11/6/2009
GARY DEMUTH
Gordon Wilder was half asleep, so he didn’t recognize the curly-headed man wandering around backstage at the Wheeler Opera House.
It was barely 8 a.m., and Wilder, a production manager at the concert facility in Aspen, Colo., didn’t expect anyone to be in the theater at that early hour.
But the curly-headed man was talking with the Wheeler’s executive director, so Wilder walked up and introduced himself.
“I asked the guy who he was, and he said, ‘I’m Art Garfunkel,’ ” Wilder said. “I didn’t recognize him. He could have been offended, but he wasn’t. He was the nicest guy, a real regular guy.”
It was March 2008 and Garfunkel, famous as part of the legendary 1960s folk-rock duo Simon and Garfunkel, was in Aspen to perform a solo concert at the Wheeler Opera House.
Later than evening, when Garfunkel performed with a 14-piece orchestra, it was magic, Wilder said.
“His voice was still strong, even at our altitude (8,000 feet above sea level),” Wilder said. “I was a singer for many years, and I know there’s less air here and that makes it harder to stay on pitch. It takes about three weeks to get acclimated to the air, and (Garfunkel) was worried about it.
“But when he sang ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water,’ he hit every high note. He still has that angelic voice.”
Garfunkel will be singing at a much lower altitude Sunday when he performs at the Stiefel Theatre for the Performing Arts, 151 S. Santa Fe.
There are about 500 tickets still available for the concert, said Jane Gates, Stiefel Theatre executive director. The theater seats 1,280.


Read more about Art Garfunkel in Saturday's Salina Journal.