Presents

Journey and Belonging

Sunday, March 22, 2026

Hopkins High School

Keehun Nam, Music Director
Charles Lazarus, Trumpet, MN Orchestra
Steve Heitzeg, Guest Composer

Concert Program

Le Carnaval Romain, Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)

American Nomad, Steve Heitzeg (b. 1959)

Symphony No. 8 in G Major, op. 88 , Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)

Biographies

Keehun Nam, Music Director

Nam currently serves as the Artistic Director of the Southeast Minnesota Youth Orchestras, where he conducts the top ensemble and sets the artistic vision for the season. He has served in numerous leadership roles, including Interim Director of Orchestras at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, Musical Director of the Ithaca College Sinfonietta, and Founder of the Vanderbilt Commodore Orchestra. Nam’s guest conducting appearances span both North America and Europe, with performances in Berlin, St. Petersburg, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria.

A native Minnesotan, Nam grew up in Eden Prairie and holds a Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting from Ithaca College and a Bachelor’s degree in Musical Arts from Vanderbilt University.

Charles Lazarus, Trumpet, Minnesota Orchestra

Charles Lazarus is a member of the Minnesota Orchestra and a multi-faceted musician who has charted a unique course as performer, composer, producer and band leader. 

His career has included tenures in Dallas Brass, Meridian Arts Ensemble, and Canadian Brass. He has created and produced several crossover orchestral programs featuring his various ensembles with which he has released six recordings. 

The Minnesota Orchestra’s live video recording of Steve Heitzeg’s American Nomad concerto and a children’s animated short film collaboration with author Michael Hall Perfect Square are also among his many collaborations. 

Lazarus has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras around the US and Canada, performed with the Empire Brass, New York Philharmonic Principal Brass, London Brass, Barry White, and opened for Tony Bennet. In demand as a clinician and teacher, he has performed and taught master classes in every US state, Canada, Brazil, Cuba, South Africa and throughout Asia and Europe. 

Steve Heitzeg, Composer

Emmy Award-winning composer Steve Heitzeg is known for evocative music that celebrates nature and that calls for environmental justice, human rights and world peace.

Heitzeg’s wide-ranging body of works includes compositions for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensemble, ballet and PBS films. His works often include “naturally-found” percussion instruments: stones, driftwood, seashells, sea glass, seeds, as well as unusual global percussion: Tibetan singing bowls, crystal singing bowls, ocean drums, plowshares, herding bells, and shruti box.

Esteemed conductors, performers, and ensembles such as Ariana Kim, Charles Lazarus, Clara Osowski, Laura Sewell, Marin Alsop, Osmo Vänskä, Sarah Hicks, Philip Brunelle, Joseph Giunta, Minnesota Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Thomas Søndergård, and VocalEssence, have commissioned, premiered, and performed his music.

Five works feature prominently in Heitzeg’s catalog: his trumpet concerto, American Nomad, premiered and recorded by Charles Lazarus, trumpet, and the Minnesota Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä conducting; Lake Stone Moon (Save the Boundary Waters) for solo violin, stones and driftwood, premiered and performed extensively world-wide by Ariana Kim; O Colored Earth – a piece for children’s choir that is a simple plea for peace; Wounded Fields – a lush string elegy dedicated to the victims of war and genocide; and Aqua (Hommage à Jacques Yves Cousteau) for orchestra – a protest piece against the destruction of the oceans; percussionists play an unusual mix of instruments: driftwood, coral, beach stones, nautical bells and gongs, and plastic garbage.

Heitzeg is also known for his earth-centric and visually stunning “ecoscores” – intimate works with inventive musical syntax and design that are an outgrowth of his being influenced by the graphic scores of John Cage, 
R. Murray Schafer, and Erik Stokes.  

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