Bravo! Vail Music Festival has named a Philadelphian composer as its new artistic director

After nearly four decades of leadership by instrumentalists, the Bravo! Vail Music Festival has named a composer as its chief artistic voice.

Chris Rogerson, a Philadelphian and Curtis Institute of Music professor, will take over as artistic director of the summer festival in the Rocky Mountains this September, Bravo Vail! leaders announced Thursday.

“This is a bold choice for our festival,” said Bravo Vail! president and CEO Caitlin Murray. “He’s a composer and that’s a change from a performing artist, and I don’t think you see that in a lot of places.”

Murray said the applicant pool of about 30 was at a high artistic level, but that with Rogerson’s knowledge of the repertoire and “enthusiasm for what we can continue to build and, frankly, his personality, we felt he was the right fit.”

Rogerson was also appealing for the generational shift he brings to the job, Murray said.

“It’s aligning ourselves with the new generation, new voices in the industry. He represents that fully.”

Rogerson, 37, was born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., and earned degrees from Curtis, the Yale School of Music, and Princeton University. He studied composition with Jennifer Higdon, Aaron Jay Kernis, Martin Bresnick, and Steve Mackey. He has received commissions from the orchestras of Atlanta, Milwaukee, and San Francisco, and co-founded New York new music presenter Kettle Corn New Music.

Vail’s current artistic director is pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, and before her was flutist Eugenia Zukerman. Curtis violin professor Ida Kavafian was founding artistic director of the festival, which began in 1987.

As artistic director, Rogerson will help to guide decisions about artists, repertoire and artistic projects. He said he was looking forward to developing more collaborations. The festival started with chamber music, and then began hosting visiting orchestras.

Most recently, Vail has added opera. In 2019, it staged its first-ever opera — Puccini’s Tosca performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 2024, it presented La bohème, also with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

“One of the things that’s exciting for me is the opportunity for cross-disciplinary collaboration,” said Rogerson, citing photographers and filmmakers as possible future artistic partners.

Of the Philadelphia Orchestra — which has been one of the festival’s resident orchestras since 2007 — Rogerson said it was too soon to talk about future projects, but “we’re going to meet with them soon. I’m sure we’ll have lots of great collaborative ideas.”

Rogerson is not totally helpless in the instrumental department.

“I play piano and cello,” he said, “and like to say I’m a nonpublic player.”