• The Man Behind The Music

    Aaron Copland

    "To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable."
    – Aaron Copland
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  • Midday Thoughts

    A series of musings about, around, and related to Copland and his music by musicologist Jennifer DeLapp-Birkett
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Featured Events

Jul 23rd, 2026 7:30 pmJul 24th, 2026 6:30 pm

All American: Copland, Gershwin, & More

Colorado Music Festival Orchestra / Leonard Slatkin
Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Rd, Boulder, CO, United States, 80302
Description

Program

  • COPLAND Rodeo
  • CORIGLIANO Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra from The Red Violin
  • NELSON Savannah River Holiday
  • MCTEE Adagio for Strings
  • GERSHWIN An American in Paris

Aaron Copland

The Man Behind the Music

Many know of Aaron Copland the composer, writer, educator, and conductor, but far fewer have had the chance to know the man himself. Vivian Perlis, founding director of the Oral History Project in American Music & co-author of Copland’s autobiographies, not only takes us through the life of this great American composer, but also shows us a small window into what it was like to know the man behind the music.

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Events

Upcoming Performances

Aaron Copland's music is still widely performed around the world today. Find upcoming concerts and information in the performance calendar.

Performance Calendar

Latest News

Midday Thoughts: Celebrating Copland

This season marks the 125th anniversary of Copland's birth and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Amid the recent and upcoming festivities, Jennifer DeLapp-Birkett takes us through the history of Copland birthday celebrations.

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Midday Thoughts: William Warfield & Aaron Copland

The bass-baritone William Warfield and composer Aaron Copland were almost a generation apart but developed a decades-long relationship through collaborations on Old American Songs.

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Midday Thoughts: A Hundred Years Later

Special guest contributor Denise Von Glahn reflects on the early days of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and Copland's career one hundred years after he was awarded the Foundation's inaugural fellowship in music composition.

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The Aaron Copland Fund for Music

Aaron Copland’s legacy as the Dean of American Music lives on through a series of grant programs managed by the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. Each year, the Fund awards more than $1 million in grants to ensembles, presenters, service organizations, and more for projects and general other entities to support public knowledge and appreciation of contemporary American music.

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