I Care If You Listen: Bravo! Vail Festival Blends New Music with the Classics at its Lavish Colorado Rockies Home
It wasn’t until I’d taken the gondola down from Eagle’s Nest, perched 10,350 feet up on Vail Mountain, that I took in the full idyllic scenery of the Rocky Mountains, where the Bravo! Vail music festival makes its home. It was the third day of my trip and I was rushing to the Ford Amphitheater, after a morning hike to the top of the ski lift, to catch the end of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s rehearsal for that evening’s concert.
From July 12 to 14, I attended the last three concerts of the famed orchestra’s 16th Bravo! Vail residency with seven other members of the Music Critics Association of North America. We got a window into the six-week, $9.2-million summer festival — now in its 36th season — which brings in more than 50,000 visitors every year.
I Care If You Listen
Esteban Meneses
It wasn’t until I’d taken the gondola down from Eagle’s Nest, perched 10,350 feet up on Vail Mountain, that I took in the full idyllic scenery of the Rocky Mountains, where the Bravo! Vail music festival makes its home. It was the third day of my trip and I was rushing to the Ford Amphitheater, after a morning hike to the top of the ski lift, to catch the end of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s rehearsal for that evening’s concert.
From July 12 to 14, I attended the last three concerts of the famed orchestra’s 16th Bravo! Vail residency with seven other members of the Music Critics Association of North America. We got a window into the six-week, $9.2-million summer festival — now in its 36th season — which brings in more than 50,000 visitors every year.
Hungry for the music of today, I gravitated toward the contemporary offerings during my visit, the highlight of which was the world premiere of Anna Clyne’s This Moment. The festival has recently committed to commissioning new symphonic pieces; in 2022, they presented premieres of works by Chris Rogerson, Katherine Balch, and Carlos Simon.
Read more here.
Vail Daily: Meet Your Musician Bravo! Vail Edition: Dover Quartet
Q: What is your name/your ensemble’s/orchestra’s name?
A: We are the Dover Quartet. We formed at the Curtis Institute of Music, and our name pays tribute to “Dover Beach” a song written by fellow Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber.
Q: What instrument(s) do you play?
A: Joel Link, violin; Bryan Lee, violin; Hezekiah Leung, viola; Camden Shaw, cello
Q: How long have you been performing? How long have you been with your current orchestra or ensemble?
A: We formed in 2008 with Joel, Bryan, and Camden as founding members. Hezekiah has been touring with the group this year and violist Julianne Lee will be joining the quartet in September 2023.
Vail Daily
By Tricia Swenson
Q: What is your name/your ensemble’s/orchestra’s name?
A: We are the Dover Quartet. We formed at the Curtis Institute of Music, and our name pays tribute to “Dover Beach” a song written by fellow Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber.
Q: What instrument(s) do you play?
A: Joel Link, violin; Bryan Lee, violin; Hezekiah Leung, viola; Camden Shaw, cello
Q: How long have you been performing? How long have you been with your current orchestra or ensemble?
A: We formed in 2008 with Joel, Bryan, and Camden as founding members. Hezekiah has been touring with the group this year and violist Julianne Lee will be joining the quartet in September 2023.
Q: How long have you been coming to the Bravo! Vail Music Festival?
A: Our first performance at Bravo! Vail was in 2014, and we look forward to visiting every time we get the opportunity! We’ve made some amazing memories here in the summertime.
Read more here.
Vail Daily: Bravo! Vail Music Festival Welcomes Mexico’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in 2024
The Bravo! Vail Music Festival (Bravo! Vail) announces the debut of Mexico’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (the Orchestra) for a three-concert residency on June 20, 22 and 23, 2024, opening its 2024 Festival season. Led by Artistic Director and renowned Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, the acclaimed ensemble will be Bravo! Vail’s 2024 international chamber orchestra and the first Latin American orchestra featured at Bravo! Vail.
Vail Daily
The Bravo! Vail Music Festival (Bravo! Vail) announces the debut of Mexico’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (the Orchestra) for a three-concert residency on June 20, 22 and 23, 2024, opening its 2024 Festival season. Led by Artistic Director and renowned Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, the acclaimed ensemble will be Bravo! Vail’s 2024 international chamber orchestra and the first Latin American orchestra featured at Bravo! Vail.
“Since we started the international chamber orchestra residency at Bravo! Vail, I have dreamed of inviting my friend, the incredible Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, to bring the musicians from the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería to Vail,” said Anne-Marie McDermott, Artistic Director of Bravo! Vail. “Musically speaking, having performed with them many times, I can attest to the magical chemistry Carlos has with the players and the level of artistic commitment they bring to the incredibly wide range of music they perform. I simply can’t wait to welcome them.”
As part of its residency, the Orchestra will perform an expansive breadth of repertoire — from Beethoven and Haydn to leading Mexican and Latin American composers such as Pacho Flores, Gabriela Ortiz and Alberto Ginastera, and including Spaniards Joaquín Rodrigo and Manuel de Falla. Members of the Orchestra will also participate in education and engagement programs throughout Colorado’s Vail and Eagle River Valley communities.
Read more here.
The Denver Post: Your summer guide to the fine arts in Colorado
Colorado’s fine-arts calendar is rich in the coming months with an abundance of high-level live performances and gallery exhibitions. We looked across the state and assembled this list of offerings with serious potential.
The Denver Post
Ray Mark Rinaldi
The Philadelphia Orchestra with Hilary Hahn
(Bravo! Vail Music Festival, July 12)
Philadelphia Orchestra music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a true podium star, and his presence with the ensemble this summer in Vail is especially promising. The orchestra is set to perform Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3, a work that was the highlight of its 2022 Grammy Award-winning recording. Even better: The evening features popular soloist Hilary Hahn, who will take on the thrill ride that is Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
New York Philharmonic Orchestra with Marin Alsop and Yunchan Lim
(Bravo! Vail, July 26)
The classical world’s personality of the moment is no doubt Yunchan Lim, who in 2022 — at the age of 18 — became the youngest-ever winner of the legendary Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. On this night, he will perform Rachmaninoff’s difficult Piano Concerto No. 3, while local fave Marin Alsop conducts from the podium. It’s a swell combo and just the kind of program that makes Vail a special place.
Read more here.
The New York Times: A Road Trip to Sample America’s Many, Many Music Festivals
My family and I — including children aged 6, 3 and not quite 1 — started with the up-and-coming Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, which is within easy reach of Rocky Mountain National Park. Then it made sense to a climb up to the ski resorts west of Denver — first to Bravo! Vail, then to the next valley for the Aspen Music Festival and School. Jackson Hole, Wyo., didn’t look all that far away, really. There, the Grand Teton Music Festival plays just outside the park of the same name, with Yellowstone National Park an hour to the north. Why not?
The New York Times
By David Allen
With a minivan and a three small children in tow, a critic spent 12 days discovering classical music offerings among the Rocky Mountains.
Four classical music festivals. Three children. Two exhausted parents, with a brave grandfather in tow. One bedraggled minivan.
It’ll be fun, my wife promised me. Surprisingly, it was.
…
My family and I — including children aged 6, 3 and not quite 1 — started with the up-and-coming Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, which is within easy reach of Rocky Mountain National Park. Then it made sense to a climb up to the ski resorts west of Denver — first to Bravo! Vail, then to the next valley for the Aspen Music Festival and School. Jackson Hole, Wyo., didn’t look all that far away, really. There, the Grand Teton Music Festival plays just outside the park of the same name, with Yellowstone National Park an hour to the north. Why not?
Read more here.
Photo Credit (right): Andrew Miller for The New York Times
Bachtrack: The New York Phil pays heartfelt tribute to Stephen Sondheim at Bravo! Vail
One of four orchestras appearing at Bravo! Vail this summer, the New York Philharmonic brought along six different programmes, the first four of which were led by music director Jaap van Zweden – including a cathartic Mahler Sixth. Leonard Slatkin took over the reins for the remaining two programmes in the open-air main venue: an all-Tchaikovsky evening and this concluding concert, “A Sondheim Celebration”. Originally, these last two concerts were to have been conducted by Bramwell Tovey, a much-loved regular at Bravo! Vail who died on 12th July, only 69 years old. Slatkin dedicated the performances to his memory.
Bachtrack
By Thomas May
One of four orchestras appearing at Bravo! Vail this summer, the New York Philharmonic brought along six different programmes, the first four of which were led by music director Jaap van Zweden – including a cathartic Mahler Sixth. Leonard Slatkin took over the reins for the remaining two programmes in the open-air main venue: an all-Tchaikovsky evening and this concluding concert, “A Sondheim Celebration”. Originally, these last two concerts were to have been conducted by Bramwell Tovey, a much-loved regular at Bravo! Vail who died on 12th July, only 69 years old. Slatkin dedicated the performances to his memory.
The NY Phil has made several deep dives into the work of the Broadway trailblazer, who died at the age of 91 last November. Along with orchestral arrangements of suites from several of his musicals and a film score, they’ve given semi-staged concert presentations of Company and Sweeney Todd over the years. But the guiding idea of this programme was simply to sample and savour the astonishing variety of worlds that Stephen Sondheim conjured with his innovative – indeed, paradigm-shifting – contributions to music theatre.
Read more here.
Photo: Carly Finke
Vail Daily: Bravo! Vail’s artistic director: New program gives voice to living composers
Next week Bravo! Vail kicks off its 35th Festival season, and I am thrilled by what we have in store.
After two seasons of creatively adapting our programming using smaller numbers of musicians on stage, we are thrilled to welcome back our four resident orchestras at full force with Mahler symphonies (New York Philharmonic); a Beethoven Ninth (Dallas Symphony Orchestra); Strauss’s epic tone poem “A Hero’s Life” (The Philadelphia Orchestra); and of course, the family favorite “Warner Bros. Presents Bugs Bunny at the Symphony.” What is more, this summer sees the return of our delightful “Classically Uncorked” series at the Donovan Pavilion.
Vail Daily
By Anne-Marie McDermott
Next week Bravo! Vail kicks off its 35th Festival season, and I am thrilled by what we have in store.
After two seasons of creatively adapting our programming using smaller numbers of musicians on stage, we are thrilled to welcome back our four resident orchestras at full force with Mahler symphonies (New York Philharmonic); a Beethoven Ninth (Dallas Symphony Orchestra); Strauss’s epic tone poem “A Hero’s Life” (The Philadelphia Orchestra); and of course, the family favorite “Warner Bros. Presents Bugs Bunny at the Symphony.” What is more, this summer sees the return of our delightful “Classically Uncorked” series at the Donovan Pavilion.
Perhaps most exciting for me is the inauguration of our New Works Symphonic Commissioning Project. Since 1990, Bravo! Vail has commissioned and premiered dozens of works by living composers, most of it chamber music. This new initiative makes a bold commitment to commissioning three new symphonic works every season for the next five years.
Read more here.
Pianist Magazine: 3 Idyllic US Music Festivals to Attend This Summer
Pianist Magazine
We take a closer look at Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival and Sun Valley Music Festival
Summer is swiftly approaching, and with it comes the opportunity to take a road trip and enjoy music outdoors. The US is home to many summer festivals with robust offerings, but three in particular stand out for their idyllic settings and the spotlight they shine on the piano this season. The best news? With some planning, one could even make a journey out of it and attend all three for a summer to remember.
Read more here.
Vail Daily: Bravo! Vail announces 2022 summer schedule
The Bravo! Vail Music Festival announced its 35th Festival season with a celebration and concert at Donovan Pavilion this Thursday. Artistic director Anne Marie McDermott and executive director Caitlin Murray presented the schedule and shared highlights with audience members, before concluding the night with a piano concert performed by McDermott and Bravo! Vail piano fellow Zhu Wang.
Vail Daily
The Bravo! Vail Music Festival announced its 35th Festival season with a celebration and concert at Donovan Pavilion this Thursday. Artistic director Anne Marie McDermott and executive director Caitlin Murray presented the schedule and shared highlights with audience members, before concluding the night with a piano concert performed by McDermott and Bravo! Vail piano fellow Zhu Wang.
Comprised of more than 60 concerts throughout the Vail Valley, the six-week festival showcases four internationally acclaimed resident orchestras — The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic — alongside renowned chamber ensembles and new and familiar voices in composition and artistry.
More info here.
Violinist: Live and In-Person, from Bravo! Vail, Colorado: New York Phil Quartet Review
Greetings from Vail, Colorado! For the next few days I'm going be exploring the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, a summer event that has been bringing together fine orchestras and artists from all over the world to this ski town in Colorado's Rocky Mountains for some 34 years.
Violinist.com
Laurie Niles
Greetings from Vail, Colorado! For the next few days I'm going be exploring the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, a summer event that has been bringing together fine orchestras and artists from all over the world to this ski town in Colorado's Rocky Mountains for some 34 years.
After last year's limits due to the pandemic, this year brings a full schedule of in-person concerts, and they have quite a prestigious and impressive lineup. Bravo! Vail kicked off in June with a week-long visit from The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Joshua Bell, followed by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. After that came the Philadelphia Orchestra, and this week I'm lucky enough to be here for the New York Philharmonic. Guest artists this summer have included some of the best, with violinists Joshua Bell, James Ehnes, Gil Shaham and Augustin Hadelich; as well as pianists Conrad Tao, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Daniil Trifonov, and Yefim Bronfman.
Read more here.