BY KAREN BOSSICK
Renowned pianist Yuja Wang, known for her “fearsome fortissimo,” will perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 at the Sun Valley Music Festival’s 2025 Gala Concert.
Wang will perform with Music Director Alasdair Neale and the world-class Sun Valley Music Festival orchestra at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6, at the Sun Valley Pavilion.
Wang is celebrated for her charismatic artistry, emotional honesty and captivating stage presence. She has performed with the world’s most venerated conductors, musicians and ensembles and is renowned not only for her virtuosity, but her spontaneous and lively performances, famously telling the New York Times, “I firmly believe every program should have its own life, and be a representation of how I feel at the moment.”
Hers is the only ticketed concert of the summer symphony season, helping to raise money to keep the remainder of the three-week summer season free and provide tuition-free musical education.
Audience members can experience Wang’s artistry inside the 1,600-seat Pavilion or from the lawn with its state-of-the-art sound system and newly enlarged LED screen.
Ticket prices range from $100 to $1,500 for sponsor packages.
Ticket holders at the $300 level and above will enjoy a 5 p.m. pre-concert cocktail reception on the Terrace of the Sun Valley Lodge and reserved preferred seating in the Pavilion.
All Sponsor Package ticket holders are invited to an 8 p.m. post-concert dinner at the Trail Creek Cabin Pavilion at Sun Valley Resort where they will have the opportunity to meet Yuja Wang and have a photo taken with her, while enjoying dinner music provided by Sun Valley pianist Alan Pennay and Festival Musicians.
They also will enjoy VIP parking, premium reserved concerts seats and the pre-concert cocktail reception.
Reserved Pavilion seats at $125 and $100 are also available. General admission lawn tickets are available for $100.
Gala sales open to the public at 9 a.m. Wednesday, April 9. Annual Fund donors of $1,250 and above and Encore Society members will have the opportunity to purchase Gala tickets early, with further information provided by email.
Tickets are available online at https://www.svmusicfestival.org/ or by phone at 208-622-5607. Sponsor Package tickets are available only by phone; lawn tickets are available online only.
Yuja Wang was born into a musical family in Beijing, her father being a percussionist and her mother a dancer. She began studying piano at 6 and went on to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.
She began receiving advanced training in Canada after entering a music festival in Calgary, Alberta, at 11 as the festival’s youngest student. That year she also won third place in the Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists in Germany.
At 15 she began studying at the Curtis Institute of Music, a private conservatory in Philadelphia, under Gary Graffman who said he was impressed by the intelligence and good taste of her musical interpretations.
Her international breakthrough came in 2007, when she replaced Martha Argerich as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Two years later, she signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and has since established her place among the world’s leading artists, with a succession of critically acclaimed performances and recordings. She was named Musical America’s Artist of the Year in 2017, and in 2021 received an Opus Klassik Award for her world-premiere recording of John Adams’ Must the Devil Have all the Good Tunes? with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel.
As a chamber musician, Wang has developed long-lasting partnerships with several leading artists. This season, Wang embarks on a highly-anticipated international duo recital tour with pianist Víkingur Ólafsson with performances in world-class venues across North America and Europe, which will once again showcase her flair, technical ability and exceptional artistry in a wide-ranging program.
Her skill and charisma were recently demonstrated in a marathon Rachmaninoff performance at Carnegie Hall alongside conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Philadelphia Orchestra. This historic event celebrating 150 years since the birth of Rachmaninoff, included performances of all four of his concertos plus the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in one afternoon. The 2022/23 season also saw Yuja perform the world premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and further performances of the work throughout North America and Europe across the season.
After her 2011 Carnegie Hall debut, a New York Times reviewer wrote of her “rippling left-hand figures and dreamy melodic lines performed with delicacy, poetic grace and attention to inner musical details.”
“She is,” wrote Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle, “quite simply the most dazzlingly uncannily gifted pianist in the concert world today.”
She was featured in Rimowa’s campaign “Never Still,” alongside LeBron James. And she is a brand ambassador for such brands as Rolex and Estee Lauder.
The Sun Valley Music Festival, now in its 41st year, is the largest privately supported, free-admission classical music festival in the United States. It brings together more than 100 of the top musicians from North America’s most distinguished orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Past guests have included Yo-Yo Ma, Audra McDonald, Joshua Bell and Kristin Chenoweth.
The Music Festival also offers year-round and summer programs providing tuition-free instruction for string, piano and voice students from elementary through high school.
The 2025 summer symphony seasons runs from July 28-Aug. 21 with a Latin-inspired Pops Night, “An Evening with Richard Strauss,” and such guest artists as Gautier Capucon, Time for Three, Gabriela Martinez and Olga Kern.