ALEXANDRIA – Northwestern State University music major José Alejandro Luzuriaga Herrera and the Northwestern Choral Artists performed with the Rapides Symphony Orchestra this past weekend.
Luzuriaga, a sophomore music major from Loja, Ecuador, was the winner of the youth Division of the Rapides Symphony’s student concerto competition held in February. He performed “Piano Concerto in A Minor,” by Edvard Grieg, the work he played to win the competition. He is a student of Associate Professor of Piano Dr. Francis Yang.
Luzuriaga has previously won the Grand Prix at the “Virtuosos of the World” (2021) and First Prize at the “Young Pianists of the World” (2023), “Toshko Stoyanov” (2024) and the Cuenca Symphony Orchestra’s “Young Soloists” (2024) competitions. As a soloist, he has collaborated with the Loja Symphony Orchestra, the Cuenca Symphony Orchestra and the Loja Municipal Symphony Orchestra, performing concerti by Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven.
“Participating in events like conferences, competitions, playing with an orchestra and others help me as an artist by pushing me to give my best in the performance and to get to know other artists in my field, creating contacts and providing me new opportunities,” said Luzuriaga.
At NSU, he is a member of the Cane River Singers, the Orpheus choir and the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Orchestra.
The Northwestern Choral Artists joined the Red River Chorale and students from Louisiana Christian University to form the chorus for the Rapides Symphony performance. This choral ensemble is made up of 16 select, auditioned singers committed to professional choral singing and a high standard of choral excellence.
According to Director of Choral Activities Dr. Shane Thomas, The Northwestern Choral Artists is one of five choirs comprised of undergraduate and graduate choral area students whose mission is to provide students with professional singing skills and performance experience necessary to market and produce singers for the 21st century music career. The Northwestern Choral Artists have performed across northwest Louisiana.
Graduate student Lhareen Lazo and Thomas served as soloists for Bernstein’s “Make Our Garden Grow” from “Candide.”