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Keeping it classical year-round
Misha Dichter
The Sun Valley Artist Series will open its second year of performances with a benefit concert Sunday, Sept. 5, 2010, featuring world-renowned pianist Misha Dichter in a solo performance at the Sun Valley Pavilion.
The one-hour performance will begin at 8 p.m. with tickets starting at $47. The money raised from the concert will help fund the series’ 2010-2011 line up.
Executive Director Steve Gannon said he is excited to bring Dichter to the Valley because it is the first time a classical, solo recital will be performed in the Pavilion and will be Dichter’s first time performing in town.
This year’s series features two other solo performances in a line up of five shows. Gannon and artistic director Susan Spelius Dunning said they took special care to invite musicians to perform solo because they feel musicians are not offered that opportunity frequently enough and because the Valley rarely showcases solo performances.
The Sun Valley Artist Series aims to not only provide classical music lovers with their fix for the months of the year when the Sun Valley Summer Symphony is absent, but to educate the community about the classical music world and make classical music feel more accessible to people who wouldn’t typically listen to it.
By keeping all the concerts to one hour, doing their best to keep ticket prices affordable and bringing in performers who are known for being charismatic, Dunning said they hope to make everyone in the community feel welcome at the performances and side events.
Aside from Dichter’s Sun Valley debut, the series concerts will be held in the Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood in Ketchum and will begin at 8 p.m. Tickets for the regular series’ shows will go on sale this Fall.
Following Dichter’s opening piano concert, three-time Grammy winner Sharon Isbin will take the stage with a solo guitar performance on December 11, 2010. Isbin will be followed by Susan Spelius Dunning with a second solo piano concert on January 8, 2011 and then cellist Steven Honigberg accompanied by pianist Peter Henderson on February 12, 2011.
The Italian Saxophone Quartet will pick up the tempo March 25, 2011, by combining classical styles with those of blues and tango, and then the series will close with the St. Petersburg String Quartet on April 30, 2011.
“We’re pretty lucky to have such a high caliber of performances,” Dunning said.
The 2010-2011 series will also host pre-performance presentations before each show, sometimes by the musician and other times by guest speakers, along with a four-part lecture series on classical composers.
The lecture series is free and each lecture will be held in different locations around the Valley to make them more accessible to the public. Each lecture will focus on the life and works of a single composer.
Both Gannon and Dunning said that last year the series received a huge amount of support that they hope to see again.
“We just hope the community gets behind us on this,” Dunning said. “You know, it takes a village to raise a concert series.”
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