Thomas Heuser keeps his promises.
A year ago, when the San Juan Symphony absorbed Third Avenue Arts and its popular Durango Chamber Music Festival, he promised to keep things humming for a year before changing anything.
“I promise to keep all the programs of 3AA running in this first year,” he said on June 3, 2024. “We inherited three thriving summer camps and the 12:15 concerts. The short noon programs are designed so that folks can get on with their busy lives. And, our academy students can get back to class.”
If you go
WHAT: 17th Annual Durango Chamber Music Festival, Three Trios.
WHEN: 7 p.m. Monday; 7 p.m. Wednesday; 7 p.m. June 13.
WHERE: Roshong Recital Hall, Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive, and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 910 East Third Ave.
TICKETS: Tickets: General admission $25, students $5.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.sanjuansymphony.org or call 382-9753.
Well, that was then, and the former noontime festival concerts are a thing of the past. And, Heuser, artistic director and conductor of the Symphony, is a man of his word.
After 16 years of lunch-hour recitals with music students sprawling on the lawn at St. Mark’s then spilling into the sanctuary to hear grown-up chamber music has undergone a makeover.
“The Chamber Music Festival will be merging with the Symphony’s year-round Chamber Music series,” Heuser said recently by email from Europe. “Our Beyond the Concert Hall events remain incredibly popular.”
The Symphony’s Executive Director Meghann Zenteno clarified the change: “By shifting from midday to evening performances for the Chamber Music Festival, we’ve opened the door to a wider range of repertoire. Without the tighter time constraints of a lunch-hour format, we now have the flexibility to explore more expansive and varied works.”
Beginning next week, the new chamber festival plan will feature three full-length evening programs. Titled “Three Trios,” it begins at 7 p.m. Monday in Roshong Recital Hall on the Fort Lewis College campus. Works by Clara and Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Max Bruch will be played. “Romantic Interludes” features clarinetist Helen Goode, violist Andrew Picken and pianist Cynthia Williams.
At 7 p.m. Wednesday, at St. Mark’s Church, a program titled “Music for Strings” will feature violinist Lauren Avery, violist Charlie Hebenstreit and cellist Sarah Graf. Among other works, the trio will perform Dohnanyi’s “Hungarian Serenade.”
June 13 concludes the festival at Roshong Recital Hall at 7 p.m. featuring The Amity Trio, “an Albuquerque-based ensemble with a growing reputation for presenting definitive performances of music by living composers,” Heuser said.
Made up of soprano Katie Dukes Walker, hornist Michael Walker and pianist Kimberly Carballo, the trio will showcase works by women composers. This concert will be repeated at 2 p.m. June 14 at the Sunflower Theater in Cortez, Heuser said.
For fans who enjoyed the annual student performances, do not despair. Heuser said a free concert has been added at 1 p.m. June 13 in Roshong Recital Hall to mark “the culmination of their studies. Chamber music is now an integral part of the Symphony’s programming, and this Festival presents a great opportunity to showcase a combination of local musicians and members of our extended musical community.”
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
