Mason Bates, Musical America’s 2018 Composer of the Year, returns for a week-long residency. In Liquid Interface, he uses the orchestra, recorded sounds, and electronics to evoke the soothing and menacing aspects of water in its various forms. Concertmaster Jeremy Constant and Principal Violist Adam Smyla open the program with Mozart’s Concerto for Viola and Violin. Mozart loved the viola as much as the violin, and this work showcases the range of the two instruments.

Former Sun Valley Music Festival Assistant Conductor Teddy Abrams returns to lead an all-Gershwin program. Singer, songwriter, actress, Broadway, and YouTube star Morgan James sings your favorite Gershwin songs, while Abrams himself takes to the keyboard for Rhapsody in Blue.

Mason Bates brings back Devil’s Radio, an orchestral piece commissioned by the Sun Valley Music Festival for its 30th Anniversary in 2014. This year also celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing with Passage, a piece Bates wrote for mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke that incorporates excerpts from John F. Kennedy’s “moonshot” speech. Finally, fly beyond the moon to Venus, Mars, and Jupiter in Holst’s character study of the solar system, The Planets.