Guest conductor leads WU orchestra

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Mar 14, 2008 by Bill Blankenship

By Bill Blankenship

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

With firing cannons and ringing chimes, "The 1812 Overture" might have been the most bombastic work Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote, but it wasn't his most beloved.

That title belongs to the Russian composer's "Serenade for Strings," which the Washburn University Orchestra will perform as the opening work of a free concert at 7:30 p.m. today in White Concert Hall. A 20-minute preconcert talk will start at 7 p.m., also in the hall.

Eduardo Espinel, who will guest-conduct the concert, said Tchaikovsky preferred the Serenade "to his other bigger works, especially '1812,' because he said he put more of his heart into it."

In fact, Tchaikovksy wrote this in 1880 to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck: "The overture will be very showy and noisy, but will have no artistic merit because I wrote it without warmth and without love. But the Serenade, on the contrary, I wrote from inner compulsion. This is a piece from the heart."

Espinel said the Serenade "is not easy at all," but added the Washburn student musicians are "playing it very well."

Espinel received the invitation to guest-conduct the orchestra from its usual conductor, Norman Gamboa, Washburn's director of orchestral studies.

Espinel and Gamboa met while both were graduate students at Baylor University.

Espinel was born in Valencia, Venezuela, but has lived most of his life in the United States.

He began playing trumpet as a middle school student in Atlanta and continued through high school and at Brevard College in North Carolina, where he earned his bachelor's degree. Espinel developed an interest in conducting his senior year at Brevard when he led a couple of brass choirs.

In addition to his master's of music from Baylor, Espinel also earned an artist diploma and master's of music at Yale University. He is the winner of the 2007 Eduardo Mata International Conducting Competition and the 2004 recipient of the Robert J. Harth Prize from the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen.