Duncan's visit - more pics

See previous blog entry for narrative

Duncan's visit - Aug 6 -15 -

Duncan's visit was action packed. Started with opera masterclass and coffee at our usual spot beforehand outside Paradise Bakery.
Golf at the municipal Aspen Golf with Lee Miller. The Rim and Tom Blake mountain trails . The Government trail with Alan Fedder . Rock climbing with my bus driver colleague Dave Jacobson up the Independence Pass road. A hike with M up to Cathedral Lake. And then the highlight was ascending on road bikes up highest paved road in USA - Mt Evans from Idaho Springs. 27 miles and 6,600 feet of climbing. 3 hours 15 for D to summit at 14,150 feet. A bit more for M & I !
The 9 days he had with us finished with another fabulous sat morning opera masterclass and a magnificent bike ride up to Maroon Lake.

Tchaikovski, Strauss and Mozart

Sunday night concert yesterday was Joyce Yang and the unbelievably beautiful Tchaikovski 1st piano concerto. She's an ex AMC student made good in a big way . What a star. 2nd half of concert was Ricard Strauss Symphonia domestica. A brilliant introduction from conductor Leonard Slatkin of Detroit Symphony - made such a difference.
Tonight off to Marriage of Figaro at the Wheeler Opera House - 2nd of the Beaumarchais trilogy Aspen Opera are doing this summer . We saw ` Barber of Seville ` 2 weeks ago and then Ghosts of Versailles in 2 weeks time. Last time we saw Figaro in entirety was with Andrew Latchmore at Glyndebourne 8 years or so ago.

Tomorrow we have Steven Osborne and his wife coming for lunch . He , would you believe it, is a Linlithgow boy ( and ex St Mary's Music School , Edinburgh ) who has had huge international success as a concert pianist . He has concerts in Aspen on Wed & Friday nights. Very exciting.