BY KATHALEEN ROBERTS / JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
The New Mexico Philharmonic wraps up its 2022/23 Afternoon Classics series with “Exuberant Beethoven!” at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 30, at Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 114 Carlisle Blvd. SE.
The orchestra will share the stage with winners of the Jackie McGehee Young Artists’ Competition. The featured winners for this concert are pianist Akilan Sankaran, performing the first movement of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, and cellist Camilo Vasquez, performing the first two movements of the Elgar Cello Concerto. Also on the concert are Mendelssohn’s Die schöne Melusine Overture and, as promised, the exuberant Symphony No. 1 of Beethoven. Radu Paponiu conducts.
Paponiu is the artistic and music director of the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, associate conductor of the Naples Philharmonic, and music director of the Naples Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Since 2017, he has conducted the Naples Philharmonic in more than 100 different classical, education and pops programs. He has collaborated with notable soloists such as Evgeny Kissin, Yefim Bronfman, Midori, Vladimir Feltsman, Robert Levin, Charles Yang and the Ébène Quartet.
Fifteen-year-old pianist Sankaran is a student of Lawrence Blind at the New Mexico School of Music. Sankaran has performed at venues such as the Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, Mazzoleni Concert Hall in the Royal Conservatory of Music, and the Église de Verbier. He was the only junior pianist selected to attend the 2022 Verbier Festival as part of the Verbier Academy. He has had master classes with renowned musicians including Kirill Gerstein, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Stephen Kovacevich, Olga Kern, Mihaela Martin and Augustin Dumay. Sankaran is a three-time winner of the Dennis Alexander Piano Competition, two-time winner of Professional Music Teachers of New Mexico’s State Honors Audition, and winner of the 2021 Jackie McGehee Young Artists’ Competition. He has been studying piano since he was 5 years old and is currently in the tenth grade at Albuquerque Academy.
Concert single-ticket prices range from $25 to $68. Tickets are available online at nmphil.org. General admission seats often sell out prior to the concert, so purchasing online is strongly suggested.
