in Aspen. Under the leadership of Munroe President and CEO Alan Fletcher and Wall Family Music Director Robert Spano, the organization draws top classical musicians from around the world for a rich combination of performances of orchestral works, opera, chamber music, recitals, contemporary music, works by new or previously unrecognized voices, popular genres, family events, and talks, competitions, and classes.
More than 450 music students from 40 U.S. states and 40 countries come each summer to play in four orchestras, sing, conduct, compose and study with more than 100 artist-faculty members who come from the orchestras of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas, the Metropolitan Orchestra, and the leading conservatories and music schools like The Juilliard School, The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and The Colburn School. Students represent the field’s best talent; many have already begun their professional careers, and others are on the cusp.
The AMFS is deeply committed to community and many events are free. Seating outside the Music Tent on the David Karetsky Music Lawn and in the Kaye Music Garden is always free. Regular livestreams are free anywhere in the world. The AMFS also runs popular music programs in-school and after-school at most schools in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley.
Renowned alumni include violinists Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Midori, Gil Shaham, and Robert McDuffie; pianists Joyce Yang, Orli Shaham, Conrad Tao, Yuja Wang, and Wu Han; conductors Marin Alsop, James Conlon, Leonard Slatkin and Joshua Weilerstein; composers William Bolcom, Philip Glass, David Lang, Augusta Read Thomas, Bright Sheng and Joan Tower; singers Isabel Leonard, Jamie Barton, Sasha Cooke, Danielle de Niese, Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw and Tamara Wilson; cellist Alisa Weilerstein; guitarist Sharon Isbin; bassist Edgar Meyer; and former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.