Events

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.

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.

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.

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.