Caitlin Murray: A Look Back at Bravo! Vail 2023

As the Bravo! Vail Music Festival concludes each year, I reflect on what has occurred over the preceding six weeks here in the Vail Valley. A highlight reel plays in my mind: inspiring conversations with patrons, friends, and strangers; the Bravo! Vail Presto Club kids waving to Artistic Director Anne-Marie McDermott and me onstage from the lawn; entire families dancing together at the Family Concert; and countless musical memories we have created together.  

The music this summer was, to quote Anne-Marie McDermott, “Completely exhilarating, artistically thrilling.” It was one incredible performance after another all summer long. Academy of St Martin in the Fields and violinist Joshua Bell performing Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1. Fabio Luisi leading the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in Franck’s Symphony in D Minor. The music and voices together in Mozart’s Requiem with Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium. Jaap van Zweden conducting the New York Philharmonic in Bruckner Symphony No. 7. Yunchan Lim’s unforgettable and goosebump-inducing performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Marin Alsop and the New York Philharmonic. Anne-Marie McDermott and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet at two pianos for the final Chamber Music Series concert of the season. The filled chapel at Community Concerts. The Prokofiev nature walks. The list goes on.