Sun Valley Music Festival

Upbeat with Alasdair: Season Overview: You Won't Want to Miss a Note
2025-07-25 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Denver) | ID
This summer, the Music Festival offers music spanning nearly 250 years, from 1784 (Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 80) to 2025 (Mason Bates’s Silicon Hymnal, completed earlier this year). While the combination of Time for Three and Mason Bates will likely draw a large (if not HUGE) crowd, there are some other new(ish) works this season that might not generate so much attention. Join Maestro Neale for a discussion highlighting several hidden gems in the coming programs – pieces you may not have heard, but that are more than worthy of your listening time.
Admission is free. Space is limited; reservations are required to attend in person. Reservations open to the public on Monday, July 14
Viewers can enjoy the talk in person at the Community Library lecture hall (415 Spruce Ave, Ketchum) or broadcast live on the Festival’s website. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. (MT). The presentation begins at 11:00 a.m. (MT).
Admission is free. Space is limited. Reservations are required to attend in person and begin Monday, July 14 at 9:00 a.m. through The Community Library’s calendar.

July 25 – https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/13825521

Capacity is unlimited for the online broadcast and reservations are not required to watch online. Only in-person attendees will be able to participate in the Q&A session that will take place towards the end of the presentation.

Opening Night with Gabriela Martinez
2025-07-28 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466
Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385, “Haffner”

For recommended listening, please click here.

The Festival’s 41st season opens with an evening of Mozart. Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez, described by The New York Times as “compelling…versatile, daring, and insightful,” performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20. It’s probably his most famous concerto, as it’s a delight end to end, and it accompanies the final scene and end credits of the 1984 film Amadeus. The program continues with Mozart’s equally popular “Haffner” Symphony. Full of exuberant life, it moves from a fiery and forceful opening, through an easygoing and peaceful middle, to a final movement that Mozart wrote should go “as fast as possible.” Alasdair Neale and the Festival Orchestra accept the challenge!

Haydn and Stamitz
2025-07-29 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Carl Stamitz

Viola Concerto in D Major, Op. 1
Joseph Haydyn
Symphony No. 80 in D Minor

For recommended listening, please click here.

Stephanie Childress leads the orchestra in Haydn’s Symphony No. 80. It’s not as famous as many of his other symphonies, but not for any good reason—it’s a lovely work that is stormy at times, light-hearted and even funny at others. Not “LOL” funny, but classical music funny—defying expectations with little twists of melody and form. Carl Stamitz probably wrote his viola concerto for himself, as he was a virtuoso violist. Festival Principal Viola Adam Smyla will tackle this bright, lively, and altogether enjoyable showcase for his instrument to open the concert.

Gabriela Martinez and Festival Musicians Play Brahms
2025-07-31 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Johannes Brahms

Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25

For recommended listening, please click here.

Pianist Gabriela Martinez joins with several Festival Orchestra musicians to perform Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G Minor. Clara Schumann played the piano part at this piece’s premiere in 1861, which was fortunate since it’s often described as “stupendously virtuosic.” The piece met with instant acclaim, lauded for both its innovative structure—which launches straight into a number of variations on the first theme—and its incredible finale, which was written “in the gypsy style,” according to Brahms’s own description. Ms. Martinez will open this concert with Caroline Shaw’s Chopin-inspired Gustave le Gray.

Beethoven 4 and Anna Clyne
2025-08-01 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Anna Clyne

Within Her Arms
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60

For recommended listening, please click here.

In between two of the most famous classical works ever written (his third and fifth symphonies), Beethoven produced this gem of a composition. Light, airy, and approachable, it certainly warrants more love; Schumann called it “a slender Greek maiden between two huge Nordic giants.” Can a piece of music be mournful and elegiac, somber and grieving, while also exquisitely beautiful, even radiant, and full of life? Give a listen to Anna Clyne’s ode to her mother, Within Her Arms, and see what you think.

Advanced Chamber Music Interim Recital
2025-08-02 16:00, 2026-08-01 16:00 | Community School Theater, 1 Community School Drive, Sun Valley, ID, 83353, United States
Featuring select ensembles and solos

Advanced Chamber Music Pop-Up Performance
2025-08-02 17:00 - 18:00 | Ketchum Town Square, Ketchum, 83340, United States
Hear students from the Advanced Chamber Program in a special pop-up performance.

Time for Three Plays Mason Bates
2025-08-04 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Hector Berlioz

Roman Carnival Overture
Mason Bates
Silicon Hymnal (Co-commissioned by the Sun Valley Music Festival)

For recommended listening, please click here.

Sun Valley favorites Time for Three return to perform a new concerto written for them by Mason Bates. Titled Silicon Hymnal, Bates describes it as “an electro-acoustic book of songs.” The program opens with Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture, an exuberant piece full of dance themes inspired by the composer’s time in Italy and the best themes from his first opera.

Soloist Recital
2025-08-06 16:00 - 17:00, 2026-08-05 16:00 - 17:00 | Community School Theater, 1 Community School Drive, Sun Valley, ID, 83353, United States
Students from the one-week summer program for grades 2-12 who are selected by audition present previously prepared works showcasing their individual talents.

2025 Gala Concert: SIMPLY EXTRAORDINARY...Yuja Wang
2025-08-06 18:30 - 20:00 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Wednesday, August 6, the Sun Valley Music Festival announces that renowned pianist Yuja Wang will be the featured guest artist of its 2025 Gala Concert. Yuja Wang’s appearance at the Festival’s only fundraising concert will provide an unforgettable evening of music. One of today’s most acclaimed pianists, she will perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Music Director Alasdair Neale and the world-class Sun Valley Music Festival Orchestra.

Upbeat with Alasdair: Celebrating Ravel – His Enduring Legacy
2025-08-07 11:00 - 12:00 | ID
The Music Festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel’s birth with a special concert on Sunday, August 10. While Ravel never embraced the label of “Impressionist,” he certainly became famous for music that evokes images through music. He was also a master orchestrator, crafting soundscapes of exquisite sensitivity and – to many listeners – instantly recognizable as his own. In this edition of Upbeat, Maestro Neale discusses Ravel’s enduring appeal and offers some listening hints for the upcoming concert.
Viewers can enjoy the talk in person at the Community Library lecture hall (415 Spruce Ave, Ketchum) or broadcast live on the Festival’s website. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. (MT). The presentation begins at 11:00 a.m. (MT).
Admission is free. Space is limited. Reservations are required to attend in person and are now available on The Community Library’s calendar.

August 7 : https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/13825533

Capacity is unlimited for the online broadcast and reservations are not required to watch online. Only in-person attendees will be able to participate in the Q&A session that will take place towards the end of the presentation.

Small Ensemble Recital
2025-08-07 16:00 - 17:00, 2026-08-06 16:00 - 17:00 | Community School Theater, 1 Community School Drive, Sun Valley, ID, 83353, United States
Students from this summer’s programs for grades 2-12 share their work from the week in small ensembles.

Schumann, Beethoven, and Márquez
2025-08-07 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Arturo Márquez

Danzon No. 2
Ludwig van Beethoven
Romance No. 2 in F Major, Op. 50
Robert Schumann
Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 120

For recommended listening, please click here.

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Stephanie Childress leads Schumann’s powerful and dramatic Symphony No. 4, a great example of Romantic (and romantic) music. It’s full of emotion, ranging from darkly brooding and mysterious to tender and melancholic. Schumann’s form is intricate and innovative, with the four movements fused together and various themes reappearing throughout. Also in a romantic vein, Principal Second Violin Polina Sedukh performs Beethoven’s Romance No. 2 with the Festival Orchestra, her violin singing the lovely melody. The concert opens with Arturo Márquez’s Danzon No. 2, a rhythmic and hypnotic dance tune made famous by its appearance in Mozart in the Jungle.

Afternoon Pavilion Concert
2025-08-08 15:00 - 17:00, 2026-08-07 15:00 - 17:00 | ID
Featuring intermediate and beginning students and ensembles
Prelude String Orchestra
Prelude Choir
Concert Choir
Piano duets and woodwind and brass ensembles
Philharmonia Orchestra

Evening Pavilion Concert
2025-08-08 18:30, 2026-08-07 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Featuring advanced students and ensembles
Chamber Singers
Advanced Chamber Orchestra
Sun Valley Youth Orchestra

Advanced Chamber Group
2025-08-09 11:00 - 12:00 | St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 201 Sun Valley Rd, Sun Valley, ID, 83353, United States
This concert features string and piano students from the Advanced Chamber Program performing in small ensembles.

Opera Workshop Performance
2025-08-09 14:00, 2026-08-08 14:00 | Sun Valley Opera House, 1 Sun Valley Road, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353
This concert features vocal and piano students from the Advanced Chamber Program performing staged opera scenes and piano ensembles.

An Evening of Ravel followed by Lawn Party
2025-08-10 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Maurice Ravel
Excerpts from Miroirs
Valses Nobles et sentimentales
Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2

For recommended listening, please click here.

Here’s an all-Ravel program in honor of the great composer’s 150th birthday. The concert opens with two of Ravel’s Miroirs, pieces he dedicated to avant-garde artists who were also his friends. Next up: a set of seven waltzes and an epilogue under the title Valses nobles et sentimentales. Ravel acknowledged Schubert as his inspiration, but there’s no mistaking Ravel’s distinctive sound and elegant orchestration. The evening concludes with Stephanie Childress conducting Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2. Stravinsky called it “not only Ravel’s best work, but also one of the most beautiful products of all French music.” Sit back, relax, and let the arrival of dawn wash over you.

Gautier Capuçon Plays Elgar
2025-08-12 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Gabriella Smith
Tumblebird Contrails
Edward Elgar
Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85

For recommended listening, please click here.

What do the movie Tár and the Netflix show Wednesday have in common? Key characters playing Elgar’s cello concerto! Hailed as Elgar’s final masterpiece, it’s a gorgeous but not particularly happy work (would Wednesday Addams play anything remotely happy?) influenced by the devastating impact of World War I on the composer’s psyche. Gautier Capuçon returns to Sun Valley to deliver this hauntingly beautiful music. Stephanie Childress opens the concert with Tumblebird Contrails, a piece the composer Gabriella Smith says was “inspired by a single moment sitting in the sand at the edge of the ocean, listening to the hallucinatory sounds of the Pacific, watching a pair of ravens playing in the wind.”

Brahms Symphony No. 4
2025-08-13 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 4 in E Minor

For recommended listening, please click here.

Fans of Beethoven may bristle at the suggestion, but there’s a sizable contingent that views Brahms’s Fourth Symphony as the very embodiment of the symphonic ideal. Precisely constructed, it displays Brahms’s absolutely mastery of the form. Filled with beautiful tunes and waves of romantic emotion, it also remains steadfastly earnest, even austere. Brahms recognized this quality, writing from his mountain retreat near Vienna that his symphony “tastes of the climate here. The cherries don’t ripen in these parts; you wouldn’t eat them!” Pay particular attention to the finale, a masterful homage to one of Bach’s chaconnes—a stately dance with 32 variations over a repeating bass line. It’s brilliant.

Gautier Capuçon and Festival Musicians Play Schubert
2025-08-14 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Franz Schubert
String Quintet in C Major, Op. posth. 163

For recommended listening, please click here.

Written in the last year of his life, Schubert’s String Quintet is often considered his greatest (and was his last) chamber work. He chose to add a cello, rather than a viola, to the traditional string quartet, and the result is a wonderful exploration of the instrument’s capabilities. At times the second cello reinforces the bass line, at other times it soars into its highest range, and at one point the two cellos play a lovely duet. The great cellist Gautier Capuçon joins with several Festival Orchestra musicians to bring this magnificent piece to life.

Festival Orchestra Pops Night: Latin-Inspired Dance Music with Jacomo Bairos
2025-08-16 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Lawn Paver Bar

For recommended listening, please click here.

Conductor Jacomo Bairos returns to Sun Valley (he previously conducted The Villalobos Brothers in 2021) with a program inspired by Latin dance music. Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Miami’s Nu Deco Ensemble, Bairos is known for merging classical music with a wide range of styles, composers, and artists. For Pops Night, Bairos has assembled a group including Joachim Horsley (piano), Luca Alemanno (Bass), Yonathan “Morocho” Gavidia (percussion), and Murphy Aucamp (drums). Their program will feature jazzy takes on recognizable tunes as well as impossible-to-resist Latin dance songs that will have you tapping your feet or perhaps dancing in the aisles (and on the lawn!).

Olga Kern Plays Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2
2025-08-17 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Reena Esmail
Testament

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18

For recommended listening, please click here.

Home to some of the most popular and recognizable tunes in classical music, Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto was an instant success and remains one of the most-performed orchestra pieces today. It will be in good hands (apologies) with Olga Kern, who won first prize at the Rachmaninoff International Piano competition at age 17 and remains the only woman to win the Gold Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in the last 50 years. The concert opens with Reena Esmail’s Testament, which features traditional Hindustani melodies and easily demonstrates why Esmail’s music is receiving so much play these days.

Olga Kern and Festival Musicians Play Beethoven
2025-08-18 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Presto in E Minor from Six Moments Musicaux, Op. 16, No. 4
Charles Lysberg
Spinning Wheel
Moritz Moszkowski
Étincelles [Sparks] from Eight Characteristic Pieces, Op. 36, No. 6
Claude Debussy
Feux d’artifice (Fireworks] from Préludes
Alexander Scriabin
Andante in F-sharp Major from Eight Etudes, Op. 42, No. 4
Affannato [Breathless] in C-sharp Minor from Eight Etudes, Op. 42, No. 5
Sergei Prokofiev
Presto energico from Four Etudes, Op. 2, No. 4
Ludwig van Beethoven
Trio in D Major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 70, No. 1, “Ghost”

For recommended listening, please click here.

Olga Kern opens this program with a series of light, short, and speedy pieces for solo piano. Following, she joins with Festival musicians for Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D Major, which got the nickname “Ghost” because of its ominous and spooky middle movement. It’s eerie, mournful, and almost painfully slow. In contrast, the two movements that surround it are short, cheerful and light-hearted, making for an interesting spooky sandwich. George Bernard Shaw wrote of Beethoven that “he could write music whose beauty will last you all your life; he could take the driest sticks of themes and work them up so interestingly that you will find something new in them at the hundredth hearing.” Listen and enjoy the simple “sticks” of themes in the very beginning of both outer movements.

Season Finale: An Evening of Richard Strauss
2025-08-21 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Richard Strauss
Death and Transfiguration, Op. 24
Suite from Der Rosenkavalier”

For recommended listening, please click here.

The Summer Season concludes with two pieces from Richard Strauss: his tone poem Death and Transfiguration and the suite from his opera Der Rosenkavalier. Tone poems are compositions that relate to stories in the “real world,” such as a hike in the alps in Eine Alpensinfonie. This one explores mystery of death and what lies beyond. Strauss wrote: “It occurred to me to present in the form of a tone poem the dying hours of a man who had striven towards the highest idealistic aims, maybe indeed those of an artist.” Der Rosenkavalier gives us the finest music from Strauss’s happy, funny, and sentimental opera. Listen for the famous waltz towards the end – a beautiful but also funny bit because waltzes didn’t really exist during the time of the opera’s setting in Mozart’s Vienna. Critics of the day gave Strauss a hard time for that, but we get to enjoy it.

Upbeat with Alasdair– A Conversation with Violinist Benjamin Beilman
2026-03-18 17:30 - 18:30 | The Community Library, John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall, 415 Spruce Avenue, Ketchum, ID, 83340, United States
Join Music Director Alasdair Neale and guest curator and violinist Benjamin Beilman for a conversation as they prepare for the Music Festival’s upcoming Winter Season concerts at the Argyros. Praised for his passionate performances and distinctive tone — described by The New York Times as “muscular with a glint of violence” — Beilman is an accomplished chamber musician. He and Maestro Neale will discuss this Winter Season’s concert program along with other artistic topics.
On Wednesday, March 18, 2026, at 5:30 PM, the Music Festival will present “Upbeat with Alasdair” featuring Alasdair Neale and Benjamin Beilman in conversation. The event will be held at The Community Library in Ketchum and livestreamed on the Music Festival’s website.
Admission is free. Space is limited; reservations are required to attend in person. Reservations open to the public through The Community Library’s calendar at https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/15583152 on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, at 9:00 AM (Mountain Time).
Viewers can enjoy the talk in person at the Community Library lecture hall (415 Spruce Ave, Ketchum) or broadcast live on the Festival’s website. Doors open at 5:00 p.m. (MT). The presentation begins at 5:30 p.m. (MT).

2026 Winter Season: Featuring Benjamin Beilman in Concert With Alasdair Neale and Festival Musicians
2026-03-19 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-03-20 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-03-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Argyros Performing Arts Center, 120 Main St South, Ketchum, ID, 83340, United States
The 2026 Winter Season features guest curator and violinist Benjamin Beilman. Praised for his passionate performances and distinctive tone — which The New York Times described as “muscular with a glint of violence” — Mr. Beilman last performed with Music Director Alasdair Neale and the Festival Orchestra in 2018, playing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. An accomplished chamber musician, he’ll join forces with Festival Orchestra musicians.
Alasdair Neale, Music Director and Conductor
Benjamin Beilman, Curator and Violin
GABRIELLA SMITH
Sanguineum

Solo violin: Benjamin Beilman
AARON COPLAND
Suite from Appalachian Spring (original version for 13 instruments)

Conductor: Alasdair Neale
Flute: Catherine Payne
Clarinet: Jerry Simas
Bassoon: Tariq Masri
Piano: Peter Grunberg
Violin: Jeremy Constant, Erin Schreiber, Mayumi Masri, Alicia Yang
Viola: Adam Smyla, Chris Tantillo
Cello: Amos Yang, Eric Gaenslen
Double Bass: Stephen Tramontozzi
JOHN ADAMS
Road Movies

Violin: Benjamin Beilman
Piano: Peter Grunberg
ANTONIO VIVALDI
Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons), Op. 8, Nos. 1 – 4
Solo Violin: Benjamin Beilman
Violin: Jeremy Constant, Erin Schreiber, Mayumi Masri, Alicia Yang
Viola: Adam Smyla, Chris Tantillo
Cello: Amos Yang, Eric Gaenslen
Double Bass: Stephen Tramontozzi
Harpsichord: Jonathan Dimmock

Admission is free, but space is limited, and reservations are required.

Public reservations begin Wednesday, February 18 at 9:00 AM (Mountain Time).
Reserved seats are limited to two per household for one of the three performances
Festival donors at the Patron ($6,000) level and up may make concert reservations early, beginning Wednesday, February 11 at 9:00 AM (Mountain Time), by calling the Festival office at 208.622.5607.

Attending winter performances

Concerts will take place at 7:00 PM from Thursday, March 19 through Saturday, March 21 at the Argyros Performing Arts Center in Ketchum.
Doors open 30 minutes before each performance.
Performance duration will be about two hours and includes one intermission.
Beer, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase.

Click here for complete attendance details, including information about the performance venue and your concert experience. Parking details and helpful information about getting to the concerts can be found by clicking here.

Opening Night with Orion Weiss
2026-07-27 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

John Stafford Smith
The Star-Spangled Banner
Gioachino Rossini
Overture to La scala di seta (The Silken Staircase)
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15

Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is actually the second one he composed – scholars speculate that he chose to publish it first in order to knock the socks off his Viennese audience. He almost certainly accomplished that: in 1798, this would have been the biggest concerto ever performed in terms of orchestra size, and the piano cadenza in the first movement alone is incredible. Orion Weiss brings this brilliant, virtuosic, and playful piece to life with the Festival Chamber Orchestra. A miniature masterpiece by Gioacchino Rossini (of Barber of Seville fame) opens the program–the festive overture to his opera The Silken Staircase.

Alasdair’s take on the program:
While Beethoven’s 3rd, 4th, and 5th piano concertos are performed more frequently, the 1st is no less brilliant; It’s sometimes inventive, sometimes soulful, and frequently witty.

Childress Conducts Beethoven
2026-07-28 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Benjamin Britten
Simple Symphony, Op. 4
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21

As one might expect, Beethoven’s first symphony follows many of the traditions and “rules” inherited from Haydn and Mozart–the symphonic masters of the day. Even so, Beethoven’s unique voice and defiance of the expectations of his time shine through in many ways—starting with the opening chord (which dodged the symphony’s C Major key that audiences would have expected) and continuing through an unusually slow introduction to the finale. Stephanie Childress begins the program with Britten’s Simple Symphony, an energetic and cheerful work whose movements include titles such as “Playful Pizzicato” and “Frolicsome Finale.”

Alasdair’s take on the program:
Beethoven’s first symphony was the first piece I ever conducted in public, when I was 15; I’m looking forward to being in the audience and seeing Stephanie Childress work her magic with this old favorite of mine.

Orion Weiss and Festival Musicians Play Tchaikovsky and Dohnányi
2026-07-30 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Theme and Variations in F Major, Op. 19, No. 6
Ernst von Dohnányi
Piano Quintet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 1

Pianist Orion Weiss opens this chamber concert with Tchaikovsky’s brilliant, technically demanding, yet often overlooked Theme and Variations. Inspired by French tunes, it showcases Tchaikovsky’s skill in taking a charming, graceful theme and creating eleven inventive variations ranging from melancholic to playful, while ending in a powerful finale. Following, Weiss joins Festival musicians for Hungarian composer Ernö Dohnányi’s first Piano Quintet, a work that received perhaps the highest phrase Brahms ever offered to another composer: “I could not have written it better myself.” Brahms even played the piano part in the piece’s first performance.

Alasdair’s take on the program:
Like many of you, I suspect, I’ll be hearing all of the music on this concert live for the very first time. But we’re in very good hands, and I know that my friends and colleagues on stage will create a magical evening of music for us all.

Strauss and Mozart
2026-07-31 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Richard Strauss
Metamorphosen, A Study for 23 Solo Strings
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, K. 543

Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen is a profoundly mournful and beautiful work; written for 23 strings in the final days of World War II, it is the composer’s lament for the destruction of, in his words, “Germany’s 2,000 years of cultural evolution.” Its concluding theme is a musical homage to the funeral march from Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony. Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 is the first of his final three great symphonies, one for which “refined elegance” might be an apt descriptor. It’s a rare treat for clarinet lovers: with oboes absent from Mozart’s score, the clarinets take on an unusually prominent role.

Alasdair’s take on the program:
This is a concert of darkness and light—Strauss’s Metamorphosen is a wounded cry from an old man surrounded by desolation and loss, while Mozart’s 39th symphony is bathed in a wonderful autumnal glow.

Upbeat with Alasdair– Alasdair Neale in conversation with composer Anna Clyne
2026-08-01 11:00 - 12:00 | The Community Library, John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall, 415 Spruce Avenue, Ketchum, ID, 83340, United States
This Upbeat with Alasdair features a conversation between Alasdair Neale and composer Anna Clyne. The Music Festival co-commissioned Clyne’s new work, Woman of the Mountain, and will perform it on August 3. Clyne describes the piece as “evoking the journey of an extraordinary woman immersed in the natural world, climbing toward a mountain’s summit in search of love.”
On Saturday, August 1, 2026, at 11:00 AM, the Music Festival will present “Upbeat with Alasdair” featuring Alasdair Neale and Anna Clyne in conversation. The event will be held at The Community Library in Ketchum and livestreamed on the Music Festival’s website.
Admission is free. Space is limited; reservations are required to attend in person. Reservations open to the public through The Community Library’s calendar on July 20.
Viewers can enjoy the talk in person at the Community Library lecture hall (415 Spruce Ave, Ketchum) or broadcast live on the Festival’s website. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. (MT). The presentation begins at 11:00 a.m. (MT).

Stravinsky’s Firebird and Anna Clyne’s Woman of the Mountain
2026-08-03 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Anna Clyne
Woman of the Mountain
Sun Valley Music Festival Co-Commission
Igor Stravinsky
Suite from The Firebird (1919 revision)

Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, written to accompany Diaghilev’s ballet, showcases the composer’s extraordinary orchestral imagination alongside Russian folk influences. By turns shimmering and eerie, the music unfolds with rich color and atmosphere, building with a slow-burning intensity toward one of classical music’s most thrilling finales.
Regarding Anna Clyne’s new orchestral work—co-commissioned by the Music Festival—the composer writes:
“Woman of the Mountain evokes the journey of an extraordinary woman navigating the forces of the natural world in a quest for love, as she ascends to a mountain’s summit.”

Alasdair’s Take on the Program:
It was hearing the massive thunderclap that launches the Infernal Dance in Stravinsky’s Firebird that made me realize I wanted to devote my life to music.

Childress Conducts Elgar
2026-08-04 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Bohdana Frolyak
Let There Be Light
Edward Elgar
Enigma Variations, Op. 36

Stephanie Childress returns to the podium to lead a concert featuring Elgar’s Enigma Variations. His best-known work, it starts off with a pensive four-note melody which Elgar then weaves into 14 variations. In each variation, he imagines how one of 13 of his friends might turn the theme into a different melody inspired in some way by their personality. The first variation is based on his wife, Alice, and the 14th and final variation is Elgar’s own. It’s an orchestral masterpiece.

Alasdair’s take on the program:
As Brits, Stephanie Childress and I grew up with Elgar’s Enigma Variations as an indispensable part of our cultural heritage—it contains the entire range of human experience in one half hour!

2026 Gala Concert: An Evening With Sutton Foster
2026-08-06 18:30 - 20:00 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
The Sun Valley Music Festival is excited to announce that Tony Award-winning Broadway star Sutton Foster will be the featured guest artist at its 2026 Gala Concert. Scheduled for Thursday, August 6, her appearance at the Festival’s only fundraising concert will provide an evening of unforgettable music. (Note: the Gala Concert will be August 6, not August 4 as previously announced.)

Upbeat with Alasdair– Brahms’s A German Requiem
2026-08-07 11:00 - 12:00 | The Community Library, John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall, 415 Spruce Avenue, Ketchum, ID, 83340, United States
In this edition of Upbeat with Alasdair, Alasdair Neale discusses Brahms’s largest composition, A German Requiem. Notwithstanding its title, Brahms’s Requiem is a work full of messages of comfort and hope. This summer, on August 9, the American Festival Chorus, featuring soprano Christina Pier and baritone Benjamin Appl, will join the Festival Orchestra to perform this this remarkable piece.
On Friday, August 7, 2026, at 11:00 AM, the Music Festival will present “Upbeat with Alasdair”, a talk in which Alasdair discusses Brahms’s Requiem. The event will be held at The Community Library in Ketchum and livestreamed on the Music Festival’s website.
Admission is free. Space is limited; reservations are required to attend in person. Reservations open to the public through The Community Library’s calendar on July 27.
Viewers can enjoy the talk in person at the Community Library lecture hall (415 Spruce Ave, Ketchum) or broadcast live on the Festival’s website. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. (MT). The presentation begins at 11:00 a.m. (MT).

Brahms’s A German Requiem
2026-08-09 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Johannes Brahms
Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem), Op. 45

For all its title suggests, A German Requiem is more balm than dirge, a work offering comfort and faith in the power of love. Instead of the traditional Latin, Brahms selected texts from the German Lutheran Bible (hence the title) that emphasize hope and healing, and he didn’t tie the piece to any particular nationality or religion. Doing the vocal honors are the American Festival Chorus, soprano Christina Pier, and baritone Benjamin Appl.

Alasdair’s take on the program:
Brahms’s stroke of genius in writing this work was to write it for the living, not the dead, and its humanity exudes from every pore.

Christina Pier and Benjamin Appl Sing Lieder
2026-08-10 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Clara Schumann
3 Lieder Op. 12
Franz Schubert
Selected Lieder
Robert Schumann
Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love), Op. 48

The soloists from Brahms’s German Requiem offer a recital of lieder (German songs) supported by the Festival’s Principal Keyboard Peter Henderson. Christina Pier’s selections include works by Franz Schubert and Clara Schumann. Benjamin Appl will sing Schumann’s Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love), a cycle of 16 short—sometimes only three lines—songs based on poems about love. It starts out happily enough, with visions of flowers and birds, but ends with the poet contemplating drowning his sorrows, his love, and his dreams in a coffin in the sea.

Alasdair’s take on the program:
Schumann’s Dichterliebe stands at the pinnacle of 19th Century song-writing, and its tale of love and loss will be sure to affect you deeply.

Alexander Malofeev Plays Prokofiev
2026-08-13 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Sergei Prokofiev
Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64
Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26

Prokofiev’s third piano concerto is the most performed of the five he wrote, and you’ll quickly understand why. He somehow manages to blend insanely quick and percussive piano-playing with lyrical melodies and exquisite harmonies. Pianist Alexander Malofeev, who won the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition at age 12, is the perfect soloist to bring this sparkling piece to life. The program opens with selections from Prokofiev’s beloved Romeo and Juliet.

Alasdair’s take on the program:
Last year I heard the brilliant young Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev in Paris and I rushed to bring him to Sun Valley as soon as possible—you won’t be disappointed!

Tan Dun’s Water Concerto
2026-08-14 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Tan Dun
Water Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra
Maurice Ravel
Rapsodie espagnole

One of the world’s leading composers, Tan Dun wrote that his Water Concerto was inspired by his childhood life along a river: “I transpose memories of beautiful laundry sounds, swimming sounds, water dancing sounds, and water popping sounds.” The Festival’s Principal Percussion Mark Damoulakis will bring water itself into the music using a variety of vessels. You might want to sit a few rows back. Next, Associate Conductor Euan Shields makes his Music Festival debut conducting Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole, a piece inspired by the composer’s Basque heritage that evokes Spain’s sights, sounds, and passions.

Alasdair’s take on the program:
It’s safe to say that in 40 years of concert-going in Sun Valley, there’s never been anything quite like Tan Dun’s Water Concerto. Prepare yourself for an immersive experience!

Festival Orchestra Pops Night: The American Songbook
2026-08-16 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Richard Hayman
Armed Forces Medley
Come Swing With Me!

Conductor, arranger, and composer Jeff Tyzik invites you to Come Swing With Me! Step back in time to the heyday of the 1950’s Las Vegas strip when the biggest names in show business ruled the room and a well-poured martini was always within reach. Tyzik will bring his own orchestral arrangements of some of the great standards, and the soulful crooner Paul Loren will take you on a musical journey highlighting iconic voices of the era, from Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin to Duke Ellington and Bobby Darin.

Alasdair’s take on the program:
What a fun evening this is going to be: great songs from a great era and something for everybody!

Gil Shaham plays Barber
2026-08-17 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Thomas Adès
Excerpts from Inferno (Dante Ballet – Part I)
Samuel Barber
Violin Concerto, Op. 14

Samuel Barber was a serious composer and a gifted orchestral craftsman perhaps best known for his cinematic Adagio for Strings. Equally lush and compelling, his violin concerto gained popularity for its lyrical and songful first two movements and completely virtuosic third. The great violinist Gil Shaham returns to Sun Valley to share this marvelous work with us. To open the concert, Euan Shields conducts several excerpts from Thomas Adès’s Inferno, whose passages vividly depict episodes in Dante’s journey through Hell.

Alasdair’s take on the program:
I’ve known Gil since I conducted him in the Julliard pre-college orchestra; even then I knew he was destined to be one of the greatest violinists of his generation.

Gil Shaham and Festival Musicians Play Beethoven
2026-08-18 18:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Maurice Ravel
Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet, and
String Quartet
Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quintet in A Major, Op. 47b, “Kreutzer”

Beethoven wrote a string quintet?? Though it was published after his death, scholars believe the great composer re-arranged his famous “Kreutzer” violin sonata into a quintet featuring two cellos. Full of fiery passion, it features demanding solo parts for each instrument. The program opens with Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet, and String Quartet, a piece commissioned by a harp company to show off its instruments. Yet while the harp shines brightly, this is ultimately a shared tapestry that showcases Ravel’s masterful orchestration.

Season Finale: Mahler’s Symphony No. 1
2026-08-20 18:30 - 19:30 | Sun Valley Pavilion, 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353, United States
Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 1 in D Major, “Titan”

The Festival’s Summer Season concludes with Mahler’s first symphony, whose monumental score demanded the largest orchestra ever assembled at the time. An epic narrative of struggle and triumph, it opens with the sounds of nature awakening, moves through dances, folk tunes, and a funeral march that twists “Frère Jacques” into something of a parody, and in the final movement pulls the audience into a heroic journey from despair to a glorious triumph. Watch out for some of Mahler’s tricks along the way–just when you think you might have arrived in heaven, things crash down only to begin the journey all over again!

Alasdair’s take on the program:
Mahler’s first symphony is a staggeringly original first foray into the genre, and it still packs an enormous punch nearly 140 years after its conception.
