Music of a different sort

The day dawned cool and misty in Snowmass. We toured through the arts fair here in Snowmass Village, checking out the photography, jewelry, and other works, including some hand-crafted lamps made out of fishing rods. They were pretty cool, with actual reels (spin and fly) that really spun. Floor and table. There is a website but it says "coming soon." We liked the contemplative collage work of Ann Astrella Buel and stopped to chat with her briefly. She's a native San Franciscan who now makes her home in Colorado. I was intrigued to read in her biography that she does work with art therapy and Alzheimers patients.



Following a delicious lunch at Cantina, we headed down the river path towards the Benedict Music Tent of the Aspen Music Festival. En route, we saw some trout in the Roaring Fork, including one *huge* fish -- looked like a brown trout -- that kept coming to the surface to feed. We had tickets to the 4pm symphony performance which was a tribute to the late CBS newsman, Ed Bradley, conducted by his good friend, James DePreist. The concert began with excerpts from Chris Brubeck's Convergence, which was both beautiful and jazzy in the New Orleans style, followed by excerpts from Bernstein's 2nd Symphony, featuring Misha Dichter on piano. He was phenomenal--so powerful, yet delicate. The piece is difficult, based on Auden's "The Age of Anxiety," and some in the audience looked less than intrigued, but we liked it.

Following an intermission, Sarah Chang took the stage as the soloist for Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, which she has recorded here.
She is a virtuoso with the instrument and quite passionate in her performance, which was well received. Lots of people left after her piece, but we stayed for a beautiful rendering of excerpts from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.

During the concert, rain came and went, pattering gently on the roof of the tent. The aspen trees that surround swayed and shook in the wind, adding another dimension to the sound. It was one of the most beautiful performance venues we have ever attended.

Our original thought had been to wander the streets of Aspen and discover dinner but more rain put that thought to rest and we came back to the Silvertree for some light room service and Sunday night TV. Tomorrow, the conference begins early at 7:45am.

P.S. Aspen came back to beat Steamboat, 28-25.