Spend the weekend with the classical music ensemble Camerata Del Sol for their concert titled “The Unraveling Universe.” The concert series will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 15 at the Woman’s Club of El Paso at 1400 N. Mesa Street. The Saturday concert is $15 for the general public and free for students. The series continues at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 16 at Atkinson Recital Hall at New Mexico State University. The Sunday concert is free and open to the public with an RSVP.
“The Unraveling Universe” will include pieces from Osvaldo Golijov, Hugo Wolf, Edvard Grieg and University of Texas at El Paso Professor Dominic Dousa. Former NMSU Assistant Professor of Voice John Carlo Pierce will be a special guest tenor soloist.
The title “The Unraveling Universe” is in reference to the piece “Tenebrae” by Osvaldo Golijoy, which the group will perform during this concert weekend. The song is from the perceptive of a spaceship orbiting Earth taking in the beauty of the planet while seeing the pain of it.
“I think that we as musicians have a mission to try to give some sense of order to this crazy universe,” said Daniel Vega-Albela NMSU associate professor and Camerata Del Sol artistic director. “There’s so much stuff happening historically and socially and it is going faster than we would have ever expected it.”
Camerata Del Sol is made up of musicians from Las Cruces and El Paso.
“This is the first concert that we offer as a full 16-piece chamber orchestra in the last two years,” Vega-Albela said. “It's incredibly exciting for us to be able to do that and hopefully it'll be one of many, many more concerts that we will be able to offer as a full chamber orchestra. We are premiering pieces that have not been played here at all. That is one of the most important missions of this ensemble, to be able to bring to the community live music pieces that have never been performed in the history of El Paso and Las Cruces.”
Bringing music to the community is only one of the ways Camerata Del Sol hopes to give back. UTEP and NMSU will offer masterclasses with John Carlo Pierce. Camerata Del Sol also aims to help up-and-coming musicians by inviting current NMSU students, NMSU alumni and local high school musicians to join Camerata Del Sol for the performances.
“We are a group of 16 musicians, but for one of the pieces, 10 students will be joining us and they are advanced high school students and university students,” said Amalia Zeitlin NMSU alumna and Camerata Del Sol executive director. “We're really excited to give them the opportunity to participate and to sit alongside seasoned professionals as they continue to develop their craft.”
“That's always been a stated goal of our organization to work as a training ensemble,” Vega-Albela said. “You graduate from college as a musician then you don't know what to do. So, we try to provide that platform between getting out of school and figuring out what to do professionally. We are always looking to work with young upcoming professionals to be part of our ensemble so that they can get the experience and hopefully they can add to the resume that they have worked with a professional ensemble.”
Vega-Albela explains that music has always been something that provides a sense of order in the universe.
“Classical music is at a point where we need to figure out ways in which we can promote it in unusual ways and unusual venues,” Vega-Albela said. “Music, in general, has the power to heal, to create order and this is why we titled this concert ‘The Unraveling Universe.’
“The universe is unraveling like it or not. We are a group that is hopefully able to provide some sense of order to all this craziness.”