Sun Valley Music Festival Announces 42nd Summer Season: July 27-Aug. 20, 2026

Sun Valley Music Festival Announces 42nd Summer Season: July 27-Aug. 20, 2026

The largest privately funded, admission-free classical music festival in the United States presents four weeks of world-class performances this summer in a beautiful outdoor alpine setting, featuring the Festival’s all-star orchestra led by Music Director Alasdair Neale.

Renowned guest artists include the American Festival Chorus, baritone Benjamin Appl, pianist Alexander Malofeev, soprano Christina Pier, violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Orion Weiss.

Sun Valley, Idaho – Jan. 28, 2026 – The Sun Valley Music Festival proudly announces its 42nd season, from July 27 to Aug. 20, at the Sun Valley Pavilion, in the beautiful, natural surroundings of Sun Valley – the country’s original destination ski resort. Curated by Music Director Alasdair Neale, the 2026 summer season will feature the all-star Festival Orchestra – the finest musicians from orchestras throughout North America – performing with world-renowned guest artists including pianists Alexander Malofeev and Orion Weiss, violinist Gil Shaham, baritone Benjamin Appl, soprano Christina Pier and the American Festival Chorus directed by Craig Jessup.

“I’m so excited about the lineup of works and artists for the season ahead,” commented Music Director Alasdair Neale. “From a brand-new commissioned work by Anna Clyne to a Pops Night celebration of the Great American Songbook, there truly is something for everyone. The orchestra shows its mettle in such symphonic classics as Mahler’s First Symphony and Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’. And, last but not least, there’s Brahms’s ‘A German Requiem,’ sure to be a moving highlight of the season.”

The Music

In its 42nd season, the Music Festival welcomes back acclaimed pianist Orion Weiss for a pair of concerts. Widely regarded as a “brilliant pianist” (The New York Times) with a “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (The Washington Post), Weiss will open the Music Festival’s Summer Season with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. 

Grammy-award winning violinist Gil Shaham also returns for two programs – in the first he’ll offer Barber’s Violin Concerto; in the second he'll collaborate with Festival Orchestra musicians to perform Beethoven’s String Quintet in A Major, “Kreutzer.” Acclaimed pianist Alexander Malofeev—who “manifests the piano mastery of the new millennium in itself” (Il Giornale)—makes his Sun Valley debut playing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

Conductor Stephanie Childress returns for a fourth season to lead two programs, including Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, and Euan Shields joins the Festival as Associate Conductor, conducting Ravel’s “Rhapsodie Espagnole” and Thomas Adès’s Inferno from “Dante” (Part I). 

Major orchestra repertoire includes Brahms’s “A German Requiem” featuring soprano Christina Pier, baritone Benjamin Appl, and the American Festival Chorus, as well as Mahler’s titanic Symphony No. 1 in the season finale. All concerts are offered free of charge, with ample seating inside the Sun Valley Pavilion and on the lawn, featuring a state-of-the-art big screen and sound system.  

Education Programs: Sun Valley Music Festival Music Institute

In addition to presenting first-rate classical music performances, the Sun Valley Music Festival is dedicated to bringing the joy of music into young people’s lives. Now in its 28th year, the Festival’s Music Institute provides year-round music education programs for students of all abilities, from second graders to college undergraduates. This summer, students in grades 2-12 can attend programs for most orchestral instruments, voice and piano from Aug. 3 to 7. College undergraduates and exceptional high school students studying piano, strings and voice can participate in the Advanced Chamber Program from July 27 to Aug. 8. Students hone their skills and work on select pieces with Festival musicians, conductors and guest artists – including Stephanie Childress, Orion Weiss, Christina Pier and Benjamin Appl – and attend orchestra rehearsals and concerts. Their experience culminates with an opportunity to perform on the Sun Valley Pavilion stage. Thanks to the generosity of Music Festival donors, students pay only nominal registration and materials fees. More information about education programs, including registration (which is now open), can be found at svmusicfestival.org/summer-programs.

 

How to Attend

Summer concerts offer an exciting social experience, where people from all walks of life can enjoy music together – for free. While some seats in the Pavilion may be reserved in advance by donors at certain levels, great admission-free seats are always available to the public, both in the Pavilion and on the lawn. For concert dates, details and updates, please visit svmusicfestival.org or subscribe to the Festival’s e-news at svmusicfestival.org/subscribe. 

Details about the fundraising Gala will be announced in February. This concert is the only ticketed event of the year; sales help keep the rest of the concerts admission-free. 

 

Sun Valley Music Festival: 42nd Summer Season, 2026

All concerts: 6:30 p.m., Sun Valley Pavilion (300 Dollar Rd., Sun Valley, ID 83353)

 

Opening Night with Orion Weiss

Monday, July 27

Alasdair Neale, Conductor

Orion Weiss, Piano

Rossini: Overture to “La Scala di seta”

Beethoven: Piano concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15

 

Childress Conducts Beethoven

Festival Chamber Orchestra

Tuesday, July 28

Alasdair Neale, Conductor

Stephanie Childress, Conductor 

Britten: Simple Symphony

Beethoven: Symphony No. 1

 

Orion Weiss and Festival Musicians Play Chamber Music

Chamber Concert

Thursday, July 30

Orion Weiss, Piano 

Festival Chamber Orchestra Musicians to be announced

Program to be announced

 

Strauss and Mozart

Festival Chamber Orchestra

Friday, July 31

Alasdair Neale, Conductor

Richard Strauss: “Metamorphosen”

Mozart: Symphony No. 39 

 

Stravinsky’s “Firebird” and Anna Clyne’s “Woman of the Mountain”

Festival Orchestra

Monday, Aug. 3

Alasdair Neale, Conductor

Clyne: “Woman of the Mountain”

Stravinsky: Suite from “The Firebird”

Festival Orchestra – Gala Benefit Concert

Tuesday, August 4

To be announced

 

Childress Conducts Elgar

Festival Orchestra

Thursday, Aug. 6

Stephanie Childress, Conductor

Benjamin Frolyak: “Let There Be Light”

Elgar: “Enigma Variations”

 

Brahms’s A German Requiem

Festival Orchestra

Sunday, Aug. 9

Alasdair Neale, Conductor

Christina Pier, Soprano

Benjamin Appl, Baritone

American Festival Chorus; Craig Jessop, Director

Brahms: “A German Requiem”

 

Christina Pier and Benjamin Appl with Festival Musicians

Chamber Concert

Monday, Aug. 10

Christina Pier, Soprano

Benjamin Appl, Baritone 

Peter Henderson, Piano

First Half to be announced

Robert Schumann: “Dichterliebe”

 

Alexander Malofeev Plays Prokofiev

Festival Orchestra

Thursday, Aug. 13

Alasdair Neale, Conductor

Alexander Malofeev, Piano

Prokofiev: “Romeo and Juliet” excerpts 

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3

 

Tan Dun’s Water Concerto 

Chamber Concert

Friday, Aug. 14

Alasdair Neale, Conductor

Euan Shields, Conductor

Mark Damoulakis, Percussion

Tan Dun: Water Concerto

Ravel: “Rapsodie espagnole”

 

Festival Orchestra Pops Night: The American Songbook

Sunday, Aug. 16

Alasdair Neale, Conductor

Jeff Tyzik, Conductor

Join the Festival for “Come Swing With Me!” featuring music from the American Songbook

 

Gil Shaham plays Barber

Festival Orchestra

Monday, Aug. 17

Alasdair Neale, Conductor

Gil Shaham, Violin

Barber: Violin Concerto

Adés: Inferno from “Dante”

 

Gil Shaham and Festival Musicians play Beethoven

Chamber Concert

Tuesday, Aug. 18

Gil Shaham, Violin

Festival Orchestra Musicians TBA

Ravel: Introduction and Allegro

Beethoven: “Kreutzer” Quintet

 

Season Finale: Mahler’s Symphony No. 1

Festival Orchestra

Thursday, Aug. 20

Alasdair Neale, Conductor

Mahler: Symphony No. 1

 

About the Sun Valley Music Festival

The Sun Valley Music Festival’s mission is to enrich, inspire and instill in our community a lifelong love of classical music through extraordinary free concerts and education programs. Festival programs provide opportunities for people from all walks of life to listen, learn, and play. Now in its 42nd year, it is the largest privately supported, free-admission orchestra in the United States.  

The Festival Orchestra comprises over 100 world-class musicians from North America’s most distinguished orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra and Toronto Symphony. Summer Season concerts are held in July and August at the spectacular R.E. Holding Sun Valley Pavilion in the mountain resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho. Winter Season concerts are held in February or March at the Argyros Performing Arts Center in nearby Ketchum, Idaho, which is adjacent to Bald Mountain, Sun Valley Resort's primary ski area. Internationally renowned guest artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Daniil Trifonov, Midori, Emanuel Ax, Audra McDonald, Joshua Bell, Joyce Yang, Yefim Bronfman, Kristin Chenoweth and Jean-Yves Thibaudet have performed with the Festival.  

Through its Music Institute, the Festival strives to inspire the next generation of music lovers and introduce every Wood River Valley student to the joys of classical music. Its year-round and summer programs provide tuition-free instruction for string, piano, and voice students of all skill levels – from elementary through high school – that goes beyond the fundamentals and embraces the entire musician.

Media contact:

Matt Herman, Managing Director
8VA Music Consultancy
matt@8vamusicconsultancy.com