Mid June through Mid August
The Aspen Music Festival and School is an internationally renowned classical music festival that presents world-class music in an intimate, small-town setting. It is also one of the world’s premier training grounds for pre-professional musicians.
The eight-week summer Festival that comprises more than 200 events, including orchestral concerts, chamber music, opera, contemporary music, master classes, lectures, and kids’ programs. Concerts take place daily at the 2,050-seat Benedict Music Tent, an acoustically superior and award-winning permanent structure that made its debut in 2000, the beautifully restored Victorian Wheeler Opera House, the jewel-like Harris Concert Hall, and in churches and smaller halls around town. Lawn seating outside the tent is always free.
Venues
The eight-week summer season, concerts take place daily at the 2,050-seat Benedict Music Tent, the beautifully restored Victorian Wheeler Opera House, the jewel-like Harris Concert Hall, and in churches and smaller halls around town. Many events are free, lawn seating outside the tent is always free, and other tickets range up to $55.
Benedict Music Tent
The award-winning Benedict Music Tent is the world’s first concert facility that combines the openness and romance of a tent with the acoustic integrity of a concert hall. A permanent structure, the Benedict Music Tent seats 2,050 and offers stellar acoustics and gorgeous mountain atmosphere. The Tent, designed by renowned architect Harry Teague, made its debut in 2000.
Adjacent to the Tent, the 500-seat Harris Concert Hall provides an intimate and acoustically pristine venue for chamber music performances. This warm, woody hall – once compared to being “inside a cello” – was proclaimed “the Carnegie of the Rockies” by the Denver Post when it opened in 1993.
Wheeler Opera House
The 489-seat, exquisitely restored Victorian Wheeler Opera House is the venue for each summer’s fully staged opera productions as well as weekly Opera Scenes Master Classes. Located in downtown Aspen, the facility is more than 100 years old and provides superior sight lines, state-of-the-art production amenities, and unparalleled charm.
David Karetsky Music Lawn
The lawn surrounding the Benedict Music Tent, scene of so many delicious evenings of music, picnicking, and friendship over the years, remains free and open to the public in perpetuity thanks to an extraordinary endowment gift given by the friends and family of David A. Karetsky. Enjoy the spontaneity and spirit of listening to concerts from the lawn anytime!
The Music Garden
The Music Garden, adjacent to the Music Lawn, is a serene setting for listening to music surrounded by wildflowers and aspen trees. Enjoy concerts from The Music Garden’s benches or open grassy areas — or walk the softly winding paths on your own anytime. The Aspen Music Festival and School thanks Dena Kaye for her generosity in establishing this lovely respite in honor of her parents Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Kaye.
