The Mimbres Region Arts Council is pleased to bring the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra to the WNMU Fine Arts Center Theatre in Silver City for a highly-requested return engagement. The program will begin at 7:30 p.m. on October 26, 2012. This program is sponsored in part by Edward Jones Investment/James Edd Hughs of Silver City with the Grant County Community Concert Association as a cooperating sponsor.

The program includes Rossini's Overture to The Barber of Seville, Russell Peck's The Upward Stream and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Guest tenor saxophone performer James Houlik is recognized as the leading performer on tenor saxophone in the world. Houlik has taken the tenor saxophone to unimagined heights. Audiences and critics alike have celebrated his remarkable artistic achievements.

James Houlik was born on December 4, 1942, in Bay Shore, New York. His academic career started as a music major at the State University of New York at Fredonia. He earned a master's degree in music from the University of Illinois and did post-graduate saxophone study at Ball State University. Houlik became the first teacher of saxophone at East Carolina University. Four years later he accepted a position as adjunct saxophone professor at the North Carolina School of the Arts. He became the Assistant Dean of the school, a position he held for 20 years before retiring.

Currently he is Chair of Woodwinds at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where he oversees a large adjunct faculty made up primarily of members of the Pittsburgh Symphony. He also works with the Duquesne Department of Physical Therapy in connection with his ongoing interest in repetitive motion disorders.

As a concerto artist with orchestras worldwide Houlik has soloed with The London Symphony, Czech Radio Orchestra, Orchestra Internationale Italia, Orchestra Classico di Milano, Presendential Orchestra of Turkey, New Arts Philharmonia, Grant Park Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, American Symphony, and the North Carolina Symphony.

He is the principal teacher of the yearly James Houlik Saxophone Retreat at Wildacres in Little Switzerland, North Carolina. The James Houlik Saxophone Retreat is a gathering of saxophonists who come together to improve their performance skills, and to share a unique musical experience. The Retreat offers clinic sessions, ensemble performance, master classes, and concerts.

Houlik's quest for the perfect mouthpiece led him to design his own line of alto and tenor hard rubber mouthpieces.

Additional sponsors for this very special event include Western New Mexico University, the Holiday Inn Express Silver City and Silver City Radio. For tickets to the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra contact the MRAC offices at 1201 Pope Street in Silver City, call 575-538-2505, or visit us online at www.mimbresarts.org or Grant County Community Concert Association at 575-538-5862 or visit www.gcconcerts.org.

The Mimbres Arts Council is a leader in building communities inspired, enriched, and strengthened by the power of the Arts.