"In nature, nothing exists alone."
-Rachel Carson
Stretching from Mexico to Canada, the Rocky Mountains are some of the most dramatic mountains in the world. The stretch that extends through Colorado has the highest peaks on the entire range. According to Dr. Joseph Andrew, geologist, “the top of Mt. Elbert, the highest point in the Rockies at 14,439 feet, is biotite gneiss deep rocks that formed the root of an ancient continental collision 1.7 billion years ago. Uplifted several times during its history, the present-day elevation and topographic relief are due to regional uplift in the last 8 million years due to a large warm zone formed in the mantle rocks below the continent.”
When European settlers reached this land, they obfuscated and decimated the knowledge and names of people that had lived in harmony on the land for eons. The Ute did not choose that name, but rather identify as the Nuche, meaning mountain people. In the same way, Elbert is not the true name of this peak, but what we will use for now to refer to the highest peak in the Rocky Mountains.
In recent years, a boom in interest in the Colorado 14ers, as they are called, has brought countless people into the back country and many to Mt. Elbert’s slopes. But it is still wild and untamed backcountry, capable of capricious changes of weather, rockfall, and hypothermia. Among the other animals on its slopes, there are marmot, pika, moose, bear, and mountain lions.
Mt. Elbert has been a bucket list climb for countless people. At 14,439 feet, it is the highest summit in the Rockies and the second in the contiguous United States, second only to Mt. Whitney. On September 9, 2024, Chris Clark, Melissa Davis Capka, and I did something a bit different in this environment: we climbed the mountain and recorded a classical music concert on the summit.
Though we were fortunate to have a dozen people as coincidental audience members at the concert on the summit, backcountry ethics and even permitting didn’t allow us to advertise the event ahead of time. Casual mountaineers perish in the mountains of Colorado every year, mistaking the proximity of these peaks for safety. Instead, Melissa and Chris climbed with me, Chris hauling pounds of camera gear heroically to the summit so that people could later enjoy the scenery and music from the safety of their homes.
Why play classical music on high peaks?
Years ago, when I conceived of this concert as part of a research project, I wanted to think outside of the box. The box being the literal box of the traditional concert hall. Why was classical music, that was so intrinsically linked to nature, always performed inside and in darkness, often for the wealthiest patrons in society? Shouldn’t classical music also be able to flex, stretch, and grow?
Climbing peaks at this altitude requires mountaineering experience and physical aptitude. Most people will never be able to experience standing on the summit of a high peak, in some of the same ways that many people will never enjpy a classical music concert. It seemed to me that recording a concert on the summit of Mt. Elbert that would live on YouTube could let people enjoy music and the mountains, for free, from the comfort and safety of their own living rooms..
Beyond the concert, this climb allowed me to research the effect of playing at a very high elevation, higher than a concert would ever occur, in order to understand in extreme terms what happens to musicians when we travel up to 5,000-8,000 feet for a concert. It allowed me to continue my research on how to adapt for optimal performances at higher elevations, but also lessons that we can use for more typical concert settings at sea level.
By promoting the idea that classical musicians are also athletes, worthy of proper conditioning, health, and wellness I wanted to rethink what the classical musician looks and acts like. And to push the boundaries of how we think about music and nature. To highlight the potential of our discipline, before Mt. Elbert, I performed on top of Mt. Bierstadt, a 14er (a mountain over 14k) and Mt Audubon, a 13er, in 2022 with Dr. Lauren Jacobson as our group, Summit Musicians. We found that fellow climbers were entertained and amused by finding two clarinetists playing duets and taking their heart rate at the summit of these peaks. One of the “audience members” on the Mt. Bierstadt climb even took 360 degree footage that found its way onto the local Denver news.
I realized that in my own musical life, I needed to learn from outside of my discipline. The method of learning music in one-on-one lessons has been passed on for centuries. It's actually one of the great oral traditions left in a time of ready and quick information. The knowledge from my clarinet teachers goes back for centuries. Although this method of study is precious and vital for musicians, we can also learn from outside of our discipline. At some point, I realized that my training as a classical musician was so focused, that I had forgotten to seek lessons from non-musicians that I desperately needed, namely about conditioning and techniques to optimize my performance, especially if I wanted to advance my playing in ways that I had never imagined. For me personally, it made sense to learn more from my other passion, mountaineering.
As a former mountain guide on Colorado’s highest peaks, I have been climbing the 14ers for three decades and working as a clarinetist in some of the highest locations in North America, including Central City Opera at 8,500 feet, Aspen Mountain at around 11,000 feet, and working as a professor at the University of Wyoming at 7,200 feet. I took this acclimatization for granted until I moved to Lawrence, Kansas in 2007 for my position at the University of Kansas.
As I commuted back and forth to perform in Central City Opera and Boulder Philharmonic from an 800 foot elevation, I became markedly aware of the effect elevation had on my playing. As I began reading up on the specific altitude considerations for classical wind players, I became aware of a dearth of information for my specific group. I began interviewing not just amazing clarinetists who work at higher elevations but also pulmonologists, hang gliders, mountaineers, ultramarathoners, Olympians, mountain bikers, coaches, triathletes, researchers, and nutritionists, and publishing on the topic. I also included freedivers, who teach us so much about breathing and relaxation.
As I went through these interviews and used much of the information in my own conditioning and training for performances and also climbs, I found that so much of what made me better as a mountaineer and runner also transferred to my performance at more typical elevations. This was very important, since often I had to ascend 8,000 feet in a single day and play a concert that night. Not only did this knowledge help my higher elevation playing, but it also helped me feel stronger, more prepared, calmer, and more accurate in typical concert settings, for example a recital or orchestra concert at sea level. And so, The Ultramusician was born. This book project combines interviews from these amazing medical and athletic experts and also my own research to teach us how to play better at higher elevations but also to use those lessons for our daily life as musicians.
What we do as musicians really is athletic. Even though we are using smaller muscles, we are still under enormous pressure and push our bodies and minds to full capacity. And whereas athletes will practice their careers for 10-20 years, our careers often span 50-60, with little to no support. This project is not only about playing at higher elevations if we need and want to, but optimizing our typical concert experiences. And it about helping us live longer, perform longer, and stay healthier as classical musicians.
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