MUSIC FROM ANGEL FIRE Opens Season 6/27

Now in its 29th year, the much anticipated Music from Angel Fire season will open Friday, Aug. 17 through Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012 with a total of 14 concerts featuring works from the Baroque to the Contemporary periods. Performances will take places in a number of Northern NM locations including Taos, Angel Fire, Raton, Eagle Nest, and Las Vegas.

Two themes will run through the 2012 Season of Music from Angel Fire: French music and music inspired by religion. The 150th anniversary of the birth of the great impressionist composer Claude Debussy and the 100th anniversary of the birth of the witty and charming composer Jean Françaix motivated the programming of French music flowing throughout the Season. Also expect to hear pieces by Franck, Poulenc, Saint-Saëns, Ravel and Fauré. Festival Artistic Director Ida Kavafian will host two enlightening evenings of religious music.

Included among the 2012 artists are Ida Kavafian, Artistic Director, violin; Ani Kavafian and Pam Frank, violin; Anne-Marie McDermott, piano; Peter Wiley, cello; Tara Helen O’Connor, flute, Karen Lindquist, harp and Guillermo Figueroa, violin/viola.

Join violinist Ida Kavafian and festival artists at 7 p.m. on Aug. 10 for an “Evening of Chamber Music with Friends” at the Robertson and Sons Violin Shop in Albuquerque. Seating is limited to 100, reservations are recommended. The performance will be followed by a reception.

On opening night, Friday, Aug. 17, experience “Closer Encounters” with artists for a fun, free and informal event at the Angel Fire Community Center beginning at 1 p.m. A second “Closer Encounters II” will take place on Friday, Aug. 22 and will provide the public an insider’s view of rehearsals.

A number of exciting Season concerts will be performed at the Taos Center for the Arts including the popular Baroque concert. On Aug. 18 in Taos, Music from Angel Fire will participate in the year-long celebration of Remarkable Women of Taos – a creative traveler education theme honoring outstanding historic and contemporary women of Taos.  The program will feature a truly remarkable American woman composer, Amy Beach.

Other seasonal performances in Taos, NM at the Taos Center for the Arts include:

• “Lovers in Captivity” – Saturday, Aug. 25 at 7 p.m.;
• Family/Youth Concert – Wednesday, Aug. 29 at 10 a.m., featuring complimentary lecture, demonstration and concert;
• “Myth and Magic” all Baroque concert – Wednesday, Aug. 29 at 7 p.m.;
• “Le Romantisme Françaix” – Saturday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m.

The beautiful and historic Shuler Theater in Raton, NM will once again be the setting for the Complimentary Community Concert on Aug. 21; while the Las Vegas, NM concert will be held in the Ilfeld Auditorium on the campus of NM Highlands University on Aug. 24.

“Musical Conversations” at the United Church of Angel Fire on Aug. 19 and Aug. 30 will feature Biber’s Rosary Sonatas which are representations of the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary and Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross.

The Festival’s Salon Concert in Angel Fire will provide experiences from the sublime to the ridiculous.  In addition to time-honored musical selections, hilarity will ensue in this crowd pleasing event which will be followed by the annual Southwestern Art Auction at the Lodge at Angel Fire Resort on Sunday, Aug. 26.

The Festival will proudly present the World Premiere of a new work written for the Festival by the 2012 Composer-in-Residence Steven Stucky – commissioned by Music from Angel Fire and funded in part by the Bruce E. Howden, Jr. American Composers Project. Widely recognized as one of the leading composers today, Steven Stucky was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Second Concerto for Orchestra.

Exceptionally talented young artists from the famEd Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia will be broadening their concert experience and repertoire by performing in Festival concerts as a part of the “Young Artist Program,” now in its 14th year. The astounding talent of these young artists will also be shared with school children in 30 classroom concerts, demonstrations and interactive lectures in communities across Northern NM though the Festival’s “Music in Our Schools” program which enriches the lives of New Mexico students immeasurably.

Tickets range between $20 and $35; free for all family/youth concerts and the Raton Community Concert.

The 2012 Season is presented in part by the Thaw Charitable Trust, McCune Charitable Foundation, Albert I. Pierce Foundation, Phillips Foundation, Lenfest Foundation, Whited Foundation, Healy Foundation, Hubbard Broadcasting Foundation, Thistlewood Foundation, Weber Foundation, Walmart Foundation, Angel Fire Resort, Questa Mine, International Bank, Bank of America, Lowe’s Pay-N-Save, the Angel Fire Community Foundation, Total Arts Gallery, Phil Long Toyota, Robertson & Sons Violin Shop, the Village of Angel Fire, City of Raton, City of Las Vegas and San Miguel County Lodgers' Tax, the Town of Taos, New Mexico Arts, a division of the Dept. of Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For a full schedule of chamber music throughout the season, visit www.musicfromangelfire.com or call 888-377-3300.

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