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.
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.
Mark Nuccio, who joined the New York Philharmonic in 1999 as associate principal and solo e-flat clarinet, knows that some may think he’s off his rocker for trading in tenure in the Big Apple for heat and humidity.
As the Houston Symphony proudly marches into its Centennial season, feting past and future music directors alongside a parade of celebrity soloists, there's a sense that something special is happening.
It’s a new era for the Houston Symphony. When Maestro Andrés Orozoco-Estrada mounts the podium this month to conduct a program featuring music by Sergei Rachmaninov,