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Music

When Claude met Shelley: French chamber music to warm a cold January

Illustration of Claude Debussy. (Judith Reynolds)
Series pays tribute to a singular composer

So much music, so little time.

Last spring, Thomas Heuser asked Shelley Mann if she would consider a solo recital in the 2025 San Juan Symphony Chamber Music Series – or a lecture recital. She opted for the latter.

“The Life and Music of Claude Debussy” will have two performances: 7 p.m. Jan. 17 at St. Mark’s Church, and 2 p.m. Jan. 18 in the Connie Gotsch Theatre in Farmington. Both are under the auspices of the SJS program known as Beyond the Concert Hall.

“Since I’ve been playing solo recitals for decades, the lecture format seemed like a new and fun challenge,” Mann said. “Although I’ve been enjoying my retirement from academia, I have missed teaching, so the combination of performing and teaching seemed perfect.

If you go

WHAT: The Life and Music of Claude Debussy, a lecture recital hosted by Rochelle Mann.

WHEN: 7 p.m. Jan. 17; 2 p.m. Jan. 18.

WHERE: St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 910 East Third Ave., and Connie Gotsch Theatre, 4601 College Blvd., Farmington.

ADMISSION: Adults $25, students $5. Available at www.durangoconcerts.com or 247-7567

MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.sanjuansymphony.org or call 382-9753.

“I was on the FLC music faculty for 22 years before retiring in 2008,” she said. Seven of those years she led the department as chair, and in her final year, Mann served as interim Dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

“During that time, I also served as artistic director of the Durango Children’s Chorale for 13 years, and I spent most summers teaching graduate-level music education courses around the country,” she said.

In 2011, Mann returned to Fort Lewis College for one year “when I was needed to serve again as chair of the Department.”

Simultaneously, her history with the orchestra runs very deep. She was an original member of the chamber music organization that morphed into the San Juan Symphony.

Flutist Rochelle Mann will lead a lecture/recital next weekend in Durango and Farmington. (Judith Reynolds)

“I’ve played with the Symphony since its inception in 1985 when Jan Roshong combined the Farmington-based San Juan Symphony with the Durango Civic Symphony,” she said. “I think I may be the only one from that era still playing with SJS.”

When Heuser asked Mann to shape a lecture-recital, he left the subject up to her.

“Several of my favorite composers came to mind, and I eventually settled on Claude Debussy,” she said. “His ‘Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun’ will be featured on the SJS February concert, so this recital will be a ‘prelude to the Prelude.’ The most difficult part of preparation for next Friday’s concert has been to distill his entire life and musical output into 60 to 75 minutes!

“Debussy was a pianist, so the piano will be featured prominently, as will the harp. Also included will be voice, flute, violin and viola,” she said. “I hope that I have come up with a program that will give the audience a taste of what makes his music so evocative, and leave them wanting to hear more.”

Joining Mann as narrator and flutist will be mezzo-soprano Drea Pressley, violinist Lauren Avery, violist Karl Winkler, harpist Anna Hamrick and pianist Tatiana R. Mann.

“Yes, my Ukrainian-born daughter-in-law, Tatiana, will be joining us,” Mann said. “She and my son Philip (music director of the Texarkana, Texas, and Monroe, Louisiana, symphonies) now live in the Baltimore area. They both also work for the University of Maryland.”

Mann will narrate and perform. She plans to discuss the composer’s life and with her colleagues present six particular works that span his lifetime. The program will include the famous “Claire de lune,” for piano, performed by Tatiana Mann, “Arabesque No. I” arranged for harp, Sonata for flute, viola and harp from 1915, and Sonata for violin and piano from 1917 composed at the end of Debussy’s life. He died on March 25, 1918.

This unique addition to the SJS calendar is an extension of something Heuser started in 2024 with the music of Dvořák. Last year, the symphony performed Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony in February. Heuser and a small group of symphony musicians followed up on April 5 with a lecture-recital on the Bohemian composer’s smaller works.

Rochelle Mann will narrate and perform next weekend in Durango and Farmington. (Judith Reynolds)

At the time, Heuser commented on his concert initiatives: “Our multifaceted programs are designed to showcase both the incredible breadth of talent in our community and revel in the depth of Dvorak’s output of chamber and piano music and songs. We’re trying to make connections between multiple programs.”

Credit Heuser for continuing to make musical connections “beyond the concert hall,” and for inviting his principal flutist and legendary music educator from FLC to craft an evening with Debussy in 2025.

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