Aspen Music Festival, classical music festival held annuallly each summer in Aspen, Colo. Chicagoans Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke established the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies (now the Aspen Institute) in the former silver-mining boomtown, and the Aspen Music Festival and School was founded in 1949 under the auspices of the Institute. Originally a two-week event, it is now an eight-week festival led by music director Robert Spano. Artists from all over the world perform in recitals, concerts, operas, and other events and teach several hundred young music students.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Music: History
