Yuja Wang Blends Classical Precision With Latin Grooves at Beaver Creek

Aspen —The air inside the Beaver Creek Music Pavilion hums with a specific kind of anticipation. It’s not just the static charge of an empty hall waiting for bodies. It is the tuning of strings and the testing of brass against high-fidelity acoustics designed for a different breed of performer.

Yuja Wang is not used to sharing the stage with this many amplifiers. She is a classical pianist. Her world is usually one of Steinway grand pianos and silence between notes.

On July 23, that silence broke. Wang took the stage with People of Earth, a Latin-Caribbean jazz collective. The tour launched in Montreal but hit the Western Slope with a sound that refuses to stay in its lane.

This is not a standard classical recital. It is not a typical jazz set either. It is a collision of genres that forces the audience to listen differently.

Gabriel Globus-Hoenich launched People of Earth in New York City in 2017. He rooted the group in timba and salsa but pulled threads from hip-hop, gospel, and Brazilian MPB. The musicians come from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Greece, and Switzerland. They sing in Spanish, English, Portuguese, and Kreyol.

Their mission is social change through groove-driven music. That sounds like a press release buzzword until you hear the volume.

The full lineup is loud. Three vocalists. Four horns. Three percussionists. Two keyboards. Electric bass.

This tour strips that down slightly, but not much. Wang performs with Globus-Hoenich on percussion. Trumpeters Raul Rios and Jesus Ricardo hold down the brass section. Violinist Ruben Rengel adds a layer rarely heard in this configuration. Percussionist and vocalist Ivan Llanes rounds out the core.

Ahmed Alom provides musical direction from the keyboards and synthesizers. He has known Ricardo since they were 12 years old. That history shows in the music.

“For this tour, we wanted to get a chamber music feeling as much as possible,” Globus-Hoenich said. “The thing about our music and our instruments is there’s a lot of amplification. It can get quite loud. It’s not designed so much for the classical concert hall.”

That is the crux of the local story. Beaver Creek’s venues are built for classical precision. They absorb sound rather than project it. People of Earth pushes back against that absorption.

Globus-Hoenich noted that the group usually does not perform with a violinist. In this configuration, it works perfectly. Rengel’s versatility bridges the gap between acoustic classical purity and electric Caribbean heat.

Alom wrote the music specifically for these instruments. He knows how to make them shine regardless of genre. Each musician gets their moment. One trumpeter sings. The other plays jazz. It is a fascinating team dynamic.

Locals who bought tickets expecting a quiet evening with Wang might find themselves nodding along to rumba rhythms. The cost of admission buys more than just a performance. It buys an education in cultural fusion.

The short version: The sound is big. The acoustics are challenged. The result is a richer, louder experience than the venue typically provides.

Wang does not shy away from it. She leans into the amplification. She lets the horns cut through her piano lines. The audience feels it in their chests, not just their ears.

This matters for Beaver Creek. It signals a shift in what the community values. We are no longer satisfied with pure, isolated art forms. We want them mixed. We want the noise.

The tour continues to move westward. But for now, the message is clear in the valley: Classical music can be loud. And it should be.