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Meet Shimon, the marimba-playing robot that can improvise with fluency and skill exceeding that of most professional musicians. This atypical frontman’s band isn’t your average performance group either: Shimon’s band of humans hails not from a conservatory, but from the Center for Music Technology at Georgia Tech. And did we mention the drummer lays the rhythm with a bioni...
Atlanta-based defense attorney and #BillionDollarLawyer Drew Findling discusses the intersection of criminal justice, race, and hip-hop. These issues, common themes in hip-hop music, reflect deeply rooted societal schisms which play out endlessly in the collateral consequences of criminal conviction and mass incarceration. This session will explore how recent events like M...
Acoustics, intimacy, clarity: One could argue that how and where we listen to music is as important to the experience as the music itself. “The orchestra has to feel the audience, the audience has to feel the orchestra,” said architect Frank Gehry on his design of the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, which opened in 2017. “When they do that, the orchestra plays better, and th...
Born out of gospel, R&B, and jazz in late 1950s America, soul has permeated music culture so thoroughly that its influence can be heard everywhere from modern country music to rock and hip-hop. So what is it about soul, and how did it become a soundtrack to some of our nation’s most defining moments? The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik and Grammy Award-winning artists share —...
What possibilities unfurl when a symphony reaches Skid Row? How does music create healing on a street corner? Los Angeles Philharmonic violinist Vijay Gupta and internationally renowned soprano Camille Zamora are expanding access to classical music through their organizations Street Symphony and Sing for Hope, which bring music out of symphony halls and into the spaces of...
The Afternoon of Conversation is the Aspen Ideas Festival's pinnacle programming moment. Over 2,000 people gather in the Benedict Music Tent, an open-air venue with acoustics that mimic an amphitheater, to hear from global leaders, community change-makers, journalists, politicians, and more.
The Afternoon of Conversation is the Aspen Ideas Festival's pinnacle programming moment. Over 2,000 people gather in the Benedict Music Tent, an open-air venue with acoustics that mimic an amphitheater, to hear from global leaders, community change-makers, journalists, politicians, and more. Doors open at 2 p.m.
Raised by uncompromising survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover survived extreme adversity, from never being allowed to go to school, to suffering serious physical injuries (and a dad that prohibited doctors or hospitals), to being at the mercy of a volatile and often abusive older brother. How did she not only make it through this childhood, but ultimately...
Our signature event, the 2016 Afternoon of Conversation hosts an audience of more than 2,000 in the Benedict Music Tent. From criminal justice for the most vulnerable, to space exploration, to the changing Supreme Court, to artificial intelligence, and the state of the Grand Old Party, big thinkers and doers engage in serious ideas about their work and our collective futur...
For our annual signature event in the Benedict Music Tent, the 2018 Aspen Ideas Festival hosts former secretary of state John Kerry in a candid conversation about geopolitics with Andrea Mitchell. Immediately afterward, in collaboration with Theatre Aspen, Ideas Festival presents a live performance by Broadway actors followed by panel discussions examining the historical a...
How does the woman at the helm of the largest symphonic organization in the United States view the role of orchestras at the dawn of the 21st century? Deborah Borda, who spearheaded the appointment of Gustavo Dudamel as LA Phil Music Director, is renowned for her creative leadership, relentless search for innovation, and her progressive outlook on the responsibilities and...
Atlantic Senior Editor Derek Thompson's national best-selling book looks at the hidden psychology of why we like what we like and reveals the economics of cultural markets that invisibly shape our lives. Shattering the sentimental myths of hit-making that dominate pop culture and business, Thompson shows that nothing “goes viral,” that quality is insufficient for success,...
In the United States, salsa outsells ketchup as the No. 1 condiment on our tables. In the summer of 2017, the Spanish-English pop song sensation “Despacito” performed by Puerto Rican Luis Fonsi broke records as the most-viewed music video online. The American Latino is a powerful consumer group, representing $2.13 trillion in GDP. If their economic might were represented a...