AURORA | The dream had its roots in the traditional Easter procession that made its way through the streets of a town in Costa Rica.
The music that accompanied that religious celebration held an early lure for Norman Gamboa and it would eventually take him far from his native country. His childhood interest in music first sent him to a nearby high school for performing arts students. From there, he moved on to Costa Rica’s National Institute of Music, and eventually traveled north to study music at Baylor University in Texas and the University of Nevada.
Gamboa, who was named as the new music director of the Aurora Symphony Orchestra last month, didn’t look back. Though he travels back to his native country for conducting work, he’s made his permanent home in the U.S. This fall, he’ll start making Aurora his new home.
“There’s a lot more opportunities here than in Costa Rica. It’s just now that new orchestras are starting to form and flourish,” Gamboa said. “When I was there, it was just the national symphony.”
But there was a bigger reason that Gamboa kept training and working in the Untied States.
“Being from Latin America, there’s always that goal of achieving something in the U.S.,” Gamboa said between teaching classes at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La., where he’s completing his doctorate in music. “It just so happened that while I was here as a student, things happened. I think they happened for a reason.”
Since receiving his master’s from the University of Nevada in 2003, Gamboa has led orchestras in California, Wyoming, Kansas and Texas. He’s returned to Costa Rica to conduct and teach; he’s led professional ensembles in Guatemala, the Czech Republic, Honduras and Romania.
But the Aurora Symphony Orchestra held a special kind of appeal for Gamboa, who beat out four other candidates for the job. The ASO, which kicked off in 1979 as a civic orchestra of amateur musicians, offered a connection to a diverse community.
“I have always been very much interested in the work that community orchestras do versus professional orchestras. I still feel like there is a great deal of community service that these organizations provide,” Gamboa said. “I think the ASO has established itself as one of the leading community orchestras. To me, that speaks volumes.”
The ASO has come a long way since it started as the 15-member Aurora Civic Orchestra more than 30 years ago. Last year, longtime ASO conductor and music director Richard Niezen announced his departure, and officials kicked off a national search for a replacement.
That process lasted an entire year, and Gamboa stood out from the others. With experience built in orchestras around the world, Gamboa was an ideal fit for the ASO’s next chapter.
“Given this time that the symphony is in, we thought that someone with a little bit more experience would be desirable,” said ASO President and Executive Director Rich Duston. “We’re trying to double our budget and undertake this strategic plan that we wrote last year. It means turning a big corner for the orchestra.”
Realizing those ambitions means getting out into the community and drawing a new audience. Gamboa is eager to tackle that challenge, and he believes a new approach to programming is an important step. He’s already written a tentative program for the orchestra’s fall season and, pending approval by the ASO, the lineup is liable to feature work by composers who fall outside of the standard European fare.
“One of the main roles of the music director is to bring the orchestra out into the community. That doesn’t mean performing outdoors. That means making the organization more visible,” Gamboa said. “One of my main goals will be to reach out to the community and make them part of what the orchestra has to offer.”
That could mean organizing an entire show around composers from different cultures and backgrounds. Gamboa points to the work of Latin American composers like Costa Rican Benjamin Gutierrez and Mexican Arturo Marquez, musical voices that could play an important role in future ASO programming. Bringing new and unfamiliar music to the community is part of building a new home base in Aurora, a process that could very well be gradual for Gamboa.
With conducting posts in Wyoming, a doctorate to complete in New Orleans and guest engagements scheduled for halls across the world, building a foundation in Colorado may take time.
But he’s willing to put in the hours.
“I think an important part of the music director role is to be involved in the community and become the face of the orchestra,” Gamboa said. “Being in Colorado is going to be a justified move in the right direction.”
For more information on the ASO’s upcoming season, visit aurorasymphony.org.
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at 720-449-9707 or agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com