San Juan Symphony Inc. is on a roll.
On Oct. 26, the musical juggernaut launched its second program in the Beyond the Concert Hall series in St. Mark’s Church. On Nov. 7 and 8, the Symphony Orchestra, with two local choruses and a soloist straight from the Met in New York, will present the next offering in twin concerts for the 40th season in Durango and Farmington.
If you go
WHAT: “We Are the Music Makers,” San Juan Symphony, Thomas Heuser conductor, with the Durango Choral Society and Farmington’s Caliente Choir, plus mezzo soprano soloist Deborah Nansteel. Works by Johann Strauss Sr., Richard Wagner and Sir Edwar Elgar.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8, Durango; 3 p.m. Nov. 9, Farmington.
WHERE: Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, Durango, and Henderson Performing Arts Center, Farmington.
TICKETS: $24 to $69.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.sanjuansymphony.org or call 382-9753. Visit www.durangoconcerts.com or call 247-7657.
Last weekend, the SJS Chamber Singers, under new director Amy Barrett, delivered a robust set of tuneful surprises and gave the sold-out St. Mark’s crowd a collective embrace.
Continuing the tradition set in 2016 by founder Elizabeth Crawford, the Singers offered music by emerging composers. Among the highlights: “Awake My Soul,” by Elaine Hagenberg, opened the program with a vocal fanfare as brilliant as a Renaissance pronouncement. Two back-to-back works in the middle of the concert contrasted ferocious anger and shimmering tenderness. “Dies Irae,” by Ryan Main, took a familiar, Latin text about God’s wrath and unfurled it in thunderous clouds of sound. Eric Whitacre’s serenely beautiful “Child of Wonder” followed, accompanied by violist Lara Aase and pianist Christi Livingston.
To introduce a rousing Swahili chant, “Baba Yetu,” by Christopher Tin, Barrett asked the audience how many played video games. Three hands out of 140 shot up; Barrett’s three boys. So, Mother Barrett went on to educate the audience about a new and expanding genre – video game music. It has burgeoned into a Grammy award category of its own.
The American composer’s version of the Lord’s Prayer was originally created for Sid Meier’s video “Civilization IV.” Now, the work is performed in concert halls with full orchestra. Watch and listen to any number on YouTube. The Singers performed with percussionist Mark Rosenberg and pianist Christi Livingston. Soloist Dennis Costello forthrightly led the call-and-response of the African-style choral work.
The program concluded with a stirring vocalise sung in syllables, by Jocelyn Hagen, and the singers fanned out into the sanctuary holding hands. Hagen’s comforting blanket of sound filled the air, and the experience brought forth what the French sociologist Emilé Durkheim described as communal efflorescence. Barrett and the SJS Singers created a moment that’s hard to describe but emotionally apparent when experienced.
The San Juan Symphony rolls on Nov. 7 and 8, when the full orchestra presents twin concerts titled: “We are the Music Makers.” Opening with Strauss’ bright “Radetzky March,” then spreading Wagnerian wings to perform the “Prelude to Tristan und Isolde,” Music Director Thomas Heuser and the orchestra will welcome a massed choir of 80 voices to perform Edward Elgar’s oratorio “The Music Makers.”
The text is a nine-stanza English ode by the 19th-century poet Arthur O’Shaughnessy. The telltale opening line gives it all away: “We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.”
For months, the Durango Choral Society and Farmington’s Caliente Community Chorus have been preparing for this extravaganza. And mezzo-soprano Deborah Nansteel, recently seen as Teresa in the new Metropolitan Opera production of Bellini’s “La Sonnambula,” will be the soloist.
“There are few discernible section breaks in ‘The Music Makers,’” Heuser said. “The flow of the music has a Wagnerian continuousness and harmonic chromaticism that lends itself to the through-composed model. And the solo mezzo-soprano offers a poignant intimacy in the second half of the work.”
At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Thomas Heuser, music director and conductor of the San Juan Symphony, will give one of his free – and jargon-free – preconcert lectures on the upcoming orchestra program. Scheduled for the Powerhouse Science Center, 1295 Camino del Rio, Heuser’s informal presentation will look at the composers, the structure and stories behind the music, and he will play excerpts to illustrate his points.
Heuser’s lecture style is informal and yet full of musical information. Plan to arrive early to take advantage of free appetizers and a cash bar. Mingle with fellow music lovers, get a good seat and learn why Strauss’ “Radetzky March,” Wagner’s “Prelude to Tristan und Isolde” and above all, Elgar’s big oratorio, “The Music Makers,” were chosen for the second concert in the orchestra’s 40th season.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
