HOUSTON, TX (Apr. 9, 2021) — Next month, Principal POPS Conductor Steven Reineke and the Houston Symphony welcome showstopping Broadway duo Santino and Jessica Fontana to close out the 2020–21 Bank of America POPS Season with a program of beloved songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein, May 28–30. In-person and livestream tickets for Find Your Dream: The Songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein are now available at houstonsymphony.org/2021season.
“Houston audiences are really in for a treat with this dynamic duo Jessica and Santino Fontana. I’m just so excited to be working with the both of them. They are two great people—two dear friends of mine and both incredible talents,” shared Reineke. “This program of Rogers and Hammerstein music will be a great way to end this unique season because it is music that we know and that we feel really good about.”
Led by Reineke, the New York City-based Fontanas perform instantly recognizable tunes from The Sound of Music, Carousel, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The Kind and I, and many more treasured songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Santino is best-known for voicing Prince Hans in Disney’s 2013 animated feature Frozen, his role in the Broadway adaptation Tootsie, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2019, and for his role in the hit CW television series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Jessica is an actress, singer, and writer who is known for starring in the title role of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella alongside her husband, Santino. Her theatre credits include Baby It’s You, Once Upon a Mattress, and Pipe Dream. This performance is livestreamed on Saturday, May 29, at 8 p.m. CT.
FIND YOUR DREAM: THE SONGS OF RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN
Friday, May 28, at 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 29, at 8 p.m. *
Sunday, May 30, at 2:30 p.m.
Steven Reineke, conductor
Jessica and Santino Fontana, vocalists
*Livestreamed at 8 p.m. CT
In-person and livestream tickets are now available for this performance at houstonsymphony.org/2021season. The livestream performance is available via a private link to ticket holders for $20. For patrons attending in person, concerts will continue to have a one-hour run time with no intermission, and food and beverage service will be suspended to eliminate crowding. For a comprehensive list of safety measures, visit houstonsymphony.org/safety. For tickets and information, please call 713.224.7575 or visit houstonsymphony.org. All programs and artists are subject to change.
Livestream of Houston Symphony concerts is made possible by Barbara J. Burger.
About the Houston Symphony
During the 2020–21 Season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its seventh 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 on Houston June 21, 1913. Today, with an annual operating budget of $25.8 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 two Community-Embedded Musicians offer over 1,000 community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches reaching more than 200,000 people in Greater Houston annually.
In March 2020, local and state government mandates dictated a full closure of the Houston Symphony’s activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the cancelation of 219 events in the 2019–20 season. The Symphony resumed activities in May 2020, opening the 2021–22 season on schedule in September 2021 with small audiences of 150, which the Symphony was gradually able to increase to its current COVID capacity of 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 the annual budget from $35.2 million in 2019–20 to $25.8 million in 2020-21. The Houston Symphony’s Education and Community Engagement team continues to fulfill its mission through creative and virtual means throughout this period.
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
Mireya Reyna: 713.337.8557, mireya.reyna@houstonsymphony.org
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