Crimson and Gold Connection; Raul Munguia

Welcome to Crimson and Gold Connection, keeping you connected with the people and current events at Pittsburgh State University. This is the Crimson and Gold Connection on 89KRPS. Our weekly conversation about the people, events, and this week Symphony Orchestra is performing at Pittsburgh State University. I'm your host, Fred Fletcher-Fierro. And this week on the Crimson and Gold Connection, we're joined by the conductor of the Southeast Kansas Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Raoul Munguea. Thanks for joining me this week on the Crimson and Gold Connection. Thanks for having me. And the opening night of the 2018-2019 season for the Southeast Kansas Symphony Orchestra is fast approaching. It's taking place Sunday, October 28th. The performance starts at 430 at the Bignol Family Center for the Arts. And the theme for this performance is the planets. That's a broad theme. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And that's a very specific work when you talk about the planets because there's one piece that comes up to your mind. And this is the planets by Gustav Holst. And one interesting thing for it about this piece is that this year, in September, late September, is the 100th anniversary of this piece. Imagine that. This was premiered 100 years ago.

And we are performing this. I had decided to program this in our opening night concert. This is just one of those works that has so much orchestral forces. Any instrument that you can imagine is in the orchestra. We have a large set of percussion instruments. Every woodwind is multiplied by two. We have four of each. Brass players also. So imagine everything has to be multiplied by the string section. So this is one of the largest ensembles I'm going to have in the stage. So I'm very happy to program this piece for this specific year. And so that was intentional. Yes. Okay. Always. And we'll play a little bit of piece of that now. Music Music Music

Music Music Music I'm speaking with the conductor of the Southeast Kansas Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Raim Mungia. You know, for somebody that's not familiar with the Southeast Kansas Symphony Orchestra, it is the season premiere. How many members are a part of the orchestra? Regularly, it's about between 45 and 55, depending on what the needs are. And this is a student base ensemble. So we have a core of students, about 25 to 30 string players, plus maybe 15, 20 wind and brass and percussion students. And added to that, we have some faculty members that join us, community members. And I end up bringing some professionals to play with the orchestra, depending on the needs. So it's a real collaborative effort then? Oh, yes. Yes, always. Every event here in the music department, in the universities, a collaborative. Including in the music and the planets, or there's, is there, I can picture like a planet's presentation with the backdrop of planets. Is there anything that included? You know, this is, this is, thank you for bringing that up because we have a visual artist coming from Seattle, and his name is Adrian Wyard, and he does this for a living.

I mean, he goes around the United States and even overseas to play these visual effects that he does with different pieces. Actually, you know, a new works in for the planet, pictures at an exhibition. They're all performed with a screen, a video screen. So Adrian is going to be with us, and this is something that we haven't done yet. And this is about 40 to 45 minute piece, very long piece where constantly simultaneously the video is going to be playing. And he's actually on a stage performing with us, meaning that it's not a recording and to put play, and then he goes. Now, he has actually worked the video and the pictures according to how the music goes. So he knows the music very well. You know, let me add to that that Dr. Angeline Hops on the director of the planetarium here at the university. She will be speaking with me on a stage right before we play the piece. I'm going to talk about the music side of the piece, and then obviously, and then she will talk about the scientific side of the piece.

So this is really nice because the piece includes seven movements. And each movement, we start with Mars, then we go to Venus, then we go to Jupiter, and every one of them. And obviously, Pluto was not discovered a hundred years ago. That's why he didn't include it. And he didn't want to write anything about Earth. He said that Earth was too complicated to put it in a seven, eight minute piece. I would agree with that. And it's probably better that he left Earth off. I mean, we know a lot of Earth already, but when we think about these other planets, it lets our mind wander. And he wrote in from the astrological point of view, and not the astronomical. It's really interesting that he calls Mars the Bringer of War, Venus the Bringer of Peace, and so on. Jupiter the Bringer of Jolety. So it's actually very interesting how he describes its each movement. And about a month ago, we had Angeline Hops and on the Crimson and Gold connection from the Kels Planetariums.

And having her on the Crimson, I know that she's an excellent speaker, and she just has such a passion for this. Oh, yes, yes. I've had a conversation, a couple of conversations with her, and I can sense that when she talks about it, you know, what she knows. So it's actually really interesting. So happy she's, she agreed to come to the concert. Raul Manguia is the conductor of the Southeast Kansas Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra will be opening its 2018-2019 season with the performance of the planets. At the Big Null Family Center for the Arts, Sunday, October 28th, at 4.30 p.m. For more information, visit pitstay.edu and search S-E-K orchestra. I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierro, and you've been listening to the Crimson and Gold connection, a production of KRPS. Join us for Crimson and Gold Connection Wednesdays at 8.50 and Fridays at 350. For more information, visit pitstay.edu and search S-E-K orchestra.