Arts society enjoys order of Schubert

Marilyn LaRocque

Friday, April 11, 2003 | 8:42 a.m.

The Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society invites the public to spend an afternoon with composer Franz Schubert this weekend.

"Sunday with Schubert" will feature such classic Schubert works as Mass No. 6 in E-flat Major and Symphony No. 4 ("Tragic"). His piano duet, "Fantasia in F," will complete the program.

Music Director Dr. Douglas R. Peterson will conduct the 60-voice chorus, the 34-piece orchestra and five soloists -- soprano Rebecca Martindale, mezzo-soprano Juline Barol-Gilmore, tenors Steve Robinson and Robert Peterson and Rabbi Gary Golbart, bass.

This is the 40th year of the SNMAS and Peterson's 35th year as music director.

Peterson was one of the three original faculty members of the Department of Music at UNLV (1967) and is now the most senior of the 27-member full-time music faculty. He teaches music appreciation and voice, and recently participated in international workshops for professional orchestra conductors held in Kromeriz, Czech Republic, and in Kiev, Russia.

All the soloists in the Schubert Mass are local residents. Lyric soprano Martindale received her bachelor's degree in music education from UNLV. She is a winner of the Metropolitan Opera auditions and is a frequent soloist with the SNMAS.

Martindale is both a voice coach at the Las Vegas Academy of Performing Arts and a private voice teacher. She described the Mass as "a beautiful piece," and the soloists' parts as "delicate" and "not as prominent as in other masses."

Mezzo-soprano Barol-Gilmore performed extensively with Opera Omaha as well as in New Mexico, where she has won numerous competitions. An SNMAS "regular," Barol-Gilmore sang at the opening of the Henderson Pavilion at Liberty Pointe. As an adjunct professor (part-time) of the UNLV music faculty, she gives private voice lessons to undergraduate students.

"A professional singing career is a tough choice," she said. "The practical choice is music education. People who have the talent to pursue a solo career have to realize they must go where the work is, be on the road."

Barol-Gilmore was successfully pursuing that type of career when she decided to get married.

"I loved the traveling, the stimulation, meeting people, but I wouldn't trade my personal life and local and regional career for it now," she said.

Tenor Robinson has sung many times with SNMAS, as well as with the Kansas City Philharmonic, the Columbia (South Carolina) Symphony, St. Louis Opera and Cincinnati Opera. He holds a master's degree in voice performance from the University of Kansas and taught private students for several years.

Now his "day job" is a music therapist at Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health hospital.

"It interested me that people got more from a voice lesson than just music," he said. "Their self-esteem seemed influenced. So I got a master's in music therapy. Music complements cognitive therapies from psychologists. Patients who haven't spoken at all will speak in a music activity."

Robinson termed the Mass a "big liturgical piece." He particularly likes a two-tenor/soprano trio. "The trio is sumptuous with very tight harmony."

The "second" tenor is Douglas Peterson's son, Robert, a gondolier at The Venetian.

Rabbi Golbart (Adat Ami), bass, had a full scholarship to the St. Louis Conservatory. He was entertainment director for the Stardust and also a starring act in major Strip shows.

"But I always had one foot in the synagogue and had Friday nights off," he said. He became a Rabbi seven years ago after 20 years as a cantor.

"The Schubert has unusual chords that help color the sound and a wide range of dynamics, from hushed to angry triple fortes," he said.

The two pianists performing the "Fantasia" duet (four hands, one piano) are Suzanne Montgomery and Lillian Kollar.

Montgomery is the music teacher and fourth- and fifth-grade choir director at Cambeiro Elementary School. She's also a substitute organist for various churches.

"Duets are not often played in concert," Montgomery said. "'Fantasia' is mysterious and haunting and appeals to even the most casual classical listener. It contrasts with the two heavier works."

Kollar earned her bachelor's and master's from the Eastman School of Music and taught at the college level for 26 years, including six at UNLV. She's now organist at Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer on the Strip across from the Luxor and pianist at Congregation Ner Tamid.

"Schubert gives equal time to both pianists," Kollar said. "Each part is equally difficult."

Is it a challenge to share a piano bench and keyboard?

"Yes," Kollar said. "It's disorienting. Every pianist is used to sitting in the middle, with certain notes on the right, certain notes on the left. Everything is shifted. The left person pedals; the right turns pages."