May 15 & 17, 2020 data-filter="[2020 05|2020 05|][jones-hall|jones-hall|][May|May|][[{|term_id|:7,|name|:|Classical Series|,|slug|:|classical-series|,|term_group|:0,|term_taxonomy_id|:7,|taxonomy|:|series|,|description|:||,|parent|:0,|count|:47,|filter|:|raw|}]][{|term_id|:1851,|name|:|2019\u201320|,|slug|:|19-20|,|term_group|:0,|term_taxonomy_id|:1851,|taxonomy|:|season|,|description|:||,|parent|:0,|count|:58,|filter|:|raw|}]"
Health & Safety Update: To continue to follow social distancing expectations surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Houston Symphony has made the difficult decision to cancel the remainder of our 2019–20 season, as well as Jones Hall performances scheduled for June. This is an extension of the previously announced cancelation of performances and programs through May 10. Learn more
Come together in Jones Hall for a concert that celebrates the courage, resilience, and enduring strength of the human spirit, as communicated through the immortal music of Ludwig van Beethoven. World-renowned soprano Ana María Martínez and actor Damon Gupton join the Symphony for Beethoven’s dramatic and heroic Egmont, music based on a play by Goethe. Featuring pianist Alexandra Dariescu and a stellar cast of vocalists, shades of “Ode to Joy” echo throughout Beethoven’s resounding Choral Fantasy, which inspires and uplifts with its timeless message of unity, peace and hope.
This concert is part of the Margaret Alkek Williams Sound + Vision Series, which is also supported by The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts Endowed Fund for Creative Initiatives. {|with_image|:[{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Fabien Gabel|,|bio|:|Hailed as \u201cboldly evocative,\u201d Fabien Gabel is internationally recognized as one of the stars of a new generation of conductors, having established a broad repertoire ranging from core symphonic works to contemporary music and lesser-known works by French composers. He has been the music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Qu\u00e9bec (OSQ) since 2012 and music director of the innovative Orchestre Fran\u00e7ais des Jeunes since 2017.\nFabien\u2019s 2019-20 season features debuts with the San Francisco Symphony, Utah Symphony, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, and Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. In his eighth season with the OSQ, he leads the orchestra in works by Chausson, Ravel, Duparc, Dutilleux, Aubert, Schmitt, Dubugnon, Rebel, Tomasi, and Poulenc; and collaborates with world-class soloists, including Augustin Hadelich, Juho Pohjonen, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Michael Barenboim, Ana Mari\u0301a Marti\u0301nez, Philippe Jaroussky, and others. He returns to conduct the Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.\nHis conducting has taken him across the globe to lead top orchestras and work with the world\u2019s most formidable soloists. Fabien first attracted international attention in 2004 winning the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition, which subsequently led to his appointment as the London Symphony Orchestra\u2019s assistant conductor for two seasons. The LSO has since regularly engaged him as a guest conductor.\nBorn in Paris into a family of accomplished musicians, Fabien began studying trumpet at age 6, honing his skills at the Conservatoire National Sup\u00e9rieur de Musique de Paris, which awarded him a First Prize in trumpet in 1996, and later at the Musik Hochschule of Karlsruhe. He went on to play in several Parisian orchestras under the direction of prominent conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, and Bernard Haitink. In 2002, Fabien pursued his interest in conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he studied with David Zinman, who invited him to appear as a guest conductor at the Festival in 2009. He has worked as an assistant to Haitink and Davis.\n|,|title|:|conductor|,|small_image|:| \n |,|bio_image|:| \n |,|full_image|:| \n |},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Ana Mar\u00eda Mart\u00ednez|,|bio|:|Grammy Award winner Ana Mar\u00eda Mart\u00ednez is considered to be one of the foremost sopranos of her time, with an international career that spans the world\u2019s most important opera houses and concert halls. With a repertoire that encompasses opera\u2019s most intriguing and diverse leading ladies, she engages her audiences season after season with signature roles, spellbinding debuts, and a myriad of captivating recordings. Opera News\u2019 recent cover story on Ms. Mart\u00ednez declared that her \u201csoprano harks back to the golden age. Her range is even, from a dusky chest-voice through a claret-colored middle and up to radiant top, and is impressive in its quiet moments as it is at full power.\u201d\nThe soprano begins the 2017 \u2013 2018 season in the title role of Carmen with Los Angeles Opera, followed by performances as Rusalka with Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. She joins Lyric Opera of Chicago for two productions, first as Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutte and then as Marguerite in Faust. With Royal Opera House Covent Garden she returns as Alice Ford in Falstaff, with Florida Grand Opera she sings the title role in Florencia en el Amazonas, and portrays Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly with Santa Fe Opera in the summer of 2018. On the concert stage, Ms. Mart\u00ednez appears in multiple concerts with P\u00e1cido Domingo, a solo evening with the San Antonio Symphony, and performs recitals with pianist Craig Terry with the Art Song Festival at the Cleveland Institute of Music and La Sierra University.\nLeading roles for Ms. Martinez during the 2016-2017 season included Marguerite in Faust with Houston Grand Opera, where Opera News proclaimed \u201cMartinez\u2019s voice alone \u2013 with its chocolate-rich vibrancy in the low and middle range and its thrilling brilliance at the top \u2013 is worth the price of admission, but she also has the expressive range, as a singing actress, to portray Marguerite\u2019s complex transformation from youthful innocent in the throes of first love to outcast sinner consumed by tragedy and madness, who then achieves the miracle of redemption.\u201d She had a role debut as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin with Lyric Opera of Chicago, and performed as Cio Cio San in Madame Butterfly with Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with San Francisco Opera. She joined star tenor Andrea Bocelli on a multi-city US tour, performed in concert with Pl\u00e1cido Domingo on stage at the Arena di Verona, among other stages, and voiced the role of opera singer Alessandra in season three of Amazon\u2019s Mozart in the Jungle.\nDuring the 2015\u20132016 season Ms. Mart\u00ednez made her triumphant return in a leading role with The Metropolitan Opera, portraying Cio-Cio San in a revival of Anthony Minghella\u2019s breathtaking production of Madama Butterfly. The New York Times raved of her performance \u201cIt was a bit of theatrical magic in a beautiful performance: modest and delicate, yet rising to glimpses of the epic in her final aria of self- sacrifice.\u201d Ms. Mart\u00ednez joined the Los Angeles Opera for two productions, first, opening their season as Nedda in Franco Zeffirelli\u2019s production of Pagliacci, under the baton of Pl\u00e1cido Domingo, and then later in the season as Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly with James Conlon conducting. She returned to Opera de Puerto Rico as Cio-Cio San, Houston Grand Opera as the title role in Rusalka, The Metropolitan Opera as Musetta in La boh\u00e8me, and to San Francisco Opera in a role debut as Elisabetta in Don Carlo. She had several concert engagements with Pl\u00e1cido Domingo during the season, including an engagement with the Salzburg Festival honoring his 40th Anniversary with them, the Starlight Festival in Marbella Spain, with Vi\u00f1edos San Gabriel in Ensenada, Baja, in Manaus, Brazil, inaugurating the Dubai Opera House in the United Arab Emirates, and in a special concert event with the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra under the direction of Sir Andrew Davis. During the summer she joined the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York for their opening night concert in a selection of Mozart operas for her debut with the Festival, and followed that with performances of Cio Cio San at the Mariinsky Theater Primorsky Stage in Vladivostok, Russia.\nThe soprano began the 2014 \u2013 2015 calendar opening Lyric Opera of Chicago\u2019s season as Donna Elvira in a new Robert Falls production of Don Giovanni. She returned to Opera National de Paris as Mimi in La boh\u00e8me, and portrayed Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly with both Houston Grand Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. She returned to Dallas Opera as Mimi and concluded the season as the leading role of Paolina in the United Kingdom\u2019s first professionally staged performances of Donizetti\u2019s Poliuto in her triumphant return to The Glyndebourne Festival. The Daily Mail proclaimed \u201cPuerto Rican soprano Ana Mar\u00eda Mart\u00ednez brings Callas-Like intensity to Paolina,\u201d and Opera Today wrote that \u201cMart\u00ednez executed Paolina\u2019s aria with such beauty that her voice seemed to shimmer.\u201d Highlights of her concert calendar included performances with Pl\u00e1cido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli, and featured selections from Rusalka at the closing Gala concert for the Year of Czech Music in Prague. In November, Decca released a recording of Manon Lescaut with Ms. Mart\u00ednez in the title role, recorded opposite Andrea Bocelli with Pl\u00e1cido Domingo conducting the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana.\nMs. Mart\u00ednez opened the 2013-14 season in a role debut as Desdemona in Verdi\u2019s Otello with Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she also performed during the season as the title role of Rusalka in a new production of David McVicar. Opera News wrote of her extraordinary performance:\n\u201cThe production was grounded by the exquisite performance of the title role by Ana Mar\u00eda Mart\u00ednez, who sang the opera for Glyndebourne in 2009. The soprano was in ravishing vocal estate, offering reams of floated lyricism in Act I\u2019s famous song to the moon, as well as prodigious dynamic control in \u201c\u00d3 marno to je\u201d and power in reserve for the climaxes of \u201cNeciteln\u00e1 vodn\u00ed moci.\u201d She emerged from her lake a pale, wraithlike being that undulated in graceful waves, like the water of which she was formed, only to become all angular awkwardness as she struggled with alien surroundings in Act II. Here she resembled a frightened puppy, a creature of pure love who was completely bewildered by her inability to comprehend expectations. An image of the desperate girl being pelted with blossoms during the ballet, while visibly reaching to grasp whether she was being lauded or cruelly mocked, was one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever seen on a stage. Mart\u00ednez\u2019s achievement was easily one of the great soprano performances of the present era at Lyric.\u201d\nIn addition to her performances with Lyric Opera of Chicago, she added a new leading lady to her repertoire with the title role of Carmen in a new Robert Ashford production with Houston Grand Opera. Opera News proclaimed:\n\u201cAna Mar\u00eda Mart\u00ednez\u2019s amazing performance as Carmen established a benchmark for the role in the Houston Grand Opera performance of Bizet\u2019s opera. There was, first, Mart\u00ednez\u2019s rich, lustrous, and voluptuous soprano, which she modulated toward gutsy power in her low range and arresting brilliance at the top. Beyond her singing, alone worth the price of admission, Mart\u00ednez reveled in Carmen\u2019s flamboyance and seductive charisma, so that her every gesture radiated the persona of this dangerous but irresistible gypsy. And, for Carmen\u2019s dancing in Act II at Lillas Pastia\u2019s Inn, Mart\u00ednez led an ensemble of dancers with flair.\u201d\nShe reprised the role of Carmen with Santa Fe Opera in a new production by Stephen Lawless later in the season. She returned to the Vienna Staatsoper as Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly in performances conducted by Pl\u00e1cido Domingo, and to the Bayerishe Staatsoper as both Cio-Cio San and as Mimi in La Boh\u00e8me. On the concert stage, she joined Pl\u00e1cido Domingo at the Teatro Real in Madrid and at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro as part of the World Cup celebration, and performed alongside baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky in a gala concert with the Turkish Opera and Ballet Theatre. In addition, she created a unique recital program, accompanied by Craig Terry on piano, that she brought to Vocal Arts DC and to the Broad Stage in Santa Monica.\nDuring the 2012 \u2013 13 season Ms. Mart\u00ednez joined Opera National de Paris in a role debut as Antonia in Offenbach\u2019s Les Contes d\u2019Hoffman, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich for three engagements: as the title role in Rusalka, as Mimi in La Boh\u00e8me and as Antonia in Les Contes d\u2019Hoffman, and returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago as Mimi, prompting Opera News to rave that \u201cAna Mar\u00eda Mart\u00ednez contributed a radiantly vulnerable Mimi, consistently employing her darkly-textured lyric soprano with great sensitivity to dynamics and text. \u201cDonde lieta usc\u00ec\u201d emerged as the centerpiece of her interpretation, particularly with a delicate fining away of tone in the final phrases.\u201d In addition, she joined Pl\u00e1cido Domingo for several performances, including for her debut with The Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and for gala performances with the New Orleans Opera, Abu Dhabi Festival in the United Arab Emirates, and Arena di Verona in Italy, among others. Concert engagements included performances with the Puerto Rico Symphony at the Casals Festival, San Antonio Symphony, Mercury Baroque in Houston, the Seoul Philharmonic, and with the English National Opera Orchestra in London. In addition, she offered a solo recital with Festival Miami. This season Best Buy and HP honored her as a Latina Trailblazer.\nCareer milestones for the soprano include her headline-making recent role and house debut as Rusalka with the Glyndebourne Festival, a performance that was recording live and released on the Glyndebourne label. Rave reviews for her portrayal include: \u201cWhen Mart\u00ednez sings that \u201cto suffer is to feel alive\u201d in her lustrous, vibrant voice (an intoxicating composite of Slavic darkness and Latin brilliance), you believe her,\u201d (The\nIndependent) Additional notable engagements include her performances with The Los Angeles Opera of Amelia in Simon Boccanegra opposite Pl\u00e1cido Domingo in the title role, her debut with The Metropolitan Opera as Mica\u00ebla in Carmen, and her acclaimed role debut as Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly with Houston Grand Opera in a new production by Tony Award winning director Michael Grandage. Concert engagements were highlighted by her debut at Teatro alla Scala with the Filharmonica della Scala, under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel, the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in a concert conducted by Alan Gilbert in selections from West Side Story, as well as several engagements in her birth place of Puerto Rico with the Puerto Rico Symphony.\nHighlights of her leading operatic roles in the United States include her performances with Lyric Opera of Chicago as Nedda in Pagliacci, Mimi in La Boh\u00e8me, and Marguerite in Faust, performances with the Los Angeles Opera as Mimi and as Violetta in La Traviata, conducted by Maestro Domingo, and her portrayals of Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly with Washington National Opera. She sang Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Mica\u00ebla in Carmen, and Pamina in Die Zauberfl\u00f6te all with San Francisco Opera, Mimi in La Boh\u00e8mewith Opera de Puerto Rico, and Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus at Dallas Opera. She made her debut with Santa Fe Opera as Fiordiligi in Cos\u00ec fan Tutte, and returned there as Rosina in a new production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, and Mimi in La Boh\u00e8me where Opera proclaimed \u201cthe great performance of the festival was the poignant, sterling Mim\u00ec of Ana Mar\u00eda Mart\u00ednez: every phrase glowing and beautifully sculpted with admirable stylistic mastery.\u201d\nAn alumnae of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Ms. Mart\u00ednez maintains a strong relationship with the house, portraying some of her most beloved characters there, and returning season after season. In addition to her Cio-Cio San debut, additional leading roles in the house include Rosina in a new production of Il barbiere di Siviglia, Nedda in Pagliacci, Mimi in La Boh\u00e8me, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, la Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro, Li\u00f9 in Turandot, and Lucero in the world premiere of Daniel Cat\u00e1n\u2019s Salsipuedes. To her great honor, she was the inaugural recipient of the Lynn Wyatt Great Artist Award, which is granted by the Houston Grand Opera and Lynn and Oscar Wyatt.\nIn recent seasons, Ms. Mart\u00ednez has portrayed leading roles on Europe\u2019s most important stages including her recent role debut as Alice Ford in Falstaff for a return engagement with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden for which Opera News declared \u201cher radiant soprano moving as accurately and elegantly around the notes as she did in negotiating the physical intricacies of [the] staging,\u201d and The Guardian wrote \u201cAna Maria Mart\u00ednez is a bright-voiced and sexy Alice, a natural leader of women\u2026\u201d Additional performances at Covent Garden include Violetta in La Traviata and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni.\u00a0 She sang Liu in Turandot and Nedda in Pagliacci both with De Nederlandse Opera, the title role in Luisa Miller and the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro both with the Bayerische Staatsoper. She made her debut with the Hamburg Opera as Blanche in Poulenc\u2019s Dialogues des Carmelites, her debut with the Vienna Staatsoper as Adina in L\u2019elisir d\u2019amore, and her debut with the Deutsche Oper Berlin as the title character in G\u00f6tz Friedrich\u2019s production of Luisa Miller. She joined the Vienna Staatsoper as Pamina in the Die Zauberfl\u00f6te, the Dresden Semper Opera as Mim\u00ec in La Boh\u00e8me, and the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Mim\u00ec, Violetta in La Traviata, and as Donna Elvira in their production of Don Giovanni at at the Festival Castell de Paralada, Spain. She made her debut with the Opera National de Paris as Amelia in a new production of Simon Boccanegra, and returned as the title role in their new production of Luisa Miller. In addition, she portrayed Mimi in La Boh\u00e8 mewith the Abu Dhabi Festival in the United Arab Emirates, for the city\u2019s first ever fully staged opera production.\nFor many seasons Ms. Mart\u00ednez has enjoyed collaborating on multi-city concert tours with tenor Pl\u00e1cido Domingo which has taken them to all corners of the globe.\u00a0 Highlights of their collaboration include concerts at the Ravinia Festival, the Salzburg Festival in an all-Zarzuela concert recored live entitled Amor, Vida de Mi Vida, to a Gala performance at the Teatro Real in Madrid in celebration of the tenor\u2019s birthday, and for a performance at The White House.\u00a0\u00a0 She has also performed on numerous international concert tours with tenor Andrea Bocelli. Highlights of their collaboration include her appearance on the Emmy nominated PBS TV special and DVD American Dream: Andrea Bocelli\u2019s Statue of Liberty Concert with the New Jersey Symphony, as well as her participation in his star-studded performance in New York\u2019s Central Park which was recorded live, broadcast on PBS stations nationwide, and released on DVD and CD in an album entitled Concerto: One Night in Central Park.\nMs. Mart\u00ednez\u2019s dynamic concert career includes solo engagements with some of the world\u2019s most celebrated orchestras and conductors. She has performed with the Tchaikovsky Symphony in Moscow, the Orquestra Sinfonica Brasiliera in Rio de Janeiro, the BBC Symphony at Barbican Hall, and the National Symphony of the Dominican Republic. She joined the Boston Symphony, conducted by Bernard Haitink, Lyric Opera of Chicago for a concert at Millenium Park, and Washington National Opera for a concert with Bryn Terfel conducted by Pl\u00e1cido Domingo. She made her debut with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg for Verdi\u2019s Requiem, and joined the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel. She performed with tenor Joseph Calleja in an open-air televised gala concert with the Esterhazy Festival in Austria, sang at the Ravinia Festival in concert performances as Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutte conducted by James Conlon, joined the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy, and has appeared on several occasions with the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.\nMs. Mart\u00ednez\u2019s recording collection is highlighted by her solo disc, entitled Ana Mar\u00eda Mart\u00ednez \u2013 Soprano Songs and Arias, recorded with the Prague Philharmonia conducted by Steven Mercurio on Naxos, which was selected by Gramophone Magazine as an \u201cEditor\u2019s Choice.\u201d She stars on the Decca DVD Cosi Fan Tutte filmed at the Salzburg Festival and performs the role of Nedda opposite Andrea Bocelli in the Universal CD recording of Pagliacciwhich debuted at #1. DVDs on the Euro Arts label include Spanish Night with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Pl\u00e1cido Domingo, and Amor, Vida de Mi Vida where she joins Pl\u00e1cido Domingo for Zarzuelas recorded live with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. In addition, her discography includes a performance on Steven Mercurio\u2019s Sony Classical CD, Many Voices, and the Latin Grammy award-winning recording of Albeniz\u2019s Merlin with Pl\u00e1cido Domingo (Decca), which coincided with the Grammy nominated recording of Bacalov\u2019s Misa Tango with Pl\u00e1cido Domingo (Deutsche Gramophone). Additional recordings include Glass\u2019 La Belle et la B\u00eate and Symphony No. 5(Nonesuch), Albeniz\u2019s Henry Clifford (Decca), Joaquin Rodrigo\u2019s: Obra Vocal I, II, IV & V (EMI), and Daniel Cat\u00e1n\u2019s Florencia en el Amazonas (Albany). Recorded on Naxos for the Milken Archives and with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, she can be heard on Castelnuovo Tedesco\u2019s Naomi & Ruth Opus 27(Naxos) as well as Yizkor\u2019s Requiem (Naxos) and with the Barcelona Symphony, Marvin Levy\u2019s Canto de los Marranos (Naxos), Julius Chajes\u2019 Old Jerusalem (Naxos) and Hugo Weisgall\u2019s Psalm of the Distant Dove (Naxos). Her rendition of \u201cAve Maria\u201d is heard in the Denzel Washington film \u201cJohn Q,\u201d and her \u201cJe veux vivre\u201d from Romeo et Juliette can be heard in the movie \u201cFactory Girl.\u201d\nA graduate of the Juilliard School with Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Mart\u00ednez won the Pepita Embil Award at the 1995 Operalia II, first prize in the 1994 Eleanor McCollum Auditions and Awards from Houston Grand Opera, and in the 1993 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions she was a first place district and first place regional winner and national finalist. Mart\u00ednez has offered candid encouragement to young singers as a contributing editor to Classical Singer Magazine. She is the recipient of the National Association of Latina Leaders\u2019 Groundbreaking Latina in Music award. Her recollections and reflections are profiled in Latino Wisdom: Celebrity Stories of Hope, Inspiration, and Success to Recharge our Mind, Body, and Soul by Cathy Areu, published by Barricade Books.\n|,|title|:|soprano (Incidental Music from Egmont)|,|small_image|:| \n |,|bio_image|:| \n |,|full_image|:| \n |},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Damon Gupton|,|bio|:|A native of Detroit, Michigan, Damon Gupton held the post of assistant conductor of the Kansas City Symphony from 2006 to 2008.\u00a0 Gupton received his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Michigan.\u00a0 He studied conducting with David Zinman and Murry Sidlin at the Aspen Music Festival and with Leonard Slatkin at the National Conducting Institute in Washington, D.C. He served as American conducting fellow of the Houston Symphony for the 2004\/2005 season, and has made conducting appearances with the Orchestra of St. Luke\u2019s, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, The Cincinnati Pops, National Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Florida Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Princeton Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, NHK Orchestra of Tokyo, Orquesta Filarmonica de UNAM, Brass Band of Battle Creek, New York University Steinhardt Orchestra, Kinhaven Music School Orchestra, Vermont Music Festival Orchestra, Michigan Youth Arts Festival Honors Orchestra and Sphinx Symphony as part of the 12th annual Sphinx Competition.\u00a0 He led the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra on a national tour with performances at Carnegie Hall and a well-reviewed recording available at White Pine Music.\u00a0 He also conducted the finals of the Seventh Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition. He is a winner of the Third International Eduardo Mata Conducting Competition, held in Mexico City. Musical collaborations include work with Marcus Miller, Kenn Hicks, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Byron Stripling, Tony DeSare, The Midtown Men, Kathleen Battle and Jamie Cullum.\nMr. Gupton has been featured as narrator in many venues including The Cleveland Orchestra, The Grand Teton Music Festival, The Grant Park Music Festival, The Houston Symphony, The Memphis Symphony, and on the The Videmus recording Fare Ye Well. He also narrated a concert version of Beethoven\u2019s Fidelio with David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.\nAwards include the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize and The Aspen Conducting Prize.\u00a0 Mr.Gupton is the inaugural recipient of the Emerging Artist Award from the University of Michigan School of Music and Alumni Society.\nAn accomplished actor, Gupton graduated from The Drama Division of the Juilliard School in New York. He has had roles in television, film, and on stage, including the Broadway production of Bruce Norris\u2019 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning Clybourne Park, the Ovation and LA Drama Critic\u2019s Circle award winning Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Mark Taper Forum), Superior Donuts (The Geffen), Christina Anderson\u2019s Inked Baby (Playwrights Horizons), Meg\u2019s New Friend (The Production Company), Wendy Wasserstein\u2019s An American Daughter (Arena Stage), True History and Real Adventures (The Vineyard Theatre), and Treason (Perry Street Theatre), The Story (Public Theater).\u00a0 He also performed the title role of Academy Award-winner Eric Simonson\u2019s Carter\u2019s Way at Kansas City Repertory Theater. Mr. Gupton was featured in title role in the critically acclaimed Heart of America Shakespeare Festival production of Othello. He received an AUDELCO nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Clybourne Park.\nGupton’s television credits include series regular roles on Black Lightning, Criminal Minds, The Player, The Divide, Prime Suspect, and Deadline as well as guest appearances on Goliath, A&E\u2019s Bates Motel, Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, Suits, Empire, Rake starring Greg Kinnear, Law & Order, Law & Order Criminal Intent, Conviction, The Unusuals, Third Watch, Hack, and Drift.\u00a0 He appeared in Damien Chazelle’s Academy Award-winning films Whiplash and LaLa Land, as well as This is Forty, The Last Airbender, Helen at Risk, Before The Devil Knows You\u2019re Dead, Unfaithful, and The Loretta Claiborne Story.\n|,|title|:|narrator (Incidental Music from Egmont)|,|small_image|:| \n |,|bio_image|:| \n |,|full_image|:| \n |},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Alexandra Dariescu|,|bio|:|Romanian born British pianist and creator of \u201cThe Nutcracker and I\u201d, Alexandra Dariescu dazzles audiences and critics worldwide with her effortless musicality and captivating stage presence. Alexandra\u2019s vision and innovative approach to programming make her stand out as a creative entrepreneur who likes to think differently.\nDariescu\u2019s 2018\/19 season marks a special focus on works by female composers in important milestones including her debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and James Gaffigan, performing Nadia Boulanger\u2019s Fantaisie vari\u00e9e at London\u2019s Barbican and a return visit to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Jessica Cottis, performing Germaine Tailleferre\u2019s Ballade for piano and orchestra. Alexandra returns to the Hall\u00e9 Orchestra and Jonathan Heyward (Tchaikovsky 1) and Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle with Daniel Huppert (Rachmaninov 2) while at the Wigmore Hall, Dariescu presents an all-French recital with works by Debussy, Messiaen, Faure, Tailleferre and Lili Boulanger.\nAfter the highly acclaimed premiere of Dariescu\u2019s own production The Nutcracker and I \u2013 a ground-breaking multimedia performance for piano solo with dance and digital animation \u2013 at Barbican\u2019s Milton Court in December 2017 \u2013 Alexandra will take the Nutcracker on a world tour, performing across Europe at Konzerthaus Wien, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Bozar Brussels, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Konserthuset G\u00f6teborg, King\u2019s Place London amongst others as well as touring China, Australia and the Emirates. In addition, Alexandra has just released an audio book of the same name on the Signum label, with the story written by Jessica Duchen and narrated by celebrated TV children presenter Lindsey Russell.\nThis season Alexandra completes her Trilogy of Preludes with Boulanger\/Messiaen\/Faure which compliments the previously released CDs of Chopin\/Dutilleux and Shostakovich\/Szymanowski complete preludes (Champs Hill Records). 2016 saw the release of two concerto discs: Tchaikovsky\u2019s piano concerto No. 1 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Darrell Ang (Signum Records) and Emily Howard\u2019s Mesmerism (NMC Records), a concerto written especially for Alexandra, which won the British Composer of the Year at the BASCA awards.\nRecently, Alexandra toured with the European Union Youth Orchestra under the baton of Vasily Petrenko after celebrating a range of acclaimed debuts in North America with the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec (Fabien Gabel), Utah Symphony Orchestra (Kazuki Yamada), Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (Marzena Diakun) and her Chinese debut with the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra (Darrell Ang), as well as two different sold out performances at the Vienna Staatsoper with Angela Gheorghiu and concertos at the Musikverein.\nAlexandra has been mentored by Sir Andr\u00e1s Schiff and Imogen Cooper. After graduating from the Royal Northern College of Music with the Gold Medal, where she studied with Nelson Goerner, Alexander Melnikov, Mark Ray and Dina Parakhina, Alexandra pursued her Masters at the Guildhall school of Music and Drama with Ronan O\u2019Hora. A former artist of the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT), Alexandra was a Laureate at the Verbier Festival Academy and received the UK\u2019s Women of the Future Award in the Arts and Culture category. In 2017 Alexandra was appointed patron of Music in Lyddington, Cultural Ambassador of Romania and Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Northern College of Music. In spring 2018, Alexandra received the \u201cOfficer of the Romanian Crown\u201d from the Royal Family and was selected as a Young European Leader by Friends of Europe.\n|,|title|:|piano (Choral Fantasy)|,|small_image|:| \n |,|bio_image|:| \n |,|full_image|:| \n |}],|without|:[{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Pureum Jo|,|bio|:||,|title|:|soprano (Choral Fantasy)|,|small_image|:false,|bio_image|:false,|full_image|:false},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Yelena Dyachek|,|bio|:||,|title|:|soprano (Choral Fantasy)|,|small_image|:false,|bio_image|:false,|full_image|:false},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Leia Lensing|,|bio|:||,|title|:|mezzo-soprano (Choral Fantasy)|,|small_image|:false,|bio_image|:false,|full_image|:false},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Rafael Moras|,|bio|:||,|title|:|tenor (Choral Fantasy)|,|small_image|:false,|bio_image|:false,|full_image|:false},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Yongzhao Yu|,|bio|:||,|title|:|tenor (Choral Fantasy)|,|small_image|:false,|bio_image|:false,|full_image|:false},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Reginald Smith, Jr.|,|bio|:||,|title|:|baritone (Choral Fantasy)|,|small_image|:false,|bio_image|:false,|full_image|:false},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Houston Symphony Chorus|,|bio|:||,|title|:|Betsy Cook Weber, director (Choral Fantasy)|,|small_image|:false,|bio_image|:false,|full_image|:false}]}
BEETHOVEN Incidental Music from Egmont
BEETHOVEN Choral Fantasy
