Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet April 10, 12, 13, 2014 Hans Graf, conductor Johannes Moser, cello Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture Tchaikovsky: Pezzo capriccioso for Cello and Orchestra Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations for Cello and Orchestra Prokofiev: Symphony No. 3 Buy tickets! Conductor Laureate Hans Graf leads the Symphony in a powerful all-Russian program. First, hear … Continued
EAST COAST STORMS THREATENED VALENTINE’S DAY CONCERT How the Houston Symphony Saved Valentine’s Day in Less than 24 Hours By Glenn Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer, Houston Symphony Just when it seemed that the Houston Symphony audience for acclaimed vocalist Linda Eder would be broken-hearted on Valentine’s Day due to Eder’s inability to travel to Houston, … Continued
Last week, a few representatives from the Houston Symphony and Houston’s ABC13 KTRK took a trip to Colombia to explore incoming Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada’s home land. The interviews and footage they captured will be featured in the 30-minute TV special they are creating about Andrés, which will air in August of this year. Below … Continued
Thirteen musicians, ranging in age from 13 through 18, competed in the Houston Symphony League Concerto Competition on January 4, 2014. These exceptionally talented students represented violin, viola, cello, piano, flute, clarinet and horn. Our three judges hailed from NYC, Boulder, CO and Boise, ID. These musicians performed an entire concerto by memory — a … Continued
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
This summer, we have planned a very special event in honor of our 100th year: Day of Music on July 13, 2013! This FREE 12-hour festival will showcase Houston’s diverse musical landscape. Attendees will spend the day at Jones Hall listening to dozens of free performances, beginning with a family concert in the morning and … Continued
This summer, we have planned a very special event in honor of our 100th year: Day of Music on July 13, 2013! This FREE 12-hour festival will showcase Houston’s diverse musical landscape. Attendees will spend the day at Jones Hall listening to dozens of free performances, beginning with a family concert in the morning and … Continued
This summer, we have planned a very special event in honor of our 100th year: Day of Music on July 13, 2013! This FREE 12-hour festival will showcase Houston’s diverse musical landscape. Attendees will spend the day at Jones Hall listening to dozens of free performances, beginning with a family concert in the morning and … Continued
This summer, we have planned a very special event in honor of our 100th year: Day of Music on July 13, 2013! This FREE 12-hour festival will showcase Houston’s diverse musical landscape. Attendees will spend the day at Jones Hall listening to dozens of free performances, beginning with a family concert in the morning and … Continued
This summer, we have planned a very special event in honor of our 100th year: Day of Music on July 13, 2013! This FREE 12-hour festival will showcase Houston’s diverse musical landscape. Attendees will spend the day at Jones Hall listening to dozens of free performances, beginning with a family concert in the morning and … Continued
I just recently conducted the Houston Symphony’s 100th Anniversary concert which was simulcast on KTRK channel 13, Houston’s local ABC affiliate, and 91.7 FM, our classical music station. The experience was grand in many ways, and an enormous lesson in trust. There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 18,000 people in attendance that night. On … Continued
By: Case Scaglione, Conductor In 1987 when I was five years old, a babysitter malfunction put me front and center at the new Wortham Center Brown Theater for a production of Aida with my parents. At intermission I announced to them that I wanted “to be that guy”. They assumed that I meant Amneris, played … Continued
Performing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major, 28-year old Israeli clarinetist Moran Katz won the 38th annual Houston Symphony League’s Ima Hogg Competition on Saturday, June 1 at Rice University’s Stude Concert Hall. Katz’s first place win earned her a Gold Medal, the solo spotlight at Jones Hall with the Houston Symphony at the Houston … Continued
Named to honor the memory of Miss Ima Hogg, a co-founder of the Houston Symphony, the Ima Hogg Competition is open to young musicians between the ages of 13 and 30 who play standard orchestral instruments or piano. Through the support of the Houston Symphony League since 1976, the Competition provides performance opportunities for aspiring … Continued
Named to honor the memory of Miss Ima Hogg, a co-founder of the Houston Symphony, the Ima Hogg Competition is open to young musicians between the ages of 13 and 30 who play standard orchestral instruments or piano. Through the support of the Houston Symphony League since 1976, the Competition provides performance opportunities for aspiring … Continued