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Artists talk preparation for roles in the ‘St John Passion’ season opener

We are officially a month out from the New Mexico Performing Arts Society’s 13th season opener and in preparation for this, I spoke with two vocal soloists with NMPAS who are busy getting ready for the September performances of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion. 

Gregory Gallagher, a tenor, and Javier Ortiz, a bass, are performing the roles of the Evangelist and Jesus respectively. I sat down with both of them to learn more about their backgrounds and how they are approaching this performance. 

Gallagher is originally from upstate New York but grew up in Ohio. He came to New Mexico to work at Eastern New Mexico University several years ago then relocated to Albuquerque last year. 

“I basically came out of the womb singing. I was always singing, doing musical things, making up my own songs,” he said. 

He started playing piano at a young age, then joined choir in high school, where he decided to pursue vocal performance and education professionally. Gallagher will join NMPAS for his third season this year. 

In regards to the St. John Passion, Gallagher acknowledged that it is a “massive” work and something he has never performed in full. 

“When I heard that they were doing this, I reached out to Franz and I was like, ‘Franz, I would love to do my first Evangelist with you if that’s OK,’” Gallagher said. 

He explained that the preparation for the September performances is different in that much of the Evangelist’s role is “recitative” or sung dialogue. The Evangelist acts as the narrator of the unfolding Passion of Christ. 

“Recitative is no joke to learn,” Gallagher laughed. “St. John is essentially an opera that’s not an opera. It’s as hefty and as long as one might be and so when you are tasked with being one of the only ones that’s kind of propelling that story forward, you have to really dig into the nuance and the detail and the emotions that are found.”

Ortiz agreed that the St. John Passion is a unique composition to prepare. His performance as Jesus plays a similar role in moving the story forward through recitatives.

Ortiz is originally from Pojoaque, New Mexico. After graduating from the University of New Mexico, he spent time studying and performing in the Netherlands and then relocated to New York. He returned to his hometown during the COVID-19 pandemic and from there learned of NMPAS. This will be his third season with the New Mexico Bach Society and NMPAS.

Ortiz also started his musical journal by playing piano at a young age and throughout college. It was in high school when he joined choir but in college that he found opera. 

He described working with NMPAS performers as a “little family” with everyone being allowed to shine throughout the season.

Ortiz has also never performed the full St. John Passion, but said he is having fun digging into this “interesting” work.

“Really there’s only one aria for Jesus and it’s hard,” he emphasized. “It’s like a group, team effort and we all sing choruses and then we come out of the ensemble when we have our solos.

“Bach was so fundamental and so ahead of his time and you can really hear it in this piece. So that’s the fun of doing it. You sit there and it just takes you through all these different textures, layers which match the story of the crucifixion.”

Gallagher added that he is always impressed with the musicians of NMPAS and the quality of performance the group produces. 

“I hope that people will really reach out and plan to be present for this performance,” he said. 

Season 13 will open with performances of St. John Passion on Sept. 6 in Santa Fe and Sept. 8 in Albuquerque. Tickets for both performances are available for purchase online at nmpas.org/tickets. 

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Artistic Director Franz Vote talks Season 13 and the future of NMPAS

What does an artistic director do? And how is that role evolving at New Mexico Performing Arts Society? 

These are a couple of questions we’re going to dig into this week through a conversation with NMPAS Artistic Director Franz Vote. 

This is the second interview in a series we are working on with NMPAS administrators and performers over the coming weeks. So let’s dive in!

Vote is one of the founders of NMPAS, along with Linda Marianiello, and has served as the artistic director for 13 years now. 

“That’s the person that first of all, prepares and leads the music and concerts and imposes their musical will on everybody else,” he said. “It’s also the person who dreams up and chooses the repertoire and tries to find interesting things to capitalize on it.”

He laughed when he compared his job to Marianiello’s as executive director, who deals with the “business” aspects of the organization. “Managing and fundraising and media and all of that. Poor Linda gets tasked with that constantly,” Vote said. 

Instead, Vote is tasked with choosing the repertoire and preparing it for performance. 

New Mexico Performing Arts Society’s 13th season

Vote called it a “mixed bag” when it comes to choosing the compositions to perform – it depends on the concert. 

The Winter Solstice concert is typically themed toward the season, the shorter days of the year and Christmas, though he said he tries to incorporate instrumental pieces and others outside the scope of Christian music. One piece on the program this winter is a composition Vote wrote himself.

For this year’s Bach Society concert, Vote said he consulted with composer Aaron Alter who wrote a new piece NMPAS will premiere. It will be joined on the program by J.S. Bach’s Cantata BWV 21, a rescheduled performance from last season.

“And for that particular concert, I consulted with him because I wanted him to feel that there was some kind of connection between the new piece that he’s writing and the Bach cantata that we’re doing,” he said. The cantata’s title translates to “I had a great deal of sorrow,” which Vote said will influence the program as well. This concert tends to take place in spring with Easter and Passover taking place in that same time frame. 

The coming season will likely end with another opera concert, which to Vote, who largely worked in opera throughout his career, is a sort of “going home.” 

“I grew up with opera. My sister was an opera singer. And from the time I was just an infant I heard nothing but opera constantly. So it’s always my favorite thing to go back to even after doing it for the number of years that I did, actually three decades. Here in New Mexico, I was perfectly happy to be able to go into the music of Bach, which I couldn’t do when I was doing all that opera,” he said.

As for the season opening of Bach’s St. John Passion, Vote said he has long wanted to perform the piece and finally has the capability to. He added that the reason is not liturgically motivated either. 

Vote explained that Bach is one composer singers tend to gravitate to because he did not write operas. 

“It is so nutritious. It feeds the musical soul and the spiritual soul,” he said. “And it’s dramatic as all get out. There are things that happen in St. John that don’t happen anywhere else in Bach, but sort of makes you think about what came later with Beethoven and even Mahler.”

Musicians taking concerts into their own hands

As Vote and Marianiello take a few steps back from their day-to-day work at NMPAS, the performers who work with the organization will begin taking a larger role in choosing repertoire. That will start this upcoming season with several chamber music programs. 

“We have time on our hands to make a smooth transition from us to others. That’s our goal,” Vote said. We’re hoping to be able to continue our mission, which is a unique mission in the United States, and that is to use local people.”

NMPAS performances all feature local professionals rather than flying people in from other cities. 

“Most groups aren’t as open to this as we are,” Vote said. “We hope to be a template for others who could look at our group and say, ‘oh, look, if they could do it, maybe we could do it, too.’

By handing over the reins of the artistic direction of the organization from time to time, Vote added that musicians also gain experience with the business side of music, which they do not always have before joining the NMPAS roster. NMPAS is ultimately working to support local, well-rounded professionals. 

Overall, Vote said he is relieved that the upcoming season is coming together well and he can now relax into the fun part of preparing the music for performance.

Season 13 will commence with Bach’s St. John Passion with performances on Sept. 6 and Sept. 8 in Santa Fe and Albuquerque respectively. Tickets for these performances are available to purchase online at nmpas.org/tickets. And watch your inbox for the next interviews with musicians preparing for St. John.

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