The New Mexico Symphonic Chorus opens the 2025–26 season on November 23 with Mozart’s monumental Mass in C Minor, K. 427. One of Mozart’s most spiritually profound works, the Mass combines operatic brilliance with sacred intensity, featuring a full orchestra, chorus, and virtuosic solo writing.
On March 15, 2026, the Chorus returns with Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, but presented in Spanish, following the overwhelming success of our Spanish-language performance of Handel’s Messiah. Brahms himself viewed this work not strictly as a liturgical mass but as a universal message of consolation, once writing, “As far as the text is concerned, I will confess that I would very gladly omit the ‘German’ and simply put ‘human.’” This performance honors that spirit, bringing the work to life in a language that speaks directly to our community.
The 2025-26 NMSC Season
Mozart – Mass in C Minor, K. 427
Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550
Sunday, November 23, 2025 2:00 pm
Brahms – Requiem en Español
Sunday, March 15, 2026 2:00 pm
At the National Hispanic Cultural Center Journal Theater
Single Tickets go on sale September 1, 2025
Additionally, the NMSC will join the OSW Chorus for New Year’s Eve (tickets will be on sale soon).
Roger Melone, Music Director Emeritus
Music Director Emeritus of the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus, Roger Melone was previously Resident Conductor and Chorus Director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra (NMSO). Since arriving in Albuquerque in 1983, Melone has brought national acclaim to the NMSO Chorus, now known as the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus. Under Melone’s direction, the NMSO Chorus performed at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. Mr. Melone led the chorus to triumphant performances there with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in 2006, and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2007, 2008, and 2011. In March 2014, Mr. Melone conducted Opera Southwest’s production of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, which featured the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus.
As Resident Conductor of the NMSO, Mr. Melone conducted subscription, tour, pops, and children’s concerts. The NMSO Chorus received the Albuquerque Arts Alliance Bravo Award for Music Excellence for its 1998 performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. In 1994, Mr. Melone was awarded the prestigious Albuquerque Arts Alliance Bravo Award for excellence in the arts. He continues to develop the talents of the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus, whose performances have been described as “stunning” and “riveting” by national critics.
Prior to his tenure at the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Melone held similar posts with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra. He attended Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he studied with Ronald Shirey. He then studied with B. R. Henson at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. In San Francisco, Mr. Melone studied baroque performance practices and harpsichord with Laurette Goldberg.
Roger retired at the end of the 2022-23 season leaving an incredible legacy of choral musicmaking.
