When Patrick Gaffey first encountered Bishr Hijazi’s Arab Ensemble, it consisted of Hijazi, playing the oud, and three percussionists. “You could see that he could use somebody who could play a little bit more legato,” says Gaffey, the county cultural-program supervisor who runs the Winchester Cultural Center. “We asked him if he’d like somebody who played a violin, and he said, ‘Who?’” Gaffey and his associate, Cultural Specialist Erika Borges, suggested Laraine Kaizer, a member of the Las Vegas Philharmonic. Hijazi had his doubts. Could a classical musician improvise as much as Arabic music required? “The first concert they played together,” Gaffey says, “he only had her play on three tunes. And afterward he said, ‘If I had any idea how fast she was going to pick this up, I would have had her play on everything.” “And now she does,” Borges adds.
Clearly it takes a certain amount of improvisation to run a cultural center, too. “We’re kind of feeling our way along,” is how Gaffey describes his programming philosophy. “We came up with the idea that there are so many performers in this town who are stellar examples of any kind of music. We just try to be a little bit of everything. We try to present music for people who really love music.” The result has been a gamut that’s included jazz bands, Asian throat singers, Meshuggina Klezmorim and Russians who play crystal instruments.
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It’s not just music. Clark County’s only full-service arts facility (though it does curate visual arts exhibits in the Government Center rotunda) has hosted, among many programs, a ballet about women of the Mexican Revolution, the Colombian comedy Se Vende una Burra ( Sold a Mule), lively Day of the Dead celebrations and speakers such as the Review-Journal’s Norm Clark and historian Michael Green.
“I’m really impressed,” Green says of Winchester. “Gaffey really brings in a diverse group of artists and presenters, and I think it’s valuable for the community — and for a sense of community.”
An unexpected programming strength? Spanish-language theater. “Hispanics are a huge part of our audience,” Gaffey explains. Whereas his early attempts to encourage traditional theater didn’t pan out, five Latino companies have made Winchester home, and it’s “going great guns.” Indeed, he doesn’t know of another venue doing it. These productions included the seventh-annual Spanish language Vagina Monologues. Dubious that it would draw, he was pleasantly surprised when it packed the place: “These Spanish-language theater companies have just amazed me with their ability to pull in audiences.” Director Stacy Mendoza is riding the crest of this wave. She staged a Humberto Robles play that the author saw on video, leading him to offer her the chance to do a complete cycle of his works at reduced royalties. (This year’s offering was Ni Princessa ni Esclava in January.)
“We’ve been working with five Mexican folkloric dance companies,” Gaffey says, “and they tend to fill the house every time.”
The cultural center took the initiative of forming a band called Circle the World. Its members are Lin Hong Li, who plays 10 instruments — mostly Chinese folk ones — Gary Haleamau, “who’s actually a hero back in Hawaii,” and his son Curran, who plays bass, blues pianist Junior Brantley, a former sideman of Stevie Ray Vaughan, plus drummer Charles Bel Azzi.
“Chinese music doesn’t even use the same system of notation as Western music does,” Gaffey explains, adding that the concert drew fans from across the spectrum “and they were all blown away. My favorite thing was Junior made a gesture to Lin Hong and broke into a (blues) solo on her pipa,” a four-stringed, Chinese instrument. “Man, can she play it. She sounds like Jimi Hendrix sometimes.”
Whether it’s the 9,000 participants in the center’s annual Day of the Dead celebration, opera buffs in the house for a Mad Men-inspired production of Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti or a capacity crowd floored by the cross-cultural exchange of Circle the World, “they feel this is their home away from home,” Borges says. “It’s a place where people come to embrace their culture and other cultures.” David McKee