Wissot: Vail in the summer is a mecca for music and dance lovers

Is there a better place in America to be in the summer to watch some of the world’s best musicians and dancers showcase their impressive talents than Vail? The answer is no.

All the other acclaimed music and dance festivals happening this summer are vying for second place, including the very fine Aspen Music Festival, 102 miles to our west, and the internationally famous Spoleto music and dance festival held in Charleston, South Carolina, 1,800 miles southeast of us.

Beginning with classical music the last week in June and continuing through the first week in August, people who enter the Gerald. R. Ford Amphitheater are treated to great performances by great musicians. Bravo! Vail completed its 36th season earlier this summer by bringing the London-based chamber orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, to our fair valley. That’s classical music’s answer to the the murderer’s row lineup of the 1927 New York Yankees led by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.