Grant County Community Concert Association proudly presents the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Music Director Lonnie Klein and with world-renowned pianist Dmitri Ratser on Friday, March 31, at 7:30 p.m. in the W.N.M.U. Fine Arts Theater. The Symphony is one of the premiere arts organizations in Southern New Mexico with a long tradition of providing symphonic music to area audiences. Under Klein's direction it has achieved new levels of artistic excellence and acclaim.

The Las Cruces Symphony Association strives to promote public interest and support for orchestral music in Southern New Mexico, and it also provides scholarships for talented New Mexico State University music students, giving these students the opportunity to play in the Orchestra alongside professional musicians from the area and around the world. They hope to cultivate a new generation of music enthusiasts, performers and audience members.

In addition to an extensive regular concert season with the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra, Lonnie Klein has guest conducted regularly with orchestras in Mexico, Canada, Italy, Germany, Turkey, and Colombia as well as orchestras in the United States. As a pops conductor, he has produced and conducted concerts with such celebrated artists as Doc Severinsen Mariachi Cobre, The Temptations, The Dukes of Dixieland and Broadway stars Anne Runolfsson and Doug LaBrecque. Klein has conducted the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra since 1999. Joseph Schwantner, noted American composer, said, "Lonnie's industry and energy knows no bounds and he has propelled the orchestra into an ensemble that possesses great musical integrity and an ability to engage new and challenging music in a manner that is truly exceptional."

On March 31, the orchestra will perform Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky/Rosenblatt, Preludes by Liszt, and Rimsky-Korsakoff's Russian Easter Overture. Featured at the piano is world-renowned Dmitri Ratser.

Prior to 1990, Dmitri Ratser remained one of the best-kept secrets of the former Soviet Union. He was born into a family of professional musicians and was raised in the musical tradition of his homeland. Because of his unusual talent he was accepted while still a child to study under the great Soviet pianist Yakov Flier, Professor of the Moscow Conservatory. Ratser's artistry reveals a unique combination of the European pianistic style of Liszt and the Russian pianistic traditions of the great Sergei Rachmaninoff. He has performed at Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall and in over thirty-five U.S. cities as well as all over the world. The reason for his popularity can perhaps be found in the words of a writer for the Los Angeles Times: "Ratser's performance took one's breath away with its mesmerizing single-mindedness, its inexorable force, its stunning virtuosity."

This performance is a joint venture of the Grant County Community Concert Association, the Mimbres Regions Arts Council and Western New Mexico University. It is part of the regular season subscription for Grant County Community Concert Association patrons. Individual tickets for non-GCCCA subscribers are $20 for adults and $5 for students to age 17 not accompanied by an adult ticket holder. Students coming with an adult ticket holder are admitted free of charge. Tickets can be purchased at Blackwell Antiques (Bullard St. at Yankie St.) or Western Stationers (Broadway St. at Texas St.) in Silver City, online at www.gcconcerts.org, or in the lobby at the time of the concert.

For further information, call 538-5862 or go to www.gcconcerts.org.