Klein returns with All American Concert

The Festival Orchestra de Las Cruces, under the direction of conductor Lonnie Klein, will perform the “Red, White and Blue All American Concert” beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 6, in Atkinson Hall, inside the New Mexico State University Music Building, 1075 N. Horseshoe St. on campus.

FOLC’s guest soloist for the concert is internationally acclaimed pianist Ilya Yakushev, and Doña Ana County District Attorney Fernando Macias is also a guest performer.

The concert will feature music by some of America’s favorite composers, including Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, John Phillip Sousa and John Williams. Repertoire to be performed include “Superman March,” “Summon the Heroes,” “Schindler’s List,” “The American Frontier: Folk Tunes of the 19th Century” and “Portrait of Lincoln,” featuring excerpts from Abraham Lincoln’s speeches as narrated by Macias.

It’s a home-run concert,” said Klein, who retired in 2021 after 21 years as director of the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra. “It’s a celebration of American composers.”

Klein said FOLC’s performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue for Piano and Orchestra,” featuring Yakushev as soloist, will be a concert highlight, along with Copland’s Portrait of Lincoln.”

FOLC is a full 68-piece orchestra, including “a full battery of percussion, brass, woodwinds and full strings,” said Klein, who has been a guest conductor for orchestras across the country and around the world in the past five years and has formed his own production company. He will travel to Michigan in December to guest conduct the Traverse City Philharmonic Orchestra in its “Home for the Holidays” concert.

“I still want to conduct,” Klein said. “I want to make music. I want to stay connected to the community.”

A native of Henderson, Kentucky, Klein came to Las Cruces in 1998. He has a bachelor’s degree in clarinet performance from Murray State, a master’s of music from Michigan State University and a doctorate in performance from the University of Illinois.

Yakushev, a native of St. Petersburg, Russia, won the 2005 World Piano Competition, and has also received the Award for Excellence in Performance from the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Gawon International Music Society’s Award in Seoul, South Korea. Yakushev has performed in concert throughout North America, Europe and Asia, according to his website.

“He is one of my favorite pianists,” Klein said of Yakushev, with whom he has performed in concert multiple times before.

Klein said one of the reasons he chose Atkinson Recital Hall for the performance is that Yakushev will be able to play on a nine-foot Steinway concert grand piano.

Macias was elected district attorney in 2024. He previously served as Doña Ana County manager, Third Judicial District judge and a state senator representing Doña Ana County in the New Mexico Legislature. A native of the Las Cruces area, Macias was student body president at Gadsden High School and at NMSU.

FOLC was created earlier this year, Klein said, and includes professional musicians from Las Cruces, El Paso, Albuquerque and Santa Fe. FOLC’s first ever concert was held in March at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church. Upcoming concerts will be in December and in April 2027, Klein said.

Tickets for all seats at the concert are $20. The concert will have open seating.

“If you come early, you can sit anywhere you want,” Klein said.

For tickets, call 575-642-4819 or 575-640-3844.