Echoes of the Opera House

Echoes of the Opera House features the talents of Robert Krupnick, piano and Mark Winston, baritone. Together they will present a concert showcasing the piano and vocal music from the heyday of the Duncan Opera House. The program includes music by Bach, Bellini, Chopin, Debussy, Mahler, Ponce, and Vaughan Williams.

The Duncan Opera House opened on September 12, 1886 and operated until around 1950. The building was demolished in 1965. In its heyday, it was the location of a wide variety of performances and enjoyed the distinction of being the location of New Mexico’s first Republican Convention for State officials in 1911, just before New Mexico gained statehood.

The Opera House’s 1872 Steinway square grand piano was used to accompany many of the theater’s performances throughout its years of operation. The piano was donated to the City of Las Vegas Museum in 1965. In 2004, the piano was restored thanks to a grant from the First National Bank of Las Vegas. The grant was supplemented by funds from the Friends of the City of Las Vegas Museum and generous donations. This year, the piano has been revived again for the community to enjoy the sweet and subtle sounds of the square grand piano that entertained generations of Las Vegans.

Robert Krupnick has performed solo piano, chamber and contemporary music extensively in California, Seattle and Halifax. He has recently relocated to New Mexico. He received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory and UCLA respectively, his main teachers being Jeanne Stark, William Masselos, Andrew Imbrie, and Robert Helps. He has received the Charles Ives Fellowship from the National Foundation of Arts and Letters, the Hertz Award in piano from the University of California at Berkeley, the John Lennon Award from UCLA for the study of the music of Morton Feldman, and has recorded contemporary music for the Cold Blue label. He currently teaches privately in Santa Fe.

Mark Winston is a singer, pianist, composer, and audio engineer. Growing up in Las Vegas, New Mexico, he studied piano with Anne Mishler, played trombone in the RHS band, and was singer for the rock band Hobb’s End. He holds a BA in Music from University of Chicago and a Master of Music degree in Piano from the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. He was soloist, and chorister at Holy Name Cathedral and Rockefeller Chapel in Chicago. In 2023, he made his Lincoln Center debut as baritone soloist for Trotta’s Seven Last Words at David Geffen Hall in New York. He has recorded albums with The Dead Superheroes Orchestra, The Walking Shadows, Chicago Chorale, and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with Bella Voce (Naxos Records).