HU Concert Choir To Perform With Santa Fe Symphony Nov. 8 in Ilfeld
New Mexico Highlands University’s concert choir will perform a concert with the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. in the university’s Ilfeld Auditorium, 900 University Ave.
Steven Smith, music director and conductor of the Santa Fe Symphony, will conduct the university’s concert choir and the symphony in performing Joseph Haydn’s Theresienmesse, with symphony pianist Lydia Madrick as accompanist.
The concert will also feature Music Department professor Linda King performing a solo of Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 25, with the orchestra.
“The Highlands concert choir is terrific, and they have such enthusiasm, energy and a desire to constantly improve,” Smith said, noting the long history of collaboration between the university and symphony. “There are some really wonderful, experienced singers in the group that encourage the entire choir to excel.”
Vocal soloists for the concert include music students Karliz de Marco, soprano; Stephanie Salas, alto; and bass Devin Barad, a music graduate. Garcia-Nuthmann, the university’s choral director, will also solo at tenor.
“This concert gives my students an incredible opportunity to perform a profound work with a symphony orchestra,” said Garcia-Nuthmann. “This concert will hopefully inspire other students to aspire to this level.”
King is a well-known northern New Mexico concert pianist. In August, she performed as a guest soloist at the world-renowned Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria. Garcia-Nuthmann performed a vocal solo at this festival.
King performs as both a soloist and accompanist for numerous orchestral and chamber ensembles, including the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra. She is also a longtime piano teacher in Las Vegas.
“The Mendelssohn piano concerto is a fascinating, high-energy piece filled with exuberance,” King said. “The first movement begins with a bang, the second movement is more lyrical and delicate, and the third movement sounds almost like circus music or an early precursor to ragtime. Overall, it’s a feel-good, uplifting piece.”
Smith said the audience is in for an outstanding performance of two beautiful and very different pieces from two master composers.
“In Haydn’s Theresienmesse you have the glorious celebration of the chorus and orchestra performing a wide variety of music that shows the energy and wit Haydn brought to his composing,” Smith said. “In the Mendelssohn piece, there’s inherent beauty in the juxtaposition of the piano solo and the orchestra. It’s quite unique.”
The Nov. 8 Highlands University and Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra concert is one of many national and international concerts in 2009 pairing Haydn and Mendelssohn’s music on the 200-year-anniversary of their respective death and birth.
“My concert choir can say I was part of this historic music anniversary when I was on stage with the Santa Fe Symphony,” Garcia-Nuthmann said.
Tickets are $10 for the general public, and $5 for Highlands’ faculty and staff, seniors 65 and older, and children under 10. All Highlands’ students with ID are free, along with other students with school ID.