By KELLY DOLEJSI
Los Alamos

This weekend, Los Alamos and Santa Fe audiences will have a chance to experience the music of Antonín Leopold Dvořák performed in Czech.

Coro de Cámara’s “Rhapsody,” a concert featuring works by Dvořák, Brahms, and Fauré, will be offered at 7 p.m. Friday at Immaculate Heart Chapel in Santa Fe, at 7 p.m. Saturday at the United Church of Los Alamos, and at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos. The choir will be accompanied by a string quartet.

“To learn something in a language we have never sung in before — that’s the challenge,” Artistic Director Nylea Butler-Moore said. “We’re always looking for new challenges to help us grow musically.”

Butler-Moore said that the group has been reaching out to Czech members of the community to receive help with pronunciation.

“It has not been an easy feat to learn the diction for these pieces,” Coro de Cámara’s pianist Nathan Salazar said.“But the group is really singing them wonderfully.”

Also featured will be the first movement of Dvorak’s Piano Quintet No. 2, which Salazar described as “a hugely exciting and melodic staple of the chamber repertoire,” adding that the program rounds off with Romantic-era music from two of the greatest composers of the time, Brahms and Faure. Their styles could not be more different, as will be heard in the concert.”

The program was chosen with Salazar in mind, Butler-Moore said. “He loves the Romantic period, and he’s going to live in Spain after this season. I wanted to send him out in a blaze of glory.”

The send-off will precede what Salazar described as the fulfillment of a long-held dream.

“It has always been a dream of mine to live in Europe, and particularly around the Mediterranean,” Salazar said, “After a lot of investigating of my family roots, I discovered that I may qualify for dual citizenship to Spain now that they are welcoming Sephardim back after be expelled from the country during the Inquisition. It is a very special feeling to be going back to a country that my ancestors left nearly 600 years ago.”

He said he eventually hopes to work as a professional musician in Europe, like he does in the States.

Although Coro has been performing since 1989, Butler-Moore said this is the first time the choir will perform three concerts in one weekend, two in Los Alamos and one in Santa Fe. “The choir is responding to requests from audience members who said they want to hear more,” she said.

She added that it’s also great for the choir, including three students from Los Alamos High School, members of the group’s apprentice program. “It will give us a chance to sing more of this wonderful music,” Butler-Moore said.

“For our listeners that enjoy hearing choral music performed at an objectively high level, Coro cannot be missed,” Salazar said. “This is due to the meticulous and unwavering leadership of our conductor, Nylea Butler-Moore. She really has made the group one of my favorites — anywhere.

“Coro is so grateful to have an audience. There are so many choices (thankfully!) for hearing great music in this area. I know that our current audience and prospective listeners will be amazed at the gem this group is in New Mexico. Come to our concert and I promise you will come away wonderfully satisfied with the music you heard. It is a gift we love to share.”

Pre-concert lectures by Dr. Nelly Case will begin 30 minutes prior to the Saturday and Sunday performances. Admission is a suggested donation of $20 for adults, $10 for students.