In this unprecedented multimedia event, the Houston Symphony will perform a back-to-back lineup of the first two installments in the HD Odyssey film series – The Planets and The Earth (formerly Orbit). See striking images in The Earth, shown on a giant screen above the orchestra, taken from NASA’s missions to Earth’s orbit, and accompanied … Continued
By Nicholas McGegan, conductor Please don’t worry. This is not a piece about my religious beliefs (or non-beliefs) or a wish for a full immersion baptism (certainly not if the water is too cold) but merely a very personal history of Handel’s Messiah over the forty plus years that I have performed around the world. … Continued
The Houston Symphony Central and Bay Area Leagues have given the orchestra a literal “gift of music” in the form of a brand new Steinway concert grand piano. Houston Symphony League, Vice President of Fundraising, Betty Tutor led the campaign that collected almost $130,000 in donations to fund the purchase of the new instrument. In … Continued
The Huberman Violin By: Joshua Bell This year my violin celebrates its 300th birthday. Known as the Gibson ex Huberman, the revered instrument came into my life one fateful day during the summer of 2001, I was in London, getting ready to play a ‘Proms’ concert at the Royal Albert Hall and decided to stop … Continued
The following is a portion of a blog post Kirill Gerstein wrote for The New York Review of Books: Recently, the British pianist Stephen Hough reported on his blog that he had made “The most exciting musical discovery of [his] life: Tchaikovsky’s wrong note finally corrected.” The article questioned a note in Tchaikovsky’s First Piano … Continued
There are times in your life when you come upon something that defies any sort of logical explanation, a person with such a gift for music that it doesn’t even seem real. I met such a person this week in Houston. Seven year old Jonathan Okseniuk is his name. Jonathan, of YouTube Beethoven 5 fame, won … Continued