Violinist Gil Shaham, pianist Joyce Yang and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis have performed or soon will perform at both the Aspen Music Festival and Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival this summer.
Such crossover booking might seem commonplace, but 2007 marks the first time it has happened in at least a decade.
Alan Fletcher, who took over in March 2006 as president and chief executive officer of the Aspen festival, one of the largest and most prestigious such events in the country, eliminated the statewide exclusivity clause it required its artists to sign.
“We have been prying that loose for the last 10 years,” said Eugenia Zukerman, artistic director of the Bravo! festival.
She recalls attending a meeting on the subject with Robert Harth, one of Fletcher’s predecessors who departed in 2001.
“(Executive director) John Giovando and I went and spoke to him and said, ‘We are not in competition. Let’s cooperate. How wonderful if Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg could be heard in Vail and Aspen.
“We don’t share audiences. It’s very clear that we don’t. People are destination-bound when they go to Aspen.”
If such entreaties fell on deaf ears previously, Fletcher largely agreed with such reasoning and made the elimination of the exclusivity clause one of his priorities.
“The more people interested, the better, and we really don’t feel we have big (audience) crossover,” he said.
Cooperation between the Aspen and Vail festivals became critical this summer when
Aspen was trying to book a performance of Marsalis’ “Congo Square.” It was not feasible to bring Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to Colorado for just one concert.
“So I called up John Giovando and said, ‘Hey, do you want to have Wynton Marsalis?”‘ Fletcher said.
“And I think he was possibly a little thunderstruck, given our history, that I would call and offer them an act, but it turned out happily for all of us.”
The Marsalis performances took place June 24-26 in Aspen, Vail and Denver. Shaham will appear today and July 19 in Aspen and perform July 22 with the New York Philharmonic in Vail. Yang will present a recital Saturday in Salida as part of Salida Aspen Concerts and join the philharmonic in Vail on July 26.
Find information on summer music festivals, including schedules and previous stories.
