Robert Spano Named New Aspen Music Festival Music Director

The Aspen Music Festival and School, a rite of passage for many of the nation’s leading musicians but an institution fraught with dissension in the recent past, has hired the conductor Robert Spano as its new music director.

Mr. Spano, in his 10th season as music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, has appeared at Aspen eight times since his debut there in 1993, and he helped fill in for the previous music director, David Zinman, last summer. Mr. Zinman abruptly quit in a a dispute with management that was but one chapter in more than a year of turmoil.

Robert Spano conducting Berlioz at the Carnegie Choral Festival in February. Ruth Fremson/The New York Times Robert Spano conducting Berlioz at the Carnegie Choral Festival in February.

Mr. Spano, in a telephone interview on Thursday, said he was well familiar with the festival’s past problems. “The various parties at Aspen have been wonderfully forthcoming about what’s going on,” he said. “My responsibility is to move from where we are to what’s next.”

He said he had no grand thoughts yet about imposing his stamp on the institution and would spend this summer studying it as an insider for the first time.
Mr. Spano, 49, will arrive as the designated music director of the festival and as co-director of Aspen’s conducting program. He will take complete control in the summer of 2012, conducting three to five concerts or operas a season, planning concert programs and leading conductor training.

Mr. Spano has a major career as a conductor but also maintains links with the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, which he attended, and Emory University. He led the conducting fellowship program at the Tanglewood Music Center, in Lenox, Mass., from 1998 to 2002.

Aspen, nestled high in the Rocky Mountains, is one of the prime training grounds for young classical musicians. Mostly college age, they gather for two months of summertime lessons, coaching and performances with the teachers — many of them prominent professionals — who come back year after year. The festival also has major concert offerings for tourists and residents in the area.

Aspen’s troubles were set off by a plan to downsize the festival, including releasing some faculty members. Opposition galvanized against Alan Fletcher, the festival president, and trustees and faculty members divided into opposing camps.

Some backed Mr. Zinman, who objected to the faculty reductions and disputed Mr. Fletcher’s authority to let teachers go. Mr. Zinman also characterized Mr. Fletcher’s vision of Aspen as a place for elite musicians, a view he disagreed with. Mr. Zinman quit in April.

Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Spano said they had talked in depth about their future relationship.

“In terms of governance we’re very clear on who’s doing what and the way it works,” Mr. Spano said.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Fletcher said that he and Mr. Spano had very thorough discussion about lines of authority, and that the music director would have complete control over artistic matters, — unless they touched on budget issues or hiring and firing. Mr. Fletcher said he would make decisions in those areas, in consultation with Mr. Spano.

“We’ve had many hours of conversation about Aspen, about what Aspen does, and I think we’re just wonderfully in sync,” Mr. Fletcher said. He said the new budget was balanced and the board was working well together. “With Robert now, it’s a new era,” he said.