BY KAREN BOSSICK

Pianist Jon Kimura Parker will headline the Sun Valley Music Festival’s sixth Winter Season festival in March.

This year’s Winter Season will focus on “The Romance of Brahms” and will also feature string musicians from the Sun Valley Music Festival Orchestra.

Music Director Alasdair Neale curated two different programs.

The programs include Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 4 in F Minor, a set of 21 lively dance tunes that is among Brahms’s most popular works.

They also will feature Quintet No. 1 in F Major, which Brahms called one of his finest works; Trio No. 1 in B Major and the technically demanding “Handel Variations,” which features 25 variations based on a theme from George Frideric Handel’s Harpsichord Suite No. 1.

“To give our audiences as much music as possible, we’re offering--for the first time--two different programs, each performed twice," said Neale. "I love Brahms because, like few others in the musical Pantheon, he channels the human condition perfectly.  Sorrow, joy, humor, pathos--it’s all there in the notes. And no matter how often you listen to it, there’s always more to explore and learn from.”

• The first program will be presented March 6 and 8.

  It will feature the Hungarian Dance and Intermezzo in A Major played by Parker, the winner of the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition and creative partner of the Minnesota Orchestra and artistic advisor of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival.

  That program will also feature Quintet No. 1 in F. Mayor played by violinists Vivek Jayaraman and Amy Glidden, viola players Joen Vasque and Elizabeth Prior and cellist Si-Yan Darren Li. Finally, it will feature Trio No. 1 in B Major played by violinists Jeremy Constant, cellist Amos Yang and pianist Jon Kimura Parker.

• The second program will be presented March 7 and 9.

It will feature Jon Kimura Parker playing Selections from Variations on a Theme by Handel. Violinist Erin Schreiber will join Parker on Sonta no. 3 in D Minor.

Sextet No. 2 in G. Major will be played by violinists Juliana Athayde and Kristin Ahlstrom, viola players Marylene Gingras-Roy and David Gaudry and cellists Born Ranheim and Louis-Philippe Robillard.

All of the two-hour concerts will be presented at 7 p.m.

Alasdair Neale will hold a conversation with Jon Kimura Parker during a free “Upbeat with Alasdair” at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 5, at The Community Library. The conversation will be livestreamed on the Music Festival’s website.

Attendance for the Winter Season concerts is free, but reservations are required. Those who have given $6,000 or more to the Festival may reserve seats beginning 9 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 31, by calling the Festival office at 208-622-5607.

The general public may request reservations online at https://www.svmusicfestival.org beginning at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 7.

Each household may reserve two seats for each unique concert.

Beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase at The Argyros.

DID YOU KNOW?

Festival musicians will visit schools during the Winter Season to present demonstrations, master classes and coaching.