AMFS ANNOUNCES NAMING GIFT FOR MUSIC TENT

Friday, December 8, 2023   

Press Contacts:    Laura E. Smith, VP for Marketing and Communications, lsmith@aspenmusic.org, 970-618-9321
Jessica Moore, Director of Marketing, jmoore@aspenmusic.org, 970-205-5075
             

The third name of the AMFS Music Tent in its history will be the
“Michael Klein Music Tent” in honor of Mr. Klein’s six years of board leadership and decades of investment in the festival’s work.

The main entrance will continue to honor the Benedict name and a new plaque describing Fritz Benedict’s pivotal role in the AMFS’s history will be installed at this Benedict Entrance.

This gift leads into the celebration of the AMFS’s 75^th anniversary in summer 2024 and inaugurates an ambitious fundraising campaign to be launched in the new year, investing in the institution’s next 25 years.

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ASPEN, COLORADO — The Aspen Music Festival and School, America’s premier center for classical music performance and training, today announced an historic gift to the organization, given by current board chair Michael Klein. The gift is the second largest in the institution’s history. To honor this significant donation, and in recognition of Mr. Klein’s history of financial and leadership contributions, the AMFS will name its main performance venue, the 2,050-seat Music Tent, in his honor for the next 25 years. This gift structure is designed to thank the institution’s most committed supporters while creating the opportunity for future investment. The new name will be the “Michael Klein Music Tent.”

The gift comes at a time the festival and school is investing significant funds to renovate the nearly 24-year-old structure, is creating plans for increased costs for operating and especially housing, and is expanding its community-based music education programs. This gift will provide key support to the institution overall and will help ensure its ability to offer the world’s finest classical music performance and education in Aspen.

For most of its history, the AMFS’s main venue has been known simply as the “Music Tent” or, further back, the “Aspen Amphitheater.” In 1993, it was dedicated with its first official name, the “Bayer-Benedict Tent,” honoring its two architects, Herbert Bayer and Fritz Benedict. When the next generation of the tent, designed by Harry Teague, opened in 2000, it became the Benedict Music Tent in honor of Mr. Benedict’s longtime board membership and leadership.

The AMFS will continue to honor Mr. Benedict at the main entrance of the Music Tent, renaming it the “Benedict Entrance” for the duration of the use of the current structure and adding a plaque describing Mr. Benedict’s role with the AMFS.

“This gift reflects the deepest belief in the mission and work of the AMFS, from one of the world’s most generous and principled philanthropists,” says AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher. “Mike steered the festival through the pandemic with strength and wisdom, and he gives this gesture of belief and confidence at the perfect moment, at the beginning of our 75^th anniversary season.”  

Continues Mr. Fletcher, “This milestone anniversary is the perfect time to both honor our roots and invest in our future, a key balance at every nonprofit. We are grateful to Mike for leading us into our next 25 years this way, and we remain grateful to Fritz Benedict and others who gave so much of themselves to make the festival what it is today. I hope everyone in Aspen can join us for our 75^th anniversary community party before our opening Sunday concert next summer to celebrate the many people who together have made this institution truly great.”

Says Mr. Klein, “It is an honor to be able to give a gift like this to an organization I believe in so much. Having watched the miraculous work of the young musicians of the festival and school close-up, literally, for more than thirty years, I am convinced that the work here is some of the world’s most inspiring and uplifting. The world needs the brilliant, hopeful work of our young musicians, faculty and visiting artists, and I’m proud to be able to support it this way.

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ABOUT THE AMFS MUSIC TENT

The original Music Tent, designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, was first used at the Goethe Bicentennial in 1949, and sat 900-1000 on its benches. It was disassembled and re-assembled for use every summer until 1965, when it was replaced by a new structure designed by Bauhaus designer/artist Herbert Bayer. This “Bayer-Benedict Tent,” as it came to be named in a dedication on August 8, 1993, reflected the work of both Bayer and his partner architect Fritz Benedict. It accommodated 1,750 and the canvas top and sides were taken down and put up again each season.

The Bayer-Benedict Tent stood until 2000 when a new permanent structure was built, designed by Harry Teague and using Teflon-coated fiberglass instead of canvas as the main material. It seats 2,050 and is surrounded by the David Karetsky Music Lawn, which was endowed by Gerri Karetsky around that same time to be free for outside concert-goers in perpetuity. Without a naming donor at the time, it continued to carry the “Benedict” name in honor of Mr. Benedict’s important role on the AMFS board.

More on the tent designed by Saarinen: www.aspentimes.com/news/willoughby-aspens-temporary-tent-with-staying-power/

More on the Bayer-Benedict Tent:
-www.aspentimes.com/news/bauhaus-benches-at-the-music-tent/
-www.aspentimes.com/news/legends-legacies-the-1960s-building-boom/
- On Bayer and his Aspen connection and architecture www.architectmagazine.com/design/how-the-bauhaus-came-to-aspen_o

More on the Benedict Tent: https://mlaspen.com/aspen-iconic-benedict-music-tent-celebrates-its-20th-anniversary

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ABOUT MICHAEL KLEIN

Michael Klein has been coming to Aspen for more than 40 years, lives in Aspen and Washington D.C., and is an innovator in both business and philanthropy. He has long been on the board of the Aspen Music Festival and School and has served as Board Chair since 2018.  He also sits on the board of The Aspen Institute.

His background as a securities lawyer led him to believe in the importance of information for efficient decision-making, and that belief inspired him to envision and support several other organizations that use information technology to contribute to the betterment of society by providing real time online access to information that might enable us as citizens to improve our governance. In 1987, he co-founded CoStar Group, Inc., now a public company, to address the issues that led to the collapse of the savings and loan industry in the 1980s. CoStar, included in the S&P 500 Index and the NASDAQ 100, declares its mission “to digitize the world’s real estate, empowering all people to discover properties, insights and connections that improve their businesses and lives.” Mr. Klein remains chairman of the board of CoStar, and is also chairman of the board of Zenith Gallery, Inc., vice chairman of the board of Perini Corporation, having formerly served as lead director of several other public companies including National Education Corporation, Steck-Vaughn Publishing Company, SRA International; and director and co-owner of Astar Air Cargo, Inc., among other businesses.

Mr. Klein applied the same principles to co-found a non-profit entity The Sunlight Foundation in December 2005 to improve the transparency and thus the accountability and performance of our democratic government. In 2020, Sunlight was merged into The Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, which Mr. Klein has supported and endowed.

In the aftermath of the Newtown school massacre, Mr. Klein founded and remains the Chairman and CEO of Gun Violence Archive, Inc., a nonprofit entity that maintains an online archive of information providing free access to information about all verifiable incidents of gun use in the United States in order better to inform the debate over gun regulation issues. He also co-founded the Global Warming Mitigation Project, which awards prizes for each year’s most promising new ideas to mitigate global warming and arranges internships for outstanding climate science students.

Mr. Klein also is a leadership philanthropist in the realm of arts and culture. From 2007 through 2021, he served as the chair of the Board of Trustees of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C., which endeavors to be the nation’s leading force in the presentation and preservation of classic theater, by presenting the classics in an accessible, imaginative American style. One of its two venues is named in his honor.

Mr. Klein has been associated with a number of non-public businesses, currently including as a director of Jose Andres’s ThinkFoodGroup, Inc. a restaurant and food organization engaged in implementing disaster relieving food programs internationally. Mr. Klein also serves as a director of DC Central Kitchen which provides culinary training for the previously incarcerated. In 2022, in honor of his support for it, DCCK’s new headquarter facility was named the Michael R. Klein Center for Jobs and Justice.

Mr. Klein has long been involved in a wide array of cultural, business and philanthropic organizations, including board chair of The Shakespeare Theatre Company, President of the PEN Faulkner Foundation, Chairman and founder of two of America’s first nouvelle cuisine restaurants (Le Pavillon and Le Paradou), the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. and as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board of Harvard Law School and The American Himalayan Foundation, among others.

Find more information see www.mikeklein.com.

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ABOUT THE ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL

The AMFS is the United States’ premier classical music center for performance and education, presenting more than 400 musical events during its eight-week summer season in Aspen. The organization draws top classical musicians from around the world for a rich combination of performances of orchestral works, opera, chamber music, recitals, contemporary music, works by new or previously unrecognized voices, popular genres, family events, and talks, competitions, and classes.

About 500 music students from 40 U.S. states and 40 countries come each summer to play in four orchestras, sing, conduct, compose and study with more than 100 artist-faculty members who come from the orchestras of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas, the Metropolitan Orchestra, and the leading conservatories and music schools like The Juilliard School, The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and The Colburn School. Students represent the field’s best talent; many have already begun their professional careers, and others are on the cusp.

The AMFS is deeply committed to community and many events are free. Seating outside the Music Tent on the David Karetsky Music Lawn and in the Kaye Music Garden is always free. Regular livestreams are free anywhere in the world. The AMFS also runs popular music programs in-school and after-school at most schools in the Roaring Fork Valley.

Renowned alumni include violinists Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Midori, Gil Shaham, and Robert McDuffie; pianists Joyce Yang, Orli Shaham, Conrad Tao, Yuja Wang, and Wu Han; conductors Marin Alsop, James Conlon, Leonard Slatkin and Joshua Weilerstein; composers William Bolcom, Philip Glass, David Lang, Augusta Read Thomas, Bright Sheng and Joan Tower; vocalists Isabel Leonard, Jamie Barton, Sasha Cooke, Danielle de Niese, Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw and Tamara Wilson; cellist Alisa Weilerstein; guitarist Sharon Isbin; bassist Edgar Meyer; and former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

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Season Information
The AMFS’s 75^th anniversary season will run June 27 to August 18, 2024. The program will be announced in mid-February and tickets will go on sale in mid-April.  

Aspen Music Festival and School                                                        970-925-9042 box office phone
225 Music School Road, Aspen, CO 81611                                         970-925-3254 administration phone

www.aspenmusicfestival.com                                                             info@aspenmusic.org   

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Photo credit: Grittani Creative