Sun Valley Artist Series 2014 - 2015 Season

Garrett Fischbach and Friends

Garrett Fischbach, violin I            Alex Fortes, violin II

  Nathan Schram, viola                Hamilton Berry, cello

Tuesday, December 30, 2014  7:00 PM

“Meet the Artists” Interview at 6:15 PM

Concert at Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood

(Click for Concert Program)

Platinum Sponsor - Bex Wilkinson and Caleb Baukol, Big Wood Ski

        The Marshal Frankell Foundation

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Click for Festival Schedule

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Click Keyboard to Watch Trailer

International Piano Festival 2015

April 22 - April 25

Featuring Solo Recitals & Piano Concerti    

All Concerts at Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood

2015 International Piano Festival Artists

”A Rach Star is Born . . .”  Washington Post

     In September 2009 Sofya Gulyak was awarded the 1st prize and the Princess Mary Gold Medal at the Sixteenth Leeds International Piano Competition – the first and only woman to achieve this distinction. Since then she has appeared all over the world to great acclaim.

     Her recital programs are frequently reviewed in superlatives, and her concerto appearances with major orchestras are written up in glowing terms by the world’s music press. Sofya has been praised for her "tremendous precision and coloration...exquisite soft playing ...delicacy yet" read more . . .

Sofya Gulyak, Russia

Winner, Leeds International Piano Competition 2009

“Immaculately voiced . . . subtleties of shading and dynamics”  New York Times

     Taiwanese American pianist Steven Lin is an immediately engaging and imaginative young artist, applauded by the New York Times for playing that is “…immaculately voiced and enhanced by admirable subtleties of shading and dynamics,” and his growing list of awards features the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and the John Giordano Jury Chairman Discretionary Award at the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

     In May 2014, his dynamic playing at Israel’s Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition was recognized when he was awarded the Silver Medal as well as numerous performance prize engagements in Israel and internationally. read more . . .

Steven Lin, Taiwan/USA

Silver Medal, Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition 2014

Rachel Cheung, China

Prize Winner, 16th Leeds International Piano Competition

Johnandrew Slominski, USA

International Award-Winning Pianist Professor, Eastman School of Music

Quynh Nguyen, Vietnam/USA

International Performing and Recording Artist Faculty, Hunter College

“ . . . a rare talent, already on the cusp of greatness.”  Miami Daily News

     Rachel Cheung has been a prize winner in major international competitions including the Alessandro Casagrande International Piano Competition in Italy, the  Leeds International Pianoforte Competition in the UK, and was a semifinalist at the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.

     In 2012, Rachel received the prestigious Georges Leibenson Prize at the Geneva International Piano Competition.  read more . . .

“This man has a rare ability . . . I did not dare to imagine such a great performance could ever happen.”  Ann Cherry, composer

American pianist Johnandrew Slominski is establishing a distinguished reputation as a performer and pedagogue. An international award-winning pianist, teacher, and scholar, his work in historical performance practice, analysis and performance, pedagogy, and improvisation is receiving increasing recognition.

By 21, Slominski earned three degrees from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, including a Master of Music in Performance and Literature, a Master of Arts in Pedagogy of Music Theory, and a Bachelor of Music in Performance; his first professorship followed two years later. He was unanimously nominated for Eastman's coveted Performer's Certificate in recognition of outstanding concert artistry--the youngest individual to have received such an honor.  read more . . .

“She is a real artist . . . graced with beauty and exuberance!”  New York Review

     In 2004, pianist Quynh Nguyen was selected as one of the classical "Young Stars of Tomorrow,” a prestigious and elite recognition by Musical America. Ms. Nguyen has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe, including Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and France.

     Ms. Nguyen has also distinguished herself as a prizewinner in various piano competitions such as the Artist International Presentation Competition, the Bellflower Orchestra Competition, the Artists of Tomorrow Competition of the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony Orchestra, and the International Piano Concerto Competition in San Francisco.  read more . . .

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Sun Valley Artist Series presents the largest free piano festival of its kind in the United States.  Thanks to the generosity of people like you, all concerts presented over the four-day period will be offered free to our community, and free to our LiveStream audiences worldwide. If you would like to help support our festival, click here.

Tuesday, November 11,  6 PM

Classical Music in a French Comedy/Drama (119 min.)

Thirty years ago, Andrei Simoniovich Filipov, the renowned conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra, was fired for hiring Jewish musicians. Now a mere cleaning man at the Bolshoi, he learns by accident that the Châtelet Theater in Paris invites the Bolshoi orchestra to play there. He decides to gather together his former musicians and to perform in Paris in the place of the current Bolshoi orchestra. As a solo violin player to accompany his old Jewish or Gypsy musicians he wants Anne-Marie Jacquet, a young virtuoso. If they all overcome the hardships ahead this very special concert will be a triumph.

Tuesday, December 9,   6 PM

Classical Music in a French Romantic Drama (130 min.)

A perfect red-colored violin inspires passion, making its way through three centuries over several owners and countries, eventually ending up at an auction where it may find a new owner.

Tuesday, January 13,   5:30 PM

Classica Music in an Academy Award Winning Drama (150 min)

A brilliant pianist, a Polish Jew, witnesses the restrictions Nazis place on Jews in the Polish capital, from restricted access to the building of the Warsaw ghetto. As his family is rounded up to be shipped off to the Nazi labor camps, he escapes deportation and eludes capture by living in the ruins of Warsaw.

Tuesday, February 10,  6 PM

Classical Music in a drama (107 min.)

Vienna, 1824.  A fictionalized account of the last year of Beethoven’s life starring award-winning actor Ed Harris.  In the days before the first performance of the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven needs help with copying out the charts, so a promising student of composition, Anna Holtz, 23, is sent to assist him. She not only aids the transcription of the notes, she provides guidance from the orchestra pit as Beethoven conducts the work's debut.

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Sun Valley Artist Series is funded in part by a grant from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts

Tuesday, March 10,   6 PM

Classical Music in a Swedish Romantic Comedy (132 min.)

A successful international conductor suddenly interrupts his career and returns alone to his childhood village in Norrland, in the far north of Sweden.It doesn't take long before he is asked to come and listen to the fragment of a church choir, which practises every Thursday in the parish hall. Just come along and give a little bit of good advice. He can't say no, and from that moment, nothing in the village is the same again. The choir develops and grows. He makes both friends and enemies. And he finds love.

Tuesday, April 14,  6 PM

Classical Music in a Hollywood Biography/Drama (117 min.)

A Los Angeles journalist befriends a homeless Juilliard-trained musician, while looking for a new article for the paper. He discovers Nathaniel Ayers, a mentally ill, homeless street musician who possesses extraordinary talent, even through his half-broken instruments. Inspired by his story, Lopez writes an acclaimed series of articles about Ayers and attempts to do more to help both him and the rest of the underclass of LA have a better life. However, Lopez's good intentions run headlong in the hard realities of the strength of Ayers' personal demons and the larger social injustices facing the homeless. Regardless, Lopez and Ayers must find a way to conquer their deepest anxieties and frustrations to hope for a brighter future for both of them.

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