By ABIGAIL SNOW
Moapa Valley Progress
The Southern Nevada Symphony Orchestra performed to a full house during its “Voices of Glory” concert that featured three professional tenors and a saxophone soloist on Saturday night at the CasaBlanca Resort Showroom.
“I felt the orchestra did a superb job,” said Dr. Selmer Spitzer, SNSO President and Conductor. “The tenors are truly professionals without a doubt and were exceptional. They can rattle the rafters sometimes and definitely did at the show. Likewise, Lindsey O’Connor performed extremely well on her saxophone concerto.”
Professional tenors, Mark Giovi, Marco Varela, and Maximo Marcuso performed a number of songs starting off with the National Anthem. They also performed a trio titled “Tales of Vandosar, ” with Rita Hermie accompanying them on the piano, as well as sang during a premier performance of “Praise and Glory.”
This concert was the first time these three tenor singers had been brought together to sing on the same program.
Marco Varela explained that in the piece, “Praise and Glory,” the harmonies were written so tight in voice range that the three literally had to flip a coin to decide who would sing which part.
Marcuso lives in California. This was his first time performing at the CasaBlanca.
“I want to thank the symphony musicians and Conductor Spitzer for having me come perform,” said Marcuso. “The people here are so pleasant and welcoming and made us all feel at home.”
Lindsey O’Connor is Las Vegas musician, as well as the saxophone and clarinet paraprofessional for Clark County School District. She performed “Concerto in d minor” on her soprano saxophone. The piece was beautifully played.
“It is always an honor to be invited to perform as a guest artist, and I am thankful to Dr. Spitzer for this opportunity,” said O’Connor. “As well, it is a privilege to share the stage with my colleagues from the southern Nevada community.”
The concert featured the premier performance of “Praise and Glory” that was composed specifically for SNSO by composer, Tim Olt. The piece is based on Psalm 150 from the Bible.
Olt believes the job of the composer and musicians is to evoke feelings within the audience. He was attempting to take them along for the journey.
During the performance of “Praise and Glory,” the orchestra started playing and then added the organ, piano and individual short solos of various instruments. Pastor of Valley Presbyterian Church in Mesquite, Adolf Kunen, narrated passages from Psalm 150, after which the tenors started singing in English first and then in Latin.
SNSO’s next performance is set for is April 8th in the CasaBlanca Showroom. Information can be found on their website at www.snsymphony.com, as well as Facebook.
