Local resident and avid backcountry skier Murray Cunningham has been leading Powder Tours off the backside of Aspen Mountain for more than three decades. He turned 70 this spring and is retiring as director of the tours at the Aspen Skiing Company this month.
Jessica Everts, right, scans a patron s ticket to watch pianist Matthew Whitaker perform in an Aspen Music Festival and School recital to kickoff the summer season on Thursday, July 1, 2021, inside the Benedict Music Tent in Aspen. Photo by Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times.
After a long year without in-person performances, the Aspen Music Festival and School opened its 2021 season Thursday night at the Benedict Music Tent and hosted its first concert with a live audience since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
With pianist Matthew Whitaker on stage, the festival faithful returned, thankful for summer tradition’s post-vaccine resurrection.
“It’s nice to be able to see a live performance and to share it with others,” Aspenite Murray Cunningham said before the concert, attending for with his wife, Claudia, for their 52nd Music Festival season.