For 37 years, as warm summer breezes blew over the Sun Valley Pavilion, concert musicians from around the world prepared their instruments to provide cutting-edge orchestrations for music lovers across the valley.
The Sun Valley Music Festival is the largest privately funded, free classical music festival in the United States. And locals relish the unique chance to experience its sparkling productions in a small town in southern Idaho. Always a Best of the Valley staple, this year Idaho Mountain Express voters named the Sun Valley Music Festival “Best Annual Event”, “Best Free Event”, “Best Live Music Festival”, second place for “Best Festival” and third for “Best Arts Organization”.
One of the many things that makes the Summer Festival magnificent is the powerful musical direction of Music Director Alasdair Neale.
“It’s just a concentrated atmosphere of joy, pride and musical creation that I am and will always be grateful for,” Neale said. “It’s in every way a dream come true. It makes me incredibly happy, incredibly fulfilled.
The way these world-class musicians integrate themselves fully into the Wood River Valley community is perhaps unique to the Sun Valley Music Festival.
“We stay in people’s homes, we go to people’s restaurants and get recognized on the street,” Neale said. “We feel like there’s a big bear hug from the Sun Valley community every time we set foot in town. This helps to generate the contagious enthusiasm of a youth orchestra playing for the first time a work from what is unquestionably a world-class festival orchestra.
“There’s an incredibly strong feeling of gratitude in the air, and that’s what makes our music so happy.”
