Now that summer’s end is on the horizon, it’s time to gear up for  Arizona’s summer music festival season.

Most summertime music festivals occur in June and July, with a few, such as Santa Fe Opera’s extraordinary opera and chamber music seasons, drifting over into August. Not so in Arizona. Given temperatures of 100‑plus degrees in June and July, Arizona is more fit for late August‑September “summer” festivals.

The Red Rocks Music Festival is a newcomer to the festival scene. Started five years ago by classical musician Moshe Bukshpan, it has grown and contracted in size as response has dictated. It’s settled down now to a one‑week series of three concerts, two of which take place in the town whence the festival took its name: Sedona.

“It’s a struggle,” laments Bukshpan, who would like to see his festival expand.

The struggle is not artistic. It’s fiscal.

“One company–Sunterra Corporation–has become very involved. But I would like to see the festival grow to two weekends, and we would like to give more school concerts.”

To accomplish that, Bukshpan will have to do the usual thing done by any managing director of any arts group: spend a lot of time filling out grant proposals and sitting in the lobbies of major philanthropists.

“The Passion of the Tango” is the name given to the concert held at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 2 at Sedona’s Jewish Community Center, located at 100 Meadowlark Dr., just off Highway 179. It will feature not only music of the tango, but two live tango dancers, Daniela Borgiallo and Rommel Oramas. Performing musicians will include pianist Walter Cosand and violinist David Ehrlich.

The tango became the official crossover dance craze of classical music sometime in the 1980s, when the music of Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla swept the concert scene. Suddenly, a form that had never quite attained the status of, say, the waltz among classical music aficionados, has earned its share of respect. Piazzolla is only part of the Sept. 2 concert, however, with music of Mozart, Brahms and Mendelssohn filling in the rest. Tickets are $24.

The probably somewhat more sedate concert of the Sedona pair is called, simply, “Festival String Ensemble,” and happens at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 3, again at the Jewish Community Center. Music of Schubert, Mozart, Holst and Grieg, featuring solo violinist Shmuel Ashkenasi and the festival strings, is on tap. Tickets are $28. Call (877) 733‑7257 for more information or to buy tickets. Or log on to www.redrocksmusicfestival.com.

Can’t afford the tickets–or the drive? You can have a taste of the festival for the cost of half a tank of gas, provided you are willing to wheel on over to the Valley’s west side. The Church of the Beatitudes, 555 W. Glendale Ave., will host the free‑of‑charge “Festival Sampler” Thursday, Aug. 31, at 7 p.m.

The bigger, older and splashier of Arizona’s two music festivals is the Grand Canyon Music Festival. A multi‑week affair featuring as much or more crossover than actual “classical” music (the festival dropped “classical” from its name a few years back), Grand Canyon has the added benefit of happening to be adjacent to one of the seven wonders of the natural world, which also happens to be our state’s biggest tourist attraction.

There’s something special about hearing beautiful, emotion‑laden music and then walking out of the concert to see eons of geographic history displayed before you. That is, not to put too fine a point on it, tres cool.

More on the Grand Canyon Music Festival next week.