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InTUNE

Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Concert Live-to-Film October 31

Special Program

your symphony experience JONES HALL

Since the opening of Jones Hall in 1966, millions of arts patrons have enjoyed countless musical and stage performances at the venue. Dominating an entire city block, Jones Hall features a stunning travertine marble facade, 66-foot ceilings, and a brilliantly lit grand entrance. Jones Hall is a monument to the memory of Jesse Holman Jones, a towering figure in Houston during the first half of the 20th century.

CONCERT DISRUPTION

We strive to provide the best possible auditory experience of our world-class orchestra. Noise from phones, candy wrappers, and talking is distracting to the performers on stage and those around you. Please help us make everyone’s concert enjoyable by silencing electronic devices now and remaining quiet during the performance.

FOOD & DRINK POLICY

The Encore Café and in-hall bars are open for Symphony performances, and food and drink will be permitted in bar areas. Food is not permitted inside the auditorium. Patrons may bring drinks into the auditorium for Vitol POPS Series concerts and Symphony Specials. Drinks are not permitted inside the auditorium for Classical concerts.

LOST & FOUND

For lost and found inquiries, please contact Front of House Coordinator, Nadjalie Santos, during the performance. They also can be reached at Nadjalie.Santos@HoustonSymphony.org. You may contact Houston First after the performances at 832.487.7050.

Houston Symphony

“WHEN SHOULD I CLAP?”

It’s a question we hear often! Traditionally, audiences wait to applaud until the very end of a piece, especially when it has several sections (called movements). This allows the music to flow without interruption and helps the performers stay focused. If you’re unsure, a simple cue is when the conductor lowers their arms and turns toward the audience—that’s your signal the piece has finished. That said, there’s no wrong way to show your appreciation. If the music inspires you in the moment, don’t hesitate to clap! Your enthusiasm and energy are always welcome at the Symphony.

CHILDREN

Children ages six and up are welcome to all Classical, Vitol POPS, and Symphony Special concerts. Children of all ages are welcome at PNC Family Series performances. Children must have a ticket for all ticketed events.

LATE SEATING

Each performance typically allows for late seating, which is scheduled in intervals and determined by the conductor. Our ushers and Front of House Coordinator will instruct you on when late seating is allowed.

TICKETS

Subscribers of five or more concerts may exchange their tickets at no cost. Tickets to Symphony Specials or single ticket purchases are ineligible for exchange or refund. If you are unable to make a performance, your ticket may be donated prior to the concert for a tax-donation receipt. Donations and exchanges may be made in person, over the phone, or online.

ORCHESTRA ROSTER Juraj Valčuha

Steven Reineke, Principal POPS Conductor

Music Director Roy and Lillie Cullen Chair

FIRST VIOLIN Yoonshin Song, Concertmaster Max Levine Chair Vacant, Associate Concertmaster Ellen E. Kelley Chair Boson Mo, Assistant Concertmaster Qi Ming, Assistant Concertmaster Fondren Foundation Chair Tong Yan Ferenc Illenyi Si-Yang Lao Christopher Neal Sergei Galperin Annie Kuan-Yu Chen Han Xie Samantha Washecka Agnes Tse Timothy Peters+ Samuel Park+ SECOND VIOLIN Vacant, Principal Eunseo Lee, Associate Principal Amy Semes Mihaela Frusina Jing Zheng Anastasia Iglesias Tina Zhang* Yankı Karata! Hannah Duncan Alexandros Sakarellos Tianxu Liu+ Zubaida Azezi+ VIOLA Joan DerHovsepian, Principal Wei Jiang, Acting Associate Principal Samuel Pedersen, Assistant Principal Paul Aguilar Sheldon Person Fay Shapiro Keoni Bolding Jimmy Cunningham Meredith Harris+ Suzanne LeFevre+ CELLO Brinton Averil Smith, Principal Janice H. and Thomas D. Barrow Chair Christopher French, Associate Principal Jane and Robert Cizik Chair Anthony Kitai Louis-Marie Fardet Jeffrey Butler Maki Kubota Xiao Wong Charles Seo Jeremy Kreutz

COMMUNITY-EMBEDDED MUSICIAN Lindsey Baggett, Violin

Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Conductor Laureate Gonzalo Farias, Associate Conductor

DOUBLE BASS Robin Kesselman, Principal Timothy Dilenschneider, Associate Principal Andrew Pedersen, Assistant Principal Eric Larson Logan May Burke Shaw Donald Howey Avery Weeks

HORN William VerMeulen, Principal Mr. and Mrs. Alexander K. McLanahan Endowed Chair Robert Johnson, Associate Principal Nathan Cloeter, Assistant Principal/Utility Ian Mayton Barbara J. Burger Chair Brian Mangrum Spencer Bay+

FLUTE Kayla Burggraf, Principal General Maurice Hirsch Chair Matthew Roitstein, Associate Principal Judy Dines Kathryn Ladner*

TRUMPET Mark Hughes, Principal George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Chair John Parker, Associate Principal Richard Harris Oliver Lampson

PICCOLO Kathryn Ladner*

TROMBONE Nick Platoff, Principal Bradley White, Associate Principal Phillip Freeman

OBOE Jonathan Fischer, Principal Lucy Binyon Stude Chair Anne Leek, Associate Principal Adam Dinitz Pablo Moreno+

BASS TROMBONE Phillip Freeman

ENGLISH HORN Adam Dinitz Barbara and Pat McCelvey Chair CLARINET Mark Nuccio, Principal Bobbie Nau Chair Vacant, Associate Principal Christian Schubert Alexander Potiomkin Ben Freimuth+

TUBA Dave Kirk, Principal TIMPANI Leonardo Soto, Principal Matthew Strauss, Associate Principal PERCUSSION Vacant, Principal Mark Griffith Matthew Strauss HARP Allegra Lilly, Principal

E-FLAT CLARINET Ben Freimuth+

KEYBOARD Wesley Ducote, Principal

BASS CLARINET Alexander Potiomkin

LIBRARIAN Luke Bryson, Principal Ali Verderber, Associate Megan Fisher, Assistant

BASSOON Rian Craypo, Principal Isaac Schultz, Associate Principal Elise Wagner Adam Trussell CONTRABASSOON Adam Trussell

*on leave + contracted substitute

STAGE PERSONNEL José Rios, Assistant Stage Manager Nicholas DiFonzo, Head Video Engineer Justin Herriford, Head Audio Engineer

Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Concert Live-to-Film

About the Music

Saturday, October 31

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Jones Hall

7:30 p.m.

Program Synopsis DISNEY TIM BURTON’S THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS IN CONCERT LIVE-TO-FILM

Presenting Sponsor

Disney’s timeless holiday classic features Grammy®-winning composer Danny Elfman’s musical score performed live to the film. First released in 1993, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas was directed by Henry Selick (James and the Giant Peach) and based on a story and characters by Tim Burton. The film follows the earnest-but-misguided adventures of Jack Skellington, Halloween Town’s beloved Pumpkin King, as he attempts to take over the Christmas holiday. Against the advice of Sally, a lonely rag doll who has feelings for him, Jack enlists three mischievous trick-ortreaters–Lock, Shock, and Barrel–to help him kidnap Santa Claus.

Program Bio

Steven Reineke, conductor Meredith & Ben Marshall, sponsor

Steven Reineke is one of North America’s leading conductors of popular music. He is the Principal POPS Conductor of the Houston Symphony and Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; and he is in his second decade as Music Director of The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. Reineke is a frequent guest conductor and can be seen on the podium with the Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. On stage, Reineke creates and collaborates with a range of leading artists in hip-hop, R & B, Broadway, television, and rock including Killer Mike, Maxwell, Common, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Ne-Yo, Bob Weir, Trey Anastasio, Barry Manilow, Cynthia Erivo, Ben Rector, Cody Fry, Sutton Foster, Amos Lee, Dispatch, Jason Mraz, and Ben Folds, amongst others. In 2024, he led the NSO on PBS’s Next at the Kennedy Center featuring Ben Folds DeClassified

with Jacob Collier, Laufey, and dodie. He was previously seen with the NSO on PBS’s Great Performances with hip-hop legend Nas performing his seminal album Illmatic. Reineke is the conductor on Ben Folds Live with The National Symphony Orchestra and William Shatner’s So Fragile, So Blue with The National Symphony Orchestra. In November 2025, Reineke was joined on the podium by NFL legend Marshawn Lynch, who visited the Houston Symphony ahead of Thursday Night Football, for a conducting tutorial featured in his Amazon Prime show, ‘N Yo’ City.

Music degrees with honors in both trumpet performance and music composition. 

Reineke is the creator of hundreds of orchestral arrangements and his works are performed worldwide and can be heard on numerous Cincinnati Pops Orchestra recordings. His symphonic works Celebration Fanfare, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Casey at the Bat are performed frequently in North America, including performances by the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic. His Sun Valley Festival Fanfare was used to commemorate the Sun Valley Summer Symphony’s pavilion, and his pieces Festival Te Deum and Swan’s Island Sojourn were debuted by the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestras. His numerous wind ensemble compositions are published by the C.L. Barnhouse Company and are performed by concert bands perennially. A native of Ohio, Reineke is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio (2020 Alumnus Distinguished Achievement Medal) where he earned Bachelor of 4

Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Concert Live-to-Film

Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas RELEASED IN 1993 FEATURING THE VOICE TALENTS OF: CHRIS SARANDON CATHERINE O’HARA KEN PAGE WILLIAM HICKEY GLENN SHADIX PAUL REUBENS A BURTON/DI NOVI PRODUCTION MUSIC, LYRICS & SCORE BY DANNY ELFMAN BASED ON A STORY AND CHARACTERS BY TIM BURTON ADAPTATION BY MICHAEL MCDOWELL SCREENPLAY BY CAROLINE THOMPSON PRODUCED BY TIM BURTON AND DENISE DI NOVI DIRECTED BY HENRY SELICK Soundtrack available on WALT DISNEY RECORDS This film is rated “PG.” There will be one intermission

Houston Symphony

PERFORMANCE CALENDAR 2026-27 season

Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony October 30, November 1

Hilary Hahn Plays Beethoven February 12, 13* & 14

Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony & Yoonshin Song November 6, 7* & 8

Nature’s Rhapsody Festival: Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony & The Rite of Spring February 19, 20* & 21

The Holiday in Concert with Live Orchestra November 20

Ehnes Plays Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto March 5, 6* & 7

La Vida Loca November 21 & 22*

If I Ain’t Got You: The Best of R&B March 12, 13* & 14

Thanksgiving Weekend: Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 7 & Shéhérazade November 27, 28* & 29

Chamber Music Series: Čekovská, Haydn & Poulenc November 29

Seong-Jin Cho in Recital March 16 Seong-Jin Cho Plays Bartók March 19, 20 & 21

Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 & Gil Shaham December 4, 5* & 6

Chamber Music Series: Mozart & Tomasi March 21

Very Merry Pops December 10, 12* & 13

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 April 2, 3* & 4

Ho-Ho-Holiday December 12

Cheyenne Jackson: The Best of Broadway April 9, 10* & 11

Handel’s Messiah December 18, 19*, 20

Joyful Fanfares: Holiday Brass Spectacular December 19 & 20*

José Hernández’ Merry-Achi Christmas December 21

Peter and the Wolf April 10 Bach & Vivaldi’s Four Seasons April 22, 24* & 25 Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 May 1 & 2*

Bruch’s Violin Concerto & Vaughan Williams January 8, 9* & 10 S

Samara Joy with the Houston Symphony March 9

Gil Shaham & Akira Eguchi in Recital: Beethoven Sonatas January 12

Hisaishi Conducts Hisaishi May 7, 8 & 9 Chamber Music Series: Prokofiev & Brahms May 9

California Dreamin’: The Songs and Stories of Laurel Canyon January 15, 16* & 17

Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe May 14, 15* & 16

Cirque de la Symphonie January 29, 30 & 31

Soundtrack of Our Imagination: The Best of John Williams May 21, 22*, & 23

Cirque Magic for Kids January 30

Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 May 28, 29* & 30

Nature’s Rhapsody Festival: Pines of Rome February 5, 6* & 7

Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 & Mozart June 4, 5* & 6

Chamber Music Series: Still, Coleman & Coleridge-Taylor February 7

Classical Series

Vitol POPS Series

PNC Family Series

The Legend of Zelda™ 40th Anniversary Concert July 23 & 24

Summer & Specials

Chamber Series

*Performance livestreamed

Juraj Valčuha, Music Director

Jones Hall – 615 Louisiana Street houstonsymphony.org