HOUSTON (March 26, 2019) – Carmina Burana, Carl Orff’s monumental oratorio depicting life, love and lust in medieval times, takes the Jones Hall stage March 29–31 with an all-star cast of soloists, the Houston Symphony Chorus, and rising young conductor Yaniv Dinur─recipient of the prestigious 2019 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award.
One of the most instantly-recognizable pieces of choral music, Carmina Burana opens and closes with the world-famous chorus “O Fortuna,” heard in countless movie scores─including the soundtracks to the films Excalibur and The Doors─television series, and popular advertisements (e.g.: Old Spice, Adidas and Domino’s Pizza).
Dinur leads over 200 members of the Houston Symphony and the Houston Symphony Chorus in Carmina Burana, a setting of medieval poetry ranging in subject from the fickleness of fortune and the joys of Spring to the pleasures of the tavern and the flesh. Soloists Laura Claycomb (soprano) and Matthew Grills (tenor) make their Houston Symphony debuts with returning baritone Reginald Smith, Jr., the Houston Symphony Chorus under the direction of Dr. Betsy Cook Weber, and the Fort Bend Boys Choir.
On the same program, Houston Symphony Principal Cello Brinton Averil Smith takes center stage in d’Albert’s lyrical and passionate Cello Concerto. Influenced by Liszt, Brahms and Wagner, d’Albert’s Cello Concerto is a virtuoso showpiece for the soloist infused with dramatic flair. “I have always loved this piece,” said Smith. “And I’m thrilled the Houston Symphony has allowed me to advocate for beautiful but neglected repertoire like this concerto.”
The Carmina Burana program sponsored by Shell takes place 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 may also be purchased at the Houston Symphony Patron Services Center in Jones Hall (Monday–Saturday, 12–6 p.m.). All programs and artists are subject to change.
CARMINA BURANA
Friday, March 29, 2019, 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 30, 2019, 2:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 30, 2019, 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 31, 2019, 2:30 p.m.
Yaniv Dinur, conductor
Brinton Averil Smith, principal cello
Matthew Grills, tenor
Laura Claycomb, soprano
Reginald Smith, Jr., baritone
Houston Symphony Chorus
Betsy Cook Weber, director
Fort Bend Boys Choir
William R. Adams, founder and artistic director
D’Albert: Cello Concerto
Orff: Carmina Burana
About Yaniv Dinur
Currently associate conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and music director of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts, Yaniv Dinur is a rapidly rising young conductor. In addition to the Houston Symphony, he has guest conducted other prominent American orchestras, including the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, New World Symphony and the San Antonio Symphony. Highlights of the 2018-19 season include his debut with the San Diego Symphony, conducting an all-Beethoven program, and a return to the Round Top Festival in Texas. These concerts mark his subscription debut with this orchestra.
Yaniv’s conducting career began at age 19 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. Following his European debut, he was invited to perform with the Israel Camerata, the youngest conductor ever to conduct a professional orchestra in Israel. Since then, he has conducted orchestras around the world, including the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Portuguese Symphony, Sofia Festival Orchestra, St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, Torino Philharmonic Orchestra and Ottowa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, to name a few.
Among his numerous honors are the 2015, 2016 and 2017 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards. In 2011, he was chosen by the League of American Orchestras to be a featured conductor at the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview in New Orleans. Other awards include Second Prize at the 2009 Eduardo Mata International Conducting Competition in Mexico City, the Yuri Ahronovitch Prize at the 2005 Aviv Conducting Competition in Israel, and grants from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Zubin Mehta Scholarship Endowment.
Born in Jerusalem, Yaniv Dinur is a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and holds a doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan. A passionate music educator, he recently completed a highly successful tenure as director of orchestral activities at American University in Washington, D.C.
About Brinton Averil Smith
Critics have hailed Houston Symphony Principal Cellist Brinton Averil Smith as a “virtuoso cellist with few equals,” describing him as “a proponent of old-school string playing such as that of Piatigorsky and Heifetz.” Reviewing his recent live recording of the revival of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Cello Concerto with the Houston Symphony, BBC Music Magazine wrote, “his is a cast iron technique of verve and refinement put entirely at the service of the music. The artistry on display here is breathtaking…” His debut recording of Miklós Rózsa’s Concerto with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra won similar international acclaim, with Gramophone praising him as a “hugely eloquent, impassioned soloist.”
Brinton has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center as well as in international and U.S. recitals and concerto appearances. His broadcast performances include CBS’ Sunday Morning and regular appearances on NPR’s Performance Today and SymphonyCast, while his live performances have been viewed more than one million times on YouTube. As a chamber musician, Brinton has collaborated with cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Harrell; pianists Emanuel Ax, Jonathan Biss and Kirill Gerstein; violinists Gil Shaham, James Ehnes, Cho-Liang Lin and Sarah Chang; soprano Dawn Upshaw; and members of the Guarneri, Emerson, Juilliard, Cleveland and Berg quartets. Previously a member of the New York Philharmonic and principal cellist of the San Diego Symphony and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Brinton has been the principal cellist of the Houston Symphony since 2005 and is also a faculty member of the Rice University Shepherd School of Music and of the Aspen Music Festival.
The son of a mathematician and a pianist, Brinton was admitted to Arizona State University at age 10, where he took courses in mathematics and German, completing a B.A. in mathematics at age 17. As a student of Eleonore Schoenfeld at the University of Southern California, he was also a teaching assistant in the mathematics department and completed work for an M.A. in mathematics at age 19. He subsequently studied with the legendary cellist Zara Nelsova at The Juilliard School and received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree, writing on the playing of Emanuel Feuermann. Brinton lives in Houston with his wife, pianist Evelyn Chen, their daughter, Calista, and two dogs. His cello was recently identified as an instrument made by Gaetano Pasta in Brescia circa 1710.
About Matthew Grills
Opera News said of San Francisco Opera’s Sweeney Todd, “Tenor Matthew Grills made the strongest impression, delivering Tobias’s ‘Not While I’m Around’ with touching tenderness.” Matthew’s 2018-19 season includes debuts with Opera San José singing his first performances of Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and New Orleans Opera in a return to Pedrillo in the same opera; it also includes returns to the Bayerische Staatsoper for Kedril in From the House of the Dead and Danieli in Les vêpres siciliennes, to Portland Opera for the company’s Big Night concert and to The Dallas Opera for a debut as the Dance Master in Manon Lescaut. On the concert stage, in addition to these concerts, he sings Bernstein’s Broadway favorites with The Florida Orchestra and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and excerpts of L’elisir d’amore with Das Musikkollegium Winterthur. This summer, he sings Ernesto in Don Pasquale with Berkshire Opera Festival. Future engagements include a return to Seattle Opera and his first performances at Utah Opera.
He has also joined Seattle Opera as Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, San Francisco Opera as Tobias Ragg in Sweeney Todd, Opéra national de Lorraine as Idreno in Semiramide, Korea’s Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra and Portland Opera as Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore and Wolf Trap Opera as Fenton in Falstaff. He is a former member of the Bayerische Staatsoper Ensemble, where his roles included Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos as well as Kedril in From the House of the Dead, Vierter Knappe in Parsifal and Don Gaspard in La favorite.
On the concert stage, he has sung David, Jeremiah and the Voice of God in Weill’s The Road of Promise with Kristjan Järvi conducting the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau, Germany, and Handel’s Messiah with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He was presented in solo recital by Vocal Arts DC at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2012, Matthew was the unprecedented same-year winner of the grand prize in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and first prize in the Lotte Lenya Competition.
About Laura Claycomb
Grammy Award®-winning soprano Laura Claycomb has firmly established herself as one of the finest operatic coloratura sopranos of her generation, best known for her ethereal high notes, impeccable musicianship and dramatic stage presence. She regularly appears with leading opera companies, orchestras and music festivals around the world performing more than 75 roles in works by composers from Monteverdi to Messiaen.
Last season included Bernstein’s Kaddish with the London Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop, a program of Bach and Pergolesi with Emmanuelle Haïm and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with the Dallas Opera. Current projects, in addition to these performances of Carmina Burana, include a Mostly Mozart concert with the Israel Camarata Jerusalem and a series of recitals and masterclasses.
Laura began her career as an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera, where she performed more than a dozen roles, including Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos and Marie in La fille du régiment. She first captured international attention at age 24, when, on short notice, she assumed the role of Giulietta in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. She has since sung Giulietta with Opéra Bastille, the Los Angeles Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and Munich’s Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchester.
Known to Houston audiences for her appearances with the Houston Grand Opera, she has performed from Dallas (where was named Dallas Opera’s Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year) to Moscow to Tel Aviv. As a concert powerhouse, she often tackles challenging soloist roles and is among today’s foremost Mahler sopranos.
Her extensive recording catalog includes numerous albums of bel canto operas and chamber music with Britain’s Opera Rara label such as Handel’s Arcadian Duets, Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Orff’s Carmina Burana and Fauré’s Requiem.
Early in her career, Laura earned the Silver Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Pegasus Prize at Italy’s Spoleto Festival, the Operetta Prize at the Belvedere Competition in Vienna and First Prize in the U.S. National Opera Association Competition. Dedicated to training and nurturing the next generation of operatic artists, she consults for the Bolshoi Young Artist Opera Program, giving masterclasses there and at the Centre for Opera Studies in Sulmona, Italy. A Texas native, Laura lives with her husband in Italy.
About Reginald Smith, Jr.
Baritone Reginald Smith Jr. has been lauded as a “passionate performer” (The New York Times) with an “electric, hall-filling” (The Baltimore Sun) and “thrillingly dramatic” voice that is “one of the most exciting baritone sounds to come along in years” (Opera News). A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Reginald is a Grand Finals winner of the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio.
In addition to this return to the Houston Symphony, during the 2018-19 season, Reginald appears in Madama Butterfly with Opera Memphis, returns to the role of Amonasro in Aida with Opera Idaho and debuts with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra as the bass soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (which he will also perform with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra). He also returns to the Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera.
Last season, Reginald made his company debuts with Opera Hong Kong as Amonasro in Aida, the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Senator Charles Potter/General Airlie/Bartender in Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers and Portland Opera as Monterone in Rigoletto. He returned to Opera Memphis to make his role debut as Taddeo in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri. In conjunction with the University of Michigan Gershwin Initiative’s research, he sang the role of Jake in a concert performance of the new, critical edition score of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Additionally, he made his concert debuts with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and at Lincoln Center with the National Chorale. Reginald was thrilled to return to his alma mater, the University of Kentucky, to perform Mendelssohn’s Elijah. In previous seasons, he has performed with opera companies and orchestras across the country.
Reginald has earned recognition from The Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition, the Mildred Miller International Vocal Competition, the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation International Voice Competition, the National Opera Association Competition, Orpheus Vocal Competition, George London Competition and the Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition. He received the 2015 Sarah Tucker Study Grant and a 2016 Career Development Grant from The Sullivan Foundation.
About Fort Bend Boys Choir
Founded in 1982 by Artistic Director William R. Adams, the Fort Bend Boys Choir of Texas has grown from 45 boys in the original choir to more than 125 boys in four treble choirs.
Performances before three U.S. presidents and other world leaders as well as collaborations with named entertainers, major opera companies and symphony orchestras have earned the Tour Choir the distinction of being one of the premier groups of its kind. The choir’s honors include singing for His Eminence Pope John Paul II in the Sistine Chapel and being a key part of the inaugural festivities for President George H.W. Bush at the Kennedy Center. It has 10 CD releases and performs in numerous cathedrals and concert halls throughout the world in addition to being in high demand for concerts, weddings, conventions and commercials. The choir earned the prestigious Addy® Award for television commercial excellence and received a national news Emmy nomination for its participation in the 2001 Christmas Pageant of Peace in Washington, D.C. The Tour Choir has also performed for peers at American Choral Directors Association and Texas Music Educators Association conventions. This is the choir’s 12th appearance at Jones Hall with the Houston Symphony and Chorus.
Visit fbbctx.org for more information.
About the Houston Symphony
During the 2018–19 season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its fifth 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 $33.9 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 900 community-based performances each year, reaching thousands of people in Greater Houston.
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
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