Welcome to the Aspen Music Festival

First, some fun facts. For those of you who don't know, Aspen is one of America's foremost music festivals with the primary focus being performance. When I attended EAMA in Paris (a life-changing experience) there were approximately 55 students, nearly all of them composers. Aspen hosts over 700 students, the majority of them performers spread out over five orchestras, countless chamber groups, The American Academy of Conducting, Opera Studio, Composition, and Film Scoring, all with a built-in myriad of opportunities for performance, group coachings, solos, and private study with some of the foremost figures in music today. It really is an incredible operation.

Students are spread out over three different residential complexes, all of which are used primarily for housing skiiers in the winter. As many of you might have guessed, Aspen is most definitely a ski town - the first snow falls at the beginning of October and stays until May. Pitkin county (encompassing Aspen and Snowmass Village) has a full time population of 15,000 that swells to over 25,000 during its peak in the winter. We are lucky to be here in the off-season, where the main attraction is  (aside from the music festival) the Aspen Food & Wine Classic, a three day festival for which a standard pass costs $1150. ha!

I live in a residence call Burlingame. When I walk out my door, this is what I see:

The complex consists of little quads like this:

where at any point during the day you can walk around and hear the sounds of cellos, flutes, trumpets, oboes, etc, being practiced. It is really sublime.

Next entry I'll reveal pictures of the main campus and (hopefully) the film scoring studio. I would put them in this entry, but the internet is really bad in my residence, making uploading pictures a royal pain in the ass. Besides, I want you to keep coming back! :)