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Music

Music in the Mountains: Two soloists and a festival tribute

Russian-American pianist Olga Kern will perform the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Festival Orchestra on July 26. (Courtesy of Music in the Mountains)
A salute to Mary Jane Clark anchors the 38th festival calendar

Every year, Music in the Mountains attracts rising and established soloists. Violinist Vadim Gluzman may have started the tradition. Now, internationally known Gluzman continues to perform with MiTM. He also encourages his protégés to squeeze in a Colorado stop in a busy concert schedule.

We may well thank Gluzman for bringing the festival’s first featured soloist in the 38th season: violinist Hina Khuong-Huu. In addition to other teachers such as Itzhak Perlman at The Juilliard School and Columbia University, Khuong-Huu lists Gluzman among her mentors. That she was first prize winner of the 2023 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition adds spice to her Colorado appearance. And, last year she made her Kennedy Center debut.

If you go

WHAT: Music in the Mountains concerts and a tribute to Mary Jane Clark.

WHO: Violinist Hina Khuong-Huu (July 21); pianist Olga Kern (July 26).

WHEN: 5 p.m. Sunday; 7 p.m. July 26.

WHERE: Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive.

TICKETS: $50-$70.

MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.musicinthemountains.com or call 385-6820.

On Sunday, Khuong-Huu will join the festival orchestra in a spirited program that includes Édouard Lalo’s “Symphonie espagnole” in D minor. The title is misleading as the five-movement work is really a virtuosic violin concerto. Lalo, a French Romantic composer, created the work in the 1870s and dedicated it to the famous virtuoso of the time, Pablo de Sarasate. It was he who premiered the work in Paris on Feb. 7, 1875. The instant you hear the opening bars, it’s likely you will recognize the music.

Violinist Hina Khuong-Huu will perform with the Festival Orchestra on Sunday. (Courtesy of Music in the Mountains)

Inspired by Spanish and Moorish dances, the “Symphonie espagnole” swirls through a series of familiar melodies and especially rhythms, the habanera, a seguidilla, made hugely popular in the opera “Carmen,” and more – all of which evoke Spanish folk music. The work is a tour de force of musical exhilaration and a perfect platform for the big work following intermission: Brahms’ massive Symphony No. 2.

Another soloist, Russian-American pianist Olga Kern, 49, brings a world of international concert experience to our festival. On July 26, Conductor Guillermo Figueroa will welcome Kern to perform the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor. Born into a family of Moscow musicians in 1975, she began studying piano at age 5. When she turned 17, Kern won the first Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition. In 2001, when she turned 26, Kern shared the gold medal at the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition with the Uzbekistan-American pianist Stanislaw Loudenitch. That competition launched her international career.

In 2004, she made her New York City debut at Carnegie Hall, and in the two decades that followed, Kern has performed with orchestras all over the world. She has initiated several competitions and continues to give master classes. In 2017, she joined the Manhattan School of Music piano faculty. Born Olga Vladimirova, she married pianist Vladislav Kern and became an American citizen in 2016.

The late Mary Jane Clark is seen at a Music in the Mountains concert. (Courtesy of Music in the Mountains)

Kern’s appearance with the Festival Orchestra on July 26 coincides with a tribute to the late Mary Jane Clark, a longtime supporter of MiTM. A gift from the Ballantine Family Fund in memory of Clark made this particular concert possible. Clark died last year only two months short of her 98th birthday. From the beginning of MiTM, she passionately supported the festival’s mission to bring classical music of a high caliber to the Southwest.

To the very end of her long and colorful life, Clark attended concerts, recitals, and the Saturday morning Met Opera programs. And every weekday for decades, she could be seen at the Durango Post Office performing an ordinary chore – picking up mail for the family business, Toh-Atin Gallery. From 1981 forward, she shepherded the Durango landmark with her strong work ethic and solid business acumen. Dedicating the Sunday MiTM concert to Clark is a fitting way to celebrate her remarkable life and contributions to our community.

Music in the Mountains Picnic and Family Concert at the Community Concert Hall in 2023. (Courtesy of Judith Reynolds)
Green Eggs & Ham

Dinner and Family Concert at Concert Hall

In what may be the best musical bargain of the year, the Family Concert and Dinner on July 24, can’t be beat. Designed for children, parents and grandparents, the event begins at 5:30 p.m. in the courtyard of the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. A hot dog and root-beer-float supper will be served thanks to an army of Durango volunteers. An hour later, at about 6:30, everyone is invited into the hall for a one hour musical program.

The program begins with a young American composer’s whimsical setting of “Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham.”

If you go

WHAT: Music in the Mountains Dinner and Family Concert.

WHEN: 5:30 p.m., dinner, 6:30 p.m., concert, Wednesday.

WHERE: Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.

TICKETS: $5.

MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.musicinthemountains.com or call 385-6820.

Maestro Guillermo Figueroa will conduct Robert Kapilow’s inventive and entertaining musical storytelling. Paul Singer narrates, and soprano Drea Presley will sing the Sam-I-Am dialogue.

To put a flourish on an already festive evening, Figueroa and the Festival Orchestra will play Rossini’s “Overture to William Tell.” For those who remember “The Lone Ranger” television show, it’s another bridge to the kind of great music that can become an earworm if you don’t watch out.

Family Night is a short and memorable evening, and the price is right.

Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.