Get 'A Glimpse of the Future' with the NMPhil

Two young Santa Fe brothers will star in the aptly named “A Glimpse of the Future” with the New Mexico Philharmonic.

Winners of the Jackie McGehee Young Artists’ Competition, the boys will perform on Sunday, March 24, at the Performing Arts Center at Volcano Vista High School.

Get 'A Glimpse of the Future' with the NMPhil

Pianist Rafael Ingliss is 13 years old. He began studying piano at age 4 with his mother Yuko Shimokawa. His repertoire ranges from J. S. Bach to Claude Debussy. A student at La Mariposa Montessori School, Rafael will play the first movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 12.”

“Mozart composed 27 concertos for piano and orchestra, and they’re all fantastic,” said Roberto Minczuk, New Mexico Philharmonic music director. “The difficulty in Mozart pieces is the transparency; they’re simple by nature. I always like performing Mozart with young people.”

Violinist Gabriel Ingliss is 16. He also learned to play his instrument guided by his mother. He has performed extensively in New Mexico, New Jersey and in Germany. He attends Santa Fe Preparatory School and will play the first movement of Felix Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto.”

“It’s one of the most beautiful and very dazzling Mendelssohn concertos,” Minczuk said.

“They’re both really talented kids,” he added.

The orchestra will play Mozart’s Overture to “The Impresario” and Joseph Haydn’s “Symphony No. 88 in G Major.”

“The Impresario” is a comic opera. It was originally written because of “the imperial command” of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, who had invited 80 guests to a private luncheon. It is regarded as “a parody on the vanity of singers,” who argue over status and pay.

Haydn wrote his symphony in 1787. He spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their Eszterháza Castle.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s teacher, Haydn is considered the father of the symphony, and number 88 is one of his best-known works.

“He wrote 104 symphonies,” Minczuk said. “They’re all great. He is such a pivotal figure in classical music.

“Classical music would never be what it is today without Haydn’s standards for symphonic writing and orchestrations,” Minczuk continued. “When you hear Mozart’s operas, you see where the ideas came from.

“He was always thinking about how he would discover new songs and new sound effects to keep the court entertained,” Minczuk added.