35 mm color slide taken by filmmaker Marty Stouffer (b. 1948) during the filming of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television special "John Denver: Music in the Mountains," 1980. The photograph depicts members of the Aspen Festival Orchestra carrying prop instruments to a performance site on Independence Pass, Colorado. Prop instruments were used because it was feared that real instruments might be damaged by the high altitude.
"John Denver: Music in the Mountains" (1981) was a production of Jon-Jer Productions. It was filmed in Aspen in 1980 and aired on ABC on April 24, 1981. Directed by Walter C. Miller and produced by Mark Stouffer, it featured Denver performing with guests opera singer Beverly Sills, flutist James Galway, and violinist Itzhak Perlman, along with the Aspen Festival Orchestra, conducted by Lee Holdridge.