In Tuesday’s (11/4) MassLive.com (Massachusetts), Keith O’Connor writes, “The temperature outside may be cold, but indoors on Saturday at Springfield Symphony Hall it is going to be ‘hot, hot, hot’ as the Springfield Symphony Orchestra plays everything from tangos to mambos to Latin jazz as part of ‘Fiesta Sinfónica.’ The evening will see the return of the Mambo Kings and Camille Zamora, who performed last year during the orchestra’s ‘Havana Nights’ concert…. [Guest conductor Herb] Smith played the trumpet in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for over 20 years and says he tries to ‘be the conductor that I would want to follow.’… The Mambo Kings have been together since 1995 and have become one of the most prominent Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz ensembles in the country. The quintet made their orchestral debut in 1997 with the Rochester Philharmonic and have since appeared with orchestras around the country … A leading interpreter of classical Spanish song, soprano soloist Camille Zamora is performing with the SSO for the third time … ‘I believe passionately that the future of the American symphony lies in opening our concert halls to new audiences, stories, and sounds, without ever losing sight of our essential musical values of excellence and expression,’ Zamora said.”
