STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Sun Valley Music Festival aims to fill nearly every night of your week ahead.

It kicks it off with tonight’s Evening with Ravel followed by a Lawn Party featuring DJ BearSkinRug.

Then, acclaimed French cellist Gautier Capucon will take the stage with a Pops Night featuring Latino dance music to follow.

TUESDAY, Aug. 12

Gautier Capucon will play Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor. Hailed as Elgar’s final masterpiece it was influenced by the devastating impact of World War I on the composer’s psyche. Modern audiences have seen parts of it played in the movie “Tar” and Netflix’s “Wednesday.”

Preceding it will be “Tumblebird Contrails,” which composer Gabriella Smith said was inspired by a moment listening to the hallucinatory sounds of the Pacific Ocean while watching ravens playing in the wind.

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 13

The Festival Orchestra will perform Brahm’s Fourth Symphony, a symphony filled with beautiful tunes and waves of romantic emotion that some say is the very embodiment of the symphonic ideal. The finale features 32 variations over a repeating bass line.

THURSDAY, Aug. 14

Gautier Capucon returns to join five members of the Festival’s string section as they perform Franz Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major. Often called the “Cello Quintet,” it is scored for an extra cello instead of the extra viola that is more usual in string quartets.

It has been called sublime and extraordinary with bottomless pathos and is considered one of the greatest compositions in chamber music.

SATURDAY, Aug. 16

Conductor Jacomo Bairos will return to Sun Valley to conduct Pops night—a program inspired by Latin dance music. Sun Valley audiences may remember Bairos from when he conducted The Villalobos Brothers in 2021.

The program will feature jazzy takes on recognizable tunes that will have picnickers forsaking their charcuterie to dance in the aisles.

Joining Bairos will be pianist Joachim Horsely, bass player Luca Alemanno, percussionist Yonathan Gavidia and drummer Murphy Aucamp.

The free concerts start at 6:30 p.m. at the Sun Valley Pavilion. Attendees may opt for a seat inside, or they may spread out a blanket and enjoy cheese and wine outside while watching the concert on the giant screen with state-of-the-art sound.

Pre-concert talks begin at 5:45 p.m. at the Pavilion lawn bar.