The Sunriver Music Festival has announced its 36th season, taking place Aug. 9-21, as well as the extension of conductor George Hanson’s contract through 2016.

Hanson’s previous contract had been through 2014, and was extended thanks in part to higher attendance at last year’s festival. Some 32 percent of the 2012 audience attended the festival for the first time, according to the press release announcing the news.

This year, the festival’s theme is “Come Dance with Us — Let the Music Move You.” Hanson will lead the Sunriver Festival Orchestra through five classical concerts and one pops concert.

The Festival opens Aug. 9 at Summit High School in Bend, with a Pops Concert featuring Bill Ganz Western Band and the festival orchestra.

“Bill Ganz and his band are the real classic cowboy sound from the era of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans,” the release quotes Hanson. The maestro has previously worked with Ganz and band through his work with the Tucson Symphony, performing to sold-out houses.

“They are a real crowd pleaser, and with all the western music lovers in Central Oregon, we feel confident this group will be performing to a standing room only crowd.”

From there, the concert moves to Sunriver’s Great Hall for Aug. 11’s orchestra concert “Music Moves You — Come Dance with the Great Classical Composers.” The program includes the music of Verdi, Rossini, Dvorak and Bernstein, as well as a featured clarinet solo in Witold Roman Lutoslawski’s “Dance Preludes,” featuring Principal Clarinetist Benjamin Lulich.

“It’s consistent throughout: Whether it’s Mozart night or tango night, there’s a dance element in every single concert,” Pam Beezley, executive director of Sunriver Music Festival, told The Bulletin.

The rest of the festival lineup is as follows:

* Aug. 14: “Mozart In Motion — Wolfgang Light on His Feet,” Tower Theatre, Bend. The program will appeal to Mozart lovers, and includes Overture to the Magic Flute, German Dances and Mozart Symphony No. 39.

• Aug. 16: “Tango Fire — Sunriver Music Festival Brings Heat And Passion To The Tower,” Tower Theatre, Bend. Enjoy the music of South America with works by composers Ginastera and Piazolla. Guest Daniel Binelli, from Buenos Aires, will join the orchestra for Piazolla’s Concerto Aconcagua. Binelli plays the bandoneon, an instrument similar to an accordion that’s popular in South America.

• Aug. 18: Solo piano recital featuring 2013 Cliburn International Piano Competition gold medalist, Sunriver Resort Great Hall. Every four years in May, the world’s premier piano competition crowns a new winner. The program will be determined after the crowning, and will include a tribute to founder Van Cliburn, who died in February.

* Aug. 19: “Hungarian Spice — Stories told through Dance,” Sunriver Resort Great Hall. Oregon Symphony’s Principal Trumpeter Jeffrey Work will perform two trumpet concerti by Haydn and Handl, and the concert also includes dances from Kodaly and the Ballet Pulcinella Suite by Stravinsky.

* Aug. 21: Beethoven’s “Eroica” — with a Tribute to Van Cliburn, Sunriver Resort Great Hall. Opening with Jacobsen’s Ascending Bird, the concert includes a piano concerto by the newly crowned 2013 Van Cliburn gold medalist and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, also known as “Eroica.”

“Our ticket sales are double (where they were) this time last year,” said Beezley. “So there’s some momentum and excitement, and I think that has a lot to do with the program George Hanson put together for the summer.”

If you go

The Sunriver Music Festival will be held Aug. 9-21 in Sunriver and Bend. All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets range from $10 for youth tickets to $60 for box and premier seats and are on sale now to festival members. Tickets will go on sale June 1 to the public.

Contact: www.sunrivermusic.org or 541-593-1084.