The Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra opens its new season this weekend with a pair of concerts entitled “Voices and Virtuosos,” featuring the acclaimed singer Bárbara Padilla as well as some orchestra members stepping out for solos or small ensemble works.
Bárbara Padilla has enjoyed a career in both classical and pop music after surviving stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma in her young adulthood and being told she would never sing again. She was first runner-up at America’s Got Talent and has performed with many luminaries including Juan Gabriel, David Foster, Raul di Blasio, Chris Botti, and major orchestras. She has also performed in Las Cruces and El Paso a number of times.
“It’s really great to have Bárbara back. She lived in the region for a couple of years, and made many good friends,” Martinez-Rios told Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin in this interview. When they were at social gatherings together, he said, “we always ended up with me playing the piano, Barbara singing” and he added that she “is a dear friend of the community.”
Padilla will sing a selection that includes an aria by Verdi and songs such as Besame Mucho, Con Te Partiro (Time to Say Goodbye), and several others. The concert also features LCSO Concertmaster Brigid McCarthy playing the Meditation from the opera Thais, by Jules Massenet, and three wind players – flutist Jesus Candela, clarinetist Kornel Juhasz, and bassoonist Ron Thurman – performing a special arrangement of Libertango, by Astor Piazzolla. Listen to the interview for more information about the program and Padilla. The concerts are Saturday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 13 at 3 p.m. at the Atkinson Recital Hall.
Musical clips in the interview:
• Overture from L’Italiana in Algeri, by Gioacchino Rossini, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, conducted by Claudio Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon cd #431-653).
• Meditation from Thais, by Jules Massenet, with Leila Josefowicz on violin with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner (Philips cd #454440).
• Con Te Partiro (Time to Say Goodbye), by Francesco Sartori, Frank Peterson, and Lucio Quarantotto. Bárbara Padilla, London Philharmonic Orchestra (Moon Moosic Records cd #1401).
