By Eileen Wingard
SAN DIEGO — Armando Pesqueira, the young Mexican conductor, who was on the podium for the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO) concert Tuesday evening, November 20, proved to be an expressive maestro who brought the orchestra to new heights.
In the challenging Brahms Symphony #1, the upper strings played with good intonation and more assertiveness than usual. Concertmaster Adrian Bubb performed the solo passages in the slow movement admirably, and the cellos played with fine resonance. Particularly impressive was the famous theme of the last movement, inspired by Beethoven’s Ode to Joy from his 9th Symphony.
Pianist Kanae Matsumoto, rendered Robert Schumann’s romantic Piano Concerto in A minor with flawless technic and rhythmic precision. Under Pesqueira’s careful baton, the orchestra provided accurate musical support.
Matsumoto has been heard with TICO before. She is the pianist of the Israelievitch-Matsumoto Duo, collaborating with Jacques Israelievitch, the violinist who will be the soloist with TICO for the June 9 and 11 concerts. A native of Japan, where she had her early training, the talented pianist later attended UCLA, working with the Russian piano pedagogue, Vitaly Margulis. Matsumoto now teaches collaborative piano at the UCLA Music Department and, in summer, performs at the Chautauqua Institution Music Festival in New York.
Conductor Armando Pesqueira was born and raised in Tijuana. He has an MA in music composition from SDSU, having worked there with Dr. David Ward-Steinman, and an MA in conducting from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Jung-Ho Pak, former conductor of the San Diego Symphony and Orchestra Nova. During his years in San Diego, Pesqueira performed piano and composed for TICO.
David Amos was, therefore, a proud contributor to the development of this gifted young man. Currently, Pesqueira is the Artistic and Music Director of the Orquesta Filarmonica del Estado de Chihuahua. Under his leadership, that orchestra has grown into one of the leading ensembles in Mexico, with creative programming and a high level of performance.
The next TICO concert, January 29, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. will feature Gregg Nestor, guitar virtuoso, in Rodrigo’s Fantasia Para un Gentilhome, and Nestor’s own arrangement of a work by Bocherini. The talented performer and arranger is back in San Diego after living in the LA area and working in Hollywood studios for many years.
*
Wingard is a freelance writer and retired violinst with the San Diego Symphony