Ellingboe and Perez-Gomez take UNM singers, musicians to Italy
Listen. Can you hear them? Brad Ellingboe and Jorge Pérez-Gómez and their group of singers, musicians raise a joyful noise when they travel to Italy this summer. Ellingboe is professor of music and director of UNM choral activities; while Pérez-Gómez, is professor of conducting and director of orchestral activities.
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Jorge Pérez-Gómez |
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Brad Ellingboe |
Ellingboe’s University Chorus and Concert Choir and Pérez-Gómez will travel to Abruzzo, an area some 50 miles east of Rome. The area was in the news recently because of the L’Aquila 6.3 magnitude earthquake that hit on April 6.
“The quake hit on the coast. We’re scheduled to be in the mountains,” Pérez-Gómez said. They will be staying in the town of Lanciano, and traveling regionally to present concerts. “The orchestra accompanying the chorus is from Brasov, Romania. They are touring Italy,” Pérez-Gómez said. He will conduct the group, whose members speak English and Italian.
“We travel to large towns and perform in the piazza. We offer say, Beethoven’s 9th for the citizens. The orchestra gets some payment, but the UNM people don’t get paid because it is a subsidized venture,” Ellingboe said.
“We are joined by an Italian choir and professional singers from the Conservatory of Santa Cecelia,” Ellingboe said. Cecelia is the patron saint of music, he added. “Since musical terms come from Italian, I can work with the singers,” Ellingboe said.
Ellingboe said, “Creating these exciting programs draws better and better students who improve over the summer months.”
They hope to do more than take UNM students to Italy. “We want to open up the program – offer it to students from Michigan and Stanford, for example. When they see what we offer, perhaps they will want to attend UNM for graduate school. In part, because we can offer low cost, high quality travel to other places,” Ellingboe said.
He added that an added benefit is raising the visibility of UNM’s music programs. “It could translate to improving our rankings,” Ellingboe said.
The musical duo plans to do more than perform beautiful music in memorable places. “We hope this program will yield international students for the University of New Mexico. Our hope is to use our personal U.S. and Italian connections to make UNM a center of international study abroad,” Ellingboe said.
“We provide a musical experience that would be impossible otherwise,” Pérez-Gómez added.
University Chorus has something akin to a booster club and the UNM Foundation recognizes community interest in it. Cultivation of additional support is feasible because, Ellingboe said, “We win all our concerts!”
Story by Carolyn Gonzales