Welcome to our virtual Library. We hope you will enjoy this new collection of free eBooks inspired by the land, by poetry, and, of course, by music.
It all started because I bought in Stowe, Vermont, a book with photographs. I thought it was morally wrong to have such a book. Books should have only texts. Books with pictures were hedonistic, easy victories. The book had photos of mountains, and within a few weeks I was hooked.
“It all started with Beethoven. I played almost all of his sonatas by the time I was nine…”
-Peter Halstead
We filmed and recorded Beethoven’s 17th sonata, known as The Tempest, in a tractor barn up against the Holy Cross Wilderness in Colorado…
-Peter Halstead
A Winter Ride is a joyful, poignant ride through the thoughts, notions, and imaginings of Peter Halstead.
I spent two months in the Himalaya in 1984 climbing and photographing. Here are some of the photos…
-Peter Halstead
In the Himalayas, I slept on my camera, to keep it from freezing during the forty-below nights. I carried some 200 rolls of Kodachrome 25. That was before digital. My Sherpa lost my tent when he fell fifty feet into a crevasse…
-Peter Halstead
Many of the Sherpas who carried my bags in 1984 moved to Colorado and ended up working on our ranch there. When, twenty years later, I showed them my slides of the Khumbu villages, they looked at me and said, “That was us. Those were our families.”
-Peter Halstead
I had been in the Himalayas in 1964, just before trekking started, and I wanted to capture them before they disappeared. The roof of the embassy collapsed, destroying the Bechstein I had concertized on the night before, which was the impetus for telling the larger story, which I turned into a novel. Fiction is the only safe way of telling the truth…
-Peter Halstead
Some critic once described my Chopin Barcarolle as a “shipwreck.” I realized that Chopin’s boat song is all about dangling spars and broken masts, like Frank Hurley’s photos of Shackleton’s flagship, Endurance, crushed in the ice of the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. Not a slick poled gondola, Chopin’s boat is a thing of shreds and patches, shrouds lost in the mists. Maybe in the end it sinks…
-Peter Halstead
We are honored to present John Luther Adams’ “String Quartet No. 5: Lines Made By Walking” performed by the quartet for which it was written: the JACK Quartet. This book offers essays exploring the piece and the composer’s process as well as the technical specs and credits for the piece. Lines Made By Walking is available to download for free from our Music Downloads Library.
Michael Brown visited Tippet Rise to record in January of 2019. The album was produced by fellow pianists Adam Golka and Roman Rabinovich and features works by Ravel and Medtner. This book includes details on that recording, insights on Michael, and an essay by Michael himself. Michael’s recording, Noctuelles, can be found in our Music Downloads Library.
Featuring words about, and from, the remarkable young pianist Jenny Chen who has performed at Tippet Rise each summer since the inaugural season. You’ll also find details on Jenny’s recording, Jenny Chen in Recital, recorded live at Tippet Rise in 2017. About the recording, Peter Halstead says, it is “a fruitful feast of sonata, preludes, fantasia, variations, nocturne, and etudes, under the strings of influences that passed on from one to another: from Mozart’s refined simplicity to Chopin, and from Chopin’s operatic and colorful music to Debussy’s dreamy musical pictures.” Jenny Chen in Recital is available to download for free from our Music Downloads Library.
Recorded in the Olivier Music Barn at Tippet Rise in January of 2023 and released by Bright Shiny Things, DECODA is the debut album of the chamber music collective, Decoda. Marking the ensemble’s first decade of eclectic and impactful concert experiences, this record features the world premiere recording of Revelry by Valerie Coleman, original arrangements of Three Rags by William Bolcom, and Reza Vali’s captivating duo, Folk Songs (Set No.9). Together, these works reflect the human desire to connect through revelry and celebration. For insights on the recording, read about it in the booklet below.
Alessandro came to us in our first season, playing all of the Opus 25 Études, fittingly on Vladimir Horowitz’s piano. Alessandro also recorded with us an album of Liszt pieces. The album is Liszt Deljavan on the Aeras Music Group label, available in our Music Download Library and on many streaming sites, such as Apple Music. Born of an Italian mother and a Persian father, Alessandro Deljavan began learning to play piano before age two and gave his first performances at three. He has since performed around the world in more than 20 countries, to great acclaim.
In 2018, Ms. Fliter made her Tippet Rise debut, playing Chopin’s gorgeously melodic songs of the night. “There is no questioning Fliter’s innate affinity for Chopin…Fliter realizes her poetic potential most convincingly,” said Gramophone of her 2018 recording, Nocturnes. Ms. Fliter is the only woman, and one of just a handful of pianists, to win the Gilmore Artist Award.
Adam Golka has studied with Alfred Brendel, Sir András Schiff, Leon Fleisher, and Murray Perahia, all Beethoven specialists. He has played all 32 Beethoven sonatas in an 8-concert series, coupled with videos explaining his views on each sonata. The first album of his Beethoven cycle, recorded in the Olivier Music Barn at Tippet Rise, has just been released on First Hand Records. This book includes details on that recording, insights on Adam, and an essay by Adam himself. Adam’s recording, Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1, is available to download for free from our Music Downloads Library.
This book offers insights on the virtuositic violinist, William Hagen, who visited the art center in 2022 and 2023 to record two music videos of Ysaÿe’s Sonata No. 5 for Violin. William’s videos and recordings are available to watch on our Music Downloads Library where the high-resolution audio is available for free download.
Tippet Rise Co-Founder Peter Halstead recorded Brahms’ final pieces for the piano in the Olivier Music Barn. This book offers essays exploring those pieces and the emotions and places that inspired them: the composer’s love for the gifted pianist and composer, Clara Schumann, and his summers in the German Alps. Brahms in the Mountains is available to download for free from our Music Downloads Library.
This book offers insights on the extraordinary pianist, Pedja Muzijevic, who we are honored to say also serves as the art center’s Artistic Advisor. It includes details on a live recording of his performance at Tippet Rise in 2018 of works by Scarlatti, Cowell, Granados, Satie, Debussy, Cage and Schumann. Pedja’s recording is available to download for free from our Music Downloads Library.
Roman Rabinovich visited Tippet Rise to record in January of 2019. The album was produced by fellow pianists Adam Golka and Michael Brown. Selected tracks from the album, Haydn: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2 can be found in our Music Downloads Library.
Enjoy a look back at the 2024 Season including music notes and stories about the landscape, art, and architecture at Tippet Rise.
Enjoy a look back at the 2023 Season including music notes and stories about the landscape, art, and architecture at Tippet Rise.
Enjoy a look back at the 2022 Season including music notes and stories about the landscape, art, and architecture at Tippet Rise.
Enjoy a look back at the 2019 Season including music notes and stories about the landscape, art and architecture at Tippet Rise.
Enjoy a look back at the 2018 Season including music notes and stories about the landscape, art and architecture at Tippet Rise.
Enjoy a look back at the 2017 Season including music notes and stories about the landscape, art and architecture at Tippet Rise.
Enjoy a look back at the 2016 Season including music notes and stories about the landscape, art and architecture at Tippet Rise.
