Aspen Music Festival and School Convocation Address of Robert Spano, Music Director-Designate Monday, 27 June 2011

Thank you, thank you. I am thrilled to be here. It does feel different than all my other summers, beginning in 1993. And Ive been thinkingknowing that I was going to have the opportunity to talk to you, [that] this is my first Convocation, as well as many of yourswhat would I want to say, what matters to me, and whatI hope matters to you. Usually when Im looking for wisdom I look to Mozart, and Mozart said that the most important thing in the education of a person was travel. Maybe part of that was borne of his life experience, because of his genius, having the opportunity to travel as much as he did. But I think hes alluding to what we know from biochemistry, that a closed system is degenerative and an open system is transformative and generative and creative and blossoms and flourishes. And I thought of how hard everyone practices and how much [of our time] is so important in solitude, honing our own craft and our own skill, and I realized Mozarts on to something. Because equally important is our capacity to be permeable, to listen, to take in new influence. Certainly great musicians of the past have made this their lifes work: Bach walking 300 miles to hear Buxtehude, Bartk roaming eastern Europe collecting musical material, Debussy being transformed by gamelan when it came to Paris. I think its easy for us to take for granted what these musicians had to do because we have YouTube! But its better live, and a world of music has now come to Aspen. And we can have it live. I think our opportunity to hear each other is potentially transformative. The first opera this summer is A Midsummer Nights Dream. If youll recall, Bottom, the class clown of the Mechanicals or the Rustics, is turned into an assmaybe thats not the transformation were looking for! But when he returns, they respond by saying, [Bless thee,] Bottom! Thou art translated! Translated, transformed, transmogrified. I think that kind of transformation is whats available to us if we are attentive as listeners, as musicians to each other, to the great artists who perform here, to our colleagues. Its so important, I think, for all of us to incorporate in our own music-making the salient features of other musical disciplines. A singer needs the precision of a violinist. A violinist needs the beauty of phrasing and the breath of a singer. A string quartet needs the contrapuntal mind of a pianist. We all need the inexorable rhythm of a great percussionist. We all want the range of a great brass player, from delicacy to tremendous power. We all want the distinguishing qualities of a great woodwind players personality and profile. We all need the imaginative exploratory ear of the composer. All of those things are part of our work, and all of those things are present here. I think the opportunity for us, not only to practice but to practice [giving our] attention. To practice listening is one of the great gifts this place affords us. I dont intend to leave the person I came in being. I would like to be translated, and I really hope the same for you. Im thrilled to share this first summer with you. Welcome. Have a great time!

transcribed and edited by J. Anthony McAlister