Music in the Mountains Artistic Director Guillermo Figueroa is clear as cut glass. Whether he and/or his musicians are performing on a concert stage or from a traveling wagon, it’s the music that counts.
Now in its 36th year, the summer festival has already begun its free traveling mini concerts throughout the Four Corners.
“I’m thrilled that the mobile stage is back,” Figueroa said. “It’s wonderful that we have it. After the pandemic, it was originally thought of as a stop-gap measure. Now, it’s an integral part of the festival.”
To demonstrate his enthusiasm, Figueroa will be part of the string ensemble performing Saturday. The mobile stage will drive to Ignacio for an 11 a.m. performance at Shoshone Park, then it will push on to Pagosa Springs and return to Durango for a 6:30 p.m. finale in Buckley Park.
“We’ll play excerpts from well-known quartets,” he said, clearly looking forward to this old-fashioned way of announcing the main event – six Festival Orchestra concerts plus evenings of world and pop music, various donor events, and one invitation-only dinner-concert dedicated to the educational program.
If you go
WHAT: Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra Concerts.
WHEN: July 16, 17, 22, 24, 30, 31. Entire festival runs now through July 31.
WHERE: Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive.
TICKETS: $5 to $100, available online at musicinthemountains.com.
MORE INFORMATION: For schedule and more information, visit musicinthemountains.com or call 385-6820.
Check the website for all of the events, especially the unusually rich Festival Orchestra schedule, beginning with a concert featuring Figueroa as conductor and violist. He and violinist Erin Schreiber will perform Mozart’s “Sinfonia Concertante” in E-flat.
“We played together last year on the mobile stage before the festival formally began,” Figueroa said. “I thought her playing was so special, so excellent, that I asked if she’d come back. And she said yes.”
In addition to the Mozart “Sinfonia,” the Festival Orchestra will perform Bach’s “Fugue” in G minor, Handel’s “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba,” and Byrd’s “The Earle of Oxford’s March.” Moncayo’s “Huapango” will close the program.
Billed as “Bach and Burritos,” the July 16 concert will be foregrounded by dinner and margaritas provided by Nini’s Taqueria. You can buy a ticket for both or just the concert.
On July 17, Figueroa will welcome oboist Katherine Young Steele for Cordero’s “Three Creole Sketches.” The orchestra will open with Smetana’s rousing Overture to “The Bartered Bride” and spread its wings wide to play Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8. To close, expect to hear Liszt’s rich and expressive “Les Preludes.”
On July 22, violinist Vadim Gluzman will be the soloist with the Festival Orchestra. A long-standing friend of MiTM, the Israeli violinist is now a much in demand, world-class soloist.
“It’s unbelievable that we were able to sign Vadim,” Figueroa said. “It speaks a lot of us.”
Gluzman’s Durango performance falls between engagements in Aspen and Singapore, where he will perform Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 2 with the Singapore Symphony on Aug. 5 and 6. Then he’s off to Israel and Germany before returning to Cleveland where he will perform in the Blossom Music Festival.
Here in Durango, Gluzman, Figueroa and company will perform Mozart’s Serenade No. 6 in D. The Festival Orchestra will follow with Vasks’ “Musica Serena” for strings and conclude this unusual concert with Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings.”
The next Sunday, July 24, Figueroa will conduct a concert of contrasting emotional temperatures: Falla’s “Nights in the Gardens of Spain” and Symphony No. 2 in D, by Finland’s greatest composer, Jan Sibelius.
Pianist Tomoko Kanamaru will be featured in Falla’s shimmering “Gardens.”
“Tomoko played with us last year,” Figueroa said. “The Falla is not performed a lot, but it is a most exquisite piece, not a big showoff work like Rachmaninoff, but simply exquisite. And I’ve wanted to perform the big Sibelius symphony for a long time.”
Before the orchestra brings the season to a close the weekend of July 30 and 31, Figueroa will lead a chamber concert at St. Columba Church for those who like a more intimate setting. And there will be the big family concert on July 20, Pops Night on July 28 and Byron Stripling’s “American Melodies” on July 29 – all in the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.
The final weekend, however, features the Festival Orchestra in two very different programs. Chocolate Indulgence is the title of the July 30 concert with desserts provided by Animas Chocolate Co. before a big program of dances and two overtures, concluding with Liszt’s popular Hungarian Rhapsody No 2. You can buy a ticket for dessert and concert or the concert alone.
Figueroa usually concludes with a big finish, and this year is no exception. Great Opera Choruses is the title for July 31. It will feature the orchestra and the Durango Choral Society, prepared by Linda Mack Berven.
“I’m thrilled to have the Choral Society back with us,” Figueroa said. “It’s a wonderful program of opera choral excerpts, particularly ‘Va pensiero,’ the chorus of the Hebrew slaves from Verdi’s ‘Nabucco.’”
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
