STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTOS COURTESY SUN VALLEY MUSIC FESTIVAL

Time for Three will be back. The orchestra will play Grammy-nominated composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Three Latin American Dances for Orchestra.” Broadway music director and conductor Andy Einhorn will lead a Pops Night featuring familiar and fun works from film and Broadway.

And the Sun Valley Music Festival’s summer season will conclude with Richard Strauss’s “Alpine Symphony,” a piece that showcases the grandeur of Sun Valley’s mountains but is seldom heard on the classical music festival circuit because of the 18 horns needed to pull it off.

“We are delighted to present once again a series of orchestral and chamber performances of the highest caliber from an all-star orchestra and top-notch soloists, free of charge, all in a setting of breathtaking beauty," said Festival Music Director Alasdair Neale.

The festival will feature 14 admission-free concerts, as well as a gala fundraising concert, between July 24 and August 18 at the outdoor Sun Valley Pavilion. Providing the music: More than 100 world-class musicians from the San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Houston Symphony and other North American orchestras.

The lineup:

July 24--A patriotic season opener will feature Jessie Montgomery's "Banner," a rhapsody on the traditional "Star Spangled Banner," and Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto with pianist Orion Weiss. "Emperor" Is one of the most famous piano concertos ever written.

July 26--Principal cellist Amos Yang will perform Tchaikovsky's "Rococo Variations" In a program featuring the lighter side of Tchaikovsky and Schubert.

July 28: Orion Weiss will headline a chamber recital featuring music by Schubert and Schumann.

July 29--Tenor Nicholas Phan will perform works by Britten and Ravel that were inspired by poems and fairytales. It will include Britten's "Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings" and Ravel's "Ma Mere/Oye' (Mother Goose).'

Aug. 2--The opening full orchestra performance will feature an evening of Beethoven that starts with his grand "Leonore Overture No. 3" and concludes with his cheerful "Pastoral" sixth symphony with its sonic imitations of birdcalls, a burbling brook, a terrifying summer thunderstorm and a shepherd's song.

Aug. 4--Brahms's Piano Concerto will pair the Festival Orchestra with Daniil Trifonov, whom The Times of London has called "the most astounding pianist of our age." The gargantuan Piano Concerto No. 2 Is the longest and most difficult piano concerto In the standard repertoire.

Aug. 6--Principal trumpet player Andrew McCandless will perform John Estacio's "Trumpet Concerto" with the orchestra, which will also perform Manuel de Falla's Andalusian folk-Inspired "The Three-Cornered Hat" and Jose Pablo Moncayo's foot-stomping "Huapango," which has become known as Mexico's unofficial national anthem.

Aug. 8--The orchestra will perform the lovely and too-rarely-heard first symphony by British composer Edward Elgar.

Aug. 9--Avery Fisher Prize-winning violinist Leila Josefowicz will return to Sun Valley to perform Stravinsky's violin concerto. The evening will include works by Lili Boulanger and Tchaikovsky's "Capriccio Italien," which was inspired by catchy tunes the composer heard on the streets of Rome.

Aug. 11--The Festival's resident string quartet Edgar M. Bronfman Quartet will play Haydn's lively  "Quartet Op. 76" and Brahms's String Quartet No. 2, which Is full of Hungarian themes.

Aug. 13--Time for Three, a genre-defying string trio, will perform Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts's "Contact," which was co-commissioned by the Festival. Gabriela Lena Frank's "Three Latin American Dances for Orchestra" will finish off the evening. Both composers are considered two of the most prolific voices of our time.

Aug. 14--Broadway music director and conductor Andy Einhorn will lead Pops Night. Themed "the Best of Americana," it will feature the Armed Forces Medley followed by familiar and fun works from Broadway, film and beloved composers. Attendees are Invited to dance the night away following the concert with a lively performance on the Pavilion lawn for the Festival's third Lawn Party.

Aug. 16--A Hornucopia concert featuring 16 of the finest horn players In North America will feature  arrangements of lively classical, jazz and rock 'n roll songs.

Aug. 18--The finale will be a blast with 18 horns and a massive size orchestra performing Richard Strauss's "Alpine Symphony." Sit back and envision a day spent hiking In the Alps--or the Sawtooths--with musical illustrations of forests, brooks, a waterfall, meadows, pastures, glacier and a humongous storm (no doubt caused by climate change).

The horns will be joined by an organ, wind machine, thunder sheet and a heckelphone, which is a rare double reed instrument with a heavy, penetrating tone born in 1904 into the oboe family.

GALA CONCERT

Details for the concert, which in the past has featured such performers as Audra McDonald, Joshua Bell and Kristin Chenoweth, will be released in mid-February.

SUN VALLEY MUSIC FESTIVAL MUSIC INSTITUTE

The Music Institute, now In Its 25th year, will provide programs for most orchestral Instruments, voice and piano Aug. 1-5 for students In second grades through 12th.

College undergraduates and exceptional high school students studying piano, strings and voice can participate In the Advanced Chamber Program July 25-Aug. 6.

Guest artists who will work with the students Include pianists Daniil Trifonov and Orion Weiss and vocalist Nicholas Phan.

Registration Is now open at https://www.svmusicfestival.org

HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS

Seating and attendance protocols will be determined closer to the start of the Summer Season based on local health guidelines In place at that time.