SOCORRO, N.M. – A seven-member string ensemble featuring top-notch musicians from Las Cruces, El Paso, and Ciudad Juárez will perform a free chamber music concert at Macey Center Friday, Jan. 27, at 7:30 p.m. They will perform works by American classical composer Florence Price and Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Camerata Del Sol is the second free performance in the three-part 2022-2023 Presidential Chamber Music Series and will be live streamed on the NMT Performing Arts Series Facebook and YouTube pages, with links to those sites through the PAS website, nmt.edu/pas. 

Camerata Del Sol aims to bring unique chamber music experiences to the Borderlands region. Founded by New Mexico State University professor and Latin Grammy award-winning violinist Daniel Vega-Albela, Camerata Del Sol was conceived to explore the string ensemble repertoire that full symphonies seldom perform due to the large nature of those orchestras. Camerata Del Sol is a conductorless ensemble that requires each of its members to be responsible for bringing every score they prepare to life as well as to become an integral part of the creative process.

"Our mission is to fill an important gap in the musical scene of the tristate Borderlands area by performing rarely-heard chamber music works,” Vega-Albela said. “As firm believers in arts advocacy, we play outreach concerts and perform side-by-side concerts with the public school orchestra programs in El Paso and Las Cruces. In fall of 2021, we started a free after-school music program at University Hills Elementary, a Title I school in Las Cruces. In addition, we bring top-notch soloists from all over the world, of different educational backgrounds, to teach master classes and engage with our community."

The Presidential Chamber Music Series, which sponsors several free concerts each season for NMT students and community members, began more than 30 years ago, conceived by Adam Gonzalez, a faculty member in the New Mexico Tech Music Program under Director Michael Iatauro. The tradition continues with sponsorship by NMT President Dr. Stephen G. Wells. The next free community concert in the series will be Friday, March 24, 2023, featuring The String Queens for WomenFest.

More information is on the PAS website page: https://www.nmt.edu/pas/ Local sponsor of the Camerata Del Sol performance is the Susan Miller Bronze Memorial.