Carmina burana

Former Houston Symphony Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada is distinguished as a musician by his energy, elegance, and spirit. After a wonderful collaboration with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai in May 2022, Andrés was appointed the new principal conductor of the Rai Orchestra beginning in the 2023-24 Season.

In the 2025-26 Season, he will take up the position of GMD of the city of Cologne and Gürzenich Kapellmeister. Andrés attaches great importance to inspiring all the people of Cologne with music and for music, and to internationally representing and presenting Cologne as a city of music. Already in the coming season, he will be a guest at the Kölner Philharmonie with a special concert.
Debuts and return invitations this season take him to the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Swedish Radio, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Radio Sinfonieorchester Berlin, among others. He will also return to the hr-Sinfonieorchester (principal conductor 2014-21) and to Houston where he served as Music Director from 2014 to 2022.
He will accompany the SWR Symphony Orchestra on a tour of Spain and will also tour with the Filarmonica della Scala. Other highlights include a European tour with his Filarmónica Joven de Colombia and violinist Hilary Hahn, which will take him to Paris, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Dortmund, and Switzerland, among other places.
He will make his debuts at La Scala in Milan (Mozart’s Figaro) and at the Amsterdam Opera (Beethoven’s Fidelio) where he will conduct the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest.
Andrés also returns to the Staatsoper Berlin after numerous successful productions with a repeat performance of Tosca.
Born in Medellín (Colombia), Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical education by playing the violin, receiving his first conducting lessons at age 15. In 1997, he moved to Vienna, where he was accepted into the conducting class of Uroš Lajovic, a student of the legendary Hans Swarowsky, at the renowned Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst. Since October 2022, he has been professor of orchestral conducting at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts.

A native of Bolivar, New York, soprano Joélle Harvey received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in vocal performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). She began her career training at Glimmerglass Opera (now The Glimmerglass Festival) and the Merola Opera Program.

The soprano begins the 2023-24 Season with an appearance at London’s Wigmore Hall, singing the role of Tirsi in Handel’s Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, with Harry Bicket leading The English Concert. She sings Handel’s Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, and Handel and Haydn Society; Faure’s Requiem with the National Symphony Orchestra; and a program of Haydn and Mozart with H+H. Season debuts include the Houston Symphony for Orff’s Carmina burana, and the New World Symphony for Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony. Notably, Joélle joins two long-tenured music directors for their farewell seasons: Louis Langrée, leading the Cincinnati Symphony in Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, and the Kansas City Symphony’s Michael Stern, who conducts performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2.

Last season, Joélle appeared with a host of internationally-acclaimed organizations. She joined the New York Philharmonic in a gala performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, celebrating the opening of David Geffen Hall and conducted by Jaap van Zweden. She debuted with the Bamberg Symphoniker (Mahler’s 4^th & Alma Mahler songs, conducted by Jakub Hrůša), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (Handel’s Solomon with Robin Ticciati), and the Minnesota Orchestra (Haydn’s The Creation with Paul McCreesh). The season also held returns to the Cleveland Orchestra in Cleveland and at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Metropolitan Opera. Notable chamber performances included a recital with baritone John Moore and pianist Allen Perriello for Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and appearances with the Chamber Music Societies of Lincoln Center and Palm Beach. She also made her Jacksonville Symphony debut and debuted with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in an all-Handel program conducted by Bernard Labadie at Carnegie Hall. During the summer of 2023, she returned to the Glyndebourne Festival as the title role in Adele Thomas’s new production of Handel’s Semele.

Noted for his “shimmering voice” (BachTrack), Grammy-nominated American countertenor Reginald Mobley is globally renowned for his interpretation of baroque, classical, and modern repertoire and leads a prolific career on both sides of the Atlantic.

An advocate for diversity in music and its programming, Reginald became the first programming consultant for the Handel and Haydn Society following several years of leading H+H in its community-engaging Every Voice concerts. He holds the position of visiting artist for diversity outreach with the Baroque ensemble Apollo’s Fire, and he is also leading a research project in the United Kingdom funded by the AHRC to uncover music by composers from diverse backgrounds.

This year, his American concert schedule includes solos recitals in New York and Chicago; concerts performing Handel’s Messiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Philadelphia, and Minnesota orchestras; and Carmina burana with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; as well as regular appearances with baroque ensembles Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, Collegium San Diego, and Seraphic Fire, to name but a few. Recent and future highlights include his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood Festival, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Orchestre Métropolitain de Montreal.

In Europe, Reginald has been invited to perform with a number of leading orchestras. He has also engaged in projects with the Academy of Ancient Music in Cambridge, singing the role of Disinganno in Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno and devising a new program, Sons of England, supported by UKAHRC, which reflects his research under that umbrella, which will be touring this month. Reginald gave a Purcell, Handel, and Sancho program for his solo debut recital in Paris, which he repeated as part of the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival in September 2023.

His first solo album with ALPHA Classics was released to great acclaim in June 2023 to coincide with a major series of concerts with pianist Baptiste Trotignon in Paris, York, and Liverpool as well as part of both the Aix-en-Provence and BBC Proms festivals. In addition, Reginald features on several albums with the Monteverdi Choir, Agave Baroque, and Stuttgart Bach Society.

Called “a voice for this historic moment” (Washington Post), Grammy Award-winning baritone Will Liverman is the recipient of the 2022 Beverly Sills Artist Award by The Metropolitan Opera and the co-creator of The Factotum–called “mic-drop fabulous good” (Opera News).

This season, Will returns to the Metropolitan Opera in the title role of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. He was previously seen at the Met opening its 2021-22 Season in a celebrated “breakout performance” (New York Times) as Charles in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, which won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.

Will’s 2023-24 Season includes productions with Opera Philadelphia for the world premiere of Rene Orth’s 10 Days in a Madhouse and with the Met Opera as Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette. In addition to these concerts, he joins the Lexington Philharmonic for the orchestrated world premiere of Shawn E. Okpebholo’s Two Black Churches, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for Brahms’s A German Requiem, and The Washington Chorus’s Elijah Reimagined, plus Dayton Opera, Caramoor, and Cincinnati Song Initiative for vocal recitals. He serves as artistic advisor for Renée Fleming’s SongStudio at Carnegie Hall.

Last season, the Lyric Opera of Chicago presented the world premiere of Will’s opera, composed with DJ King Rico, The Factotum, in which he starred. Inspired by Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Will and Rico place the story in a present-day Black barbershop on Chicago’s South Side, and celebrate the strength of community and power of the human spirit.

Cedille Records released Will’s Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers with pianist Paul Sanchez in 2021; it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award. His 2020 album, Whither Must I Wander, with pianist Jonathan King, released by Odradek Records, was named one of the Chicago Tribune’s “best classical recordings of 2020.”

Will is an alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was a Glimmerglass Festival Young Artist. He holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Wheaton College. www.willliverman.com

The Houston Symphony Chorus is one of Houston’s oldest and most distinguished musical organizations.

Over the years, the Chorus has sung with dozens of the world’s most notable conductors, including Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Steven Reineke, Michael Krajewski, Robert Shaw, André Previn, Leopold Stokowski, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir John Barbirolli, Ferenc Fricsay, Lawrence Foster, and Hans Graf, to name only a very few.

In addition to performances in Jones Hall, the Symphony’s home venue, the Chorus has also delighted audiences in various concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, and Mexico.

Recent reactions to its performances include:

Classical/Chorus: “…beautifully balanced, modulated sound that seamlessly blended with the orchestra.”
—Review of A German Requiem, Houston Chronicle, May 8, 2018

Classical/Chorus: “… the chorus was magnificent.”
—Review of Stabat Mater, Houston Chronicle, September 27, 2018

The Chorus consists entirely of volunteer singers who have considerable musical skill, vocal talent, and choral experience. They audition for placement each year.  The Chorus performance schedule is possibly the busiest in the country, consisting of up to fourteen different sets of repertoire for a total of 45 concerts.

The Houston Children’s Chorus was founded in 1989 by Director Stephen Roddy. More than 325 children in grades two through eight are enrolled in Chorus activities, including a Music in The Schools program for inner-city schools that cannot afford a music teacher. The Chorus represents the diverse cultures of Houston, and performs at numerous civic events throughout the year. It has been featured with the Houston Symphony, Houston Symphony POPS, Masterworks Chorus, Houston Choral Society, and Rice University Chorale. Along with President George H. W. Bush, the Chorus was featured on Glad Tidings, a recording of the Houston Symphony POPS.

The Houston Children’s Chorus has performed for the U.S. President on 34 occasions and was featured in the national broadcast of the Celebration of the Life of Barbara Bush. Favorite performances include the recording of the Blue Bell Ice Cream commercial, a concert with Celine Dion, the opening ceremonies of the 2004 Super Bowl with Josh Groban, the premiere of a major commissioned work at Carnegie Hall, and most recently, the world premiere of the opera, Can We Know the Sound of Forgiveness by internationally recognized composer, Gabriela Ortiz.