New Season, Then New Director for Houston Symphony
The Houston Symphony had even more on its mind this past season than scrambling to adapt to covid-19.
Music
A Cartography of Broadway Shows Across Texas
We’re still holding our breath, knocking on a forest full of wood and sacrificing chicken-shaped tofu to Dionysius, but it looks like in-person, inside-an-actual-theater, theater will finally take the stage this fall.
Classics, Blockbusters and a Salute to the ’80s: TUTS Returns to the Hobby
“There’s a powerful thing with nostalgia and remembrance,” TUTS executive director Dan Knechtges says. “There’s great comfort in it after we’ve been through this plague—this pandemic.”
Stepping Out: DACAMERA Launches SUMMERJAZZ
DACAMERA will launch its season Aug. 20-22 with SUMMERJAZZ, a one-weekend festival at the Wortham Theater Center. Long focused mainly on individual concert programs scattered throughout the season, the group is taking its first stab at filling a weekend with music.
Back to the Earth: A climate-focused new season at ROCO
A historic ice storm. The four seasons. Industrial sites colliding with the natural world. A farmer’s life and its links to the land. A glacier that melted away.
SPA Welcomes Audiences Back with a New Season
Over the years, I’ve realized something as an arts writer and audience member: There’s a fine art to programing performing arts.
Small Ensembles, Expansive Vistas Part Three: Axiom, Houston Brass Quintet and Texas New Music Ensemble
I caught up with musicians from nine distinctive ensembles in Houston to reflect on the past year and look to the future. In Part Three, I visited with the Axiom Quartet, Houston Brass Quintet and Texas New Music Ensemble.
Small Ensembles, Expansive Vistas Part Two: Loop38, Apollo Chamber Players, Carya String Quartet
In Part Two, I visited with Loop38, Apollo Chamber Players, and Carya String Quartet.
Houston’s Small Ensembles, Expansive Vistas Part One: Monarch Chamber Players, WindSync, and KINETIC
Houston is home to numerous chamber music ensembles that have thrived alongside each other, carving out their own niches with unique visions of how to present music and connect with audiences.
No Muting Allowed: Innovation & Resilience at Fort Worth Opera
Ask any leader of an arts organization what life has been like during the past year, and most will probably swear it has been one of the most demanding times of their lives.
The Music Plays On: Texas Orchestras Pivot in 2021
The Fort Worth Symphony will spotlight Antonín Dvořák’s melodious but unfamiliar Serenade in E major on Jan. 8-10. The same weekend, Dallas Symphony performances of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony in A-flat--a supersized version of the composer’s Quartet No. 10--will show how intense a string ensemble can be. The Houston Symphony will partner with onetime prodigy, now mature artist Midori in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto on Jan. 15-17.
2020 YEAR IN REVIEW
Arts and Culture Texas magazine's 2020 year in review.