Da Camera has flourished because of the entrepreneurial spirit and open-mindedness of its hometown of Houston, as general director Sarah Rothenberg will readily tell you....
The conductor nearly chickened out. Planning the concert that will open the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra’s 2017-18 season, Vladimir Yampolsky suggested a rarity: the Symphony No. 2 by Kurt Weill of Threepenny Opera fame. Then he wavered....
The shift may not have been conscious, violinist Ertan Torgul says, but he sees it clearly. After 20-plus years of performing new music, San Antonio's Soli Chamber Ensemble is gravitating toward composers who bridge genres —mixing the classical tradition with jazz, rock or whatever else resonates with them. To them, music is music....
Traditional tunes, rhythms and harmonies played no role. Instead, the chamber ensemble offered up an ever-shifting soundscape of shimmers, glimmers, rustlings and wisps —Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s salute to the Northern Lights. ...
WindSync seems plenty youthful when you look at a photo, but let’s take another vantage point. The Houston quintet spends about 120 days a year on the road -- hardly the mark of a fledgling group. ...
The heroics of Beethoven’s Fifth. The exuberance of his Ode to Joy. The humor of his First Symphony. The drama of his Eroica. The Houston Symphony and Andrés Orozco-Estrada have embraced all that and more since they launched their Beethoven symphony cycle in 2015....
Francisco Courcelle may not rank as a big-name composer. But his Misa Ave Maris Stella, a dramatic chorus-and-orchestra work from 1750, has become a go-to piece for Dallas’ Orchestra of New Spain....
They rank among opera’s most electrifying heroines, yet Houston hasn’t felt their wallop for more than 25 years. Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, a Druid priestess, sacrifices herself on a pyre to atone for her secret marriage to a Roman. Richard Strauss’ Elektra descends into madness as despair and rage over her father’s slaying consume her....
The U.S. presidential election looms, and the politician has planned his trip for maximum media impact. He’s a divisive figure, with ideas that could revolutionize the world order. Cameras track his plane’s arrival, and when he steps out, legions of television viewers are watching him. He knows that, and he has every intention of capitalizing on it....
David Connor lets his double bass rest on the floor. Cradling an iPad and speaker in his arms, he circulates through the classroom as jazz icon Ella Fitzgerald cuts loose onscreen in It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got That Swing. ...
A hand, a conch shell, a pair of lips, a valentine heart: Rendered in pastels and lined up along the gallery wall, they possess an eerie mix of starkness and sensuality....
