Friday, Oct. 13, 2006 | 8:03 a.m.
Taras Krysa was conducting the Kiev State Symphony Orchestra in Ukraine last year, but had his eyes set on working in the United States where he was schooled.
So when UNLV's orchestra conductor George Stelluto abruptly resigned over the summer, Krysa, who was back in the U.S., stepped in at the last minute. Vaguely familiar with Las Vegas and UNLV's music program he had to improvise a little when building the repertoire.
"I managed to get here just before the first rehearsal," Krysa recalls with a laugh.
But everything worked out.
On Tuesday Krysa will conduct his first concert with the UNLV Symphony Orchestra.
The program is listener-friendly, Rossini's "Wilhelm Tell Overture," Schubert's Eighth or "Unfinished" Symphony and Beethoven's Second Symphony.
"It's the best repertoire to build the orchestral skills for the students," Krysa says. "It's not technically difficult but requires listening on their part and good style."
The rest of the year will include music from the Romantic era and some 20th-century compositions - a repertoire that creates a "crescendo throughout the season," Krysa says.
In town only two months, he's still taking the cultural temperature of Las Vegas, which will be easier given that Krysa will be performing Saturday with the Las Vegas Philharmonic filling in for a violinist - another last-minute gig. "It seems like a Las Vegas style in many ways," Krysa says.
He describes Las Vegas as a place of energy and exciting opportunity.
"I'm amazed at how many string players are here among the younger generation. When you're sitting on the East Coast, you don't see Nevada as a hotbed for string players."
Most of Krysa's conducting experience has been in Europe: Ukraine, Poland, Russia and the Netherlands. He grew up in Moscow, briefly studied violin at the Moscow Conservatory, then came to the United States with his parents. He studied violin and conducting at Indiana and Northwestern universities. His father, a violinist, teaches at the Eastman School of Music. His mother is a pianist.
Krysa's contract at the university is for one year; UNLV will conduct an official search to fill the opening this year.
The college is saying little about Stelluto's departure. He was with the college since 1998. Some say it was a result of his desire to be more integrated with the Juilliard School in New York, where he was already working. Stelluto is now resident conductor and director of orchestral activities there. His departure was so sudden that he is still listed online for certain courses and events.
Stelluto also is still listed as director of the Las Vegas Music Festival.
Details: 7 p.m. Tuesday; Artemus Ham Hall, UNLV; free; 895-2787
Smith Center design team
Nearly four months after originally planned, the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Foundation will formally introduce the Smith Center for the Performing Arts design team.
The team had been selected, but final contracts had yet to be signed for the project, scheduled to break ground in 2008.
The group is a cozy one. It includes design architect David Schwarz, HKS as the architect of record, Fischer Dachs Associates as theater planner and acoustician Paul Scarbrough with Akustiks.
"Many of them have worked together a number of times," Myron Martin, president of the Performing Arts Center Foundation, said by phone from Nashville, Tenn., where he was touring the $123.5 million Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Schwarz designed Schermerhorn, which opened early last month.
Like many of his neoclassical designs, Schermerhorn came with controversy. Architecture critic Kevin Nance called it the "Symphony Hall That Time Forgot," a "custom-made amalgam of recycled architectural elements from the past" and that the Nashville Symphony "turned its back on the last half-century of American architectural design."
On the other hand, Michael Linton from the Wall Street Journal described it as an "architectural and acoustic gem and one of the most successful auditoriums built in a century."
You can expect the same divided response to the Smith Center, which already has a few architects bickering even though they won't see the design for a while. Martin says nothing will be unveiled next week. The team finished the concept design (how the center will fit on the land) and is in the "schematic design phase" - refining where the box office might be, where the seats are.
But Schwarz was picked because of his references to old European architecture in concert halls such as Bass Hall in Fort Worth, Texas.
Thursday's private event will bring in elected officials, civic leaders, donors, board members from the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Nevada Ballet Theatre and media.
A peek into Gehry's mind
Speaking of controversial architects, the Las Vegas Art Museum announced that it will honor architect Frank Gehry with a gala at Red Rock Resort on the eve of its exhibit: "Frank Gehry Designs the Lou Ruvo Alzheimer's Institute."
The exhibit, which opens Dec. 13, will feature Gehry's models of the Alzheimer's Institute, sketches that highlight Gehry's thought process and aerial photographs of landscape formations that inspired the center's design.
For information, go to www.lasvegasartmuseum.org.
Mapplethorpe delayed
Anyone expecting to see the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit, "Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition" at the Guggenheim Hermitage will need to wait a few weeks. The opening, which was scheduled for early this month has been delayed. Officials at the museum have set the new opening date for Oct. 23. More information can be found at www.guggenheim.org.
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