Perlman Conducts Mozart Requiem

Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to his irrepressible joy for making music.

Having performed with every major orchestra and at concert halls around the globe, Itzhak was granted a Presidential Medal of Freedom–the nation’s highest civilian honor–by President Obama in 2015, a Kennedy Center Honor in 2003, a National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 2000, and a Medal of Liberty by President Reagan in 1986. He has been honored with 16 Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Genesis Prize.

Itzhak currently serves as Artistic Partner of the Houston Symphony in a partnership that commenced in the 2020-21 season and culminates at the end of 2023-24. He performs nine programs across three seasons that feature him in versatile appearances as conductor, soloist, recitalist, and presenter.

In the 2022-23 season, Itzhak conducts the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and the Houston Symphony on Mozart’s Requiem, and is joined by an illustrious group of collaborators—Emanuel Ax, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and the Juilliard String Quartet—in a special Itzhak Perlman and Friends program appearing in only three locations: Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, UMS Ann Arbor, and Carnegie Hall. He continues touring An Evening with Itzhak Perlman, which captures highlights of his career through narrative and multi-media elements intertwined with performance, to Boston, Philadelphia, Long Island, Akron, Austin, Tallahassee, and Naples (Florida). He plays season-opening concerts for the Colorado Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, and Florida Orchestra, and recitals across the United States with longtime collaborator Rohan De Silva.

Itzhak Perlman has an exclusive series of classes with Masterclass.com, the premier online education company that enables access to the world’s most brilliant minds, including Gordon Ramsay, Wolfgang Puck, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Helen Mirren, Jodie Foster, and Serena Williams, as the company’s first classical-music presenter.

Noted by The Wall Street Journal for her “opulent, Wagner-scaled soprano” and acclaimed by The New York Times as the “lustrous, commanding soprano,” Felicia Moore is recognized by Opera News as “a genuine jugendliche dramatische soprano of exciting potential (and present accomplishment).” She is a powerful and innovative artist having made music in partnership with Alan Gilbert, Anne Manson, Ken-David Masur, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Rafael Payare, Speranza Scappucci, Alexander Shelley, Evan Rogister, Gary Thor Wedow, Ryan Wigglesworth, and Brian Zeger, among others.

Engagements of the 2022-23 Season include a return to the Metropolitan Opera for a revival of Graham Vick’s acclaimed production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk under the baton of Keri-Lynn Wilson and for Die Zauberflöte led by Nathalie Stutzmann in a new production.

In the 2021-22 Season, Felicia made her Metropolitan Opera debut as First Lady in The Magic Flute under the baton of Dame Jane Glover and covered in Elektra led by Sir Donald Runnicles. She made role debuts as Sieglinde in Die Walküre with New Orleans Opera, as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer with Opera Maine, and in the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos with the Lakes Area Music Festival. Concert engagements included Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Rafael Payare and the San Diego Symphony, the Erie Philharmonic for Mahler’s Second Symphony and David Chan leading the APEX Ensemble for Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder.

Highlights of past seasons include the role of Susan B. Anthony in The Mother of Us All at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a part of Project 19, the New York Philharmonic’s multi-season initiative marking the centennial of the 19th Amendment, and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni for Palm Beach Opera and Chamber Music Northwest. Other operatic performances include Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at Opera Columbus and the title role of Janáček’s Katya Kabanova, in a new production by Stephen Wadsworth at Juilliard.

Felicia was awarded a Fellowship by Turn The Spotlight, a foundation created to identify, nurture, and empower leaders for a more equitable future. She is a proud alumna of The Juilliard School, Mannes School of Music, and Westminster Choir College.

Chinese-American mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce makes role and house debuts this season at Calgary Opera as Laurene Powell in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs led by Michael Christie, Opera Philadelphia as Emilia in Rossini’s Otello alongside tenor Lawrence Brownlee with conductor Corrado Rovaris, and Detroit Opera as Arsamene in the Tazewell Thompson production of Handel’s Xerxes. She returns to Houston Grand Opera to sing the role of Jack and cover Thirza in Dame Ethel Smyth’s epic 1906 opera The Wreckers, Des Moines Metro Opera starring as Smeraldina in Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges with director Chas Rader-Shieber, and Toledo in Zach Redler’s The Falling and The Rising. In concert, she performs Szymanowski’s Songs of the Infatuated Muezzin with The Orchestra Now at the Fisher Center, Carnegie Hall with Leon Botstein on the podium, and a pair of recitals for Lyric Fest in Philadelphia.

Last season, Sun-Ly debuted four new roles on stage at Houston Grand Opera: Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette) directed by Tomer Zvulun, sang Sister Mathilde and covered Blanche de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites) directed by Francesca Zambello and conducted by music director Patrick Summers, Second Lady (Die Zauberflöte) in the Barrie Kosky and Suzanne Andrade production, and Mercédès (Carmen) led by Lidiya Yankovskaya. Additional appearances included her portrayal of Mozart’s Second Lady for Des Moines Metro Opera, a role debut as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at the Aspen Music Festival with Dame Jane Glover conducting, and mezzo-soprano soloist in a concert of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream led by Nicholas McGegan as well as Druckman’s Dark Upon the Harp, and her San Francisco Opera debut as Bao Chai in Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber with the San Francisco Opera with conductor Darrell Ang.

In competition, she was a winner of the 2019 Marilyn Horne Song Competition, a first place winner in the 2020 Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers, and third place recipient in the 2021 Dallas Opera National Vocal Competition. Sun-Ly holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Bard College Conservatory of Music, and is an alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio.

Jack Swanson, a native of Stillwater, Minnesota, is quickly becoming one of the most sought-after young tenors in the opera world.

This season, he premieres the title role in Paola Prestini’s Edward Tulane with the Minnesota Opera and makes debuts with the Austin Opera as Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the Utah Opera as Tonio in La Fille du Régiment (a role debut, as well), and the Atlanta Opera as the title-role in Candide. In concert, the tenor joins the Houston Symphony for Mozart’s Requiem, the Utah Symphony for Carmina Burana, and the Mercury Chamber Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah. He will perform in recital with Matinee Musicale in Duluth, MN. Future engagements include debuts with the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Houston Grand Opera as well as returns to the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro and the Norwegian Opera.

Last season, Jack debuted with a number of European companies, including the Teatro Regio in Torino as Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte (a role debut), and the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg as Ferrando in Così fan tutte (a role he had just debuted for his return to the Oper Frankfurt). He also sang a concert of Mozart, Bel canto and romantic Italian songs in Beirut, Lebanon. In the summer, he returned to the Santa Fe Opera in his signature role of Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and in recital before singing the title role in Candide with the Lausitz Festival.

Prior to that, Jack returned to the Norwegian Opera for Almaviva in a new production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia and to the Oper Köln for the same role before returning to the Garsington Opera for the title role in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory. He then finished the season by making his Rossini Opera Festival debut as Florville in Il Signor Bruschino. In concert, he was heard as the tenor soloist in Rossini’s Stabat Mater in Rome with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Myung Whun Chung. He also appeared in solo recitals in Frankfurt and in Pesaro.

New Zealand baritone Hadleigh Adams has amassed a body of work remarkable in its breadth. Committed to both the concert and opera stage, he has collaborated with some of the world’s finest artists.

On the concert stage, he has performed as a soloist with the London Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa Pekka Salonen, the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Robert Spano, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra under Nicola Luisotti, and Philharmonia Baroque under Nicholas McGegan. He has also performed with the American Bach Soloists, Seattle Symphony, Nashville Symphony, and Colorado Symphony. Renowned for his Handel, he has performed Messiah more than 120 times.

In traditional operatic repertoire, Hadleigh has performed a wide range of characters in a variety of musical styles: Ravel under the baton of Esa Pekka Salonen; Bernstein under Marin Alsop, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Louis Langree; Handel under Nicholas McGegan; Puccini under Nicola Luisotti; Mozart under the stage direction of Sir Thomas Allen; Handel under the stage direction of Christopher Alden; and Puccini under the stage direction of Les Miserables director, John Caird.

His European debut was at London’s Royal National Theatre in a staged production of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, playing the role of Jesus, directed by Sir Jonathan Miller. With the San Francisco Opera alone, he has appeared in 19 main stage productions, and during the 2022 season, he made his 100th performance with the company.

Upcoming engagements include performances of Britten’s War Requiem; Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony; Mozart’s Requiem; Orff’s Carmina Burana; Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde; Schmidt’s The Book with Seven Seals; Beethoven’s 9th Symphony; and Handel’s Messiah and Partenope with the Dallas and Houston Symphonies, San Francisco Opera, the Wellington Orchestra, the Brisbane Philharmonia, and the Choral Society of Grace Church at Carnegie Hall.

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.