Willy Sucre, the violist behind the Presidential Chamber Music Series, will be joined by the Matisse Trio to play string quartets by Mahler, Turina, and Dvorák on Monday, March 22.
This marks the final performance in the annual series sponsored by Dr. Daniel H. López, president of New Mexico Tech. The concert, set for 7:30 p.m., in Macey Center, is free and open to the public. The series is part of New Mexico Tech’s Performing Arts Series.
For those who are 21-and-over, a special wine-tasting social will be held before the concert, from 5-7 p.m., in Macey Center. Carl Popp hosts the event, which features a medley of wines, cheeses and nuts coordinated to blend tastefully. The cost is $10 for members of Tech Club–Club Macey, and $15 for non-members.
Carl Popp, who is a professor emeritus of chemistry at New Mexico Tech, has been making wine since his graduate student days, around 1970. He is currently president of the New Mexico Fine Wine Society and runs the wine-judging program at the New Mexico State Fair.
The menu includes the following wines, cheeses and nuts:
• E. Guigal Côte du Rhone Blanc; Camembert; hazelnuts
• Vidal Fleury Côte du Rhone Blanc; Brie; cashews
• Loradona Viognier; Münster; macadamia nuts
• Dom Longval Tavel Rose; Jarslberg; pecans
• E. Guigal Côte du Rhone Rouge; sharp cheddar; almonds
• Château-neuf du Pape, Château La Gardine; Edam; pistachios
In addition, Macey Gallery hosts a reception for artist Joel Smith, from 6-7 p.m. The public is invited to meet Smith, view his paintings and enjoy refreshments. Smith’s paintings are on display through Monday, April 5.
Smith’s paintings have been featured in a variety of museums, art institutes and art galleries in the United States as well as Canada.
According to Smith, “My painting goal is to order symbolic pictorial fragments into a state of pure painting, combining images and their mythic nature. Their purpose is to suggest the mystery and magic of the human experience. The watercolors and oil paintings on display do not merely represent emotion, they transcend it.”
The concert features the Matisse Trio, who performed with Sucre last year in Macey Center. It consists of pianist Ksenia Nosikova, violinist Katie Wolfe and cellist Anthony Arnone. All three are faculty members at the University of Iowa.
While maintaining active solo and teaching careers, the Matisse Trio has performed around the country in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Iowa, and Hawaii and give regular clinics and master classes.
Gustav Mahler’s “Piano Quartet in A Minor” is his earliest surviving work, a single movement composed when he was 16 years old. This work had been lost and was not published until 1964. This is decidedly a romantic work with rich harmonies, which has a symphonic feel to it, even though it only is scored for four instruments. It is written in the key of A minor, which Mahler believed symbolized the “unconscious anticipation of things to come.”
Next on the program, the Matisse Trio is featured performing “Trio No. 1 for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op.35,” by Joaquin Turina.
After intermission, Sucre re-joins the trio to perform “Piano Quartet in E Flat Major, op. 87,” by Antonín Dvorák. This was the work of Dvorák’s maturity, long after he had become famous as a composer of symphonies.

Contact Kathleen Hedges