{"id":2446850,"date":"2019-07-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-27T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=310133"},"modified":"2019-07-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-27T06:00:00","slug":"meet-new-aspen-music-festival-general-manager-justin-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/meet-new-aspen-music-festival-general-manager-justin-brown\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet new Aspen Music Festival general manager Justin Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Aspen Music Festival general manager Justin Brown on Thursday, July 25, 2019, inside the Benedict Music Tent. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times).<\/strong>
Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Justin Brown has been seemingly ubiquitous this summer at the Aspen Music Festival and School.<\/p>\n

The institution\u2019s new vice president and general manager, 36, has been on hand at nearly every concert and popped in at most rehearsals during his first month on the job. On campus and in the concert halls, he\u2019s been hurrying to meet and get to know the festival faculty, students, guest artists and listeners coming from near and far.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how many familiar faces you see at concert after concert \u2014 or at two concerts a day,\u201d he said of loyal audiences on a recent afternoon in his office. \u201cThere are people who for years have relationships with the festival and the faculty. That\u2019s really unique. I\u2019ve never experienced that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s first month in Aspen has been fast and furious. His first day on the job was June 20, just as the first of the season\u2019s 600-plus students were arriving and registering for a season packed with some 400 events.<\/p>\n

A Juilliard-trained bassoonist, Brown\u2019s career has included management posts with the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and at his alma mater.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very fortunate to be bringing Justin to join the team in Aspen,\u201d Music Fest CEO Alan Fletcher said upon Brown\u2019s hiring in April. \u201cHe brings a wealth of knowledge from the field\u2019s top institutions, both educational and performing, and a passionate vision for classical music.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his resume also includes something much more rare among arts administrators: a stint as an acclaimed artisan baker.<\/p>\n

After burning out in his first professional gig in the orchestra department at Juilliard \u2014 a period Brown dubbed an \u201cearly-life crisis\u201d \u2014 he threw himself into bread-making as a hobby. He started with a counter-top bread machine at home, then refined his skills with a Dutch oven, and apprenticed in early morning sessions with a baker in his Brooklyn neighborhood. As his skills progressed, she offered him an assistant baker job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018I gotta do this, I don\u2019t need Juilliard \u2014 I\u2019m gonna be a baker!\u2019\u201d he recalled with a laugh.<\/p>\n

His initial interest was in naturally leavened breads, but he learned to make croissants, expanded his skill set and was soon poached by a competing Brooklyn bakery and went on to work in Michelin-starred restaurants in New York and in San Francisco. His work as a baker made him something of a food star, getting written up everywhere from Food & Wine and Forbes to GQ and The New York Times.<\/p>\n

When the operations manager job opened at the San Francisco Symphony, however, he left his baking adventure behind and returned to the music world. But he carried the lessons of the kitchen with him, including the vital importance of meticulous preparation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a lot of boring and rudimentary work that can translate into artistry, and allowing that artistry to follow,\u201d he said. \u201cI learned a lot about interpersonal skills, conflict resolution, training and communication. I learned a ton, which was no part of why I was pursuing it, but coincidentally there were a lot of benefits there.\u201d<\/p>\n

(After doing it professionally, he left the bread behind and has yet to run the culinary gauntlet of baking at altitude in Aspen.)<\/p>\n

The unwieldy general manager job includes working with Fletcher and music director Robert Spano on educational and artistic planning, while leading year-round operations, events, facilities, contracts and housing for upward of 100 faculty members.<\/p>\n

He works with orchestra managers, library staff and facilities crews, and the Music Fest production team, which pulls off daily miracles moving truckloads of pianos, percussion gear, stands and such between the Benedict Tent, Harris Hall and the Castle Creek Road campus.<\/p>\n

Brown said his background as a conservatory-trained musician is critical to his work here. He understands where Aspen\u2019s students are now in their careers, and personally understands the pivotal role that their teachers can play in their lives.<\/p>\n

Brown was attracted to Aspen, in part, because he wanted to be back in that education-driven environment after working at the New York Philharmonic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was something I was missing, and I think that was working with students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brown has relished seeing faculty members facilitate artistic breakthroughs for students this summer, witnessing how they nudge young artists toward new challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way you make an advanced student an excellent student isn\u2019t just one more lesson; it\u2019s creating a moment of challenge to see if they will take that step,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t make them take it, or take it for them. You have to present the opportunity, step back and see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting face-time with the faculty, who he calls \u201cthe flagstone of the festival,\u201d has been a priority for Brown in his first days here, because they spread around the world for the 10 months when they\u2019re not in Aspen.<\/p>\n

And for all of its operational complexities and its unrelenting schedule, Brown has found an inspiring and nurturing new home at the Music Fest: \u201cI had guessed it would be a positive environment, and when I got here I found that to be true \u2014 maybe even more than expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his time as a student at Juilliard, Brown did come visit Aspen twice to see friends who were studying here. It was an ideal introduction to the pleasures of Aspen in summer, he said, without the rigors of practicing and performing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a terrific time,\u201d Brown recalled. \u201cFrom the faculty to the concerts to the environment, the culture, the history \u2014 this is a very special summer place.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and his wife will live year-round in Snowmass Village. As a full-time local, Brown said, he\u2019s looking forward to backpacking around the Mountain West and getting back into the skiing he\u2019s neglected since his boyhood in Texas, when his family would make regular ski trips to Colorado.<\/p>\n

Brown also has been astounded witnessing the heightened cultural life of this remote mountain town, pointing to the programming at the Wheeler Opera House, Aspen Film, the Aspen Art Museum and Aspen Institute, and the crowds of locals and tourists who support them.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery organization is batting above its weight producing cultural activities,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not moving to a country town; we\u2019re moving to a very special place.\u201d<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aspen Music Festival general manager Justin Brown on Thursday, July 25, 2019, inside the Benedict Music Tent. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times).Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times Justin Brown has been seemingly ubiquitous this summer at the Aspen Music Festival and School. The institution\u2019s new vice president and general manager, 36, has been on hand at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 02:22:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}