BY KAREN BOSSICK

Upbeat with Alasdair is headed to the matinees.

Sun Valley Music Director Alasdair Neale will host two special Upbeat with Alasdair conversations during this summer’s Sun Valley Music Festival.

The first, at noon Thursday, Aug. 1, at The Community Library, will feature Neale in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-finalist composer Andy Akiho and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler. The festival commissioned Akiho, a multiple Grammy nominee, to write a concerto for Zeigler, former cellist with the Kronos Quartet.

Ziegler, considered one of the most innovative and versatile cellists of our times, will join the other two in discussing the creative process ahead of the world premiere on Aug. 2.

The second, at noon Friday, Aug. 9, will allow Neale to examine why Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony still resonates 120 years after the Austro-Bohemian composer signed off on it.

Alma Mahler wrote that the symphony was her husband’s most personal work “and also a prophetic one.” Nicknamed the “Tragic Symphony” by the composer himself, he wrote it following an exceptionally happy time in his life, having married his wife a couple years earlier and celebrating the birth of their first daughter while writing the symphony.

But in 1907 both of the Mahlers’ daughters contracted scarlet fever and diphtheria and one died. At the same time Mahler learned his heart was defective—a diagnosis his wife called a virtual death sentence, even though he would survive four more years before succumbing to bacterial endocarditis, a disease that people with defective heart valves are prone to.

“We’re going to have both Andy and Jeffrey here during at that time so Alasdair thought, ‘Why not have a conversation with them about how you compose a cello concerto?” said Derek Dean, executive director of the Sun Valley Music Festival. “Since Andy wrote it with Jeffrey in mind, he thought we should explore the collaboration between the composer and the artist.

“Mahler’s Sixth Symphony is such a tremendous piece of work that Alasdair thought: Why not look at that piece, as well?” Dean added.

Both talks are free, but tickets are required to see them in person.

Seats may be reserved beginning 9 a.m. Thursday, July 25, by emailing info@svmusicfestival.org. The event will also be broadcast on the Festival’s website and YouTube channel. Reservations are not required to watch them online.