Press Room

Person holding violin.

Celebrated Violin Virtuoso/Conductor Pinchas Zukerman Steps In As Soloist/Conductor In This Weekend’s Houston Symphony Concerts

HOUSTON, TX (May 11, 2022) — The Houston Symphony has announced that Israeli-American violin star Pinchas Zukerman is stepping in as soloist and conductor for the concert series this weekend. He performs and conducts two works by Mozart, and leads the orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, May 12, 14, and 15, 2022 in Jones Hall, with the May 15 performance livestreamed.

“Our conductor and soloist for the week, Houston Symphony Artistic Partner Itzhak Perlman, upon arriving in Houston, has tested positive for COVID, necessitating his withdrawal from this week’s concerts,” explained Houston Symphony Executive Director, CEO, and holder of the Margaret Alkek Williams Chair John Mangum. “We are grateful to conductor and violinist Pinchas Zukerman for stepping in on short notice. The balance of the week’s program – Mozart’s Adagio and Rondo, Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 – will be performed as announced.”

Pinchas Zukerman leads the Houston Symphony and performs as soloist in two works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed for the celebrated 18th-century violinist Antonio Brunetti: Adagio in E major, K. 261, and  Rondo in C major, K. 373. Perlman also leads the orchestra in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A minor, before capping the program with Tchaikovsky’s colorful, symphonic poem-like exploration of the theme of “Fate,” his Symphony No. 4.

For tickets and more information, please call 713.224.7575 or visit houstonsymphony.org. Livestream performances are available via a private link to ticket holders for $20. All programs and artists are subject to change.

The classical series is endowed by the Wortham Foundation, Inc., in memory of Gus S. and Lyndall F. Wortham. Livestreaming of Houston Symphony concerts is made possible by Barbara J. Burger and supported by The Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation.

PINCHAS ZUKERMAN: MOZART + TCHAIKOVSKY 4

Thursday, May 12 at 8 p.m.

Saturday, May 14 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, May 15 at 2:30 p.m.*

Pinchas Zukerman, conductor and violin

Mozart: Adagio in E major for Violin and Orchestra, K. 261

Mozart: Rondo in C major for Violin and Orchestra, K. 373

  1. Coleridge-Taylor: Ballade in A minor, Opus 33

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Opus 36

*Livestreamed at 8 p.m. CT Saturday, May 7 and at 2:30 p.m. CT Sunday, May 15

About Pinchas Zukerman

With a celebrated career encompassing five decades, Pinchas Zukerman reigns as one of today’s most sought after and versatile musicians – violin and viola soloist, conductor, and chamber musician. He is admired for the expressive lyricism of his playing, singular beauty of tone, and impeccable musicianship, heard throughout his discography of more than 100 albums for which he gained two Grammy awards and 21 nominations.

Highlights of the 2021-22 season include performances with the Israel Philharmonic,
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra. With the Zukerman Trio, he visits the Ravinia, Aspen, and Amelia Island Chamber Music Festivals, as well as Parlance Chamber Concerts in New Jersey and Washington & Lee University. With cellist Amanda Forsyth, he appears with the English Chamber Orchestra, MAV Symphony Orchestra in Budapest, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Reading and New Bedford Symphonies. He and Forsyth also performed on a North American tour with the Jerusalem String Quartet.

Last season, in addition to live performances, he performed a virtual recital presented by Peoples’ Symphony Concerts and Shai Wosner for Chamber Music Society of Detroit.

A devoted teacher and champion of young musicians, he has served as chair of the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music for more than 25 years and has taught at prominent institutions throughout the United Kingdom, Israel, China and Canada, among others. This fall, he proudly joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as its artistic and principal education partner for the next two seasons. He will collaborate with DSO in partnership with Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts, where he provides intensive coaching and tutoring sessions for Meadows’s music students.

About the Houston Symphony

During the 2021–22 Season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its final season under Andrés Orozco-Estrada as Music Director and continues its second century as one of America’s leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring, and recording activities. One of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, the Symphony held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston on June 21, 1913. Today, with an operating budget of $28.8 million (FY22), the full-time ensemble of professional musicians presents nearly 170 (FY19) concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Additionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s two Community-Embedded Musicians offer over 1,000 (FY19) community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches reaching more than 200,000 (FY19) people in Greater Houston annually, prior to COVID-19.

After suspending concert activities in March 2020 and cancelling the remainder of 2019–20 events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Symphony resumed activities in May 2020, opening the 2020–21 Season on schedule in September 2020 with small audiences of 150, which the Symphony gradually increased to 450 audience members per performance. Due to the financial impact of the canceled 2019–20 Season events, plus the reduction of sales capacity due to audience social distancing in 2020–21, the Symphony cut expenses, reducing planned spending from $36.2 million in 2019–20 to $22.7 million in 2020–21. The Houston Symphony’s Education and Community Engagement team continued to fulfill its mission through creative and virtual means throughout this period. The Symphony successfully completed a full season with in-person audiences and weekly livestreams of each performance, making it one of the only orchestras in the world to do so.

The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Koch International Classics, Naxos, RCA Red Seal, Telarc, 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

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