Sandwiched between two classical concerts, the final Pops Concert of Music in the Mountains 2024, will unfurl Saturday at Sky Ute Event Center. Promoted as an “intergalactic musical showdown,” the concert will feature the music of John Williams and the Star Wars franchise plus themes from “Star Trek.” Conductor Richard Kaufman will lead the festival orchestra in a friendly competition, juggling fans of both fantasy worlds. Kaufman is a leading conductor of film music who understands the importance of trumpet fanfares and drum rolls.
“This is our biggest fundraiser,” Executive Director of MiTM Angie Beach said. “We’re hoping people will show up in costume.”
The Star Wars-Star Trek mashup begins at 5 p.m. with cocktails and appetizers then a multicourse sit-down dinner with wine.
If you go
WHAT: 38th Music in the Mountains finale.
WHEN: Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
WHERE: Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive and Sky Ute Event Center, 14324 Highway 172 North, Ignacio.
TICKETS: $50, $70 and $200-$250.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.musicinthemountains.com or call 385-6820.
NOTE: Preconcert lectures will be given one hour before concert time for both concerts in the Lyceum of Center of Southwest Studies at FLC by Linda Mack Berven.
Bookending Saturday’s Pops Night are two unusual concerts in the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. On Friday, Artistic Director and Conductor Guillermo Figueroa will lead the orchestra in a program titled “Classical Hit Parade.” Known and beloved by many, the nine program works include mostly overtures and dances. Mozart’s lighthearted overture to his comic opera “The Marriage of Figaro” opens the program. Tchaikovsky’s danceable “Polonaise” from the opera “Eugene Onegin” continues the toe-tapping spirit.
More overtures, an intermezzo and a few dances later, you’ll hear Johann Strauss II’s polka, “Thunder and lightning.” The whole program sums up the delights of familiar classical music and should be a romp.
To close the 38th festival, Figueroa will conduct the Festival Orchestra in a Sunday program of contrasting masterworks. Glinka’s preamble to his opera “Ruslan and Ludmilla,” based on a Pushkin fairy tale, opens the concert. Then settle down for Shostakovich’s 1959 Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat with guest soloist Paul Watkins.
Watkins is part of the festival’s stellar triumvirate of soloists this summer. Along with pianist Olga Kern and violinist Hina Khuong-Huu, Watkins adds luster to a farewell salute to Conductor Figueroa.
Born in Wales, Watkins teaches in the graduate program at the Yale School of Music, coaches chamber ensembles and maintains a career as soloist, professor and conductor. Since winning the 2002 Leeds Conducting competition, he’s added that role to his vita and has conducted major orchestras in the USA, Europe, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom. Given all that, Watkins may be best known as a member of the Emerson String Quartet with a basketful of recordings.
He will perform Shostakovich’s lyrical concerto with Figueroa and the Festival Orchestra.
After intermission, Figueroa will appear for the last time as artistic director and conductor of the festival. He will conduct Beethoven’s majestic Seventh Symphony. Composed in 1813, the monumental work was introduced to the world at a benefit concert for soldiers wounded in the battle that failed to stop Napoleon’s armies.
Thank you, Guillermo, for being an important part of our cultural history. May the force be with you.
“Hopi R2-D2,” a whimsical motorized sculpture, is the centerpiece of an inventive exhibition at the Center of Southwest Studies. The creation of Duane Koyawena (Hopi/Tewa), the beeping robot is covered with Hopi symbols. He zips around the museum gallery at Fort Lewis College where he can be seen through the end of September in an exhibition titled “The Return of the Force.”
Aware of the exhibition, Angie Beach, executive director of Music in the Mountains, said she had hoped “Hopi R2-D2” would be a guest at the Pops Concert Saturday out at Sky Ute Event Center.
“We reached out to Duane Koyawena,” she said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make arrangements.”
Fans of both “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” will gather Saturday for an intergalactic showdown, as MiTM publicity goes. Pops Conductor Richard Kaufman and the Festival Orchestra will present arrangements from John Williams’ “Star Wars” film scores as well as themes from “Star Trek.” Word has it that many fans will show up in costume.
Would that MiTM had scheduled at least one chamber music event in the Center’s beautiful high-ceilinged gallery. It seems like a missed opportunity given the interest and the big fundraising concert. A recital in the Center or Southwest Studies would have underscored the “Star Wars” connections and brought festivalgoers into one of the college’s finest resources.
After the festival concludes, fans might consider a trip to the Center, adjacent to the Concert Hall. “The Return of the Force” reveals many connections between pop culture and Native American imagination. Koyawena sought out Native artists who have explored the “Star Wars” world with surprising results. Several works are on loan from private collectors. Four pieces come from the Center itself. And Koyawena’s reinvention of R2-D2 as a Hopi robot is among the most imaginative.
“Duane’s career as a creator and curator of contemporary Native American art is exploding,” said Cory Pillen. Pillen is director of the center and has known Koyawena since he brought “PIVOT,” the skateboard-art exhibit, to the center in 2020. “We are thrilled to have the ‘Star Wars’ exhibit here another two months.”
The Center of Southwest Studies Gallery is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday or by appointment. Don’t miss “The Return of the Force.”
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
