Intermezzo

The timing couldn’t have been better. The very week that Las Cruces Museums and friends were about to host their inaugural Juneteenth Jazz Festival, Congress declared the day a national holiday. The festival brings together speakers, local jazz bands, music and improvisation workshops, family activities, a virtual jam session, a roundtable on Black Movements, and much more, to celebrate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the 19th century. The jazz fest has been in the works for several months, so it was organized to be entirely virtual.

Although we’re still not able to go to full performances in indoor venues, soprano Heather Dials and Camerata del Sol have been offering a musical gift to listeners in Las Cruces and El Paso: free mini-concerts at area churches with music selected for the weeks leading up to, and now following, Easter. The 30-minute program of arias by Bach and Handel has already been presented in several churches with more scheduled for the coming weeks.

When NMSU violin professor Simon Gollo was still a student in Switzerland, he was introduced to a work by the French Romantic composer Ernest Chausson, a concerto scored for the unusual combination of violin, piano, and string quartet. Now, for his debut recording that has just been released, Gollo chose the massive and technically challenging work to be the centerpiece of the cd. “I could say that I grew up artistically with this piece,” he told Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin on this Zoom-recorded interview from their homes.

Although the Covid19 pandemic forced El Paso Opera to cancel its spring productions in March, the organization came up with an innovative way to keep the music alive: bring opera to the streets and parks of El Paso. Throughout the summer, they are offering Curbside Concerts where opera singers perform on the back of a company truck in public spaces and at private residences, allowing listeners to keep a safe distance from the performers.

This hour-long program celebrates a true milestone: Leora Zeitlin (Intermezzo, Thursday/Friday-2pm to 4pm) and Emily Guerra (Fiesta!, weeknights-7pm to 9pm) are marking 20 years as KRWG hosts.

Listeners reflect on memories of talking with Leora and Emily over the years, their contributions to the arts in our community, and the profound impact they've had through their love of music and public media.

When you’re one of the 98 players in the Mesilla Valley Concert Band, you’re used to playing in a large ensemble, usually  in a sizable section of other musicians who play the same instrument as you. But every so often, one of those players gets to step out to the front of the band as a soloist. In the March 8 concert, saxophonist Tai Mikulecky, assistant director of bands at Las Cruces High School and a graduate of the Jacobs School of Music at the University of Indiana, will be the soloist in the Concerto for Alto Saxophone by 20th century Italian-American composer Paul Creston.

There are many ways to describe the upcoming March 1 concert of the New Horizons Symphony Orchestra. It’s a “side-by-side” with a youth orchestra from Mexico, it’s a Sister City concert, it’s intergenerational, cross-cultural and cross-border. But for conductor Jorge Martinez, it’s also “a concert of coincidences,” a coming together of numerous unexpected events and alliances.

One of the world’s most beloved operas, “Pagliacci,” presents a play within a play (or, more properly, an opera within an opera) that tells a story of love, infidelity, jealousy and revenge that blurs the line between art and life. El Paso Opera is presenting two performances this month at St. Rogers Depot, the 1903 downtown building that has been redesigned as an entertainment space. Arianne Marcee, executive director of El Paso Opera, said “we’re creating an opera pop-up theatre inside the venue space,” presenting “a traditional opera […] in a very untraditional way.”

Three dozen Las Cruces students will make their concert debut this weekend as the newly-formed Las Cruces Youth Orchestra, fulfilling a dream of Simon Gollo, founder of the orchestra and violin professor at NMSU. “We need to have more kids making music,” Gollo told Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin in this interview. Gollo and several faculty members have been training the students for three hours every Saturday this fall. “[The Las Cruces Youth Orchestra] is a wonderful program.

December may be the one month of the year most associated with music, and every December, the Mesilla Valley Concert Band delivers with a concert of wide-ranging music for symphonic wind band. This time, the program includes the “Fantasia in G,” by Bach, a work originally written for organ, and which conductor William Clark calls the centerpiece of the concert. “It’s a long piece and there’s not one measure that doesn’t have movement on every beat – until the end. And the energy is unbelievable.

Opera and crossover singing star Barbara Padilla says “when we listen to music, we are looking for beauty. And the beauty in the music – whether it is sad, or mad, or happy – it’s going to make us feel better.” Padilla learned this lesson early in her childhood in Guadalajara, when her family would drive five hours to reach the beach, traveling from the high plateau where Guadalajara is located, down the mountains, through the jungle and finally to the coast.

From its haunting and melancholy opening melody until its powerful conclusion, Mozart’s famous Requiem in D Minor continues to captivate and inspire audiences the world over, as it has for 228 years. This week, two community ensembles will come together to present the work that Mozart was working on – and never finished – when he died at the age of 35 in 1791.

One of the foremost composers of our day, Osvaldo Golijov grew up in Argentina when Astor Piazzolla was composing and performing his famous tangos worldwide. After Piazzolla’s death, Golijov wrote a work for nine string players called “Last Round” that pays tribute to his fellow Argentinian composer. His goal was to “imitate the wonderful, amazing, beautiful sound of Astor Piazzolla’s bandoneon,” said Daniel Vega-Albela, speaking of the small accordion-like instrument that Piazzolla made famous.

If you’ve never heard music by Camargo Guarnieri, Francisco Mignone or Astor Piazzolla, then this week is your chance to hear and learn about some of South America’s greatest composers in two free concerts. And if you do know their work, you’ll already know there’s a treat in store. On Thursday, visiting guest pianist Justin Badgerow will present a recital of classical music from Brazil, including by Mignone, Villa-Lobos, Milhaud and Guarnieri.

If you think classical music is only performed in concert halls, think again. One of the goals of El Paso Pro Music and its Grammy Award-winning artistic director Zuill Bailey is to bring concerts into a variety of venues to make classical music as accessible as possible. To that end, the opening concert of the season will feature pianist Bryan Wallick in a recital amidst the art work  at the Dona Ana Arts Center Gallery in Mesilla on Monday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m.

When guitarist Marcos Cavalcante was growing up in Brazil, his parents – both of whom were musicians – would not allow popular music to be played in their home. Their maid, however, took out her guitar when they would leave, and Cavalcante discovered it was “the instrument of my heart.”  Cavalcante went on to study composition and conducting, eventually earning graduate degrees at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. After teaching in higher education for many years in Indiana, Brazil and northern New Mexico, he recently moved to Las Cruces to teach at MacArthur Elementary.

For the 12th year, the NMSU Dance department will pair up ten high-profile members of the Las Cruces community with ten high-performing student dancers in a competition where both professional judges and the audience get to choose their favorites. The event takes place on Oct. 17, from 6 -8 p.m., and will feature the ten starring couples, each of which has rehearsed two dances – choreographed by the student dancer -- over the past six weeks. Several dance ensembles, including the NMSU DanceSport (ballroom), hip hop, and flamenco ensembles, and a visiting dance troupe, will also perform.

The music of Percy Grainger has charmed audiences for decades with his inventive arrangements and use of traditional English folksongs in works for orchestra, band, piano and other instruments. The Mesilla Valley Concert Band will open their season this weekend with a concert showcasing some of Grainger’s music, including his masterpiece “Lincolnshire Posy,” based on folksongs he collected at the beginning of the 20th century. “In his category, he was just a genius mind,” said Dr.

Tim Fain wears diverse musical hats: he’s a world-class violinist who plays with major orchestras and at festivals around the world; he’s played on and off screen in  several movies (Black Swan, 12 Years a Slave, Bee Season, Moonlight); he uses cutting edge technology to produce innovative music videos and productions, often incorporating film, digital art, live performance and even culinary arts for the audience; and he uses his music to support several causes, as he says, “to make the world a better place not only for us, but for our children.”

Fall has officially arrived along with a new academic year, and musicians from the major student ensembles at NMSU will welcome both with the fifth annual “Autumn Overture” concerts to showcase their talents. The opening concert will feature the top band at the university, the NMSU Wind Symphony, performing a “British Invasion” of five British composers. NMSU Director of Bands Michael Mapp came to talk with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin to discuss the concert and the composers.

When Mark Medoff passed away at the end of April, the world lost a great man of the theatre, his students lost a passionate and dedicated teacher, and Las Cruces lost an extraordinary supporter of this community. Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin shares some memories of the Tony-award winning playwright, and a clip from one of her interviews with him.

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The Piano Concerto No. 2 by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff is one of the most beloved pieces in the repertoire, and this weekend, Joseph Seth Zamora will perform it in the season’s finale of the New Horizons Orchestra, with Jorge Martinez-Rios conducting. “It’s every pianist’s dream, honestly,” Zamora said in this interview with Intemezzo host Leora Zeitlin. “I remember looking at it when I was younger and thinking, ‘I can’t wait to play this with an orchestra,’ and now I am.

The Mesilla Valley Chorale has been singing for Las Cruces audiences for almost half a century, and this Mother’s Day, they'll take listeners through a range of emotions and ideas in a concert simply titled “Celebrate Music.” Director Nancy Ritchey, who came to talk with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin at KRWG, said, “What I’m really celebrating through the particular songs are the good feelings of friendship, joy, love, and most particularly, a kinder, more tolerant, gentler, more loving world.”

One of the missions of the Mesilla Valley Concert Band is “is to give young conductors and experienced conductors an opportunity to conduct a group at this level – which is almost unheard of,” says founding conductor and director William Clark, “and they really take that opportunity seriously.” Another is to introduce audiences to some of the “really delightful” new music being written for concert bands. Both missions will be at the fore in the band’s Mother’s Day concert this Sunday. Clark came to talk about the concert with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin.

David Amram – who has made music with the leading musical lights of the 20th century, from Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland to Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk to Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and Willie Nelson – is back in town. At 88, he has not slowed down: last week he performed with his jazz quintet in New York; this weekend, he is in Las Cruces for the New Mexico premiere of his double concerto, “Partners”; and while he is here, the world premiere of another work, “Bulgarian Wedding,” will take place in New Jersey.

When dance professors Paco Antonio and Ray Backlund put together a dance concert – as they have for the “Rhythm Nights” concerts this month – they look not only for a range of dance forms, but also emotions. “I like a big variety,” Backlund said in this interview with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin. “I look for songs that say something to me, and that’s what I use – whether it’s dramatic or very soft or sad.” “Rhythm Nights” will feature two NMSU DanceSport teams and the Flamenco and Spanish dance troupe Sol Y Arena, which is led by Paco Antonio.

Music with a Spanish flavor will be performed by the NMSU Wind Symphony at its spring concert, “Pasion con Fuego,” which will feature music by composers from Spanish-speaking countries. NMSU Director of Bands Michael Mapp came to KRWG to help with the station’s fundraising drive but when it finished early, he sat down with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin to talk about the concert.

One of the goals of the chamber ensemble Camerata del Sol is to explore music that is not performed often. With that in mind, the local group chose Joseph Haydn’s monumental but rarely-heard “The Seven Last Words of Christ” for a pair of concerts in Las Cruces this month.

As part of its 25th anniversary year celebrations, El Paso Opera chose a production that would fully reflect life on the southern border. “Cruzar la Cara del la Luna,” billed as “the world’s first mariachi opera,” crosses both artistic and musical borders even as it tells a story of a family crossing national borders.