Los Alamos Community Wind’s schedule for Mozart’s 270th birthday celebration, March 9-14. Courtesy/LACW
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
It may seem outlandish to say, but Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wasn’t some stuffy, snooty, highbrow musician in the 1700s. He was a rock star.
While his peers performed and shared music in palatial rooms for the aristocracy and royals, Mozart took his talents to everyone else.
“He was very much what I would call a rock star, a popular musician of his time,” said Los Alamos Community Winds (LACW) Artistic and Musical Director Ted Vives. “One of the biggest impacts he had on music was that he brought music out of the royal court and really wrote music for the people.”
Vives explained this was evident by the references to folk tunes in his music, as well as the humor and subject matter Mozart chose to highlight in his work.
“That’s his biggest legacy, as far as the impact of today, he was a musician and composer of the people much more so than of the royalty and aristocracy,” Vives said.
So, it seems fitting to honor Mozart’s legacy on his 270th birthday by continuing to share his music freely with the public. Los Alamos Community Winds is doing just that.
Dr. Marie Ross
It all begins at 6 p.m. Monday, March 9, at SALA Event Center with a screening of the 1984 film, “Amadeus”. Admission is $10 or free for SALA members. Following this will be a presentation and preview performance by Dr. Marie Ross, who is LAWC’s guest artist. Ross will host this event at noon Wednesday, March 11, at Fuller Lodge. Ross will feature works by Mozart as well as Haydn and Beethoven. Admission is free.
Additionally, Ross will perform a formal recital at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, at Fuller Lodge. Admission is free with donations gratefully accepted.
Ross will also host a clarinet and woodwind master class at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 12, at the UNM-LA Lecture Hall. Admission is $50 for adults and students will be admitted for free. Later, at 6 p.m. at SALA Event Center, a 1975 production of Mozart’s opera, “The Magic Flute” will be screened. Admission will be $10 or free to SALA members.
The birthday celebrations will conclude with the LACW concert at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 14, at the Crossroads Bible Church. The concert will feature Ross on the clarinet. As usual, the concert is free, but donations will be accepted.
The public should also keep their eyes and ears open throughout week because impromptu lunchtime chamber music performances by LACW will be held at various locations throughout town including Mesa Public Library, Muy Salsas, Fiori e Sale and Samizdat Bookstore and Teahouse.
“We’re excited about it,” Vives said. “We started talking about doing this last year. We were very excited to have Dr. Ross here as a guest artist and lecturer.”
Ross, who teaches at University of Auckland in New Zealand, explained she studied the clarinet in New York and San Francisco. She added she became interested in the historical clarinet, “which is playing each piece of music on the instrument that it was originally played on.” She performed on the historic clarinet for 12 years throughout Europe.
Ross said she was introduced to members of the LACW almost 15 years ago while doing chamber music coaching in Oxford, England.
While she has been to Santa Fe several times, this will be her first trip to Los Alamos.
“I know a lot of the players, at least the clarinetists, from Los Alamos Community Winds and so I’m looking forward to playing with them; they’re great players,” Ross said.
She added, she is eager to play Mozart’s concerto for a wind band arrangement.
“I’m really looking forward to it because it is great arrangement and Mozart loved arrangements of his music … and it’s really made in the spirit of his style … it’s a really cool arrangement that works well and it’s fun to play.”
Vives added the concert stays true to Mozart’s intentions of making his music accessible and available to everyone.
“Our whole idea is to make this music accessible and the selections are all very much … his public best. Particularly on the final concert, we wanted to really make the pieces that we do real crowd pleasers as well as just thoroughly enjoyable for the audience,” he said.
Having Ross as a guest performer will really add to the concert and to the rest of the events, Vives said.
“In addition to being a world-class clarinetist, she’s a Mozart period music scholar,” he said. “She’ll be able to give a really good amount of information and a lecture presentation on the music of Mozart. Her specialties are that period of music. And it’s always just exciting to work with somebody that’s on that (high) level as far as a performer because it makes you work that much more on your own game, as an ensemble, as a conductor, to meet that.”
Whatever people decide to do during the week-long celebration of Mozart, Ross said she hopes it brings a greater awareness and understanding to Mozart and his work.
“Primarily I would just like for people to become exposed to him and maybe if some people haven’t heard much classical music or heard much of Mozart’s music they will really realize that he’s just a great composer and a very approachable composer,” Ross said. “His works are very universal and relevant for us today … his music is very approachable, but it also is so complex and that’s what makes it really interesting. He’s like a chef and he adds the right amount of spice to make the meal very interesting but not overwhelming or strange or unapproachable … he’s really one of our greatest composers and I think his music is full of humanity, which is something people are looking for today, especially in our AI world. His music is full of humanity and complex human emotions.
“All of his music is amazing, is great,” Ross added. “I don’t know any of his music that I don’t really love listening to. Once you hear it you get really sucked in.”