Sun Valley Music Festival Announces 2024 Winter Season

Sixth winter season spotlights Jon Kimura Parker with all-Brahms programs

The Sun Valley Music Festival announced today 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 Minor, Quintet No. 1 in F Major, Trio No. 1 in B Major, and the inventive and technically demanding Handel Variations.

“It’s a privilege to welcome Jon Kimura Parker back to our intimate stage at the Argyros in Ketchum, warming up the winter with Brahms’s timeless and emotional piano music,” said Neale. “To give our audiences as much music as possible, we’re offering – for the first time – two different programs, each performed twice.  I love Brahms because, like few others in the musical Pantheon, he channels the human condition perfectly.  Sorrow, joy, humor, pathos – it’s all there in the notes, and no matter how often you listen to it, there’s always more to explore and learn from.”

The two unique programs will be performed on alternating evenings: the first on March 6 and 8, the second on March 7 and 9. The concerts will take place at the Argyros Performing Arts Center in Ketchum, starting at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.) The concerts are about two hours long, including a 20-minute intermission. As always, attendance is free, though reservations are required. 

On Tuesday evening, March 5, at 6:30 p.m., the Music Festival will present an “Upbeat with Alasdair” featuring Alasdair Neale and Jon Kimura Parker in conversation. The event will be held at the Community Library in Ketchum and livestreamed from the Music Festival’s website. Also, during the week, all Music Festival musicians will interact with students in local schools, offering demonstrations, coaching, and master classes.  

Tickets
Admission is free, but space is limited and reservations are required. Reservations for the public begin on Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 9 a.m. (Mountain Time). Reserved seats are limited to two seats per household per program for a total of four for the Winter Season. Reservations are available online at svmusicfestival.org. Festival donors at $6,000 and up may reserve seating early, beginning Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 9 a.m. (Mountain Time), by calling the Festival office at 208.622.5607. Concertgoers can purchase beer, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages at the concerts. All details can be found on the Festival website.

For the latest news and information on the Sun Valley Music Festival and Winter Season, including reservations and details on attending, visit the Festival website at svmusicfestival.org or sign up for e-news at svmusicfestival.org/subscribe.

Sun Valley Music Festival 2024 Winter Season: “The Romance of Brahms” 
Argyros Performing Arts Center: 120 Main St. S., Ketchum, Idaho (all performances 7 p.m., doors 6:30 p.m.)

—Program A—
Wednesday, March 6
Friday, March 8

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)

• Hungarian Dance No. 4 in F Minor 
• Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118 

Jon Kimura Parker, piano 
 
JOHANNES BRAHMS: Quintet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 88  
 
Vivek Jayaraman, violin 
Amy Glidden, violin 
Joen Vasquez, viola 
Elizabeth Prior, viola 
Si-Yan Darren Li, cello 
 
JOHANNES BRAHMS: Trio No. 1 in B Major for Violin, Cello, and Piano, Op.8 
 
Jeremy Constant, violin 
Amos Yang, cello 
Jon Kimura Parker, piano 

—Program B—
Thursday, March 7
Saturday, March 9

JOHANNES BRAHMS: Selections from Variations on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24

Jon Kimura Parker, piano

JOHANNES BRAHMS: Sonata No. 3 in D Minor for Violin and Piano, Op. 108 

Erin Schreiber, violin
Jon Kimura Parker, piano

JOHANNES BRAHMS: Sextet No. 2 in G Major for Strings, Opus 36

Juliana Athayde, violin
Kristin Ahlstrom, violin
Marylène Gingras-Roy, viola
David Gaudry, viola
Bjorn Ranheim, cello
Louis-Philippe Robillard, cello

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 40th year, it is the largest privately supported, free-admission orchestra in the United States.  

Over 100 world-class musicians from North America’s most distinguished orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Houston Symphony, comprise the Festival Orchestra. 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 Gautier Capuçon, Midori, Emanuel Ax, Audra McDonald, Joshua Bell, Joyce Yang, Yefim Bronfman, Kristin Chenoweth, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet have performed with the Festival.  

The Festival strives to introduce every Wood River Valley student to the joys of classical music, to inspire the next generation of music lovers. Its year-round and summer Music Institute 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.

About Jon Kimura Parker
Pianist Jon Kimura Parker is the Creative Partner of the Minnesota Orchestra, Artistic Director of the Honens International Piano Competition, and Artistic Advisor of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. This season he performs in New York at Lincoln Center, Toronto with the Galilee Chamber Orchestra, Chicago with the Montrose Trio, as well as in Boston, Phoenix, Kansas City, Dallas, Quebec, Portland, and Minneapolis.

He has collaborated with legendary rock drummer Stewart Copeland in Off the Score, tango pianist Pablo Ziegler, singer Bobby McFerrin, violinist Cho-Liang Lin, and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham. A committed educator, he is Professor of Piano at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. His Whole Notes series is available on Amazon Prime, and he is a featured Tonebase artist.

Winner of the Gold Medal at the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition, Parker is an Officer of The Order of Canada and has received Honorary Doctorates from the University of British Columbia and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto.

Jon Kimura Parker studied with Edward Parker and Keiko Parker, Lee Kum-Sing at the Vancouver Academy of Music and the University of British Columbia, Marek Jablonski at the Banff Centre, and Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School.  This will be Jon Kimura Parker’s fifth appearance with the Sun Valley Music Festival.