Free Summer Concert Series in Sun Valley Idaho
The Popular Ski Resort Area Also Offers Lodging and Many Activities
Jul 20, 2008
Luxury resort towns can - and usually do - make for a budget-busting vacation. When upscale travel destinations offer free cultural events and activities, even those who are unscathed by recent economic downturns perk up and take notice. These free activities in vacation spots not only help stretch travel dollars; they also made vacations more interesting and unique.
Sun Valley, Idaho, has a new Pavilion which will host the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, free to guests, on an annual basis. The Sun Valley Summer Symphony is a the largest privately funded free admission symphony orchestra in the United States. Consisting of world-class musicians from major orchestras throughout North America, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony will regroup in the popular ski resort town every summer.
Sun Valley Pavilion, in Sun Valley Idaho
The recently completed Pavilion's architectural piece de resistance, so to speak, is a towering 70-foot tall proscenium arch. The concert venue also offers a 3,000 square foot stage lined with curved acoustic wood panels designed to distribute and deflect sound. More acoustic panels are suspended above the orchestra as well. The amphitheatre seats up to 1,500 concert-goers, with a terraced park outside the Pavilion that is equiped with a modern, high-tech sound system. The exterior sound seems to come from the stage and actual musicians, rather than from the speakers.
Free Summer Concert Series
- The concert series will vary from year to year, but enough musicians and performers have enjoyed the Sun Valley Summer Symphony experience so much that they come annually. This provides consistency for audience and Sun Valley resort lodging's guest expectations. Debuting August 2008, the Pavilion makes for a classier, more comfortable concert experience than the rigged tents of summers past. All free summer concerts start at 6:00 or 6:30 in the evening.
- A typical concert series will look something like the Pavilion's opening summer season (2008). Popular, crowd-pleasing classical works include Tchaikovsky's Overture of 1812, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Schumann's Concertstuck for Four Horns in F Major, and Ravel's Concerto for Piano in G major.
- There may be a yearly benefit evening for the Sun Valley Summer Symphony. In 2008, the benefit (which as a source of revenue is not free) includes 4:00 PM cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, followed by a 6:00 PM performance by the world-acclaimed Mormon Tabernacle Choir, with solo vocalist Denyce Graves.
- Chamber music performances are also free cultural activities in Sun Valley. In 2008, the Mozart "kegelstatt" Trio and Brahms String Quintet in G Major, Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Mendelssohn's Octet for Strings in E-flat Major are part of the free chamber music performances.
Joshua Bell at Sun Valley
Internationally known violinist Joshua Bell is a repeat performer in the Sun Valley free summer concert series. While he chooses different classical works each summer, concert goers can expect a selection of accessible, well-known pieces with one or two that may be more challenging to the senses. Joshua Bell's August 16, 2008 selections included Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream, Ravel's Concert Rhapsody for Violin (of course) and Saint-Saens' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.
Sun Valley has an amazing array of amenities and activities: It is more than just world-class winter luxury ski resort destination. Year-round ice skating, hiking and biking trails, pools, horseback riding, and a new golf course called White Clouds (350 feet above the Sun Valley base, which is already a mile high) are only some of the many activities - free or otherwise - in this resort town. Summer vacations in Sun Valley can be in lodgings ranging from condo rentals to luxury resort hotels, and guests anywhere may avail themselves of the free symphony concert series.
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