Jorge Pérez-Gómez, conductor of the UNM Symphony Orchestra, recently participated in benefit concerts for victims from the April earthquake in Abruzzo, Italy, when the city of L’Aquila was destroyed. The concerts were co-sponsored by the Italian Red Cross, the government of the Province of Rome, the city government of Monte Porzio Catone, the University of Tor Vergata, Rome, and the Italian Air Force.
Photo: Italian conductor Silvano Mangiapelo conducts for the concert at the Basilica of Saint Giovanni Bosco in Rome. Soloists included Corrado Stocchi and Carmelo de los Santos, UNM assistant professor of music.
Pérez-Gómez, UNM violin professor Carmelo de los Santos and Italian violinist Corrado Stocchi all offered master classes to Italian students and UNM students who made up the orchestra for the three concerts offered early this month. De los Santos was soloist in Astor Piazolla's “Four Seasons” and collaborated with Stocchi, in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra. Four of the wind players in the orchestra were from the Conservatory of L’Aquila, which was totally lost in the earthquake.
“The concerts were a concrete gesture to the vicinity in need. None of the musicians received monetary rewards for their effort, but all were grateful to be able to share their talents to benefit this hard-hit region,” Pérez-Gómez said.
Pérez-Gómez has had a long-term relationship with musicians and has developed several projects for the UNM Music Department in Italy . He and Italian Maestro Silvano Mangiapelo, conductor and artistic coordinator of the “ Iseo Illari School of Music” in Monte Porzio Catone, obtained support from diverse Italian government agencies for the realization of the orchestral laboratory project “ Music from the other part of the Ocean “ in which UNM students benefited from playing and exchanging ideas from their Italian colleagues.
During the same week in September, the orchestra integrated with UNM students, Italian students and professionals also offered a concert in benefit of the orphans of the pilots of the Italian Air Italian Air Force at the Basillica of Saint Giovanni Bosco in Rome. This project had such success that Pérez-Gómez and de los Santos are being invited to return in September 2010.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at September 28, 2009 11:03 AM