After months of construction and years of planning, the Aspen Music Festival & School unveiled its new $60 million campus Monday morning. More than 44,000 square feet of buildings were added to the 38-acre campus, which operates as a homebase for music school students in the summer and campus for Aspen Country Day students during the school year.
The redevelopment includes two rehearsal halls — Scanlan Hall (named after Aspen Country Day parents Mary and Patrick Scanlan) and Edlis Neeson Hal (named after a festival patron). Another building is dedicated to classrooms and essential services. There are also several sound-proof practice pods for music students. Until now, the campus only had one rehearsal hall capable of hosting a full orchestra and some of the facilities there were in pretty poor shape.
Local architect Harry Teague, who also designed the Benedict Music Tent and Harris Hall in Aspen’s West End, is responsible for the new look of the campus. A dining hall and gymnasium are also in the works, along with other improvements, but those aren’t scheduled to be ready for a couple more years.
Here are the project highlights:
- Three new rehearsal halls
- Thirty-two new teaching studios and an electronic media studio
- Orchestral and chamber music libraries
- Seventy-two practice rooms
- A cafeteria with exterior deck overlooking the ponds
- Administrative space
- Two maintenance buildings
- Two historic nineteenth-century mining structures, including the Hardy Administration Building, which will be renovated
The Aspen Music Festival & School has shared facilities with the Aspen Country Day School since 1969. The music school has owned the land since 1964. Since that time, it has served as the home of the educational activities of the school and as a counterpoint to the festival’s performance facilities in Aspen’s West End. The music school has been around since 1951. More than 600 students attend the eight-week program each summer, typically from about 40 states and 40 nations.
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