BY KAREN BOSSICK
The Sun Valley Music Festival is preparing a return to a hundred live musicians performing for in-person audiences this summer.
But the talk of the town so far has been of a mountain lion who apparently was so anxious for the season to get started that he began wandering around the Sun Valley Symphony Pavilion just after workers raised a new canopy on the Pavilionfor the 2021 season.
The 37th annual summer season, which kicks off July 26 and runs through Aug. 19, will feature 14 admission-free concerts, along with a gala fundraiser concert featuring Grammy Award-winning superstar violinist Joshua Bell. Tickets to that event will help keep the remainder of the summer’s concerts free.
Tickets for donors at the $1,250 level and above will go on sale at 9 a.m. June 23 at 208-622-5607. Tickets for the public will go on sale at 9 a.m. July 7 at www.svmusicfestival.org. General admission seating on the lawn will also be available.
The Festival has invested in upgrades to the lawn sound system allowing the sound crew to tune the sound to match the size of the ensemble on stage.
There also will be a tribute to frontline health care workers on Aug. 2.
Seating protocols for the lawn and Pavilion will be determined closer to the start of the season, based on health guidelines in place at that time. But the Festival hopes to seat the Pavilion at 100 percent capacity.
The Festival engaged the services of 9 Foundations, Inc., a company founded by Dr. Joe Allen, associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, for advice on best practices for a safe reopening. It doesn’t hurt that the concerts take place in a well-ventilated outdoor venue, last only an hour and 15 minutes and that the community has a very high level of vaccination.
Reopening at full capacity will allow the Festival to offer reserved seating to donors, in addition to welcoming members of the community into the Pavilion.
2021 SUMMER SEASON DETAILS
Opening Night
Monday, July 26, 2021, 6:30 PM
Festival Chamber Orchestra
Alasdair Neale, Conductor
Vadim Gluzman, Violin
Smith: The Star-Spangled Banner
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major, K. 216
Haydn: Symphony No. 104 in D Major, “London”
Appalachian Spring and the Prague Symphony
Tuesday, July 27, 2021, 6:30 PM
Festival Chamber Orchestra
Alasdair Neale, Conductor
Copland: Suite from Appalachian Spring for 13 Instruments
Mozart: Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K. 504, “Prague”
Gluzman in Recital with Festival Musicians
Thursday, July 29, 2021, 6:30 PM
Recital
Vadim Gluzman, Violin
Peter Henderson, Piano
Juliana Athayde, Violin
Adam Smyla, Viola
Joen Vasquez, Viola
Amos Yang, Cello
David Premo, Cello
Stravinsky: Suite Italienne for Violin and Piano
Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence for String Sextet
Beethoven’s “Eroica”
Saturday, July 31, 2021, 6:30 PM
Festival Chamber Orchestra
Alasdair Neale, Conductor
Sameer Patel, Conductor
Beethoven: Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55, “Eroica”
Celebrating Frontline Heroes
Monday, August 2, 2021, 6:30 PM
Festival Orchestra
Alasdair Neale, Conductor
A special tribute to the heroes in healthcare, education, transportation, food service, social work, and emergency services who worked so hard to improve our lives these last two years.
Gala Concert with Joshua Bell
Wednesday, August 4, 2021, 6:30 PM
Festival Orchestra
Alasdair Neale, Conductor
Joshua Bell, Violin
Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy
Tchaikovsky: Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 35
Memories and Reflections: Mazzoli, Mozart, and Brahms
Thursday, August 5, 2021, 6:30 PM
Festival Orchestra
Alasdair Neale, Conductor
Sameer Patel, Conductor
Jason Shafer, Clarinet
Mazzoli: These Worlds In Us
Mozart: Concerto in A Major for Clarinet and Orchestra, K. 622
Brahms: Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn, Op. 56a
The American Experience
Saturday, August 7, 2021, 6:30 PM
Festival Orchestra
Alasdair Neale, Conductor
Julia Bullock, Soprano
Florence Price: Ethiopia’s Shadow in America
Jessie Montgomery: Five Freedom Songs (World Premiere; co-commissioned by Sun Valley Music Festival, San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony, New Haven Symphony, Grand Teton Music Festival, Kansas City Symphony, and Virginia Arts Festival)
Copland: Lincoln Portrait
Mahler Symphony No. 4
Monday, August 9, 2021, 6:30 PM
Festival Orchestra
Alasdair Neale, Conductor
Julia Bullock, Soprano
Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G Major
Edgar M. Bronfman String Quartet
Tuesday, August 10, 2021, 6:30 PM
Chamber Concert
Jeremy Constant, Violin
Polina Sedukh, Violin
Adam Smyla, Viola
Amos Yang, Cello
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110
Mozart: String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465, “Dissonance”
Alisa Weilerstein Plays Schumann
Thursday, August 12, 2021, 6:30 PM
Festival Orchestra
Alasdair Neale, Conductor
Sameer Patel, Conductor
Alisa Weilerstein, Cello
Higdon: blue cathedral
Schumann: Concerto in A Minor for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 129
Pops Night and Lawn Party with the Villalobos Brothers
Saturday, August 14, 2021, 6:30 PM
Festival Orchestra
Jacomo Bairos, Conductor
Villalobos Brothers
Post-concert: Lawn Party—¡Fiesta de baile!
Joyce Yang Plays Rachmaninoff
Sunday, August 15, 2021, 6:30 PM
Festival Orchestra
Alasdair Neale, Conductor
Sameer Patel, Conductor
Joyce Yang, Piano
Smetana: The Moldau from Má Vlast [My Fatherland]
Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 2 in C Minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 18
Brahms’s Magnum Opus
Tuesday, August 17, 2021, 6:30 PM
Chamber Concert
Peter Henderson, Piano
Erin Schreiber, Violin
Shawn Weil, Violin
Cassandra Lynne Richburg, Viola
Bjorn Ranheim, Cello
Brahms: Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34
Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony
Thursday, August 19, 2021, 6:30 PM
Festival Orchestra
Alasdair Neale, Conductor
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64