{"id":11914,"date":"2019-08-09T18:16:42","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T18:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=11914"},"modified":"2019-08-09T18:16:42","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T18:16:42","slug":"get-your-classical-grove-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/09\/get-your-classical-grove-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Get Your Classical Grove On"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sun Valley Music Festival to continue at the Pavilion<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

BY DANA DUGAN<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Superstar violinist Ray Chen plays alongside Juliana Athayde, conducted by Alasdair Neale, last week at the Sun Valley Music Festival. Photo Credit: Nils Ribi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 2019 Sun Valley Music Festival is in full swing, with concerts scheduled through the next two weeks at the Sun Valley Pavilion. The festival is celebrating two milestones this year: the 25th year of its association with musical director Alasdair Neale and its own 35th anniversary.<\/p>\n

There have been format and focus changes this year that inform the name change, said Daniel Hansen, marketing associate of the SVMF. Along with the addition of the winter festival, the first week of concerts, formerly known as In Focus, or chamber concerts, have folded into the full Summer Concert series. Concerts with the full festival orchestra will continue through the grand finale of Mahler\u2019s \u201cSecond Symphony\u201d on Wednesday, Aug. 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur organization structure has grown, too, due to the directorship of Derek Dean,\u201d Hansen said. \u201cWe have 15 straightforward concerts, plus education recital concerts played by about 300 students from all over the U.S. All of our musicians are also instructing through the Sun Valley Music Festival\u2019s education program, the Music Institute.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Family Concert, titled \u201cKids\u2019 Choice\u20145 Minutes That Made Me Love Classical Music,\u201d will be held Saturday, Aug. 10. The idea for the concert came from a New York Times article \u201cabout pieces that turned you on to classical music,\u201d Hansen said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The audience both inside the Pavilion and out on the lawn enjoy the music at the Sun Valley Music Festival. Photo credit: Nils Ribi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe festival musicians and children of musicians came up with \u2018Fairy Garden\u2019 from \u2018Mother Goose,\u2019 the \u2018Imperial March\u2019 from \u2018Star Wars,\u2019 \u2018Peer Gynt,\u2019 and others. The advanced education students will perform with the festival orchestra for this concert.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another aspect of the festival, which is reflected in the more encompassing name, is that there will be more genres of music than classical explored. In fact, the gala benefit on Sunday, Aug. 11. will feature Branford Marsalis, primarily known as a jazz musician.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis quartet has been together for decades, but he\u2019s becoming well known for his classical music, too,\u201d Hansen said. \u201cHe\u2019ll perform with the orchestra in the first set, and in his second it will be jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n

For tickets to the gala, contact svmusicfestival.org.<\/p>\n

Mason Bates, recently named Musical America\u2019s 2018 Composer\u00a0of the Year, is in his second year of residency with the Music Festival. He will be onstage Wednesday, Aug. 14, and Sunday, Aug. 18. While Bates brings plenty of the familiar to his work, he is thought to be a draw to younger audiences for his melding of musical styles.<\/p>\n

\u201cBates, 40, is one of the most-performed living American\u00a0composers\u2014precisely because he gives people something to\u00a0like,\u201d Musical America writes. \u201cOrchestra audiences who aren\u2019t sure about contemporary\u00a0music hear thoughtful, skillfully written pieces that are\u00a0at home in the modern world and offer the ear a lot to hold\u00a0onto. There are electronics\u2014Bates himself, at his laptop,\u00a0often sits among the orchestra players.\u00a0There is amplification. There is a\u00a0propulsive, kinetic energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bates\u2019 other persona is as a deejay, and he will work a lawn party as DJ Masonic after the \u201cBates and Mozart\u201d concert Wednesday, Aug. 14. Bates will also present \u201cDevil\u2019s Radio,\u201d Saturday, Aug. 18, commissioned by the Sun Valley Music Festival in 2014.<\/p>\n

As well, Bates\u2019 composition \u201cPassage\u201d will be performed, featuring Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. Based on President John F. Kennedy\u2019s \u201cmoonshot\u201d speech in 1962, and Walt Whitman\u2019s \u201cPassage to India,\u201d this piece will be followed by excerpts from Gustav Holst\u2019s \u201cThe Planets.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Pops night, Saturday, Aug. 17, Teddy Abrams, 32, the youngest conductor of a major orchestra (Louisville Orchestra) in the country, will take the podium as well as the piano keys for a night of Gershwin music.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was assistant conductor here years ago and came up under Alasdair,\u201d Hansen said.<\/p>\n

Abrams will be joined by Morgan James, an Idaho native and alumna of Juilliard, who got her professional start on Broadway. Since then, she has toured as a soul singer, taking the stage at such venues as the Hollywood Bowl, Montreal Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n

The Aug. 22 finale featuring Mahler\u2019s \u2018Second Symphony\u2019 is something the festival has long wanted to do, Hansen said. \u201cIt will have the full American Festival Chorus, directed by Craig Jessop, more than 250 musicians onstage, and Sasha Cooke. To accommodate the crowd, the stage will be extended,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Something not to miss in the program, while you\u2019re waiting for the concerts to begin, are the photographs of musicians taken in some far-flung Valley locations by Caroline Woodham. These are part of the nod to the festival\u2019s 35th season, and the incredible musicians who bring their talent, good cheer and love of Sun Valley with them each summer, and now during the winter, as well.<\/p>\n

For a full schedule of the remainder of the season, visit svmusicfestival.org\/summer-concert-series.<\/p>\n

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Sun Valley Music Festival to continue at the Pavilion BY DANA DUGAN The 2019 Sun Valley Music Festival is in full swing, with concerts scheduled through the next two weeks at the Sun Valley Pavilion. The festival is celebrating two milestones this year: the 25th year of its association with musical director Alasdair Neale and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,4,53],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calendar-2","8":"category-entertainment","9":"category-calendar-feature"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}