It's summertime, and the classical musicians have all disappeared. No, it's not a classical music-specific alien body snatching situation. It's just that they're all at music festivals! Because we miss them, we've decided to follow the musicians to a different fest each summer. This year, we head to the Aspen Music Festival! In our four-show miniseries, we'll be interviewing festival leaders and musicians.

In this, the second episode of our miniseries, we spoke with pianist and awesome person, Orli Shaham. We find out what she's up to in Aspen, and she teaches us about music by living composers that is inspired by Brahms.

Music in this episode (all from Orli Shaham's CD, "Brahms Inspired"): – Johannes Brahms – Op. 118 (Intermezzo in A major) – Bruce Adolphe – My Inner Brahms (an intermezzo) – Avner Dorman – After Brahms (Allegro con molto appassionato) – Arnold Schoenberg – Six little piano pieces, Op. 19 – Brett Dean – Hommage a Brahms (Engelsflugel 1) – Johannes Brahms – Op. 119 (Intermezzo in B minor – Adagio)

Orli Shaham. Photo by Christian Steiner. Courtesy of the artist's website.

Audio production by Todd "The Great Toddsby" Hulslander with green lights from Dacia Clay and editing by Mark DiClaudio.

For more about Orli Shaham: www.orlishaham.com For more about the Aspen Music Festival: www.aspenmusicfestival.com