The Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra has a new conductor: Ming Luke, who brings his versatile background as an orchestral, choral, ballet, and pops conductor to the position, as well as a passion for music education. This weekend, he’ll conduct his inaugural concerts as the new artistic director with two works of “Symphonic Dances” by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Leonard Bernstein, both beloved composers of the 20th century.
As he takes the helm, Luke said his goal is to “to build back the orchestra,” after two and a half years of the pandemic. “We’re really excited about some of the connections we’re making, and some of the concert programs that we’re able to plan again, and to get 70 people on the stage again making music,” he told Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin in this Zoom interview. He also wants “to further connect with the community as much as possible – through the musicians, through the concerts, through collaborations with various organizations,” and through the orchestra's existing relationship with NMSU. Luke succeeds Lonnie Klein, who retired from LCSO in 2020 after 22 years.
Luke has conducted concerts in Moscow, Prague, Washington, DC, Birmingham (UK), France, and elsewhere, and is the principal guest conductor of the San Francisco Ballet, the principal conductor of the Nashville Ballet, and the music director of the Merced Symphony and Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, among other positions. His background includes early training in musical theater and ballet, and he holds degrees in piano, music education and conducting.
“Music has been a part of every single society that has ever existed in the history of Earth,” he said. “And there’s something very special about music, the way it connects to our brains, the way it allows us to connect with each other. And classical music with the symphony orchestra really has the ability to span the entirety of all music, as well as all emotions and situations.”
Ming Luke will conduct the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra this Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Atkinson Recital Hall.
