The Romance of Brahms (Program B)

Argyros Performing Arts Center 120 Main St South, Ketchum, ID, United States

The Sun Valley Music Festival presents its sixth Winter Season at the Argyros Performing Arts Center, from March 6 to 9. The 2024 Winter Season focuses on “The Romance of Brahms” and offers two chamber music programs specially curated by Music Director Alasdair Neale, featuring pianist Jon Kimura Parker — winner of the Gold Medal at the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition — and string musicians from the all-star Sun Valley Music Festival Orchestra. Presented in an intimate atmosphere, the all-Brahms programs include beloved pieces by the Romantic composer for solo piano and string ensembles, such as Hungarian Dance No. 4 in F-sharp Minor, Quintet No. 1 in F Major, Trio No. 1 in B Major, and the inventive and technically demanding Handel Variations.
Note: Two unique programs will be performed on alternating evenings: Program A on March 6 and 8, Program B on March 7 and 9.

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Opening Night with Meechot Marrero

Sun Valley Pavilion 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, United States

The Festival’s 40th Season opens with a fanfare written by the composer Timothy Higgins especially for this occasion! Then soprano Meechot Marrero returns to Sun Valley to sing a few of her favorite arias–fans may remember her passionate performance in the Festival’s gala concert, Carmina Burana, in 2022. The concert closes with Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony. Prokofiev himself gave it the nickname, as he intended to write a symphony in the classical style, while “absorbing things from what was new in music.” It’s a delightful, sunny piece, and one of the most-performed works of the 20th century.

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Piazzolla’s Four Seasons and Mozart’s “Linz” Symphony

Sun Valley Pavilion 300 Dollar Rd, Sun Valley, Idaho, United States

The Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla, most famous for his tangos, composed The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires in the late 1960s. Festival Assistant Concertmaster Juliana Athayde will take the lead on these four lovely pieces that quote and improvise on Vivaldi’s masterpiece. Following, Associate Conductor Stephanie Childress returns to the podium to lead Mozart’s “Linz” symphony. On the way from Vienna to Salzburg, Austria, Mozart stopped to visit a friend in Linz, only to learn that said friend had committed him to performing a symphony there in four days. The only problem was that he didn’t have a symphony with him. So, being Mozart, he wrote one. It’s brilliant, of course!

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Upbeat with Alasdair: Meet the Artists: Andy Akiho and Jeffrey Zeigler

The Community Library, John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall 415 Spruce Avenue, Ketchum, ID, United States

Back in 2021, the Music Festival commissioned composer Andy Akiho, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and multiple GRAMMYⓇ nominee, to write a concerto for Jeffrey Zeigler, former cellist of the Kronos Quartet. Join Music Director Alasdair Neale and these two artists as they discuss the creative process, ahead of the world premiere of the piece on August 2. This event will also be livestreamed on svmusicfestival.org.

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