HOUSTON (Sept. 4, 2019) – The Houston Symphony honors Hispanic Heritage Month with its annual free Fiesta Sinfónica concert, which this year features Mexican soprano Yunuet Laguna and Portuguese-American conductor Jacomo Bairos in a program that highlights the vibrant music of Cuba, Sept. 15 at 6 p.m.
Current music director of the Amarillo Symphony and artistic director of Miami’s forward-thinking Nu Deco Ensemble, the charismatic Bairos returns to the Houston Symphony to lead the orchestra through a colorful, multicultural program with a special emphasis on the music of Cuba. In addition to Gershwin’s popular Cuban Overture, the concert also features several delightful, dance-inspired works by Ernesto Lecuona, one of Cuba’s most important composers in the first half of the 20th century.
The concert also marks Laguna’s Houston Symphony debut. One of Mexico’s most promising young sopranos, Laguna recently wowed a Houston audience with her performance at Houston Grand Opera’s Concert of Arias in February, winning the Ana María Martinez Encouragement Award. She is now a new member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, one of the world’s most prestigious training grounds for young singers. With the Houston Symphony, she performs works that showcase her gorgeous voice, including “¿Que te importa que no venga?” from the Spanish Zarzuela Los Claveles and “Despuis le jour” from Charpentier’s Louise, a classic soprano showpiece.
Fiesta Sinfónica takes place at the Houston Symphony Sept. 15 at 6 p.m. at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, 615 Louisiana Street, in Houston’s Theater District. For tickets and information, please call 713.224.7575 or visit houstonsymphony.org. Tickets are available at the Houston Symphony Patron Services Center in Jones Hall (Monday–Saturday, 12–6 p.m.). All programs and artists are subject to change.
Fiesta Sinfonica is made possible through the support of Chevron and United Airlines, the Houston Symphony’s official airline. Additional support provided by Univision 45 and Amor 106.5FM, our Hispanic media partner.
FIESTA SINFÓNICA
Sunday, Sept. 15, 6 p.m.
Jacomo Bairos, conductor
Yunuet Laguna, soprano
About Jacomo Bairos
Portuguese-American conductor Jacomo Bairos is the 17th music director for the Amarillo Symphony, co-founder and artistic director for Miami’s Nu Deco Ensemble, and performs regularly as a guest conductor with some of the world’s finest orchestras.
In the 2018-19 season, Jacomo appeared with the San Francisco Symphony and made subscription debuts with the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Singapore and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras. He also conducted the Wichita and Winston-Salem Symphonies and continued his longstanding relationship with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Grand Rapids Symphony, where he conducts new music performances in collaboration with the American Composers Orchestra’s EarShot program. He also directed the National Symphony Orchestra’s critically acclaimed DECLASSIFIED series, as well as the orchestra’s In Your Neighborhood initiative and multiple pops programs.
Jacomo has appeared here and with orchestras in Detroit, North Carolina, Knoxville, and Alabama; the Louisiana and Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestras; and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He has made numerous returns to the Atlanta, St. Louis, San Diego, Florida, Sarasota, Jacksonville, Charlotte, and Charleston orchestras. International engagements include the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra; Singapore, Leipzig and Oaxaca Symphony Orchestras; as well as the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música (Portugal), Provincial de Santa Fe (Argentina), and Universidad de Guanajuato (Mexico).
The diverse range of Jacomo’s artist collaborators include famed pianists Jeremy Denk, Garrick Ohlsson, Conrad Tao, Anne-Marie McDermott, and mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges as well as Ben Folds, Bryce Dessner, Jacob Collier, Angélique Kidjo, Gregory Porter, Kishi Bashi, Danay Suarez, Seu Jorge, Bilal, Aaron Diehl, Cory Henry, and Jon Batiste.
A graduate of The Juilliard School, Jacomo is an award-winning tubist, having given masterclasses and concerts with major festivals and orchestras. He has performed, toured, and recorded with the New York Philharmonic as well as with the orchestras of Chicago, Cincinnati, and Seattle. He has held principal positions with orchestras in America and Spain, and from 2004–07, he was principal tuba for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
Born in Lisbon, Portugal, Jacomo is also a yoga teacher and a practitioner of Vipassanā meditation. He mentors and works with underserved children throughout the South Florida and Texas panhandle regions. He makes his home in Miami, Florida.
About Yunuet Laguna
Mexican soprano Yunuet Laguna is in her first year of The Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She was the winner of the inaugural Metropolitan Opera National Council (MONC) Mexico District auditions in San Miguel, Mexico, and earned second place at the MONC Gulf Coast Region auditions in 2018. In the same year, she was a semifinalist in the Sinaloa International Singing Contest. In February 2019, she won the Ana María Martinez Encouragement Award at the Houston Grand Opera’s Concert of Arias, the culmination of the Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers.
She has performed as a soloist with the Conservatorio Nacional de Música Orchestra, Toluca Philharmonic Orchestra, Mexiquense Symphony Orchestra, and Symphonic Orchestra of Zacatecas. Most recently, she performed as the soprano soloist in the San Miguel de Allende Opera Chorus’s performance of Mozart’s Requiem. She received her training at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City.
About the Houston Symphony
During the 2019–20 season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its sixth season with Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada and continues its second century as one of America’s leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring, and recording activities. The Houston Symphony, one of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston June 21, 1913. Today, with an annual operating budget of $35.2 million, the full-time ensemble of 88 professional musicians presents nearly 170 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Additionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s four Community-Embedded Musicians offer over 1,000 community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches reaching nearly 200,000 people in Greater Houston annually.
The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Naxos, Koch International Classics, Telarc, RCA Red Seal, Virgin Classics and, most recently, Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Eric Skelly: 713.337.8560, eric.skelly@houstonsymphony.org
Mireya Reyna: 713.337.8557, mireya.reyna@houstonsymphony.org
###