Very Merry Pops

Lucas Waldin is a dynamic and versatile conductor whose performances have delighted audiences across North America. He has collaborated with some of today’s most exciting artists, including Carly Rae Jepsen, The Barenaked Ladies, Crash Test Dummies, Ben Folds, The Canadian Brass, and Buffy Sainte-Marie, in addition to conducting presentations such as Disney in Concert, Blue Planet Live, Cirque de la Symphony, and the groundbreaking symphonic debut of R&B duo Dvsn as part of the global Red Bull Music Festival.

In addition to the Houston Symphony, Lucas has been a guest conductor for numerous orchestras in the United States and Canada, including The Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Dallas Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Grant Park Festival Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, and National Arts Centre Orchestra, among many others.

A native of Toronto, Ontario, he holds degrees in flute and conducting from the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Mandy Gonzalez possesses one of the most powerful and versatile contemporary voices of our time. Mandy starred in the megahit Hamilton as Angelica Schuyler and originated the role of Nina Rosario in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, In the Heights, for which she received a Drama Desk Award. She has starred as Elphaba in the Broadway production of Wicked, blowing the roof off New York’s Gershwin Theatre each night as she belted out the signature song, “Defying Gravity.”

Mandy received an OBIE Award and overwhelming critical praise for her performance in the Off-Broadway production of Eli’s Comin’—directed by Diane Paulus, and based on the music and lyrics of singer-songwriter Laura Nyro. Television viewers have had the pleasure of seeing Mandy in her recurring roles in the hit series Madam Secretary and Bull, and alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short in Only Murders in the Building. Equally at home on the big and small screen, she has appeared in Across the Universe, directed by Julie Taymor; After, starring opposite Pablo Schreiber; and Man on a Ledge with Sam Worthington. She can also be heard as the voice of Mei in Disney’s Mulan 2.

A frequent concert soloist, Mandy has performed with symphony orchestras around the country including the NY Pops at Carnegie Hall, Boston Pops, Philly Pops, Cleveland Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, Fort Worth, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Arkansas, Anchorage, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Youngstown Symphonies, among many others.

She released her debut album, FEARLESS, with Warner Music which debuted at #13 on the iTunes charts. Her album–hailed as “a genre-defying, highly personal, daring, and brilliant debut” (Pop Bytes)–delivers new, original songs from some of the most accomplished writers in the music industry, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jennifer Nettles, Bill Sherman, and Tom Kitt.

An accomplished author, Mandy recently published her successful Young Adult novel series, Fearless, published by Simon and Schuster.

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.