After last summer’s hiatus, the Sun Valley Music Festival will return, in person, for its 37th summer season at the Sun Valley Pavilion. The largest admission-free classical music festival in the U.S., the Sun Valley Music Festival features over a dozen concerts as well as outreach and educational events during its summer season, this year taking place from July 26 to August 19.
“It’s just about the best feeling in the world,” says Festival Music Director Alasdair Neale of preparing for the in-person upcoming season. “No matter what happens, just gathering together and making live music in Sun Valley is an incredibly joyful thing to imagine.”
One highlight of this season is the world premiere of American composer Jessie Montgomery’s “Freedom Songs,” a commission by the Sun Valley Music Festival that will be led by Neale and the Festival Orchestra.
Other festival highlights include a Tribute to Frontline Workers on August 2, a Latin-inspired pop night with the Villalobos Brothers followed by a lawn party and other fun guest artists including Vadim Gluzman, Julia Bullock, Joyce Yang, and cellist and MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow Alisa Weilerstein. Renowned violinist Joshua Bell returns to the Pavilion to headline the Gala fundraising concert on August 4. “These are all just part of the world-class artists we’re able to attract as part of our repertoire,” says Neale.
As part of their education initiative, the Sun Valley Music Festival Music Institute provides summer programs for grades 2 to 12 to study orchestral instruments, voice and piano as well as an Advanced Chamber Program for college undergraduates and exceptional high school students to study piano, strings and voice.