Musicians, music teachers helping create youth orchestra

Even though Larry and Kathy Hill moved to the Houston area earlier this year to be nearer their grandchildren, they continue to support music and musicians in Las Cruces in a big way.

Kathy plays viola in the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra (LCSO); Larry is a member of the symphony association’s board of directors; and both are heavily involved in LCSO’s formation of a youth orchestra.

In fact, Kathy Hill recently donated about $20,000 worth of string instruments – violas, violins and cellos – to the orchestra, which will find their way into the hands of young Las Cruces musicians.

With support from the Hills, LCSO Director Ming Luke, Las Cruces Public Schools Fine Arts Content Specialist Joseph Flores and middle and high school music teachers and others, the youth symphony will perform with LCSO this May, and will have its first solo concert this fall, the Hills said.

The LCSO Youth Orchestra, with full strings, wind, brass and percussion, will include 60-75 students from Las Cruces high schools under the direction of Jorge Martinez-Rios, an associate professor of music at New Mexico State University, where LCSO makes its home. A similar youth orchestra for middle school students is expected to come to fruition within a year.

“The program’s moving,” Larry Hill said.

“We’re really excited,” Kathy Hill said.

The youth orchestra has “a big role to play” in the health of music programs at Las Cruces middle and high schools,” Larry said. “Augmenting school programs is so important,” he said.

A youth orchestra is “an important part of any professional orchestra” and its efforts to “herald this new generation of music” and young musicians, Luke said.

“I’ve been working with youth orchestras my entire career,” Luke said. “It’s essential for every community to have a good, citywide, regional youth orchestra.”

Helping form the Las Cruces youth orchestra “is something that is very close to their hearts,” Luke said about Larry and Kathy Hill. They are such big advocates for music education in the region.”

In fact, Luke said, Larry Hill was one of the first people he met in Las Cruces when he became LCSO director in 2021.

“He took me to Lescombes Winery and bought me a bottle of green chile wine,” Luke said. “He’s a very special person.”

LCSO has “a very engaged board of directors and a lot of exciting ideas,” including the youth orchestra, Larry said. “The future is really bright and Ming is a huge part of it. Ming will take the orchestra to the next level.”

The Hills have a long history of playing, teaching and sharing music in Las Cruces and elsewhere.

Kathy was orchestra director at Mayfield High School for 13 years, taught music at Zia Middle School and directed the Organ Mountain High School Orchestra via Zoom during COVID. She also has taught for the Albuquerque Youth Symphony – she and Larry are both graduates of the program – for 25 years.

Larry, a trumpet player, teaches a weekly trumpet class at Chaparral High School in the Gadsden Independent School District via Zoom.

The nonprofits they started, the Brass Factory and the String Factory, “promote artistic excellence through education, mentorship and performance,” and help remove barriers that keep kids from learning through music, including the cost of instruments and private lessons.

Continuing that work by starting the youth orchestra “has so many benefits,” Larry Hill said. Students “learn differently; they listen differently; they experience their academics in a completely different way when they’re in music,” he said.

For more information, contact Susan Yasenka at manager@lascrucessymphony.org.

Visit https://lascrucessymphony.com/youth-orchestra/, https://brassfactorylc.org/, www.brassfactorylc.org and www.facebook.com/BrassfactoryLasCruces.