Amid changes, Weller conducts season-ender

Friday, May 6, 2005 | 9:41 a.m.

The coming years will be anything but static for the Las Vegas Philharmonic.

Next year Hal Weller conducts his last full season. The following year we'll see job candidates guest-conducting the orchestra. After that, in 2008, there will be a new conductor leading the philharmonic.

If all goes as planned we will have the orchestra performing at the downtown Performing Arts Center.

It's a lot of change, but Weller says he'd hate to see the orchestra plateau.

"When we founded the philharmonic, Andy and Susan Tompkins provided backing and we all agreed we would not be a founder-driven organization," Weller said. "I planned to be here for five years and I stayed for nine years."

The orchestra performed its first concert, a Fourth of July production, in 1998.

"It's been a lot of fun," Weller said. "We made great friends, had a good time watching this orchestra grow. But I needed a change."

Before Weller dashes off into other realms of the local arts scene where he says he'd like to act as "puppeteer," he has plenty left to do with the philharmonic, including this weekend's season-ending performance of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" and three dance episodes of Leonard Bernstein's "On The Town."

The performance features a beefed-up orchestra with two grand pianos and extra percussion, as well as the voices of the Las Vegas Master Singers.

"We like something really splashy for final concerts of the year," Weller said. "And because this was a week off from the official centennial we thought we'd gear it to that.

"The people should come just to see if we can get everyone on the stage."

The concert dance suites from Bernstein's first musical, which premiered in 1944, are jazzy and energetic. "Carmina Burana," based on poems from wandering minstrels and defrocked priests in the 1300s, are equally as lively and based on the joy of spring, carousing and gambling.

"People say, 'Oh it's in Latin, it must have to do with religion,' " Weller said. "But it's a very bawdy piece."

"When I presented 'Carmina Burana' in Flagstaff (Ariz.) ... there was a man who got on the arms of his chair and threw his program in the air. It was a real barn burner."

Associate conductor and educational coordinator Richard McGee will conduct the program's first half, the dance episodes, then hand the wand to Weller, who will finish the evening's program. But this is not an audition for McGee.

Instead, Weller says, "This is long overdue. (McGee) conducts children's concerts, holiday and Fourth of July performances, but he's never conducted a bona fide season performance. This is his chance.

Weller added, "Dick deserves a whole concert. I enjoy 'Carmina Burana' too much to give it to him."

McGee's "Las Vegas Rhapsody," to be performed in the 2005-06 season, is one of the Las Vegas Philharmonic's three commissioned pieces using centennial funds.

In September composer/conductor Dan Welcher's "Jackpot" will open the season. Welcher is a composer in residence at the University of Texas in Austin.

Composer George Walker, who won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize in music for "Lilacs," has written a highly charged, energetic piece that has yet to be named. Weller said.

The only criteria for the commissioned works is that they reflect the energy and vitality of Las Vegas and its community.

As far as any final surprises for Weller's last season, Weller said that he hasn't really thought about it.

"It depends on who the guest conductors are," he said.

A search committee is determining procedures and receiving applications for replacements. When finished with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, Weller said he wants to work behind the scenes.

"I'd like to stay in Las Vegas because I feel it's right on the cusp of doing great things," he said.

But when asked about his goodbye as conductor to the performing arts community, Weller said humbly, "I'm the only person who doesn't make a sound. Too many people take the conductor and blow his importance out of proportion.

"There are a lot of stick wavers in the world."

This stick waver promises to be back.

"Making music is a thrill so that is always going to be a part of my life," he said. "I'd love to come back and conduct a concert here and there."