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Sun Valley Music Festival Enjoys More John Williams Music and a Higher Lawn Screen
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Sunday, July 28, 2024
 

BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sun Valley Music Festival musicians will take on a challenging John Williams score when they perform the music to “Raiders of the Lost Ark” as the movie is screened at the Sun Valley Pavilion this summer.

And those who watch the film from the Pavilion lawn will have better viewing, thanks to a screen that’s higher than it has been in the past.

“Last year the screen was lower than we had hoped because of the discrepancy in the original engineering drawings,” said Derek Dean, executive director of the Sun Valley Music Festival. “So, we went to some effort this year working with Sun Valley Resort and with RLB Architecture and we were able to raise the screen pretty significantly so it’s quite a bit higher than last year.”

The Music Festival used a pulley system to move the motors to the back of the screen so it can go all the way up to the top of the poles, and the resort allowed the festival to lower the ground at the same time. Now the screen sits 10.5 feet above ground on the side closest to the Pavilion and 8 feet, 3 inches on the side farthest from the Pavilion.

“It’s safer because no one will hit their head and everyone has a better view,” said Dean. “No one wants to be sitting on the couch watching TV when somebody stands up and walks in front of them. We worried that when it was lower that people moving around on the lawn might block somebody’s view. Now, that’s less likely to happen.”

The screen will get its first test at 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 29, when the Sun Valley Summer Symphony opens its month-long summer season with Meechot Marrero, a young Puerto Rican star who will sing numerous songs and arias. She will return on Aug. 1 to sing Schubert’s “The Shepherd on the Rock.”

“Meechot Marreo took part in our gala performance of ‘Carmina Burana’ in 2022. It was a tiny part so she came all the way out here for a few days and sang less than 10 minutes. So, Alasdair said, ‘Why don’t we bring Meechot back because everybody loved her and we got so little of her. We asked her: What are some of your favorite things you might like to sing? So, we’re going to be performing those—it’s always nice to let an artist do something they love.”

Dean has been wanting to bring cellist Yo-Yo Ma to the Sun Valley Music Festival since Dean took over as executive director in 2013. He reached out to Ma’s management within months of arriving in Sun Valley and finally scored a three-way collaboration with symphony organizations in Kalispell, Mont., and Jackson, Wyo., to get Ma to come for the Sun Valley Music Festival’s Gala Performance on Aug. 5.

“It’s a long way to fly from Massachusetts to Sun Valley for 37 minutes of music. But making a round trip from Massachusetts to Kalispell to Sun Valley to Jackson makes sense,” said Dean. “His music is stunning, otherworldly. When he plays, I feel I’m in the presence of some kind of genius. The sound that he  produces, the emotion he conveys is unlike anything else. I’ve seen him several times and met him in person. He’s a generous, kind, extraordinarily friendly man and a wonderful artist.”

Other guest artists include Garrick Ohlsson, a pianist who is renowned for his interpretations of Chopin. Ohlsson, who won first place in the Warsaw Chopin piano competition in the 1970s, will play several  Chopin pieces on Aug. 20 and return to perform Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” with the Festival Orchestral on Aug. 22.

“We didn’t think he could come because he was booked for concerts in Poland. But it ended up that he was traveling to the West Coast that week so we figured why not have him spend three days with us in a sort of layover,” Dean said. “We said: Can you come early and play your favorite Chopin playlist? And, as it turns out, it’s the first time the Sun Valley Music Festival has had a solo piano recital. We are so fortunate to have him.”

On Aug. 2 the Sun Valley Music Festival will perform the world premiere of a piece composed by Andy Akiho for the Festival with cellist Jeffrey Zeigler in mind.

“Alasdair has the task of conducting a piece for the first time, which is interesting because there’s no recording on YouTube to listen to for guidance. So, he’s listening to it in his head as he reads the score,” said Dean. “Similarly, the musicians will be learning and performing something they never seen and never heard and they will play it for the first time.”

That piece is one of two world premiere’s the Festival Orchestra will perform, the other being a fanfare written by Timothy Higgens for the 40th anniversary season. That will lead off the opening night on July 29.

“Everybody’s amazed that it’s been 40 years,” said Dean. “Some tell us they’ve been with us the entire time—that they were there for the first concert in Elkhorn. It’s amazing that the symphony has lasted all these years. When Carl Eberl and his wife Julianne founded it, it had no guarantee it would survive—they famously had to use two cars as collateral to borrow the money to pay the musicians the first time.”

The Eberls would probably be amazed to see the 11,000-plus people expected to attend the live performance of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” conducted by Vinay Parameswaran on Aug. 17.

A fully lit LED screen to compensate for the fact that it’s still light outside will be rented and hung inside the Pavilion. It will take a day to hang it and get it working and another day to take it down so there will be no concert the day before or the day after. Musicians’ stands will be lighted to keep it dark on stage.

“John Williams’ music is very difficult, very hard, so the orchestra will need two days of rehearsals. And. with movie scores, the music never stops so there’s always music in the background,” said Dean. “In a normal concert musicians play two or three pieces and there’s a break. Movie music just goes and goes and goes. It’s hard on the musicians because they have very few breaks, very little time to do any correcting in the moment, so they need the extra rehearsal time.”

There are a hundred movies available now for orchestras to play along with.

“Everybody loves John Williams—last year’s Pops Concert featuring John Williams music drew a record crowd of 11,000. So, we thought about doing ‘The Empire Strikes Back.’ But we did’ Star Wars’ the last time around and there’s a lot of the same music in ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ ” said Dean. “There was new movie out with Indiana Jones last year that was pretty popular so that made us think maybe we should do the original’ Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Last Ark.’ It’s a nice gift for the community on our 40th anniversary.”

The Sun Valley Music Festival—the largest admission-free classical music festival in the nation--drew an estimated 55,000 fans last year, in part due to a growing interest in the Chamber Music recitals, which now sometimes feature two dozen musicians on stage.

Chamber music concerts have attracted as many as 3,000 people in the past couple years—a far cry from the 400 they were limited to at the Church of the Big Wood.

“We used to do the concerts at the Church of the Big Wood, but we moved to the Pavilion because of COVID,” said Dean. “We found the audiences were so large that we couldn’t go back inside where we could only seat 400.”

The Sun Valley Music Festival starts July 29 and runs through Aug. 22 in the Sun Valley Pavilion. All performances start at 6:30 p.m. and all are free with the exception of Yo-Yo Ma’s Gala Performance, which helps fund the other concerts.

Opening Night

Monday, July 29

Alasdair Neale, conductor

Meechot Marrero, soprano

Timothy Higgins: Fanfare – Commissioned by the Sun Valley Music Festival – World Premiere

Select songs

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25, “Classical Symphony”

 

Festival Chamber Orchestra

Tuesday, July 30

Alasdair Neale, conductor

Juliana Athayde, violin
Stephanie Childress, conductor

Piazzolla/Desyatnikov: The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

Mozart: Symphony No. 36 in C Major, K. 425, "Linz"

 

Chamber Concert

Thursday, August 1

Meechot Marrero, soprano
Susan Warner, clarinet
Peter Henderson, piano
Milana Elise Reiche, violin
Chris Tantillo, viola
Emileigh Vandiver, cello
Stephen Tramontozzi, bass

Schubert: The Shepherd on the Rock

Schubert: Quintet for Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, and Piano in A Major, D. 667, Op. 114, “Trout”

 

Festival Chamber Orchestra

Friday, August 2

Alasdair Neale, conductor

Jeffrey Zeigler, cello

Andy Akiho: Concerto for Cello – Co-Commissioned by the Sun Valley Music Festival – World Premiere

Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks

 

Festival Orchestra

Sunday, August 4

Alasdair Neale, conductor

Stephanie Childress, conductor

Williams: Olympic Fanfare and Theme

Johann Strauss, Jr.: On the Beautiful Blue Danube

Wagner/Hutschenruyter: The Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre

Rossini: Overture to William Tell

Ravel: Boléro

 

Festival Orchestra — Gala Benefit Concert

Monday, August 5

To be announced

 

Chamber Concert

Wednesday, August 7

Sir Stephen Hough, piano
Jeremy Constant, violin
Polina Sedukh, violin
Adam Smyla, viola
Amos Yang, cello

Cécile Chaminade: Étude de concert, Op.35, No. 2, “Automne”

Sir Stephen Hough: Sonatina Nostalgica

Dvořák: Quintet No. 2 in A Major for Piano, Two Violins, Viola, and Cello, Op. 81

 

Festival Orchestra

Thursday, August 8

Alasdair Neale, conductor

Sir Stephen Hough, piano

Alex Orfaly, timpani
Gabriela Ortiz: Antrópolis

Grieg: Concerto in A Minor for Piano, Op. 16

 

Festival Orchestra

Sunday, August 11

Alasdair Neale, conductor

Mahler: Symphony No.6 in A Minor, “Tragic”

 

Festival Orchestra

Tuesday, August 13

Alasdair Neale, conductor

Stephanie Childress, conductor
Jeremy Constant, violin
Amos Yang, cello
Peter Henderson, piano

Jessie Montgomery: Strum

Beethoven: Concerto in C Major, Op.  56, “Triple”

 

Festival Orchestra

Wednesday, August 14

Alasdair Neale, conductor

Leonidas Kavakos, violin

Quinn Mason: A Joyous Trilogy

Brahms: Concerto in D Major for Violin, Op. 77

 

Festival Orchestra — Pops Night

Saturday, August 17

Vinay Parameswaran, conductor

Williams: Raiders of the Lost Ark Live in Concert

 

Festival Orchestra

Monday, August 19

Alasdair Neale, conductor

Stephanie Childress, conductor
Jonathan Dimmock, organ

Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Op. 33a

Saint-Saëns: Symphony No.3 in C Minor, Op.78, “Organ Symphony”

 

Chamber Concert

Tuesday, August 20

Garrick Ohlsson, piano

Chopin:  Nocturne in F Major, Op. 15, No. 1

Chopin:  Nocturne in B Major, Op. 9, No. 3

Chopin:  Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60

Chopin:  Fantaisie in F Minor, Op. 49

Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat Major, Op. 29

Mazurka in C-sharp Minor, Op. 50, No. 3

Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 31

 

Festival Orchestra

Thursday, August 22

Alasdair Neale, conductor

Garrick Ohlsson, piano

Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43

Respighi: The Pines of Rome

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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