Classical Voice North America: In A Sunny Vale Where Hemingway Sheltered, Free Concerts Resound
SUN VALLEY, Idaho — A couple of golden eagles wheeling across the sky offered a dramatic welcome during my inaugural visit to the Sun Valley Music Festival. Viewed on the drive into town from nearby Friedman Memorial Airport, these fabled messengers of Zeus complemented the stark majesty of Bald Mountain with their agile flight. The area’s most-prominent Rocky Mountain peak towers 9,150 feet into the heavens and has been beckoning serious ski lovers since the area was first promoted as a winter sport destination — part of a pioneering campaign by Union Pacific Railroad in the late 1930s.
“Baldy” and its less-elevated, ski beginner-friendly sibling Dollar Mountain stand guard over Sun Valley, forming an iconic backdrop to the Pavilion and adjacent lawn where the Sun Valley Music Festival each summer presents nearly a month’s worth of events. The Pavilion is situated alongside another Sun Valley landmark with powerful cultural associations: the storied Sun Valley Lodge, a linchpin in the aforementioned campaign, which has long been an attraction for literary pilgrims.
Classical Voice North America
By Thomas May
SUN VALLEY, Idaho — A couple of golden eagles wheeling across the sky offered a dramatic welcome during my inaugural visit to the Sun Valley Music Festival. Viewed on the drive into town from nearby Friedman Memorial Airport, these fabled messengers of Zeus complemented the stark majesty of Bald Mountain with their agile flight. The area’s most-prominent Rocky Mountain peak towers 9,150 feet into the heavens and has been beckoning serious ski lovers since the area was first promoted as a winter sport destination — part of a pioneering campaign by Union Pacific Railroad in the late 1930s.
“Baldy” and its less-elevated, ski beginner-friendly sibling Dollar Mountain stand guard over Sun Valley, forming an iconic backdrop to the Pavilion and adjacent lawn where the Sun Valley Music Festival each summer presents nearly a month’s worth of events. The Pavilion is situated alongside another Sun Valley landmark with powerful cultural associations: the storied Sun Valley Lodge, a linchpin in the aforementioned campaign, which has long been an attraction for literary pilgrims.
Read more here.
The Washington Post: Classical music festivals feature Mother Nature as accompaniment
For nearly 40 years, this admission-free festival has been attracting persnickety listeners and unpicky picnickers to Sun Valley, Idaho. Music Director Alasdair Neale has lined up strong guest artists, including pianist Orli Shaham (July 30 and Aug. 3); mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Aug. 9 and 10); Stéphane Denève, the new director of the New World Symphony, conducting a concert of John Williams’s music (Aug. 12); pianist Yefim Bronfman (Aug. 14); and violinist Augustin Hadelich (Aug. 20 and 21).
The Washington Post
By Michael Andor Brodeur
Sun Valley Music Festival
For nearly 40 years, this admission-free festival has been attracting persnickety listeners and unpicky picnickers to Sun Valley, Idaho. Music Director Alasdair Neale has lined up strong guest artists, including pianist Orli Shaham (July 30 and Aug. 3); mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Aug. 9 and 10); Stéphane Denève, the new director of the New World Symphony, conducting a concert of John Williams’s music (Aug. 12); pianist Yefim Bronfman (Aug. 14); and violinist Augustin Hadelich (Aug. 20 and 21).
Read more here.
Idaho Mountain Express: Sun Valley Music Festival gets down to 'brass' tacks
The odd, oft-misquoted adage, “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture” points out how useless it is to define music in words.
Sun Valley Music Festival (SVMF) Director Alasdair Neale disagrees. But, it takes someone as knowledgeable and eloquent as Neale to harness the transcendence of music through the English language. And, only a rare professional can explain complex theory to a gathering of curious ears.
That’s exactly what he does in his beloved “Upbeat with Alasdair” sessions at The Community Library. Anyone who has sat in the Sun Valley Pavilion during a bombastic SVMF concert on a summer night has likely wondered how the many parts make a coherent, often beautiful whole. What really goes on behind the curtain to bring all this magic together?
Idaho Mountain Express
By Joey Thyne
The odd, oft-misquoted adage, “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture” points out how useless it is to define music in words.
Sun Valley Music Festival (SVMF) Director Alasdair Neale disagrees. But, it takes someone as knowledgeable and eloquent as Neale to harness the transcendence of music through the English language. And, only a rare professional can explain complex theory to a gathering of curious ears.
That’s exactly what he does in his beloved “Upbeat with Alasdair” sessions at The Community Library. Anyone who has sat in the Sun Valley Pavilion during a bombastic SVMF concert on a summer night has likely wondered how the many parts make a coherent, often beautiful whole. What really goes on behind the curtain to bring all this magic together?
Read more here.
BBC Music Magazine: Musical Destination: Sun Valley, Idaho
This summer Charlotte Smith attended Sun Valley’s acclaimed Music Festival, where she discovered a region of unrivalled, rugged beauty.
Flying into Friedman Memorial Airport, the gateway to Sun Valley, is a truly dazzling experience. The Bald and Dollar Rockies slowly rise up to dominate the skyline – and if you’re lucky enough to be touching down during a summer sunset, the pink- and orange-hued sky above the sparsely populated pine-covered landscape is a wonder to behold.
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For classical music lovers, however, the biggest draw is the Sun Valley Music Festival – the largest privately funded admission-free classical music festival in the US, boasting Summer and Winter seasons, online broadcasts and a Music Institute catering for local school children and budding professionals with tuition-free initiatives and masterclasses.
BBC Music Magazine
By Charlotte Smith
This summer Charlotte Smith attended Sun Valley’s acclaimed Music Festival, where she discovered a region of unrivalled, rugged beauty.
Flying into Friedman Memorial Airport, the gateway to Sun Valley, is a truly dazzling experience. The Bald and Dollar Rockies slowly rise up to dominate the skyline – and if you’re lucky enough to be touching down during a summer sunset, the pink- and orange-hued sky above the sparsely populated pine-covered landscape is a wonder to behold.
Sun Valley is a resort city in Blaine County, Idaho – and the name used colloquially for the larger surrounding region, including the neighbouring town of Ketchum and the Wood River Valley area, encompassing Hailey and Bellevue. It is largely famous as a skiing destination during the winter months: the slopes of ‘Baldy’ and Dollar provide the perfect combination of uninterrupted verticals for expert sportsmen and gentler inclines for beginners, all bathed in brilliant, cloud-free sunshine for much of the year. The summer months, too, offer ample activities for outdoor enthusiasts, including hiking, biking, fly-fishing, golf, horse riding, sport shooting – and ice skating on an open-air rink kept permanently chilled, even on days of over 40C.
But it’s not just sport that thrives here – literature and the arts have long been associated with the region. Hollywood royalty has frequently visited, including the likes of Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Lucille Ball and Marilyn Monroe – while Richard Dreyfuss, Clint Eastwood, Janet Leigh and Batman’s Adam West can be counted among its famous residents past and present. And, of course, there’s writer Ernest Hemingway, who bought a house in Ketchum, in which he lived for the final two years of his life.
For classical music lovers, however, the biggest draw is the Sun Valley Music Festival – the largest privately funded admission-free classical music festival in the US, boasting Summer and Winter seasons, online broadcasts and a Music Institute catering for local school children and budding professionals with tuition-free initiatives and masterclasses.
Read more here.
Photo credits: Caroline Woodham
Pianist Magazine: 3 Idyllic US Music Festivals to Attend This Summer
Pianist Magazine
We take a closer look at Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival and Sun Valley Music Festival
Summer is swiftly approaching, and with it comes the opportunity to take a road trip and enjoy music outdoors. The US is home to many summer festivals with robust offerings, but three in particular stand out for their idyllic settings and the spotlight they shine on the piano this season. The best news? With some planning, one could even make a journey out of it and attend all three for a summer to remember.
Read more here.
Bachtrack: Bach and Mendelssohn: Jennifer Koh and Vijay Iyer in a wintry Sun Valley
A festival appearance in Sun Valley, Idaho, put violinist Jennifer Koh in a number of spotlights over the long weekend of 24th-26th February. She served as curator for the winter Sun Valley Music Festival, crafting a program that repeated (with slight variation) in each of the four concerts, spanning centuries and celebrating a return to coming together in a common space.
Bachtrack
By Kurt Gottschalk
A festival appearance in Sun Valley, Idaho, put violinist Jennifer Koh in a number of spotlights over the long weekend of 24th-26th February. She served as curator for the winter Sun Valley Music Festival, crafting a program that repeated (with slight variation) in each of the four concerts, spanning centuries and celebrating a return to coming together in a common space. She also featured several of her own commissions and was featured soloist for the series.
That common space was a black box theater in the Argyros Performing Arts Center in the small town of Ketchum, a new and flexible room (opened in 2018) with beautiful lighting design and outfitted with a Meyer Constellation Acoustic System.
Read more here.
Strings Magazine: The Savannah and Sun Valley Music Festivals Ready the Stage for Live Concerts
As the largest admission-free classical music festival in the United States, Idaho’s Sun Valley Music Festival promises this year’s attendees a “massive orchestral repertoire as vast as Sun Valley’s mountainous setting.”
That’s a lofty promise but given the festival’s 37-year performance record, it’s a commitment that seems achievable over the three-week event. Kicking off in late July, the festival offers 14 concerts, a gala fundraising concert, and multiple educational events.
Strings Magazine
By Karen Peterson
Sun Valley Music Festival
As the largest admission-free classical music festival in the United States, Idaho’s Sun Valley Music Festival promises this year’s attendees a “massive orchestral repertoire as vast as Sun Valley’s mountainous setting.”
That’s a lofty promise but given the festival’s 37-year performance record, it’s a commitment that seems achievable over the three-week event. Kicking off in late July, the festival offers 14 concerts, a gala fundraising concert, and multiple educational events.
Read more here.
The Strad: Back to business: Postcard from Sun Valley
Following 2020’s Summer Season of broadcasts, this year’s Sun Valley Music Festival returned to free live performances, much to the delight of its thousands of fans, writes Laurence Vittes
Although the ski and summer resort area of Sun Valley, Idaho, is noted for the rich and famous celebrities who have been flocking here since the 1930s – from Ernest Hemingway and Marilyn Monroe to Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks and Matt Damon – it boasts a thriving cultural life, including the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference and Sun Valley Film Festival, and the brand new state-of-the-art Argyros Performing Arts Center. And then there is the 37-year-old Sun Valley Music Festival, led by music director Alasdair Neale, which draws 50,000 concertgoers annually to its free Winter and Summer Season events.
The Strad
By Laurence Vittes
Following 2020’s Summer Season of broadcasts, this year’s Sun Valley Music Festival returned to free live performances, much to the delight of its thousands of fans, writes Laurence Vittes
Although the ski and summer resort area of Sun Valley, Idaho, is noted for the rich and famous celebrities who have been flocking here since the 1930s – from Ernest Hemingway and Marilyn Monroe to Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks and Matt Damon – it boasts a thriving cultural life, including the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference and Sun Valley Film Festival, and the brand new state-of-the-art Argyros Performing Arts Center. And then there is the 37-year-old Sun Valley Music Festival, led by music director Alasdair Neale, which draws 50,000 concertgoers annually to its free Winter and Summer Season events.
After reinventing its 2020 Summer Season – with 14 original concert broadcasts brought to life by artists and production crews across North America – and receiving $2.8 million in donations to keep the concerts (including the Winter Season performances) free for everyone, the Summer 2021 Season came to full bloom as Covid-19 seemed to be retreating.
United Hemispheres: Take in Classical Music and Mountain Scenery at These Summer Festivals
While artists and venues have tried to make due with virtual performances over the past year, nothing can replace the shared thrill of an in-person concert. That goes not only for pop stars but for orchestras. With music festivals set to make a comeback this summer, here are three orchestral concert series that send world-class musicians onto stages with spectacular Rocky Mountain backdrops.
United Hemispheres
Thomas May
While artists and venues have tried to make due with virtual performances over the past year, nothing can replace the shared thrill of an in-person concert. That goes not only for pop stars but for orchestras. With music festivals set to make a comeback this summer, here are three orchestral concert series that send world-class musicians onto stages with spectacular Rocky Mountain backdrops.
Sun Valley Music Festival
Famous for attracting Hollywood royalty (Ernest Hemingway, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger), Sun Valley, Idaho, is also home to the largest admission-free classical music festival in the U.S…
Bravo! Vail Music Festival
Set at the base of Vail’s ski runs, the open-air Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater provides a beautiful setting for the Bravo! Vail Music Festival…
Grand Teton Music Festival
Returning for its 60th season, the Grand Teton Music Festival once again graces Jackson Hole, Wyoming, right next to Grand Teton National Park.
Read more here.
San Francisco Classical Voice: If You Can’t Go to Idaho, Sun Valley Festival Will Come to You
Unlike the majority of zillions of summer music festivals, which canceled during the pandemic or switched to online streaming, the Sun Valley Music Festival presents its 36th season, today through Aug. 19, both in person and online.
One of the country’s largest admission-free music festivals, Sun Valley is meeting the challenge of COVID-19 with an extraordinary effort by more than a hundred sound and video professionals, who filmed musicians in homes and stages across 43 cities.
San Francisco Classical Voice
Janos Gereben
Unlike the majority of zillions of summer music festivals, which canceled during the pandemic or switched to online streaming, the Sun Valley Music Festival presents its 36th season, today through Aug. 19, both in person and online.
One of the country’s largest admission-free music festivals, Sun Valley is meeting the challenge of COVID-19 with an extraordinary effort by more than a hundred sound and video professionals, who filmed musicians in homes and stages across 43 cities.
Read more here.