News
ENLARGE
ASPEN — The Aspen Music Festival and School season is nearly two weeks old, yet Yale Work, a piano student at the festival, hasn't moved into his dorm room at Marolt Ranch.
A sign that the 19-year-old, who has just finished his second year at Juilliard, isn't taking his studies very seriously?
Quite the opposite. Work knows that practice time on the Music Festival campus can be tough to come by. So in order to ensure sufficient time at the piano, he has made arrangements with an instrument he knows will be available when he needs it — the piano in his family's house, which, conveniently, is in Snowmass Village.
The approach has paid off. Work is not only the rare case of a local resident being accepted into the Aspen Music School, but he gets a turn in the spotlight in his hometown festival. Work was named the winner of the Music Festival's piano competition, and today, at the 4 p.m. American Academy of Conducting Concert, he will be featured as soloist in a performance of Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor. The concert, at the Benedict Music Tent, is free.
Growing up in Snowmass Village, music was an enormous part of Work's surroundings. He and his siblings were both enrolled numerous summers for two-week sessions at the Suzuki Institute, which used to be held in Snowmass. Work also studied privately with a teacher in Carbondale, and the entire family — father Horace, who earned master's degrees in music theory; mother Stephanie, who plays flute and piano and was designated accompanist for the children; sister Victoria and brother Nathan, both accomplished musicians — played for several years in the Glenwood Springs-based Symphony in the Valley.
There were also frequent outings to concerts at the Aspen Music Festival. Work recalls a particularly inspiring performance by pianist Yefim Bronfman. Still, the Music Festival was simply the place to hear music being made; Work didn't seek to gain an inside track thanks to his local status.
“I just attended concerts,” he said. “I didn't know anyone there, or do anything musically. It never really occurred to me to be a student there.”
In 2007, Work did what he referred to as “the local thing” at the Music Festival, taking advantage of the PALS program that provides scholarship lessons for promising students from the Roaring Fork Valley. But after his first year at Juilliard, Work opted to study in Montecito, Calif., where he could focus on his secondary instrument, the cello. This year, he chose to keep his attention on piano, and to study in a place he knows well.
The delay in moving into Marolt isn't the first time Work has made a decision based on access to the piano. After being home-schooled from third through eighth grades, he went to the Dawson School, in Lafayette.
“But homework took up too much time, and cut into piano practice. It was four hours of homework a night,” said Work, who eventually moved to the Bridge School, in Boulder. “It gave me an excellent education. But also allowed me to practice my instrument.”
The serious approach to music came when Work was 11, and began studying under a teacher in Boulder, Crystal Lee. That was when it became clear that he would pursue music in college.
“My parents no longer had to sit me down to practice. I don't know how, but she inspired me so completely,” he said. The following year, Work won a competition and got to perform a movement of Grieg's piano concerto in Beaver Creek. Over the next few years, he entered some three competitions each year, and won about 90 percent of them.
Just as a switch in teachers helped bring a newfound commitment, Work said he hopes this summer adds another dimension to his playing. While Work praises his Juilliard instructor, Matti Raekallio, he has also been enlightened by the very different approach of Veda Kaplinsky, his teacher in Aspen.
“I'm getting a very different kind of education. It's made a huge difference in two weeks,” Work said, adding that he'd like to study Bach's Goldberg Variations — “if Dr. Kaplinsky lets me.”
Work said that his hometown has been something of a topic of conversation among his fellow music students.
“They're really surprised” to learn that he grew up in Snowmass Village, Work said. “Someone I've known awhile at Juilliard said, ‘What? I never knew this about you.'”
stewart@aspentimes.com
A sign that the 19-year-old, who has just finished his second year at Juilliard, isn't taking his studies very seriously?
Quite the opposite. Work knows that practice time on the Music Festival campus can be tough to come by. So in order to ensure sufficient time at the piano, he has made arrangements with an instrument he knows will be available when he needs it — the piano in his family's house, which, conveniently, is in Snowmass Village.
The approach has paid off. Work is not only the rare case of a local resident being accepted into the Aspen Music School, but he gets a turn in the spotlight in his hometown festival. Work was named the winner of the Music Festival's piano competition, and today, at the 4 p.m. American Academy of Conducting Concert, he will be featured as soloist in a performance of Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor. The concert, at the Benedict Music Tent, is free.
Growing up in Snowmass Village, music was an enormous part of Work's surroundings. He and his siblings were both enrolled numerous summers for two-week sessions at the Suzuki Institute, which used to be held in Snowmass. Work also studied privately with a teacher in Carbondale, and the entire family — father Horace, who earned master's degrees in music theory; mother Stephanie, who plays flute and piano and was designated accompanist for the children; sister Victoria and brother Nathan, both accomplished musicians — played for several years in the Glenwood Springs-based Symphony in the Valley.
There were also frequent outings to concerts at the Aspen Music Festival. Work recalls a particularly inspiring performance by pianist Yefim Bronfman. Still, the Music Festival was simply the place to hear music being made; Work didn't seek to gain an inside track thanks to his local status.
“I just attended concerts,” he said. “I didn't know anyone there, or do anything musically. It never really occurred to me to be a student there.”
In 2007, Work did what he referred to as “the local thing” at the Music Festival, taking advantage of the PALS program that provides scholarship lessons for promising students from the Roaring Fork Valley. But after his first year at Juilliard, Work opted to study in Montecito, Calif., where he could focus on his secondary instrument, the cello. This year, he chose to keep his attention on piano, and to study in a place he knows well.
The delay in moving into Marolt isn't the first time Work has made a decision based on access to the piano. After being home-schooled from third through eighth grades, he went to the Dawson School, in Lafayette.
“But homework took up too much time, and cut into piano practice. It was four hours of homework a night,” said Work, who eventually moved to the Bridge School, in Boulder. “It gave me an excellent education. But also allowed me to practice my instrument.”
The serious approach to music came when Work was 11, and began studying under a teacher in Boulder, Crystal Lee. That was when it became clear that he would pursue music in college.
“My parents no longer had to sit me down to practice. I don't know how, but she inspired me so completely,” he said. The following year, Work won a competition and got to perform a movement of Grieg's piano concerto in Beaver Creek. Over the next few years, he entered some three competitions each year, and won about 90 percent of them.
Just as a switch in teachers helped bring a newfound commitment, Work said he hopes this summer adds another dimension to his playing. While Work praises his Juilliard instructor, Matti Raekallio, he has also been enlightened by the very different approach of Veda Kaplinsky, his teacher in Aspen.
“I'm getting a very different kind of education. It's made a huge difference in two weeks,” Work said, adding that he'd like to study Bach's Goldberg Variations — “if Dr. Kaplinsky lets me.”
Work said that his hometown has been something of a topic of conversation among his fellow music students.
“They're really surprised” to learn that he grew up in Snowmass Village, Work said. “Someone I've known awhile at Juilliard said, ‘What? I never knew this about you.'”
stewart@aspentimes.com
