Installment 5: From New York City, 26 year old violinist Clara Lyon, who is currently a D.M.A. student at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a Juilliard alumna, will be putting her interests in classic rock, electronic music and rap aside to compete as a semi-finalist in the Ima Hogg Competition. … Continued
Installment 4: Two Russian pianists were selected as semi-finalists and will be joining us in Houston to compete in the Ima Hogg Competition. 29 year old Anna Keiserman attended The Moscow State Gnessius Academy and is currently a student at the University of Minnesota. Anna mentioned that she thought her English was pretty good until … Continued
Installment 3: Meet our two youngest Ima Hogg Competition contestants: Laura and Alan. 18 year old violinist Laura Park, from Des Plaines, IL, has been studying at the Music Institute of Chicago Academy and will be attending The Curtis Institute of Music in the fall. As the youngest participant in the competition, Laura is planning … Continued
Installment 2: 28 year old harpist, Megan Levin – Shepherd School of Music graduate, native Texan originally from Austin, and current resident of Brooklyn, NY – is thrilled to be returning to Houston to compete in the Ima Hogg Competition, and especially to indulge in Houston’s great culture and food during her stay. Similarly, 27 … Continued
Installment 1: Being selected as a semi-finalist in the internationally recognized Ima Hogg Competition is no small feat. Ten semi-finalists were selected from an applicant pool of 106 young musicians, ages 13-30, representing all of the orchestral instruments and piano, and hailing from 18 different countries. This competition is unique, as it is the most … Continued
Julie Thayer, French Horn, Houston Symphony, shares her personal thoughts and photographs from her time in New York. The Houston Symphony recently played Carnegie Hall to open the 2012 Spring for Music Festival. New York City, musically speaking, is like a Saharan Desert watering hole. It draws life and vitality to it with magnetic force … Continued
Meet Rian Craypo, Houston Symphony Principal Bassoon. In this video, Rian discusses the bassoon reed making process and key things to listen for in Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, K. 191. Buy tickets for the concerts on May 11, 12, 13, 2012 here: http://bit.ly/K2jFYO
Join the Houston Symphony as they perform Cole Porter’s greatest hits such as “Anything Goes,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “Night and Day,” and many more! Featuring Brett Mitchell, conductor, and Broadway vocalists Ryan Silverman and Jennifer Hope Wills, this is a concert you don’t want to miss! BUY TICKETS HERE! PS- Some … Continued
Make your gift of any amount online today to be counted amongst the 5,000 donors helping the Houston Symphony receive this second $1 million grant from Houston Endowment. Visit /annualfund
To learn more about this weekend’s concert, titled Petrouchka & Beethoven, with guest conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, CLICK HERE.
For more information about this weekend’s upcoming Petrouchka and Beethoven concerts, visit /calendar/view.aspx?id=3692
The Houston Symphony is excited to welcome Jim Curry, April 5-7, 2012 at Jones Hall, to perform John Denver classics. John Denver began his career as a member of the Mitchell Trio. When the group disbanded, Denver was quick to start a successful solo career on his own with such songs as “Take Me Home, … Continued
Violin virtuosa Hilary Hahn joins the Houston Symphony March 29-April 1. For more information or to purchase tickets click here.
Today’s post comes from this weekend’s guest soloist, percussionist Colin Currie. Read on to learn about his surprise gift from Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara – this gift of his own concerto! It is a great honor to make my debut with the Houston Symphony this season, especially as we will celebrate together “Incantations” by Einojuhani … Continued
The third and final week of “RachFest” is filling me with excitement for the upcoming performances of Rachmaninoff’s second concerto. I’m also feeling a hint of nostalgia as this project comes to a close. It has been wonderful and challenging to be immersed uninterruptedly in Rachmaninoff’s concertos. Performing all of them with the musicians of … Continued
Our “RachFest” continues this week with a pairing of Rachmaninoff’s 1st and 4th piano concertos. These two wonderful pieces are sometimes undeservedly overshadowed by their more famous cousins. I am glad to have the chance to present them to the Houston audience, and playing them together in one program makes a lot of sense. Even … Continued
If you were able to make it to last month’s ACCESS concert, you were introduced to the series’s host, Miles Hoffman of NPR’s Morning Edition. Ahead of this weekend’s performances of Handel’s Messiah, Miles took the time to write up a little “tidbit” about the great German composer. … Continued
Birthplace and Education: Columbia, South Carolina. University of South Carolina, BA in Music; Hartt College of Music, MM in Performance Joined the Houston Symphony: July 1981 Beginnings: I began my musical studies at age 11 on a family violin that my grandparents purchased when they arrived in America from Europe. This violin was played … Continued
Principal Flute Aralee Dorough will be featured during this weekend’s Scheherazade concert when she performs Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 2 with the Orchestra. She also has a unique connection to this performance. She wrote in on Wednesday to tell us about it, so read on to learn more and hear her for yourself April 8-10! … Continued
Why is music relevant? For the past couple of weeks, we have been putting together the components for our new in-hall campaign called A Million Reasons to Give, and this question is really at the heart of everything. The question is easy for me. I don’t have a biased opinion just because I work for … Continued