May 2018 - Extras: New Mexico Philharmonic's "Just For Mom!"
The NMPhil celebrates all New Mexico Moms with “Just for Mom!” a FREE Mother’s Day Concert for the whole family at the BioPark Zoo, included in the price of Zoo admission! Relax under the cottonwoods as Maestro Roger Melone conducts a breezy afternoon of musical gems, just for mom. Food and drinks will be available for purchase, or bring your own picnic lunch, blankets and chairs at 1 p.m, Sunday, May 13th.
The NMPhil’s Young Musician Initiative orchestra will be the warm up band. Also, a special appearance by this year’s Jackie McGehee Young Artists’ Competition winner: Ezra Shcolnik on violin. Zoo Concerts offer an opportunity to hear the magnificent sound of the New Mexico Philharmonic in a more relaxed setting and are a great way to introduce children to the wonder of a live orchestral performance. Sixteen-year-old violinist and composer Ezra Shcolnik is a first-place winner of the Jackie McGehee Young Artists’ Competition. Ezra performed his own composition, March and Fugue for Two Solo Violins and Orchestra, at age 12 with the Performance Santa Fe Orchestra. He has been a member of the PSF Orchestra for the past four holiday seasons, most recently serving as Associate Concertmaster. In summer 2017, Ezra attended the Aspen Music Festival and School as a New Horizons Fellow. He will return to Aspen for the 2018 summer season. Ezra is a homeschooled rising senior who will enter his fifth year at the Colburn Music Academy in Los Angeles, where he studies violin with Robert Lipsett.
In addition, he just completed his first year in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Program. Ezra’s pieces have been premiered in Santa Fe, Los Angeles, at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. He has twice been a finalist for an ASCAP Foundation Young Composer Award, both for March and Fugue and for his first string quartet. Ezra performs with the Colburn Orchestra and the Colburn Academy Virtuosi. He plays on an 1825 Giovanni Francesco Pressenda violin, on generous loan from the Mandell Collection of Southern California. Ezra is a resident of Santa Fe and is the son of Caren Friedman and Richard Shcolnik. Music director of the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus, Roger Melone was previously Resident Conductor and Chorus Director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra (NMSO). Since arriving in Albuquerque in 1983, Melone has brought national acclaim to the NMSO Chorus, now known as the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus. Prior to his tenure at the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Melone held similar posts with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra. He attended Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he studied with Ronald Shirey. He then studied with B. R. Henson at Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth, Texas, and in San Francisco, Mr. Melone studied Baroque performance practices and harpsichord with Laurette Goldberg.
Admission is free with BioPark Zoo membership. Seating is on the Lawn. Food and drinks are available for purchase. Guests are welcome to bring blankets or chairs and picnics. No alcohol or glass can be brought into the zoo. For more information visit https://nmphil.org/menus/just-for-mom-sunday-may-13-2pm/