The Grand Teton Music Festival will kick off its 62nd season begins with a Bruch, Beethoven and Mendelssohn concert on Friday and Saturday in Walk Festival Hall.
The concert will feature Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony No. 3.
The program will be conducted by GTMF Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles and feature the Festival Orchestra, as well as audience favorite James Ehnes to perform Bruch 1.
Friday’s performance will start at 7 p.m., while Saturday’s will begin at 6 p.m. Both performances will offer a preconcert talk an hour before showtime with Meaghan Heinrich, GTMF education curator, in the Barbara Furrer Goodman Memorial Garden.
There is also an open rehearsal at 10 a.m. Friday for $20.
Heinrich’s strategy behind the talks is make the music relatable to everyone and help the audience have a deeper and more emotional experience when they watch the concert. For example, Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony features a lot of material from his own tourist experience.
“Anyone who is in Jackson Hole for the summer can relate to that,” Heinrich said. “There are all these wonderful things that we experience here that are just different from anywhere else in the world.
“Both the physical geography of the place, but also the magic of how many different kinds of people it brings together.”
This is Heinrich’s third summer as the festival’s education curator but the first in which she’ll be involved for the entirety of the eight-week festival.
In addition to preconcert talks she’s hosting many other “On the Road” events throughout the season and the valley, including the Huckleberry String Quartet on July 1, weekly Monday and Tuesday Musical Adventures Downtown concerts, and a free family concert on July 3.
Visit GTMF.org for information or to get tickets to this weekend’s production.
