About

The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) is one of the most prestigious summer classical music programs in the world — and one of the very few operating on a genuinely professional scale. Founded in 1949 and now in its 77th season, AMFS draws more than 450 students each summer to Aspen, Colorado for eight weeks of intensive study across nine programs: orchestra, opera, chamber music, piano, classical guitar, composition, conducting, contemporary music, and collaborative piano. More than 100 artist-faculty members come from the orchestras of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, Dallas, and Philadelphia — and in a structure unique to AMFS, students perform alongside their faculty teachers in professional concerts, not merely in student recitals.

The average student age is 24. AMFS is a pre-professional institution, and the intensity of the performance schedule and the standards it demands make it appropriate only for the most serious, technically advanced young musicians. That said, exceptional high school students are eligible — and some of the most gifted young classical musicians in the country do attend. Alumni who began as teenage students include prominent performers who have returned to AMFS as headline artists.

Families of students under 18 should understand several important constraints before applying. AMFS does not provide housing for students under 18; a parent or legal guardian must be in residence in off-campus accommodations for the full duration of the student's enrollment — a significant logistical and financial commitment in one of the most expensive resort towns in the United States. Students under 18 are not eligible for orchestra placement; they may participate in private lessons and chamber music only. The program provides limited social programming and expects students to independently manage their rehearsal and practice schedules without supervision.

Audition requirements are instrument-specific, and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis with program-specific deadlines. Over $3 million in financial assistance is distributed each summer. Half-session options (four weeks) are available for students unable to commit to the full eight weeks.
For the rare high school musician operating at a pre-conservatory level — and whose family can make the logistical arrangements Aspen requires — AMFS offers an incomparable artistic environment found nowhere else in the summer music world.