ENDINGS: Among the many delights of the 38th Music in the Mountains summer festival memorable solo performances top the list. Dazzling the audience on July 26, the Russian-American pianist Olga Kern swept onstage in a flaming red gown. Followed by Conductor Guillermo Figueroa, Kern smiled broadly, shook hands with Concertmaster Emmanuelle Boisvert and sat down to collect herself before thundering through Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor.
Forty minutes later, the audience erupted in appreciation, and Kern surprisingly gave four encores. Each time, she smiled at the still standing audience, put up one finger to indicate an encore, and then offered musical thanks, including an energetic, jack-hammered wake-up call by Prokofiev. That she had energy left to pull that off after playing Rachmaninoff took everyone by surprise. Kern’s final bow with Figueroa, hands clasped and held high, topped off an unforgettable concert.
Aug. 4 marked the final MiTM concert for Figeroa as he concluded his 17-year run as artistic director and conductor. Admirers would have flocked to the farewell reception, but the powers that be fenced it off as a high-ticket patron event. Throughout the festival, it was clear that Figueroa, 71, is still at the top of his game. He conducted most of the big symphonic works from memory, including Brahms’ massive Symphony No. 2 on July 21, and most impressively, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 at the final concert. Figueroa conducted with vigor, confidence and clarity. The audience expressed loud appreciation for this immensely talented musician with another long, standing ovation.
BEGINNINGS: 2024 has seen major changes at Fort Lewis College. President Tom Stritikus resigned to lead California’s Occidental College in Los Angeles. A search is underway for his replacement. Several faculty members in the Performing Arts Department have left as well. Wesley Dunnagan and Branden Barker organized a big concert to say farewell, but a key figure in launching FLC’s musical theater major, Michael McKelvey, slipped away quietly. His absence has instigated an interesting series of events.
Three years ago, FLC merged the music and drama departments and created a Department of Performing Arts. Music faculty member John O’Neal stepped up as chairman of the entire conglomerate, and McKelvey was hired away from Tulane University to head up the new FLC major.
McKelvey launched the program with a 58-credit concentration. He taught innumerable classes and directed seminal productions, including: “Sweeney Todd,” “Cabaret,” “Nevermore” and “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812,” the jaw-dropping musical based on Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” In addition, his private companies, Durango Theatreworks and Doctuh Mistuh Productions, also staged works at the FLC outdoor amphitheater – “Much Ado About Nothing,” the MainStage – “Heathers,” and separately at the Durango Arts Center, “Reefer Madness” in April, 2023, among others.
“I love to work,” he told this reporter more than once.
Late last spring, it was no surprise that the McKelvey juggernaut got an offer from a prestigious Midwestern university, Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. While many anticipated his eventual departure, his loss created a vacuum and started a hiring storm.
Felicia Lansbury Meyer, fresh from receiving tenure at FLC, plunged into the hiring process and accepted the huge responsibility of spearheading the Performing Arts Department. She also muscled through PlayFest, Durango’s innovative weeklong workshop of new American plays. Throughout, she’s been recruiting new FLC faculty and new students.
“I just returned from a week in NYC,” she said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t hire a replacement for Michael. We certainly tried. I am expecting to have another go at it with a much earlier start next year. This means I don’t know yet how we’re handling the MT classes and our musical in April.”
That said, Meyer sent along the FLC performance schedule. It includes Larissa Fasthorse’s new work, “The Thanksgiving Play,” with high hopes the playwright will travel to Durango for sessions with FLC students. It opens in mid-October.
“Behind Me is Silence,” a devised movement work organized by choreographer Suzy DiSanto, will open in November.
In 2025, FLC will stage Goldoni’s classic farce “Servant of Two Masters.” And the April musical will be “Little Women,” the director to be announced.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
