Symphony's season finale features collaboration with Spanish rock kings

ELKHART — Goshen-based Spanish Rock band Lalo Cura is the guest artist as the Elkhart County Symphony concludes a stellar 2023-24 concert season with ¡Fiesta Sinfónica!, Sunday, May 19 at 4 p.m. at The Lerner Theatre in downtown Elkhart.

Prior to the concert-ending, hometown collaboration with Lalo Cura, Conn-Selmer Endowed Music Conductor Dr. Soo Han leads the Elkhart County Symphony through an entertaining and upbeat opening repertoire featuring the popular Danzon No. 2 by Arturo Marquez – an acclaimed piece of contemporary Mexican classical music literature – and Leonard Bernstein’s finger-snapping classic Symphonic Dances, from the musical “West Side Story.”

Both compositions impart the theme of the evening – celebrating the diversity, dynamism, and enduring loveliness of music inspired by cultures south of the border – and comprise a perfect build-up to the concluding, and season-ending, collaboration with Spanish rock masters Lalo Cura.

Formed in 2012, Lalo Cura achieves a unique, compelling, and soul-stirring style by melding Latin and Soul music into a dynamic and powerful fusion of driving rhythms and riveting melodies.

“With ¡Fiesta Sinfónica! the goal is to end the season with an exclamation point by broadening the Elkhart Symphony’s musical scope in celebration of other cultures,” said John Hill, co-executive director of the symphony. “This is an outstanding program that begins with classical works from the second half of the 20th century, and concludes with a dynamic, 21st century collaboration with Lalo Cura. This will be a new symphony experience, and we can’t wait to greet guests at our season finale.”

Performances for ¡Fiesta Sinfónica! begin at 4 p.m., and ticket holders are welcome to gather at 3 p.m. in the Cittadine Room – on the second floor of the theater – for a pre-concert discussion of the afternoon’s selections led by Soo Han.

Danzón No. 2 , along with Carlos Chávez’s Sinfonia India and Silvestre Revueltas’ Sensemaya, is one of the most popular and most performed modern orchestral Mexican classical compositions, and gained great worldwide popularity when the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela included it on the program for its 2007 European and American tour.

The piece, inspired by a visit to a ballroom in Veracruz, reflects upon a dance named danzón; a style originated in Cuba that is an important part of the folklore of the Mexican state of Veracruz.

Symphonic Dances, composed by Bernstein in 1960, is an orchestral suite in nine movements adapted from parts of his enduring musical West Side Story. It was premiered by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Lukas Foss, at New York’s Carnegie Hall on Feb. 13, 1961.

Lalo Cura, consisting of lead guitarist and vocalist Rafael Chavez y Moreno, Terrell Ross (keys), Khalin Diggins (bass), Sam Que (saxophone), and Brendyn Cane (drums), performed late in 2023 as part of the Debartolo Performing Arts Center’s Presenting Series’ Cultural Collective, on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.

The Ruthmere Museum, The Lerner Theatre, and Hotel Elkhart join forces with the Elkhart Symphony to offer limited-availability Ruthmere VIP Treatment reservations that include a pre-concert VIP gathering at Hotel Elkhart for a glass of house wine, and a post-concert VIP dinner at the Hotel Elkhart Aria Ballroom with a Top-Shelf Diamond Level open bar.

Concert tickets to the event are not included in the limited-availability Ruthmere VIP Treatment, for which reservations close May 9.

Tickets for Symphonic Horizons may be purchased via the Elkhart Symphony website, or at The Lerner Theatre Box Office, or by phone at 574-293-4469.