From poetry to healing indigenous landscapes to scientific research to music concerts, there’s a big line-up of activities next week as part of NMSU’s annual “Research and Creativity Week.” Fred Bugbee, chair of NMSU’s music department, came to talk with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin about the musical activities – four concerts featuring a wide range of styles and musicians.
“The theme of the week is “borders,” not only state or physical borders, but borders within the college, borders within the university, borders that we all create within our own minds,” Bugbee said, noting that it was Vice President of Research Dr. Luis Cifuentes who insisted that the week include a “strong musical involvement.”
During the week, the music department will present Nosotros on Tuesday night, a group that was formed back in the 1990s at NMSU and now boasts ten players and is based in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. On Wednesday afternoon, two new musical compositions will be premiered by tuba professor Jim Shearer, piano professor Laura Spitzer, and horn player Celeste Shearer. The new works are by composers Alvin Singleton and Tom Clary, and the trio will also perform a work written for them several years ago by Justin Raines, an NMSU alumnus who now is a composer in Los Angeles.
Thursday’s concert features the NMSU Jazz Ensemble, who will be joined by several soloists from Nosotros, playing music of Stan Kenton, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and others. The week will wrap up with a concert on Friday by multi-instrumentalist Randy Granger, who blends Native American music with many other musical styles and story-telling. Listen to the whole interview to hear more about the musicians and what the concerts will include.
The concerts are all free of charge and take place at the Atkinson Recital Hall. For a full schedule of the week’s events, go to https://research.nmsu.edu/News/RCW/index.html or https://music.nmsu.edu/.
