Conductor Marianna Gabbi and pianist William Leland met in 1975, when Gabbi first came to Las Cruces. Their friendship and musical kinship has not wavered, and this weekend, they perform Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto together, with Leland as soloist and Gabbi leading the New Horizons Symphony Orchestra. Gabbi reflects on music by Beethoven and Dvorak, as well as her long friendship with Leland, in this interview with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin.
Terry Kay Gilbert saw a need for a high-school age choir in Las Cruces, so eight years ago she started one -- the Mesilla Valley Teen Singers. The ensemble has grown from its original size of seven singers to almost 50, and includes students from several area high schools as well as home-schoolers. She came to the studios of KRWG to talk with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin about their spring Celtic music concert, and the gratification she gets from leading teens into the world of music.
Las Cruces boasts numerous top quality musicians, including several retirees from major orchestras who continue to share their musical talents with the community. Pamela Shaffer Reinhard, retired violinist from the Minnesota Orchestra, and L. William Kuyper, retired horn player from the New York Philharmonic, met here in Las Cruces, and have now formed the Southwest Trio, with Palm Springs-based pianist Robert Miller.
Acclaimed cellist Mark Kosower maintains a busy solo career while also serving as the Principal Cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra and teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Music. While in Las Cruces to perform the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Las Cruces Symphony, he and conductor Lonnie Klein came to the KRWG studios to talk with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin about Schumann, Tchaikovsky, and Kosower’s renowned teacher, Janos Starker, who died earlier in the week.
Legendary classical/jazz/world music composer and performer David Amram is the focus of the third annual NMSU Warner Hutchison Contemporary Arts Festival, taking place next week in Las Cruces. Percussion professor Fred Bugbee, who organized the festival with horn professor Nancy Joy, came to talk with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin about Amram, and the concerts, lectures and films that will explore his career and multi-faceted music.
David Klement is the new director of the NMSU choirs, and the underlying theme he chose for their concerts this year is “Light, life and newness.” He came by the KRWG studios on Dec. 4, 2012, to talk with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin about his plans for the choirs, how he prepares them for a performance, a recently-discovered Magnificat written by a young Mendelssohn, and his own background as a singer and choral conductor.
Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 is one of the most difficult works in the piano repertoire, so to get a request to perform it in just three weeks can be a daunting challenge. Faced with a last-minute cancelation by his scheduled artist, Lonnie Klein found Gleb Ivanov to stand in and perform the massive work. They came to the KRWG studios on November 30, 2012 talk with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin about Rachmaninoff, what makes Russian music “Russian,” and more.
