HOUSTON (May 6, 2019) – Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the Houston Symphony, a cast of stellar, young vocal soloists and the Houston Symphony Chorus bring to Jones Hall the piece Sergei Rachmaninoff regarded as his greatest work to life in Rachmaninoff’s The Bells; the orchestra’s penultimate classical subscription program of the 2018–19 season. Rising young piano star George Li makes his Houston Symphony debut, and Orozco-Estrada and the orchestra complete their season-long exploration of Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 4 with the stunning last movement May 9, 11, and 12, 2019.
Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s eponymous poem, Rachmaninoff composed The Bells on the eve of the Russian Revolution, and the work seems prophetic in light of its historical context. Its four-movement symphonic structure illustrates the cycle of life from childhood memories of sleigh bells, to romantic wedding bells, wild alarm bells signaling an insatiable fire, and the inexorable knelling of funeral bells. Orozco-Estrada, the Houston Symphony, and the Houston Symphony Chorus under the direction of Dr. Betsy Cook Weber are joined by soloists Mané Galoyan (soprano), Garrett Sorenson (tenor), and Andrei Bondarenko (baritone). Galoyan, a Houston resident, and Bondarenko make their Houston Symphony debuts.
Regarding Galoyan and Bondarenko’s performances of The Bells with the Dallas Symphony last month, the Dallas Morning News reported, “Armenian soprano Mané Galoyan sang gloriously…from elegantly caressed introspections to soaring effusions…Andrei Bondarenko, from Ukraine, confronted mortality with a big, bold baritone…”
Orozco-Estrada opens the program with his interpretation of the final movement of Ives’ Symphony No. 4, a challenging work which requires two conductors. Pianist Peter Dugan returns having performed the works’ previous movements earlier this season. Then, pianist George Li, who makes his Houston Symphony Classical Series debut, takes center stage in two show-stopping piano pieces: Gershwin’s jazzy variations on I Got Rhythm and Prokofiev’s virtuoso Piano Concerto No. 1.
Rachmaninoff’s The Bells presented by the Houston Symphony Endowment and Rand Group 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.
RACHMANINOFF’S THE BELLS
Thursday, May 9, 2019, 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 11, 2019, 8 p.m.
Sunday, May 12, 2019, 2:30 p.m.
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, music director
George Li, piano
Peter Dugan, piano
Mané Galoyan, soprano
Garrett Sorenson, tenor
Andrei Bondarenko, baritone
Ives: Symphony No. 4, Finale
Gershwin: I Got Rhythm variations
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1
Glinka: Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila
Rachmaninoff: The Bells
About Andrés Orozco-Estrada
Andrés Orozco-Estrada has served as the Houston Symphony’s music director and as chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra since the 2014–15 season. He was appointed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in September 2015 as its principal guest conductor. In the 2021-22 season, he becomes chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony.
Andrés conducts many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Orchestre National de France, as well as major American orchestras in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Chicago. He has also led many successful concerts and opera performances at the Glyndebourne, Salzburg, and Styriarte festivals.
Highlights of the 2018–19 season include his concert with the Vienna Philharmonic for Mozart Week and a new production of Rigoletto at the Berlin State Opera. He conducts his debut concert at the BBC Proms with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and leads the Chamber Orchestra of Europe for the first time. As a guest, he returns to the Staatskapelle Dresden, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and The Philadelphia Orchestra. He and his Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra also perform Strauss’s Elektra in Frankfurt and Dortmund. In December, he led the Vienna Symphony with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Andrés continues his commitment to young musicians, conducting a concert with the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic and leading a joint education project of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich with the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia, with whom he then tours.
His record releases with Pentatone have attracted great attention. He was praised for his “beguiling recording” (Gramophone) of Stravinsky’s The Firebird and The Rite of Spring with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, and his recording of Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony with the same orchestra earned him a reputation as “a fine Straussian” (Gramophone). With the Houston Symphony, he has recorded Dvořák’s last four symphonies, a “vital Dvořák with warm colors” (Pizzicato). In addition, he has recorded the complete symphonies of Brahms and Mendelssohn.
Born in Medellín, Colombia, Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical education with the violin. He received his first conducting lessons at 15 and began studying in Vienna in 1997, where he entered the conducting class of Uroš Lajovic (a pupil of the legendary Hans Swarowsky) at the prestigious University of Music and Performing Arts. Andrés lives in Vienna.
About George Li
Since winning the Silver Medal at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, pianist George Li has rapidly established a major international reputation and performs regularly with some of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.
In the 2018–19 season, George makes his debuts with the London Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. He also embarks on an 11-city recital tour of China and tours the United States with the Russian National Orchestra and Mikhail Pletnev and Kirill Karabits.
Concerto highlights include performances with the New York, Rotterdam, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras; San Francisco Symphony; Los Angeles and Oslo Philharmonics; Philharmonia Orchestra; DSO Berlin; Frankfurt Radio Symphony; Orchestre National de Lyon; and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He frequently appears with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra.
In recital, he performs at prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, the Mariinsky Theatre, Munich’s Gasteig, the Louvre, Seoul Arts Center, Tokyo’s Asahi Hall and Shinjuku Musashino Hall, National Centre for the Performing Arts Beijing, Shanghai Poly Grand Theater, and Amici della Musica Firenze, as well as appearances at major festivals, including the Edinburgh International, Ravinia, Aix-en-Provence, and Montreux Jazz Festivals.
George Li is an exclusive Warner Classics recording artist, with his debut recital album released in 2017, which was recorded live from the Mariinsky.
About Peter Dugan
Pianist Peter Dugan’s 2017 debut solo performances with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony were described by the Los Angeles Times as “stunning” and by the San Francisco Chronicle as “fearlessly athletic.” He has appeared as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician across North America and abroad. This season, Peter can be heard nationwide as a guest host of NPR’s From the Top. Prizing versatility as the key to the future of classical music, he is equally at home in classical, jazz, and pop idioms.
A sought-after crossover artist, Peter has performed in duos and trios with artists ranging from Itzhak Perlman and Joshua Bell to Jesse Colin Young and Glenn Close. The Wall Street Journal described his collaboration with violinist Charles Yang as a “classical-meets-rockstar duo.” Peter’s recent chamber music recitals include the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, Music@Menlo, St. John’s College Recital Series, and a Weill Hall debut presented by Carnegie Hall. His debut album with baritone John Brancy—A Silent Night: A WWI Memorial in Song—pays homage to composers who lived through, fought in, and died in the Great War. John and Peter won first prize at the 2018 Montréal International Music Competition and second prize at the 2017 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition.
Peter advocates the importance of music in the community and at all levels of society. As a founding creator and the pianist for Operation Superpower, a superhero opera for children, he has travelled to dozens of schools in the greater New York area, performing for students and encouraging them to use their talents—their superpowers—for good.
Peter holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied under Matti Raekallio. He lives in New York with his wife, mezzo-soprano Kara Dugan, and serves on the piano faculty at the Juilliard Evening Division. Peter is a Yamaha Artist.
About Mané Galoyan
Armenian soprano Mané Galoyan recently completed her residency with the Houston Grand Opera Studio in the 2017–18 season, where she made her role debut as Violetta in La traviata and also appeared as the Confidante in Elektra. For the 2018–19 season, Mané sings Violetta with the Glyndebourne Festival on tour and Gilda in Rigoletto with Kentucky Opera and Wolf Trap Opera. Symphonic engagements include Rachmaninoff’s The Bells here with Andrés Orozco-Estrada and with James Gaffigan and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. She will also sing select Russian song repertoire with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall.
In the 2016–17 season, Mané performed Adina in L’elisir d’amore at HGO. She also performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the San Antonio Symphony and gave recitals at Balliol College at Oxford University, at the Opera America Emerging Artist Recitals series in New York, and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
She made her HGO debut as the Kitchen Girl in Rusalka in the 2015–16 season, during which she also performed the roles of Margaret Hughes in the world premiere of Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players, the Forest Bird in Siegfried, and Lucy Goodman in the world premiere of David Hanlon and Stephanie Fleischmann’s After the Storm, produced by HGOco. That same season, Mané made her Wolf Trap Opera debut as Smorfiosa in Florian Leopold Gassmann’s L’opera seria.
Her extensive concert performances include Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Schubert’s Mass in G and Mass in C, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, all with the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, as well as the Fauré Requiem with the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra.
Mané is a winner of numerous international competitions, including First Prize in HGO’s 27th Eleanor McCollum Competition and the Concert of Arias and Third Prize in the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition. She holds two degrees from the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan in Armenia and was the 2013 winner of the Republic of Armenia Presidential Youth Award. She currently lives in Houston and is a student of Stephen King.
About Garrett Sorenson
American tenor Garrett Sorenson has been praised as an artist of unique interest, garnering critical acclaim for the beauty and power of his rich, lyric voice. In the 2018–19 season, Garrett returns to the Seattle Opera to reprise Steve Wozniak in Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. He also sings these performances of Rachmaninoff’s The Bells led by Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with The Phoenix Symphony. Last season, Garrett returned to the Kentucky Opera as Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos, as well as Faust in the world premiere of The Beyond in collaboration with the Louisville Ballet. Additionally, he sang the Verdi Requiem with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Charlotte Symphony.
Highlights of Garrett’s recent seasons include Steve Wozniak in the world premiere of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at the Santa Fe Opera; Anthony Candolino in the West Coast premiere of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s opera Great Scott at the San Diego Opera; his return to West Australian Opera as Rodolfo in La bohème; his role debut as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca at Arizona Opera; and a new production of Bedřich Smetana’s The Kiss with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. He also returned to the Metropolitan Opera to sing Laca in Janáček’s Jenůfa and Matteo in Arabella. Recent concert appearances include Dvořák’s Stabat Mater with L’Orchestre Métropolitain conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Mozart’s Requiem with The Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of David Robertson, the Verdi Requiem with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra conducted by Asher Fisch, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Giancarlo Guerrero conducting The Cleveland Orchestra in Miami. In 2011, he appeared on Broadway in an extended run of McNally’s Master Class.
A graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Garrett made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Itulbo in Bellini’s Il pirata opposite Renée Fleming. Additional roles at the Metropolitan Opera include Da-Ud in Strauss’s Die ägyptische Helena starring Deborah Voigt and conducted by Fabio Luisi, the Shepherd in Tristan und Isolde, the Youth in Moses und Aron, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Scaramuccio in Ariadne auf Naxos, Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and the Young Man in Die Frau ohne Schatten.
About Andrei Bondarenko
Ukrainian baritone Andrei Bondarenko is one of the most exciting young baritones of today, having worked extensively with Valery Gergiev, Ivor Bolton, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vasily Petrenko, Enrique Mazzola, Kirill Karabits, Teodor Currentzis, Emanuel Villaume, Michael Sturminger, Omer Meir Wellber, Alain Altinoglu, Daniele Callegari, Lorenzo Viotti, and Cornelius Meister.
The 2018–19 season includes his role and house debut as Don Giovanni at Palm Beach Opera. He also returns to Zürich Opera House for a new production of Così fan tutte by Kirill Serebrennikov and his role debut of Wolfram in Tannhäuser. In concert, he sings Rachmaninoff’s The Bells here and with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. In seasons to come, he gives his company debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as well as Semperoper Dresden. He also returns to Opera Australia and The Dallas Opera.
Andrei has recorded Le nozze di Figaro for Sony Classics, songs by Rachmaninoff with Iain Burnside at The Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh for Delphian Records, and a highly acclaimed Lieutenant Kijé Suite on the BIS label.
His many awards include the 2011 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition Song Prize; a diploma at the Ukrainian competition, New Ukrainian Voices; and first prize at the international vocal competition, Art in the 21st Century, in Vorzel, Ukraine. He was a prize-winner at the 2006 Rimsky-Korsakov International Competition of Young Opera Singers in St. Petersburg, the 2008 all-Russian Nadezhda Obukhova Young Vocalists´ Festival and Competition, and the seventh International Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition in 2010. Andrei took part in the Salzburg Festival Young Singers Project, returning to the Festival for Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with Nézet-Seguin and Le Rossignol with Bolton.
Andrei was born in 1987 in Kamenez-Podolski, Ukraine. He was a soloist of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers for eight years. In 2003, he entered the vocal department of the Petro Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kiev, and in 2004, he was admitted to the vocal department of the Kiev Conservatory. Andrei has also served as a soloist of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine.
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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