Conductor, Composer, Producer Anthony J. Maglione is Director of Choral Studies at the University of Houston and Director of the Houston Symphony Chorus. He joins the Moores School of Music faculty from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, where he was the Director of Choral Studies and held the Robert H. McKee Chair of Music. Choirs under his direction have appeared at state, regional, and national conventions, released internationally-distributed commercial recordings, and have twice been named “Runner Up” for the American Prize in Choral Performance, College/University Division. A frequent collaborator, he has prepared choirs for performances with the American Spiritual Ensemble, Boston Camerata, The Canadian Brass, Joyce DiDonato, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Kansas City Civic Orchestra, The King’s Singers, Kings Return, and the Mark Morris Dance Group.

An often-performed and commissioned composer with a growing national reputation, Maglione’s 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. Several of his choral works 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. In 2018, Maglione’s cantata for soloists, choir, and orchestra, The Wedding of Solomon, premiered at the American Guild of Organists National Convention. The Miami University Men’s Glee Club premiered Maglione’s On Life 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 in 2024 at the Wyly Theatre in Dallas through funding in-part from the National Endowment of the Arts. From 2023 to 2025, Maglione served as Composer-In-Residence with Te Deum, a professional choir based in Kansas City.

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 blockchain technology.

As a tenor, Maglione has appeared with renowned organizations such as Artefact Ensemble, Cappella Romana, Kansas City Baroque Consortium, Kantorei KC, The Same Stream, The St. Tikhon Choir, Sunflower Baroque, and Spire Chamber Ensemble.

A sought-after clinician and frequent guest conductor, Maglione teaches workshops and has conducted All-State and honor choirs in California, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. He holds degrees from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, East Carolina University, and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Houston Chamber Choir Artistic Director, Dr. Betsy Cook Weber, enjoys an international reputation as a conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and presenter. She has led acclaimed choral performances in numerous countries throughout Europe as well as in most of the states of the United States.

Weber is the Madison Endowed Professor of Music Emeritus at the University of Houston Moores School of Music as well as Director Emeritus of the Houston Symphony Chorus. Before coming to the University of Houston, where she served as Director of Choral Studies and directed the internationally ranked Concert Chorale, she taught 13 years of public school vocal music, K–12.

Choirs under Weber’s direction have won top prizes at prestigious competitions in Wales, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, and Austria. They have also been featured at multiple state, regional, and national conferences in the U.S. (Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Choral Directors Association, Southwest Division of American Choral Directors Association, American Choral Directors Association, and National Collegiate Choral Organization).

Internationally, she has conducted at Leipzig’s Bachfest and the Litomysil Festival in the Czech Republic and has judged choral competitions in Europe and throughout the U.S.

In the summer of 2013, Weber 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 and has prepared singers for early music orchestras Ars Lyrica and Mercury Houston as well as 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.

The Houston Symphony Chorus is the official choral unit of the Houston Symphony and consists of highly skilled and talented volunteer singers. Over the years, members of this historic ensemble have learned and performed the world’s great choral orchestral masterworks under the batons of Juraj Valčuha, Andrés Orozco Estrada, Hans Graf, Christoph Eschenbach, Robert Shaw, and Helmuth Rilling, among many others.

In addition, the Chorus enjoys participating in the Houston Symphony’s popular programming under the batons of conductors such as Steven Reineke and Michael Krajewski. Recently, the ensemble sang the closing subscription concerts with the Prague Symphony Orchestra in the Czech Republic. Singers are selected for specific programs for which they have indicated interest. A singer might choose to perform in all 45 concerts, as was the case in a recent season, or might elect to participate in a single series. The Houston Symphony Chorus holds auditions by appointment and welcomes inquiries from interested singers.

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.

Award-winning Jamaican-American violist Jordan Bak has achieved international acclaim as a trailblazing artist, praised for his radiant stage presence, dynamic interpretations, and fearless power. The recipient of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Alexandra Jupin Award and a former Young Classical Artist Trust’s (YCAT) Robey Artist, Bak was also a prizewinner in the Sphinx, Lionel Tertis, and Concert Artists Guild Competitions.

For the 2025–26 season, Bak will join the world-renowned Takács Quartet on a tour of rarely  performed Mozart viola quintets, in addition to making his concerto debuts with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Houston Symphony Orchestra. Bak will also give the world premiere of composer Michael Frazier’s new viola concerto, Los quetzales, commissioned by Eastman School of Music, The Sphinx Organization, and American Composers Orchestra.

Bak’s enthusiastically received sophomore album, Cantabile: Anthems for Viola (Delphian Records), has garnered significant international attention, featuring works by Arnold Bax, Benjamin Britten, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, paired with contemporary compositions by Jonathan Harvey, Bright Sheng, and Augusta Read Thomas. Bak is a proud advocate of new music.

Bak has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, London Mozart Players, New York Classical Players, Juilliard Orchestra, and Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra, among others. As a recitalist and chamber musician, he has been heard at some of the world’s greatest performance venues. Bak has been a presence at numerous chamber music festivals such as Marlboro Music Festival, Tippet Rise, Chamber Music Northwest, and Newport Classical.

Passionate about education, Bak currently serves as Assistant Professor of Viola at University of North Carolina School of the Arts and as an Ambassador for UK Music Masters in London.

Only the third violist to earn the Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, Jordan Bak holds a Bachelor of Music degree from New England Conservatory and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School where he was awarded the prestigious Kovner Fellowship. His principal teachers were Dimitri Murrath, Hsin-Yun Huang, and Samuel Rhodes.

Jordan Bak plays on two violas both made by Jon van Kouwenhoven. He is married to violist Rubina Bak.

Angel Blue has emerged in recent seasons as one of the most influential sopranos before the public today. The two-time Grammy Award winner, 2020 Beverly Sills Award recipient, and the 2022 Richard Tucker Award winner is celebrated worldwide for her honeyed soprano and affecting deliveries of many of the most beloved roles in the operatic repertory, such as the title roles in Aida and Tosca, Violetta in La Traviata, Bess in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Mimì in La bohème, and Destiny/Loneliness/Greta in Terrence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones.

Her 25–26 season starts with her performances as Bess in Houston Grand Opera’s anticipated new production of Porgy and Bess, celebrating the anniversary of the house’s first production of the piece. Angel also returns to the Opéra national de Paris to sing the title role in Tosca, and to the Metropolitan Opera to sing both Mimì in La bohème and Liu in Turandot.

On the concert stage, she performs Florent Schmidt’s Psalm 47 with the Houston Symphony, the Christmas in Vienna concert at the Konzerthaus Vienna, and concerts at the Grafenegg Festival and Annapolis Symphony. She also performs recitals with pianist Bryan Wagorn at Reykjavik Arts Festival, Spivey Hall, and Four Arts Palm Beach.

Angel kicked off her 24–25 season with the hugely popular Last Night of the Proms, and then returned to her home stage at the Metropolitan Opera, where she spent a major portion of her season. In the fall, she played Margarita Xirgu in Osvaldo Golijov’s first opera, Ainadamar, and in two separate stints over the winter and spring, she made her long-anticipated debut as Aida, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. She joined Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic on tour in the Netherlands, Germany, and France. Angel also made a company debut as Mimì in the Bayerische Staatsoper’s production of La bohème. She appeared twice at Carnegie Hall, first in recital with the legendary pianist Lang Lang, and again with the Met Opera Orchestra and Nézet-Séguin. Concert engagements included a solo recital at the Los Angeles Opera and Aida in concert at the Baltimore Symphony.

Gonzalo Farias, Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony, is an imaginative and engaging orchestral leader, award-winning pianist, and dedicated educator. Praised for his “clear, engaging style with a lyrical, almost Zen-like quality,” he is recognized as “a focused, musical artist who knows what he wants and how to get it—with grace and substance.”

He has held conducting posts with the Kansas City Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. As Music Director of the Joliet Symphony Orchestra, he strengthened community connections through innovative programming, pre-concert lectures, and bilingual collaborations, including a narrated performance of Bizet’s Carmen.

Recent and upcoming appearances include the Nashville Symphony, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Buffalo Philharmonic, Tallahassee Symphony, and the Houston Symphony, where in 2024 he conducted the world premiere of Arturo Márquez’s Guitar Concerto with Pablo Sainz-Villegas.

He was one of six conductors chosen for the prestigious Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, presented by the League of American Orchestras, and was appointed by the National Endowment for the Arts as a grant review panelist.

Born in Santiago de Chile, Farias began piano studies at age five. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and continued his education at the New England Conservatory, studying under Wha-Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. He has won prizes at the Claudio Arrau International Piano Competition, Maria Canals, and Luis Sigall competitions. His conducting mentors include Donald Schleicher, Marin Alsop, Larry Rachleff, and Otto-Werner Mueller.

Beyond performance, Farias is committed to reimagining music as a force for personal growth, dialogue, cooperation, and community-building. His doctoral dissertation, Logical Predictions and Cybernetics, examines Cornelius Cardew’s The Great Learning to explore music-making as a self-organizing system. Influenced by Zen Buddhist practice and second-order cybernetics, he views music as a shared space where performers and audiences co-create meaning, reflecting on our shared human condition.