It was a first for the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, a Bald Mountain event
that was cancelled last year because of lightning danger.
Weather was not a consideration this time as a brilliant sky and a
near-70-degree temperature translated into ideal conditions for a French horn concert that
included traditional alpine calls and hunting fanfares.
Transporting the huge crowd approximately 3,400 feet on chairlifts from
the valley floor to the meadow west of Lookout Restaurant was an achievement in itself.
Wally Huffman, the Sun Valley Co. general manager, said that 2,287 lift
tickets were sold at $8 each. Additionally, he estimated, hundreds of hikers and bikers
also made it to the top of the famous ski mountain.
So backed up were the lift lines, that by about 10:30 a.m. Huffman made a
decision to delay the start of the 11 a.m. concert by 30 minutes.
All in all, he said, "It was pretty spectacular."
Indeed, it was so special that one of the horn players, Brian Thomas of
the Houston Symphony, traveled to Sun Valley just for the Baldy concert before flying to
engagements in Europe.
Besides the French horns, the audience was treated to booming mountain
notes on a 12-foot-3-inch-long alpine horn made in Calgary for the Baldy concert. Its
haunting sounds were played by William Ver Meulen of the Houston Symphony, principal horn
player of the Sun Valley orchestra.
"It was an exciting day for the community," he said.
—Ron Soble
How
can the top of Bald Mountain be transformed into a concert scene? Well, it happened
Saturday as five horn players gathered under a white canopy before a huge crowd. It took
time to transport everyone to the top—and more patience to return the throng to the
valley floor as this long chairlift line is dramatic proof. Express photo by Willy
Cook