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Las Vegas’ Serpentine Fire to perform with LCSO

For more than 50 years, the music of Earth Wind and Fire has delighted and excited audiences around the world. This weekend, the Las Vegas tribute band, Serpentine Fire, will join the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra in two pops concerts that will feature some of the legendary band’s greatest tunes.

“They cross so many genres in terms of style – it’s jazz, it’s funk, it’s R&B, it’s rock, it’s rock fusion, some disco, it’s Latin musical styles, they just touch every base,” said conductor Lonnie Klein in this interview with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin. Klein retired from the symphony in 2020, but is returning to the stage for these concerts as Conductor Emeritus.

As Klein explains, a pops concert requires many elements not found in a classical concert. In addition to the music for the six-person ensemble Serpentine Fire and the entire orchestra, the production includes a 25-page tech guide for the lights, the stage setup, the numerous kinds of microphones needed across the stage, a 64-track mixing board, and much more.

Klein heard Serpentine Fire in Las Vegas two years ago, met the manager and immediately set out to bring them to Las Cruces.

The concerts take place on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. at the Atkinson Recital Hall on the NMSU campus.

Maestro Lonnie Klein