WORLD-RENOWNED VIOLINIST ROBERT MCDUFFIE RETURNS TO ASPEN

Press Contact:
Jessica Cabe
PR and Publications Associate
jcabe@aspenmusic.org, 970-205-5072

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 1, 2017

ASPEN, COLORADO—When violinist Robert McDuffie performs the third and final concert of the Aspen Music Festival and School’s Winter Music Recital Series, he’ll invite listeners to journey through a century and a half of music, some of it familiar, some of it a rare treat. Called “a musician of probing intelligence, a violinist of authority and a force of great vitality” by the San Francisco Chronicle, McDuffie has crafted a program offering a fascinating comparison and contrast of American music and the classic European sound.

McDuffie will perform at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 11, at Harris Concert Hall, 960 N. Third St. The world-renowned classical music star will present a program consisting of John Adams’ Road Movies, Brahms’ First Violin Sonata in G major, Alan Fletcher’s Study: Music, Pink and Blue No. 2, Ravel’s Violin Sonata, op. posth, and Stravinsky’s Suite italienne.

McDuffie’s program spans more than a century of the repertoire, from Brahms’ lyrical, singing First Violin Sonata (1878) to Alan Fletcher’s 2015 composition Study: Music, Pink and Blue No. 2, a response to the Georgia O’Keeffe painting of the same name. The concert begins with John Adams’ 1995 Road Movies, a piece for piano and violin inspired by ragtime and swing music. Also on the program are Ravel’s French Impressionist Violin Sonata, op. posth, which is the first sonata Ravel wrote, but it was published long after his death. Closing the evening is Stravinsky’s Suite italienne, an arrangement of movements from his ballet “Pulcinella.”

McDuffie is an AMFS alumnus and celebrated violinist who has appeared with most of the major orchestras of the world, including the New York, Los Angeles and London Philharmonics and the Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal and Toronto Symphonies. He has been profiled in The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, as well as on NBC’s “Today,” PBS’ “Charlie Rose,” A&E’s “Breakfast with the Arts” and more. Philip Glass dedicated his Second Violin Concerto, “The American Four Seasons,” to McDuffie, and just last year McDuffie performed the U.S. premiere of Mike Mills’ Concerto for Violin, Rock Band and Orchestra as part of the 2016 AMFS season. Mills, of the rock band R.E.M., was commissioned by McDuffie to write this high-energy piece that expertly blurs the lines between pop and classical music.

After more than 40 consecutive summers, Robert McDuffie has become an AMFS staple, and he sees Aspen as a second home.

“Aspen is really where I grew up musically,” McDuffie said. “Everything keeps me coming back—the memories, the history. I feel like I grew up here. I have more of a history with Aspen than I do with my own home town in Georgia. It really is a second home in many ways.”

Visit www.aspenmusicfestival.com or call 970-925-3254 for tickets and more information.