{"id":22984,"date":"2025-03-27T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/for-san-juan-symphony-passion-meets-precision\/"},"modified":"2025-03-27T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T12:00:00","slug":"for-san-juan-symphony-passion-meets-precision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/for-san-juan-symphony-passion-meets-precision\/","title":{"rendered":"For San Juan Symphony, \u2018Passion Meets Precision\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Graphic
Graphic of Thomas Heuser conducting. (Judith Reynolds)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The free talks Thomas Heuser delivers a few days before San Juan Symphony concerts are the best deal in town.<\/p>\n

Called \u201cMusically Speaking,\u201d his lively presentations are peppered with telling anecdotes, musical selections and breezy overviews of an upcoming concert. If you haven\u2019t attended this free bonus event before, join other music lovers at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Powerhouse Science Center. Symphony staff members put out a hearty spread of finger food and a cash bar supplements the festivities.<\/p>\n

In a tight, well-organized hour, Heuser summarizes works on the upcoming program. He gives just enough biography to bring individual composers to life. Most importantly, he delivers a personable, jargon-free guide to the music.<\/p>\n

\n

If you go<\/h4>\n

WHAT: <\/strong>\u201cMusically Speaking,\u201d pre-concert lecture with Music Director Thomas Heuser.<\/p>\n

WHEN:<\/strong> 6 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

WHERE: <\/strong>Powerhouse Science Center, 1333 Camino del Rio.<\/p>\n

TICKETS:<\/strong> Free.<\/p>\n

MORE INFORMATION: <\/strong>Call 382-9753 or visit www.sanjuansymphony.org.<\/a>**********<\/p>\n

WHAT: <\/strong>\u201cPassion Meets Precision,\u201d San Juan Symphony, Music Director Thomas Heuser, works by Perry, Bart\u00f3k and Prokofiev.<\/p>\n

WHEN: <\/strong>7:30 p.m. April 4, Durango, and 3 p.m. April 5, Farmington.<\/p>\n

WHERE:<\/strong> Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, Durango. Henderson Performance Hall, Farmington.<\/p>\n

TICKETS: <\/strong>Durango: single tickets range from $21 students to $64 adults.<\/p>\n

MORE INFORMATION:<\/strong> Call 247-7567 or visit www.durangoconcerts.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The final concerts in San Juan Symphony\u2019s 39th season take place the following weekend, April 5 in Durango and April 6 in Farmington. Titled \u201cPassion Meets Precision,\u201d the twin concerts combine one very short piece, a set of dances and a majestic symphony you will be glad to put in your bag of lifetime memories.<\/p>\n

Opening the program is American composer Julia Perry\u2019s \u201cShort Piece for Orchestra.\u201d It\u2019s just that \u2013 a very short prelude to a substantial concert.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerry\u2019s centennial was just last year, 2024,\u201d Heuser said of this relatively unknown composer who is getting more attention at last. \u201cShe wrote this and \u2018Study\u2019 for orchestra in 1952.\u201d Both showcase her skill with the orchestral palette, he added, allowing her to maximize an orchestra\u2019s sound in a very short work.<\/p>\n

Bart\u00f3k\u2019s Hungarian Peasant Dances will follow, Heuser said, rousing works brimming with energy and folk tunes. In both the Perry and the Bart\u00f3k, Heuser said, student musicians will join the orchestra in the annual Side-by-Side collaboration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel that the Side-by-Side opportunity represents hope for the future of the Symphony and our society,\u201d he said. Area students audition for the chance to rehearse and play with the orchestra. This year, 12 young people will sit side-by-side in various sections for the formal performances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love using this concert opportunity to expose our students to a variety of musical voices and experiences,\u201d Heuser said.<\/p>\n

The student musicians also play in the San Juan Symphony Youth Orchestra whose spring concert is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 27 in the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.<\/p>\n

After intermission, the student musicians will filter into the audience to listen to the orchestra play one of the 20th century\u2019s most significant works: Sergei Prokofiev\u2019s Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major. Composed in 1944, the Symphony, Heuser said, came after the composer had survived \u201cthe tide of extreme censorship\u201d during the bleakest years in the Soviet Union, what the Russians titled the Great Patriotic War.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Fifth Symphony is absolutely massive in scale and scope, but I so admire the cohesion of the score,\u201d Heuser said. \u201cLike a great novel, the Fifth Symphony is crafted so expertly that you cannot help by be carried along, like a story that keeps you turning pages. The resulting emotional payload is unbelievable.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou feel Prokofiev\u2019s \u2018hymn to free and happy Man \u2026 his pure and noble spirit.\u2019 Those feelings of freedom and nobility are palpable for the listener,\u201d he said. \u201cMy feeling is that this will be a program that inspires our audiences to go home and seek out more music by these wonderful composers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

39th season wraps with presentation and big performance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,28,559,1885],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-headlines","tag-music","tag-san-juan-symphony-orchestra"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22984"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}