Aspen Public Radio is partnering with the Aspen Music Festival and School for the fourth year to broadcast the 4 p.m. Sunday Aspen Festival Orchestra concerts live each week throughout the greater Roaring Fork Valley.
Broadcasts begin Sunday, July 5.
“This iconic Festival is such a big part of summer in Aspen; it’s been an honor to get a broadcast agreement in place to provide this live, local programming for our listening audience, thanks to the Aspen Music Festival and School,” Breeze Richardson, executive director of Aspen Public Radio, said in a press release.
The weekly broadcast will be hosted by longtime classical music host Chris Mohr, offering listeners, wherever they are, the opportunity to hear the afternoon concerts live on Aspen Public Radio at 91.5 FM in Aspen and 88.9 FM throughout the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys, according to the press release. Those from Aspen to Glenwood Springs, Rifle to Eagle and online at aspenpublicradio.org or through the Aspen Public Radio app will be able to tune in.
“For generations, the Sunday orchestral concerts at the Music Tent have been a defining part of the Aspen summer experience. We’re proud to continue our partnership with Aspen Public Radio, bringing these extraordinary performances to listeners throughout our community and around the world through free live broadcasts,” AMFS Munroe President and CEO Alan Fletcher said in the release.
The first Sunday concert will have the Festival Orchestra and features music from “Nixon in China,” an opera with rhythmic pulse that will be sung with two world-class singers: Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson, along with a choir.
Mohr, in anticipation of his return for a 12th year hosting these broadcasts, added in the release ” … then Copland’s monumental Symphony No. 3, which includes his ‘Fanfare for the Common Man.’ What a great American program. I love that our Music Director Robert Spano always conducts the opening and closing Sunday concerts every season!”
He will also be producing and broadcasting “Festival Notes” each morning, informing the community about what is happening at AMFS each day beginning Monday, June 29.
“Looking across the 2026 season, I love the combination of works by living composers alongside the great classics,” he said in the release.
On Aug. 9, Mahler’s First Symphony will be a tribute to his beloved Alps, where Mohr noted in the release that Mahler hiked every summer.
“The same day, that vast orchestra also plays music of Carlos Simon and Jessie Montgomery,” he continued. “These days, it’s incredibly easy to listen to music by composers we may not know and then try to guess why their piece might have some common theme with our beloved favorites.”
As an ongoing part of this partnership with AMFS, the station will also archive each week’s “High Notes” lecture series event and make it available online, alongside recordings of the series dating back to 2022 as part of Aspen Public Radio’s “Ideas, Speakers & Lectures” initiative, available at aspenpublicradio.org/high-notes.
“It’s absolutely become part of my morning listening each summer to hear what concerts are taking place each day, I am delighted we will have one more season of ‘High Notes’ hosted by Alan Fletcher to go behind the scenes with festival musicians and hear more of their stories, and I love how much long-time listeners and visitors alike enjoy these Sunday concerts on Aspen Public Radio,” Richardson said in the release.
Concerts to be carried live will include:
July 5 — Festival Orchestra: Opening Sunday with Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson
July 12 — Festival Orchestra: Weilerstein Plays Dvořák
July 19 — Festival Orchestra: Hadelich Plays Barber
July 26 — Festival Orchestra: Piano Sensation Daniil Trifonov
Aug. 2 — Festival Orchestra: Thibaudet Plays Gershwin
Aug. 9 — Festival Orchestra: Mahler’s First Symphony
Aug. 16 — Festival Orchestra: Malofeev Plays Rachmaninoff
Aug. 23 — Festival Orchestra: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony