Opening Weekend: Valčuha Conducts Stravinsky’s Firebird

Dr. Betsy Cook Weber is the Madison Endowed Professor of Music Emeritus and former director of choral studies at the University of Houston Moores School of Music. She is also Director Emeritus of the Houston Symphony Chorus, where she prepared programs for some of the world’s leading orchestral conductors including Juraj Valčuha, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Jane Glover, and Nicholas McGegan, among many others. Before coming to the University of Houston, Betsy taught vocal music, K-12, in the public schools. She is currently active internationally as a conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and lecturer. Choirs under her direction, including the University of Houston Concert Chorale, have been featured at multiple state and national conventions, including the American Choral Directors Association national conventions in Miami in 2007 and Minneapolis in 2017, and the NCCO convention as featured choir in 2017.

Internationally, under her leadership, Concert Chorale won top prizes at prestigious competitions in Wales, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, and Austria.In the summer of 2013, Betsy became the 13^th person and first woman to receive the Texas Choral Directors Association’s coveted Texas Choirmaster Award. She serves as editor of the Betsy Cook Weber Choral Series with Alliance Music Publishing. Betsy has prepared singers for early music orchestras Ars Lyrica and Mercury Houston and is also routinely called upon to prepare singers for touring shows, including Josh Groban, NBC’s Clash of the Choirs, Telemundo’s Latin Grammys, Star Wars in Concert, Andreas Bocelli, Eric Whitacre, and The Eagles. Betsy is grateful for the education she has received. She holds degrees from the University of North Texas, Westminster Choir College (Princeton, NJ), and the University of Houston.

Conductor/Composer/Producer Anthony J. Maglione is the Director of Choral Studies at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri where he holds the Robert H. McKee Chair of Music. Maglione is a graduate of Westminster Choir College of Rider University, East Carolina University, and the University of California, Los Angeles. Under his direction, William Jewell College choral ensembles performed at regional and national conferences, were twice named Runner Up (2nd Place) for the American Prize in Choral Performance College/University Division, and released two commercial recordings on Centaur and Albany records. Maglione is founder and Artistic Director of the professional choir, Cardinalis, and Director of Music and Choirmaster at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Kansas City. In addition to his responsibilities in Kansas City, he serves on the summer faculty of Westminster Choir College.

An active composer, Maglione’s choral works are growing in popularity and are published on James Jordan’s “Evoking Sound” choral series through GIA Publications as well as “The Amanda Quist Signature Choral Series” on Gentry Publications. His music has appeared at state-, regional-, and national-level conventions, on TV, in video games, and has been recorded on Albany Records, Centaur Records, GIA Choral Works, and Gothic Records. In 2016, he was awarded the William Jewell College Spencer Family Sabbatical, a year-long fully funded sabbatical to compose a large-scale cantata, The Wedding of Solomon, which premiered at the 2018 American Guild of Organists National Convention. The Miami University Men’s Glee Club premiered Maglione’s On Life the at the 2019 National ACDA Conference. In early 2020, Verdigris Ensemble premiered his extended dramatic work Dust Bowl as part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Elevator Project in Dallas, Texas. Dust Bowl was recently revised and performed again at the Wyly Theatre in Dallas through a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts and several other organizations. Maglione is currently serving as Composer-In-Residence with Te Deum, a professional choir based in Kansas City and looks forward to additional premieres in 2025.

As a producer, Maglione lends his ears to recording projects around the country and recently received national attention through his production work with Sam Brukhman and Verdigris Ensemble on Betty’s Notebook by composer Nicholas Reeves. This ground-breaking programmable art music is the first of its kind and the first to be sold using block chain technology.

As a tenor, Maglione has appeared with Artefact Ensemble, Kansas City Baroque Consortium, Kantorei KC, The Same Stream, The St. Tikhon Choir, Sunflower Baroque, Spire Chamber Ensemble, and made his debut with Portland-based Capella Romana on the 2021–2022 season.

A sought-after clinician and frequent guest conductor, Maglione regularly teaches workshops and has conducted All-State and honor choirs in California, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

The Houston Chamber Choir is a Grammy-winning professional ensemble whose mission is to share choral music performed at the highest level. Proud to be a part of Houston's vibrant arts scene, the Chamber Choir looks forward to collaborations with some of the city's finest groups during its 30^th anniversary season featuring everything from an exciting world premiere to traditional crowd favorites. Led by Founder and Artistic Director Robert Simpson and Artistic Director Designate Betsy Cook Weber, the Houston Chamber Choir has been described by The Tallis Scholars founder Peter Phillips as “one of this country’s leading ensembles." The Choir comprises 24 professional singers, most of whom have studied at the top music schools and conservatories in the United States. These musicians are selected through rigorous auditions from the finest singers in our region and are compensated for all rehearsals and performances. The Chamber Choir’s travels have taken it on tour in this country and abroad. Its first national exposure came in 1999, four years after its founding, when it was invited to perform at the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association in Chicago’s famed Orchestra Hall. The Chamber Choir has received similar invitations from Chorus America, The American Guild of Organists,

The Association of Anglican Musicians, the Association of Lutheran Musicians, the Texas Choral Directors Association, and the Organization of American Kodály Educators. It will tour Latvia, Estonia, and Sweden in 2025 in celebration of its 30^th anniversary. The Chamber Choir is proud to offer a wide breadth of recorded albums. Highlights include Ravishingly Russian, a collection of 19^th- and 20^th-century Russian secular choral music; the world premiere recording of Psalmi ad Vesperasby 17^th-century Italian composer Giovanni Paolo Colonna; and the Grammy-winning Duruflé, Complete Choral Works. Winner of Best Choral Performance at the 62^nd Annual Grammy Awards and winner of Chorus America's 2018 Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, the Houston Chamber Choir has established itself as one of the premier professional choirs in the United States, serving Houston through concerts and educational initiatives that enlighten, entertain, and educate people of all ages.