Explore new musical frontiers and enjoy a time-honored favorite! Your Santa Fe Symphony performs Dvořák’s beloved “New World” on a program that also features Maestro Figueroa as soloist on a symbolic journey through Miguel del Águila’s violin concerto. Symphony tubist Richard White shines in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ rollicking Tuba Concerto. Bon voyage!
The Santa Fe Symphony
Richard White, tuba
Nir Kabaretti, guest conductor
Guillermo Figueroa, violin and conductor
Vaughan Williams
Tuba Concerto
Miguel del Águila
Violin Concerto, “El Viaje de una Vida” (The Journey of a Lifetime)
Dvořák
Symphony No. 9 in E minor, “From the New World”
Of Note
While not the first-ever tuba concerto, Vaughan Williams’ 1954 work set the gold-standard for similar works to follow, including those by Edward Gregson, Bruce Broughton, a recent concerto by Jennifer Higdon, and even John Williams (yes, that John Williams!).
Uruguayan-born, Seattle-based Miguel del Águila has ties to New Mexico: as composer-in-residence with the New Mexico Symphony, his opera Time and Again Barelas was premiered by the NMS, as was his violin concerto, performed by Guillermo Figueroa as soloist, in 2008.
Dvořák’s masterwork was composed during his three-year stint as director of a music conservatory in New York City, and is based upon the sounds of the Native American music and African-American spirituals that he discovered upon his arrival. Dvořák wrote, “These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them.”
Richard White, tuba
With over two decades of performing on the world’s classical music stages, tubist Richard White has matured into a musician known for his clear sound and stylistic flexibility. He began his tuba studies with Ed Goldstein at age twelve at The Baltimore School for the Performing Arts, where he graduated with honors. He then went to the Peabody Conservatory of Music and received his master's and doctoral degrees from Indiana University.
Guillermo Figueroa, violin
Figueroa's recording of Ernesto Cordero’s violin concertos for the Naxos label received a Latin GRAMMY® nomination in 2012. He was Concertmaster of the New York City Ballet, and a Founding Member and Concertmaster of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, making over fifty recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, a German classical record label, and the oldest surviving established record company.
Nir Kirabetti, guest conductor
Internationally acclaimed conductor, Nir Kabaretti, is the Music and Artistic Director of the Santa Barbara Symphony and of the South West Florida Symphony. Described as “a conductor with immense musicality and warm personality” by Maestro Zubin Mehta, Kabaretti has earned an impressive reputation across continents for his command of a vast symphonic, operatic and ballet repertoire.