The Las Cruces Symphony is the premiere arts organization in southern New Mexico with a nearly fifty-year tradition of providing symphonic music to audiences and students throughout the region.
Lonnie Klein, Conductor
In addition to an extensive regular concert season with the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra, Lonnie Klein has guest conducted regularly with orchestras in Mexico, Canada, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Colombia (South America) as well as with orchestras in the United States.
In 2010, Klein guest conducted the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Bunde and Herford Germany. He returned to Europe in May for concerts in Bergamo and Rovereto Italy with the Orchestra Sinfonica Italiana. In the states, Klein guest conducted the Traverse Symphony (Michigan) and the Springfield Symphony (Massachusetts). In June 2009, Klein conducted the Baden-Baden Philharmonie (Germany) at the International Toledo Festival in Spain and in the fall of 2008, Klein made his debut with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra (Albuquerque) on their second POPS concert series.
In the summer of 2008, Klein made his South American debut with the Orquesta Filarmonica del Valle del Cauca in Cali, Colombia. Also in 2007, Klein guest conducted on two occasions the Orquesta Filarmonica del Estado de Chihuahua in Mexico, the Europa Philharmonie in Germany and the Orchestra Sinfonica Della Provincia in Italy. Other European concerts include conducting the Milano Classico Orchestra on two separate occasions in Milan and Las Spezia and the Solisti di Perugia Orchestra in the Piazza Novembre in a concert entitled "A Night Under the Stars" in which over 12,000 people were in attendance. In May 2004 and March, 2005, Klein conducted concerts in Adana, Turkey with the Cukurova Devlet Senfona Orkestra which were broadcast live on Turkish television.
As a Pops conductor, he has produced and conducted concerts with such celebrated artists as Doc Severinsen, Mariachi Cobre, The Temptations, The Contours, The Dukes of Dixieland, 5 By Design, The Beatles, Sandi Patti, Lee Greenwood, Daniel Rodriquez, "Simply Sinatra" with Steve Lippia, Tony Award winner Debbie Gravitte and Broadway stars Anne Runolfsson and Doug LaBrecque.
Lonnie Klein is committed to performing music of our time. Since his appointment, the LCSO has given world premieres of new music especially commissioned for the orchestra. Noted composers include Peter Inness (Scotland), Reinhard Seehafer (Germany), Oliver Payan (Mexico), Steve Chatman (Canada) and American composers Joan Tower, Bill McGlaughlin and Joseph Schwanter. In 2005 and 2007, the LCSO was featured on National Public Radio's Performance Today, which was heard in all 50 states and on Sirius Radio. In June 2006, Klein was invited by Joan Tower to discuss the LCSO performances of her new work Made in America at the American Symphony Orchestra Leagues annual conference in Los Angeles.
From his inaugural concert with the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra at New Mexico State University in October 1999, Music Director Lonnie Klein has led the orchestra to new levels of artistic excellence, with high audience acclaim, rave reviews and ten consecutive sold-out seasons. Joseph Schwantner, noted American composer, said, "Lonnie's industry and energy knows no bounds and he has propelled the orchestra into an ensemble that possesses great musical integrity and an ability to engage new and challenging music in a manner that is truly exceptional."
Klein's spirited vision includes a deep commitment to education and community. Under his leadership and guidance, the LCSO has expanded its outreach programs for young and old. He has featured educational outreach troupes such as Tales and Scales, Dan Kamen Comedy Tours and Lynn Dillies' "Magic at the Symphony." More than 15,000 area children will benefit from in-school programming and opportunities to experience the orchestra in concert. For those wanting to deepen their experience of music, Klein offers a series of pre-performance lectures to the public prior to every Classics Series concert.
Lonnie Klein holds a Doctorate in Performance from the University of Illinois, a Master of Music from Michigan State University, and a Bachelor's from Murray State University.
Andrea Padova, Piano
Andrea Padova first achieved critical attention when he won the First Prize at the “J.S.Bach International Piano Competition” in 1995. Since then has concertized throughout the world, appearing in such major venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Washington Performing Arts Society, Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, Gasteig in Munich, Granada Festival, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Accademia di S.Cecilia in Rome, Teatro Massimo in Palermo.
He has been called "one of the most interesting figures of contemporary piano scene" by the magazine Insound that in 2008 awarded him as best Italian pianist and complete and versatile musician.
Considered as one of the most innovative Bach interpreters by the authoritative musicologists Harold C. Schonberg (who acknowledged him "a strong personality, conviction, freedom, style") Andrea Padova is as well at ease as an interpreter of the classical and romantic repertoire, his repertoire includes sixty concertos for piano and orchestra (from Bach’s complete concertos to the twentieth century). In addition he worked as an interpreter in the field of contemporary music collaborating with composers such as Pierre Boulez, Goffredo Petrassi, Franco Donatoni, and Leonard Bernstein, and he is himself a composer awarded in many international competitions.
Andrea Padova records for the labels Stradivarius and Ewe. His recording of Bach’s Fantasias was considered by the magazine “CD Classics” as one of the best piano CDs of 1997, together with Schiff and Perahia. In 2005 his cd dedicated to Ferruccio Busoni received acknowledgements, between the others, by the authoritative review “Gramophone” that compared him to Arthur Rubinstein for the quality of his sound.
In 2009 was released his cd dedicated to rare works and masterpieces by Robert Schumann, for which the critic recognized to Andrea Padova an “unsurpassed mastery” (MF). About his interpretation of the Sonata opus 11, the prestigious magazine “Fanfare” wrote “Padova takes a back seat to no one in this tempestuous reading”.
His long-awaited CD with Bach’s Goldberg Variations, recorded during his recent tour in Japan, was recently published by EWE Records for Asia and Stradivarius in the rest of the world, and has already received enthusiastic approval. About his live performance of this masterpiece, the Washington Post wrote that he "conveys the sense of successfully exceeding the limits of human possibility."