Maestro Figueroa Iolos In New Mexico Symphony Concert

The New Mexico Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven Festival continues with a program featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8, his Coriolan overture and the Adagio from the Hammerklavier Sonata in three performances, Feb. 27, 28 and March 1.

Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra Music Director Leon Botstein will conduct these performances which also feature Harold Farberman’s Double Concerto for Violin and Percussion with percussionist Simon Boyar and the NMSO’s own music director, Guillermo Figueroa, on violin.

The concerto – premiered by the American Symphony at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall in 2007 – was written by Farberman both for and about Guillermo Figueroa, music director of the NMSO since 2001. Both a renowned conductor and violinist, Figueroa is a founding member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. With this group he has been concertmaster and soloist in performances throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, and made over fifty recordings for Deutsche Grammophon. In 1995, he gave the world premiere of Concertino for Violin and Orchestra by Mario Davidovsky at Carnegie Hall, written for him and Orpheus.

Figueroa is also music director for the Music in the Mountains festival in Durango, Colo., as well as the principal guest conductor for the Puerto Rico Symphony. For ten years, Figueroa was concertmaster of the New York City Ballet, appearing in over a hundred performances of violin concerti by Barber, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Berg and Adams. He has appeared at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music in the Vineyards in California, Music from Angel Fire (N.M.) and the El Paso (Texas) Pro Musica Chamber Festival.

Figueroa has recorded the Three Violin Sonatas by Bartok for the Eroica Classical label with pianist Robert Koenig, and an album of virtuoso violin music by Wieniawski, Sarasate and Kreisler for the NMSO label with pianist Ivonne Figueroa.

Simon Boyar is perhaps the most electrifying and innovative young percussionist on the music scene today. He has performed in dozens of countries around the world and has appeared with such artists as John Adams, Evelyn Glennie and Joshua Bell among many others. He was the first percussionist ever to play and record a double concerto with violin and guitar. Upon his graduation from the Juilliard School, Boyar joined the faculty of the school’s Pre-College Percussion Department, ultimately becoming the youngest person ever to be named department director there.

He uses and teaches the Boyar Method, a radical new technique for the marimba developed by Boyar, designed to expand the creative and rhythmic potential of the instrument. In addition to performing his own compositions, Boyar writes, mixes and produces music for numerous artists.

Leon Botstein is music director and principal conductor of both the American Symphony Orchestra in New York and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the radio orchestra of Israel. He also founded and is co-artisic director of the acclaimed Bard Music Festival. He is the editor of Musical Quarterly, and the author of numerous articles and books. He has addressed the United Nations on “Why Music Matters” as part of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s lecture series. For his contributions to music he has received the award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Harvard University’s prestigious Centennial Award, as well as the Cross of Honor First Class from the government of Austria. Since 1975, he has been president of Bard College in New York, where he also holds the Leon Levy Chair in Arts and Humanities.

The NMSO is devoting a major portion of its 2008-2009 season to honor the works of classical music’s giant: Ludwig van Beethoven. Fourteen performances between Jan. 17 and March 22 comprise the NMSO’s Beethoven Festival, treating audiences to three symphonies, four concerti, a choral mass and a variety of other Beethoven masterpieces. Other highlights of the festival include the Emperor Concerto, the Missa Solemnis with the NMSO Chorus, a special concert with pianists Awadagin Pratt and Orli Shaham, and much more. -- www.nmso.org