Southwest Symphony announces 2023-2024 season
For the News-Sun
The Southwest Symphony has announced its 2023-2024 Season, “CELEBRATE!”
The season is full of fun and entertainment to celebrate Southwest Symphony’s upcoming 40th Anniversary, a release from Southwest Symphony Executive Director Leanne Salgado stated.
Festivities begin 6:30-9 p.m. Sept. 9, at Rockwind Grill for the annual social party. There will be food, a cash bar and music with special guest the Justin Kemp Trio. This is a public event and season tickets will be available for purchase.
Sept. 18, will bring in the first official performance of the season with Collision of Rhythm at 7 p.m. at R.N. Tydings Auditorium, on the Hobbs High School campus. Billed as “Stomp meets Blue Man Group meets Cirque du Soleil”, Collision of Rhythm will leave attendees not just entertained but inspired, empowered, full of joy and pulsing with a fresh understanding that music connects us all, Salgado stated.
Violin duo Sons of Mystro bring their reggae, hip-hop, blues, jazz and classical mix to the stage on at 7 p.m. Oct. 13 for a Friday the 13th performance. Brothers Malcolm and Umoja McNeish are graduates of Dillard High School for the Performing Arts. They are also winners of the Emerging Artists under 21 award at the International Reggae and World Music Awards.
Southwest Symphony Orchestra will be performing a Christmas concert at 3 p.m. Nov. 19 at R.N. Tydings. This concert will include many traditional Christmas songs most attendees will know and love.
“What a perfect way to begin the holiday season,” Salgado stated.
The annual Youth Series for Lea County elementary students will take place Jan. 29-30, 2024.
This season Southwest Symphony Orchestra will present “Instruments at Play.” During this extensive event, orchestra members from Hobbs and all over New Mexico and Texas come together to practice and perform over a three-day period.
Lea County 4th- and 5th-grade students will be bused in on both Jan. 29 and 30 for a special educational performance from the Southwest Symphony Orchestra. The public performance of “Instruments at Play” will take place at 7 p.m. Jan. 29 at R.N. Tydings Auditorium.
This season Southwest Symphony’s Artistic Director, Mark Jelinek, will serve as a guest cellist.
Jelinek is a Hobbs native and holds a BME and MA from ENMU, as well as his Doctor of Musical Arts from ASU, where he studied cello and conducting.
The concert will be at 3 p.m. March 3 at First United Methodist Church. Selections for this concert will include “Beethoven’s 5 Secrets” and “Kol Nidrei” along with the Symphony playing selections like Medelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony.
For more than 10 years, Bridge & Wolak have had a ball twisting up classical, world music and improv comedy. They bring their performance of “Bach to Benny” at 7 p.m., April 27 to Tydings Auditorium in Hobbs. This entertaining clarinet and accordion duo will capture your heart with their whimsical take on the classics and jazz, while their comedic style will have you smiling, Salgado stated.
