The Las Vegas Philharmonic's 2015-16 season is well underway, with conductor Donato Cabrera at the helm.
Cabrera returned to Las Vegas, his home town, last year when he took the conductor's position in April 2014. He opened that season by celebrating Nevada's sesquicentennial with the orchestra's masterworks performance of, "Battle Born: Nevada Proud."
Kicking off this season, the Philharmonic opened with "Beethoven and Brahms" on Sept. 12. The orchestra's core is made up of 76 professional musicians.
T he Smith Center for the Performing Arts' Reynolds Hall is home to the Las Vegas Philharmonic, which will have its second show of the season, "Passport to the World," at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24.
Cabrera told KNPR's State of Nevada that the performance will be like taking a helicopter trip over Europe with music that typifies each country.
"You can buy a ticket, sit down in the beautiful Smith Center and you can be transported to places around the world through music," Cabrera said. "I hope the audience can share with me this idea that we are going through Europe basically in a sonic journey with music that evokes the specific cultural identifiers."
As for the rest of the season, Carbera said he's focusing on works that the philharmonic has not performed in a long time or ever.
"So we have standard repertoire that the orchestra hasn't played that audiences will love to hear, finally, live in the Smith Center," he said.
He is also planning to feature living American composers and will start each performance with a piece from one of them.
After coming back to Las Vegas 30 years after he left, Cabrera said he's amazed by the musical talent in our city, which is not often associated with cultural and artistic pursuits.
"I'm still blow away by all that is here now," he said. "The audience is hungry for the music. The music we're playing they can't find it anywhere else."
Donato Cabrera, conductor, Las Vegas Philharmonic