The New Mexico Philharmonic’s Power Concerts series is back for another season of illuminating, affordable, family-friendly concerts! This series is geared toward introducing young audience members and their families to classical music, the orchestra, and the instruments that make it all possible. Our first Power Concert of the season starts off with a bang! Our brass and percussion sections steal the show in the Power Concerts’ signature tune, the opening to Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra. Then, the magic of Bruckner meets the magic of the movies when we pair movements of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 with two of John Williams’s classics, the “Flying Theme” from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and “Darth Vader’s Theme” from Star Wars. Music Director Roberto Minczuk conducts.

The New Mexico Philharmonic’s Power Concerts series is back for another season of illuminating, affordable, family-friendly concerts! This series is geared toward introducing young audience members and their families to classical music, the orchestra, and the instruments that make it all possible. In the second Power Concert of the season, we pair the questioning of Charles Ives with the determination and grit of Dmitri Shostakovich. The artistry of the string, brass, and wind sections are on full display in Ives’s reflective The Unanswered Question, where we find that no matter how important the questions, sometimes there are just no answers. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, arguably his most popular work, is a marvel of symphonic form that landed the composer a rare win: It was a triple threat of success, managing to satisfy music critics, audiences, and most surprisingly, Russian government officials. Music Director Roberto Minczuk leads the orchestra through the second and fourth movements of this masterpiece.

The New Mexico Philharmonic’s Power Concerts series is back for another season of illuminating, affordable, family-friendly concerts! This series is geared toward introducing young audience members and their families to classical music, the orchestra, and the instruments that make it all possible. We close out the Power Concert Series with an afternoon of American music! First off, the NMPhil’s show stopping string section is on full display in Samuel Barber’s poignant and profound Adagio for Strings. Next up, two masterpieces from Aaron Copland, who many would declare the face of the American music movement: The orchestra sparkles in Copland’s Suite from Billy the Kid and the composer’s take on Mexican folk music in El Salón México. Music Director Roberto Minczuk conducts.