AMFS Artist-Faculty, all top musicians from renowned orchestras, opera companies, and conservatories, come together to play their favorite chamber music works.

The title of Olly Wilson’s A City Called Heaven comes from an African American spiritual, and the three movements are inspired by blues, spiritual, and boogie woogie styles. Star tenor Anthony Griffey will sing Juliana Hall’s The Mystic Trumpeter, based on Walt Whitman’s poem about love and war.

Shostakovich was only sixteen when he composed his First Piano Trio while recovering from tuberculosis of the lymph glands at a sanitorium in Crimea. He had just played Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata at his graduation recital with his neck wrapped in bandages. He dedicated the trio to a young woman he’d fallen for during his convalescence. This single-movement work shows glimpses of the mature composer and his characteristic soulful melodies, biting harmonies, and abrupt contrasts.

Louise Farrenc’s lyrical Sextet for piano and wind quintet finishes the program with a Victorian sensibility, sparkling piano writing, and bold flourishes for the French horn. 

Also featured on the program is the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, comprising emerging young artists who perform music by prominent living composers and twentieth-century classics, as well as new works by the Festival’s student composers. Always a joyful and creative 75 minutes of music-making.

Summer 2026 Chamber Music Dates:
- Monday, July 6
- Saturday, July 11
- Saturday, July 18
- Saturday, July 25
- Sunday, August 2 (at 2:00 PM)
- Saturday, August 8
- Saturday, August 15
- Saturday, August 22