STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Symphony lovers can reserve their seats for the Sun Valley Summer Symphony’s inaugural Winter Festival starting at 10 a.m. today—Monday, Dec. 17.

Seats are free, but reservations are encouraged since seating will be limited. Reservations may be made online at www.svsummersymphony.org. Two seats will be allotted per household.

The upcoming Winter Festival will begin with an invitation-only “Friends and Family Night” on Thursday, Feb. 21, at the new Argyros Performing Arts Center in Ketchum. It will open to the general public on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 22 and 23.

Performances begin at 6:30 p.m. and a limited number of rush seats will be released at 6 p.m. for those who line up at the entrance to the Argyros. Guests with reservations must be checked in by 6:15 p.m., as unclaimed sets will be released at that time.

The same program will be performed each evening. Each performance will last at about 8:45 p.m. There will be two intermissions during which audience can purchase food and beverages that may be taken into the theater.

“We’re very excited to perform at the Argyros,” said the symphony’s executive director Derek Dean. “We’ve designed the program to exploit the full capabilities of the state-of-the-art acoustics the Argyros will offer, and we hope it creates a new and different experience of classical music for our audience.”

Alasdair Neale, the symphony’s music director, said audiences will see familiar faces from the orchestra, as well as some new ones. They’ll hear a couple familiar pieces and they’ll hear one that he’s pretty sure almost no one has heard.

“And for another, I’m putting pen to manuscript paper to create something pretty special!” he added.

In addition to the performances, musicians and guest artists will work with students from the Symphony’s School of Music during the week. There will be a private concert and discussion for students and a session focused on the technology behind the festival.