InTUNE
Fiesta Sinfónica
The Houston Symphony Magazine
ORCHESTRA ROSTER
Juraj Valčuha
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
Marina Brubaker
Tong Yan
MiHee Chung
Sophia Silivos
Rodica Gonzalez
Ferenc Illenyi
Si-Yang Lao
Kurt Johnson*
Christopher Neal
Sergei Galperin
Timothy Peters+
Samuel Park+
SECOND VIOLIN
Vacant, Principal
Vacant, Associate Principal
Amy Semes
Annie Kuan-Yu Chen
Mihaela Frusina
Jing Zheng
Tianjie Liu*
Anastasia Iglesias
Tina Zhang
Yankı Karataş
Hannah Duncan
Alexandros Sakarellos
Tianxu Liu+
James Gikas+
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
LIBRARIANS
Ali Verderber, Associate Librarian
Megan Fisher, Assistant Librarian
DOUBLE BASS
Robin Kesselman, Principal
Timothy Dilenschneider, Associate Principal
Steven Reineke, Principal POPS Conductor
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Conductor Laureate
Anthony J. Maglione, Director, Houston Symphony Chorus
Gonzalo Farias, Associate Conductor
Andrew Pedersen, Assistant Principal
Eric Larson
Logan May
Burke Shaw
Donald Howey
Avery Weeks
FLUTE
Aralee Dorough, Principal General Maurice Hirsch Chair
Matthew Roitstein, Associate Principal
Judy Dines
Kathryn Ladner
PICCOLO
Kathryn Ladner
OBOE
Jonathan Fischer, Principal Lucy Binyon Stude Chair
Anne Leek, Associate Principal
Colin Gatwood
Adam Dinitz
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+
E-FLAT CLARINET
Vacant
Ben Freimuth+
BASS CLARINET
Alexander Potiomkin
BASSOON
Rian Craypo, Principal
Isaac Schultz, Associate Principal
Elise Wagner
Adam Trussell
CONTRABASSOON
Adam Trussell
STAGE PERSONNEL
Stefan Stout, Stage Manager
José Rios, Assistant Stage Manager
Nicholas DiFonzo, Head Video Engineer
Justin Herriford, Head Audio Engineer
Connor Morrow, Head Stage Technician
Giancarlo Minotti, Audio Production Manager
HORN
William VerMeulen, Principal
Mr. and Mrs. Alexander K. McLanahan
Endowed Chair
Robert Johnson, Associate Principal
Nathan Cloeter, Assistant Principal/Utility
Brian Thomas*
Brian Mangrum
Ian Mayton
Barbara J. Burger Chair
Spencer Bay+
TRUMPET
Mark Hughes, Principal
George P. and Cynthia Woods
Mitchell Chair
John Parker, Associate Principal
Robert Walp, Assistant Principal
Richard Harris
TROMBONE
Nick Platoff, Principal
Bradley White, Associate Principal
Phillip Freeman
BASS TROMBONE
Phillip Freeman
TUBA
Dave Kirk, Principal
TIMPANI
Leonardo Soto, Principal
Matthew Strauss, Associate Principal
PERCUSSION
Brian Del Signore, Principal
Mark Griffith
Matthew Strauss
HARP
Allegra Lilly, Principal
KEYBOARD
Vacant, Principal
LIBRARIAN
Luke Bryson, Principal
*on leave + contracted substitute
PERFORMANCE CALENDAR
2025-26 se a son
Eschenbach Conducts
Mozart & Bruckner
S e pt e m b e r 2 7 & 28*
K i n g f o r a D ay : T h e M u s i c o f El v i s
O c t o b e r 3 , 4* & 5
J ea n -Yve s T h i b a u d e t +
T h e T h r e e - C o r n e r e d H a t
O c t o b e r 1 0, 11* & 12
G e r s hw i n & G r i m a u d :
J a z z M e e t s Symp ho ny
O c t o b e r 1 7, 1 8* & 19
Fr o m St a g e t o S c r e e n :
B r o a d way Me e t s H o l l y woo d
O c t o b e r 3 1 , N ove m b e r 1* & 2
Fri g h t f u l l y Fu n ! A H a l l owe e n
C o n c e r t f o r K i d s
N ove m b e r 1
Shall We Dance?
N ove m b e r 8 & 9*
N o s f e r a t u: S i le n t Fil m
S
w i t h L i v e O r g a n
N ov e m b e r 1 6
J o u r n ey t o L i g h t : Va l č u h a
C on du c t s S h o s t a kov i c h 1 0
N ove m b e r 2 1 , 2 2 * & 2 3
Th a nk s g i v i n g We e ken d :
Tcha i kovs k y ’s P i an o
C o n c e r t o N o . 1
N ove m b e r 28 , 2 9* & 3 0
S
H and e l s M es si a h
D ec e m b e r 5 , 6* & 7
J oy f u l Fa n fa r e s ! H o l i d ay
B r a s s S p ec t ac u l a r
D ec e m b e r 6 & 7
Vo c t ave: It Feels Like C h r i s t m a s
D ec e m b e r 8
Ve r y M e r r y Po p s
D ec e m b e r 11 , 1 3* & 1 4
O h , W h at Fu n ! A H o l i d ay
C o n c e r t f o r K i d s
D ec e m b e r 1 3
Mariachi Sol De Mexico de José Hernández presents: José Hernández’ Merry-Achi Christmas
Dec e m b e r 15
D ec e m b e r 1 9, 2 0 & 2 1 S Merry Christmas Baby
D ec e m b e r 1 7
i n C on c e r t
A N at K i n g C o l e N ew Ye a r
J a n u a r y 2 , 3* & 4
St a r Wa r s : R e t u r n of t h e J e d i
S
i n C on c e r t
J a n u a r y 9 & 1 0
See our full year calendar for even more concerts!
*Pe r f o r m a n c e
li ve s t r ea m e d
Juraj valČuha
Houston Symphony Music Director Juraj Valčuha is recognized for his effortless expressiveness and depth of musicianship. He is known for his sharp baton technique, natural stage presence, and the impressive ease of his interpretations that translate even the most complex scores into immersive experiences.
Before joining the Houston Symphony in June 2022, Valčuha was Music Director of the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, from 2016 to 2022 and first guest conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He was Chief Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI from 2009 to 2016. In 2023, he assumed the post of Principal Guest Conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.
The 2005–06 Season marked the start of his international career on the podium of the Orchestre National de France followed by remarkable debuts in the United Kingdom with the Philharmonia London, in Germany with the Munich Philharmonic, in the United States with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and in Italy with Puccini’s La bohème in Bologna.
He has since led the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic,
Music Director
Roy and Lillie Cullen Chair
Orchestre de Paris, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Rome, Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, Montréal Symphony, and the NHK and Yomiuri orchestras in Tokyo.
He enjoys regular collaborations with the Pittsburgh and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the San Francisco Symphony , the Minnesota Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. International touring with the Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI took them to the Musikverein in Vienna, Philharmonie in Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Zurich, and Munich; to the Enesco Festival in Bucharest; and to the Abu Dhabi Classics. With the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, he visited Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn to mark the 100 th anniversary of the Baltic nations.
Valčuha champions the compositions of living composers and aspires to program contemporary pieces in most of his concerts. He has conducted world premieres, including Christopher Rouse’s Supplica with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Steven Mackey’s violin concerto with Leila Josefowicz and the BBC Symphony in Manchester, and Nico Muhly’s Bright Idea with the Houston Symphony. In 2005, he conducted, in the presence of the composer, Steve Reich’s Four Seasons at the MelosEthos Festival in Bratislava. Other composers
he has supported and continues to follow with interest are Bryce Dessner, Steven Stucky, Andrew Norman, James MacMillan, Luca Francesconi, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, Anna Clyne, Julia Wolfe, and Jessie Montgomery, among others.
Including his engagements in Houston, the 2023–24 Season took him to the Pittsburgh and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, San Francisco Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra as well as to the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra in Tokyo. On the European stage, he performed La fanciulla del West and Tristan und Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Jenůfa at the Opera di Roma. He led concerts with the RAI Orchestra, the Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestre National de France, the NDR, SWR, and the Bamberg Symphony, among others.
In the 2024–25 Season, Valčuha joined the Semperoper in Dresden with Strauss’s Salome as well as the Paris Opéra Bastille with Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame. In addition to his concerts with the Houston Symphony, he returned to the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the London Philharmonic, the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchester, the San Francisco Symphony,
the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra in Tokyo.
The 2025–26 season marks his fourth season with the Houston Symphony. His guest engagements will lead him to the San Francisco, Chicago, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. In Europe, he will join the Orchestre National de France, the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, the Bamberg Symphony, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, the Basque National Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and on tour, and the RAI National Orchestra in Turin. On the opera stage, he will conduct Pelleas et Mélisande at the Geneva Opera as well as Don Carlo and La bohème at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, Valčuha studied composition and conducting in his birthplace, then at the conservatory in St. Petersburg (with Ilya Musin), and finally, at the Conservatoire Supérieur de la Musique in Paris.
SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Barbara J. Burger President
John Rydman Chair
Brad W. Corson Chair, Governance & Leadership
Carey Kirkpatrick Chair, Marketing & Communications
Evan B. Glick Chair, Popular Programming
Barbara McCelvey Chair, Development
Sippi Khurana, M.D. Chair, Education & Community Engagement
GOVERNING DIRECTORS
Gary Beauchamp
Eric Brueggeman
Bill Bullock
Mary Kathryn Campion, Ph.D.
John Cassidy, M.D.
Lidiya Gold
Claudio Gutiérrez
TRUSTEES
Christopher Armstrong
David J. Beck
Carrie Brandsberg-Dahl
Nancy Shelton Bratic
Terry Ann Brown**
Ralph Burch
John T. Cater**
Robert Chanon
Heaven Chee
Michael H. Clark
Virginia Clark
Aoife Cunningham
Andrew Davis, Ph.D.
Denise Davis
Tracy Dieterich
Joan Duff
Connie Dyer
Kelli Cohen Fein
Jeffrey B. Firestone
Barbara McCelvey President-Elect
Mike S. Stude Chair Emeritus
Mary Lynn Marks Chair, Volunteers & Special Events
Robert Orr Chair, Strategic Planning
John Rydman** Chair, Artistic & Orchestra Affairs
Jesse B. Tutor** Chair, Audit
Janet F. Clark^ Immediate Past Chair
Steven P. Mach^ At-Large Member
Rick Jaramillo
David J. M. Key
Cindy Levit
Isabel Stude Lummis
Cora Sue Mach **
Rodney Margolis**
Elissa Martin
Lindsay Buchanan Fisher
Eugene A. Fong
Aggie L. Foster
Julia Anderson Frankel
Carolyn Gaidos
Evan B. Glick
Andrew Gould
Lori Harrington
Jeff Hiller
Grace Ho
Gary L. Hollingsworth
John W. Hutchinson
Brian James
Dawn James
Matthew Kades
I. Ray Kirk, M.D.
David Krieger
Matthew Loden
Michael Mann, M.D.
FOUNDATION FOR JONES HALL REPRESENTATIVES
Janet F. Clark
As of August 18, 2025
Barbara McCelvey
Paul Morico General Counsel
Jonathan Ayre Secretary Chair, Finance
Bobby Tudor^** At-Large Member
Leslie Nossaman^ President, Houston Symphony League
James H. Lee^ President, Houston Symphony Endowment
Juraj Valčuha^ Music Director
Roy and Lillie Cullen Chair
Joan DerHovsepian^ Musician Representative
Gary Ginstling^ Executive Director/CEO
Margaret Alkek Williams Chair
Paul R. Morico
Chris Powers
Brittany Sakowitz
Ed Schneider
Justin Stenberg
William J. Toomey II
Betty Tutor **
Nancy Martin
Jack Matzer
Jackie Wolens Mazow
Aprill Nelson
Tim Ong
Edward Osterberg Jr.
Gloria G. Pryzant
Miwa Sakashita
Ted Sarosdy
Andrew Schwaitzberg
Helen Shaffer**
Becky Shaw
Robert B. Sloan, D.D., Theol.
Jim R. Smith
Miles O. Smith**
Quentin Smith
Tad Smith
Anthony Speier
Tina Raham Stewart
Fredric Weber
Mark Hughes^ Musician Representative
Wei Jiang^ Musician Representative
Mark Nuccio^ Musician Representative
^Ex-Officio
Gretchen Watkins
Robert Weiner
Margaret Alkek Williams **
Mike S. Stude**
Nanako Tingleaf
Margaret Waisman, M.D.
Fredric A. Weber
Vicki West
Steven J. Williams
David J. Wuthrich
Ellen A. Yarrell
Robert Yekovich
EX-OFFICIO
Alejandro Gallardo
Reverend Ray Mackey, III
Frank F. Wilson IV
**Lifetime Trustee
*Deceased
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
LEADERSHIP GROUP
Gary Ginstling, Executive Director/CEO
Margaret Alkek Williams Chair
Elizabeth S. Condic, Chief Financial Officer
Vicky Dominguez, Chief Operating Officer
Jennifer Renner, Chief Development Officer
Alex Soares, Chief Marketing Officer
Mayenne Minuit, Executive Assistant
DEVELOPMENT
Sarah Bhalla, Board Relations Associate
Lauren Buchanan, Development Communications Manager
Alex Canales, Manager, Donor Services
Jessie De Arman, Development Associate, Gifts, Records, & Research
Timothy Dillow, Senior Director, Individual Giving
Amanda T. Dinitz, Director, Principal Gifts & Endowment
Vivian Gonzalez, Annual Giving Officer
Kamra Kilmer, Special Events & League Liaison Officer
Karyn Mason, Institutional Giving Officer
Hadia Mawlawi, Endowment & Planned Giving Officer
Meghan Miller, Development Associate, Special Events
Emilie Moellmer, Membership Manager
Megan Mottu, Annual Giving Officer
Tim Richey, Director, Major Gifts & Board Relations
Katie Salvatore, Director, Annual Giving & Membership
Lena Streetman, Director, Development Operations
Stacey Swift, Director, Special Events
Sarah Thompson, Donor Events Manager
Christina Trunzo, Director, Institutional Giving
Alexa Ustaszewski, Board Giving Officer
EDUCATION | COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Olivia Allred, Education Manager
Allison Conlan, Senior Director, Education & Community Engagement
Austin Hinkle, Education & Community Engagement Coordinator
Jazmine Olwalia, Community Engagement Associate
Sheridan Richard, DeLUXE K!ds In Harmony Site Manager
Community-Embedded Musicians (CEM):
Lindsey Baggett, Lead CEM
Lucinda Chiu, CEM Teaching Artist
David Connor, CEM Teaching Artist
Stephen Hudson, CEM Education Specialist
Rainel Joubert, CEM Teaching Artist
Bianca Lozano, CEM Teaching Artist
Alexis Mitrushi, CEM Teaching Artist
Adrian Ponce, CEM Teaching Artist
Lauren Ross, CEM Teaching Artist
FINANCE | ADMINISTRATION | IT |
HR
José Arriaga, Systems Engineer
Henry Cantu, Finance Accountant
Kimberly Cegielski, Staff Accountant
Heather Fails, Database Administrator
Joel James, Director of Human Resources
Tanya Lovetro, Director of Budgeting & Financial Reporting
Freddie Piegsa, Help Desk Technician
Morgana Rickard, Controller
Gabriela Rivera, Senior Accountant
Pam Romo, Office Manager/HR Coordinator
Lee Whatley, Senior Director, IT & Analytics
MARKETING | COMMUNICATIONS
Bryan Ayllon, Web Coordinator
Rachel Cheng, Marketing & External Relations Assistant
Bella Cutaia, Manager, Patron Services
Ruben Gandara, Patron Services Representative
Kathryn Judd, Director, Marketing
Priya Kurup, Senior Associate, Group Sales
Caroline Lawson, Patron Services Representative
Lien Le, Patron Experience Coordinator
Yoo-Ell Lee, Graphics & Media Designer
Ciara Macaulay, Creative Director
Ashley Martinez, Patron Services Coordinator
Mariah Martinez, Email Marketing Coordinator
Casey Pearce, Graphic Design Manager
Aracely Quevedo, Patron Services Representative
Eric Skelly, Senior Director, Communications
Christian Sosa, Web Experience Director
Lily Townsend, Patron Services Representative
Sophie Volpe, Digital Content Specialist
Jenny Zuniga, Director, Patron Services
OPERATIONS | ARTISTIC
Stephanie Alla, Associate Director of Artistic Planning
Becky Brown, Associate Director of Orchestra Personnel
Juan Pablo Brand, Artistic Assistant
Megan Fisher, Assistant Librarian
Michael Gorman, Director of Orchestra Personnel
Julia Hall, Assistant Director, Houston Symphony Chorus
Parker Hart, Concert Operations Manager
Adrian Hernandez, Concert Media Production Manager
Hazel Landers, Chorus Library Intern
Giancarlo Minotti, Audio Production Manager
José Rios, Assistant Stage Manager
Jennifer Romig, Interim Chorus Librarian
Brad Sayles, Senior Recording Engineer
Stefan Stout, Stage Manager
Nathan Trinkl, Artistic Assistant & Assistant to the Music Director
Ali Verderber, Associate Librarian
Meredith Williams, Director of Concert Operations
Rebecca Zabinski, Senior Director of Artistic Planning
Featured Program
Fiesta Sinfónica
Gonzalo Farias, conductor
*Josefina Maldonado, mezzo-soprano
0:03 HERNÁNDEZ/GONZALES – El Cumbanchero
0:05 BERNSTEIN – “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story
0:02 BERNSTEIN – “Somewhere” from West Side Story
0:05 TOBAR – Kalamary
0:03 SORO – Tres Aires Chilenos III. Allegro Moderato
0:07 LIEBERSON – Neruda Songs
IV. Ya eres mía... (And now you’re mine...)
0:08 SOTO – Bailongo, o Danzas de Pasión y Desdén
0:05 ROBLES/GONZALES – El cóndor pasa
0:04 BIZET – “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (Habanera)” from Carmen
0:10 J.P. CONTRERAS – Mariachitlán
There will not be an intermission
*Houston Symphony Debut
Friday, September 26
About the Music Program Insight
Jones Hall
7:30 p.m.
Fiesta Sinfónica is one of the Houston Symphony’s favorite traditions. Each year during Hispanic Heritage Month, the Symphony performs a free concert at Jones Hall celebrating repertoire inspired by the rich musical traditions of Latin America. Conducted by the Houston Symphony’s exciting Chilean Associate Conductor, Gonzalo Farias, this year’s program features many vocal works which will be performed by critically acclaimed Texan mezzosoprano Josefina Maldonado, who makes her Houston Symphony debut.
The program begins with El Cumbanchero, one of the most popular rumbas by Afro-Puerto Rican composer Rafael Hernández (1891–1965). During his storied career, Hernández toured Europe during his service as a trombonist in the U.S. Army during World War I and spent time in New York, Cuba, and Mexico City. Hernández became so well-known for this rumba that when he visited the White House in 1961, President Kennedy greeted him by saying, "How are you, Mr. Cumbanchero?” “Cumbanchero,” incidentally, can be translated as “party animal,” making this irresistible dance the perfect opener for our Fiesta.
Next, we turn from music by a Puerto Rican who lived in New York to a musical about Puerto Ricans living in New York. A modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story premiered on Broadway in 1957 and was adapted into a film in both 1961 and 2021. American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) wrote the score, which combines diverse influences from opera to Latin jazz. The heroine of the story, Maria, sings “I Feel Pretty” at the beginning of Act II. Although lyricist Stephen Sondheim was later alarmed by his charming verses and disavowed the song, it has always been an audience favorite. Soon after, Maria discovers that Tony (the Romeo role) has killed her brother, Bernardo. Despite this, she still loves him, and they dream of running away together. An offstage soprano then sings “Somewhere” as the chorus performs an expressive dance number. We leave New York for Colombia with the next work, Kalamary, by Alex Tobar (1907–1975), a violinist perhaps best known for serving as concertmaster of the Colombian National Symphony. “Kalamary” is likely an alternate spelling of Calamari, an indigenous people native to modern day Cartagena; the piece is a medley of famous tunes by Lucho Bermúdez (1912–1994), the Colombian clarinettist, composer, and bandleader. Bermúdez was deeply influenced by the cumbia and porro musical traditions of the Afro-Carribean and indigenous peoples of northern
Sponsors
Program Insight
Colombia, and his orchestral adaptations of cumbia in the 1940s and ’50s helped to make this music popular around the world.
Next, we move to our conductor’s birthplace, Chile. Enrique Soro (1884–1954) was the son of an Italian musician who settled in Chile. After studies and concert tours as a pianist in Italy and France, Soro returned to Chile and became a professor (and later director) of the Santiago National Conservatory. His Tres Aires Chilenos (“Three Chilean Songs”) dates from 1942; as its title suggests, the work is based on traditional Chilean folksongs.
The next piece also has a Chilean connection in that it is a setting of a poem by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904–1973). American composer Peter Lieberson (1946–2011) developed an intense interest in Neruda’s poetry at the same time that he met and fell in love with his second wife, mezzosoprano Lorraine Hunt, in the late 1990s. Lieberson composed his Neruda Songs for her; she gave the world premiere in 2005 and recorded them before she passed away from breast cancer the following year. Lieberson was soon after diagnosed with cancer himself, to which he succumbed in 2011. “Ya eres mía…” (“And now you’re mine…”) is the third of the five Neruda poems Lieberson set. It is a love sonnet, in which the speaker implores the listener to “Rest with your dream in my dream.”
Another 21st-century composer, Costa Rican Andrés Soto (b. 1987), provides the next work. Based in Los Angeles, Soto has made a successful career by writing not only concert music, but also film and video game scores. Regarding his Bailongo, o Danzas de Pasión y Desdén (“Bailongo, or Dances of Passion and Disdain”), Soto wrote, “I drew inspiration from [...] Ravel’s La Valse and R. Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, hoping to write in the same vein for the Latin American concert music repertoire. [...] The title alludes to the seductive quality that dance can sometimes have, especially when performed in pairs.”
We journey next to Peru. Daniel Alomía Robles (1871–1942) originally studied medicine, but in 1896 an encounter with a Franciscan friar and the Asháninka people in the Peruvian Amazon inspired him to dedicate his life to the study of indigenous musical traditions. In addition to collecting and publishing his own arrangements of traditional music from Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, he also composed hundreds of original compositions, the most famous of which is his one-act zarzuela El cóndor pasa (The Condor Passes) of 1913. The operetta centers on a Peruvian miner’s conflict with his imperialistic American boss (who is later revealed to be his father). Throughout, the image of the Andean condor symbolizes freedom. This famous excerpt comes from Act II, in which townspeople celebrate an impending marriage. In 1970, Simon and Garfunkel released a version of the melody with English lyrics as “El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could),” which brought new fame to the melody. Paul Simon mistakenly believed that the melody was a folk song until he was informed otherwise by a lawsuit from Robles’s son, which appears to have been settled amicably.
We then turn to another stage work with Carmen. Although the opera is set in Spain and was written by French composer Georges Bizet (1838–1875), one of its most famous numbers, the Habanera, has a Caribbean connection. As its name would suggest, the “habanera” is a dance that
Program Insight
originated in Havana, Cuba. A variant of the 18th-century European contradance transformed by Afro-Cuban rhythms, the habanera traveled from Cuba to Spain in the 19th-century and became a popular style of music there. The melody of Bizet’s famous habanera was adapted from “El Arreglito” (“The Little Arrangement”), a popular song by the Basque composer Sebastián Iradier (1809–1865). As with Paul Simon and “El Cóndor Pasa,” Bizet mistakenly believed it to be a folk song, but later credited Iradier when he learned of the tune’s author.
The program concludes with Mariachitlán by contemporary Mexican composer Juan Pablo Contreras (b. 1987). A portmanteau of “mariachi” and the Nahuatl place name suffix “-tlan” (as in “Tenochtitlan”), the title can be translated as “Mariachiland.” Contreras describes the work as “an orchestral homage to my birthplace, the Mexican state of Jalisco, where mariachi music originated.” Combining the various meters of the canción ranchera (in 2/4), the vals romántico (3/4), and the jalisciense (alternating 6/8 and 3/4), melodies clash playfully à la Stravinsky or Ives, imitating the way mariachis “interrupt each other to win over the crowd” in Guadalajara. “Near the end of the piece, a policeman blows his whistle in an attempt to stop the party,” Contreras explains. “However, the crowd chants Mariachitlán, gradually increasing in intensity, and is rewarded with more vibrant music that ends the work with great brilliance.”
—Calvin Dotsey
Program Bio
Gonzalo Farias, conductor
An engaging orchestral conductor, award-winning pianist, and passionate educator, Gonzalo Farias is the Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony. In an ever-changing world, Gonzalo’s desire is to establish music-making as a way of rethinking our place in
society by cultivating respect, trust, and cooperation among all people in our community.
Gonzalo Farias served previously as the Associate Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, the Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony, the Assistant Conductor of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and Conducting Fellow at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Praised for his “clear, engaging” style “with a lyrical, almost Zen-like quality,” Farias has been established “as a focused, musical artist who knows what he wants and how to get it—with grace and substance.” As former Music Director of the Joliet Symphony Orchestra, Farias embraced the city of Joliet and its Hispanic
residents of the greater Chicago area with pre-concert lectures, Latin-based repertoire, and a unique side-by-side bilingual narration of Bizet’s Carmen
Farias was selected to conduct at the esteemed Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, the most important showcase for conductors in America. Designed by the League of American Orchestras, the National Conductor Preview chooses the most promising talents in the world for their podium gift and commitment to the future of American orchestras. Farias was also appointed by the National Endowment for the Arts as a reviewing member for the Grant for Art Projects, judging applications from diverse music
Program Bio
institutions to support the latest and most important artistic endeavors in the U.S.
During the summers, Farias has worked with Jaap Van Zweden and Johannes Schlaefli at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland as well as with Neeme and Paavo Järvi at the Pärnu Music Festival. In the United States, he was a two-time recipient of the prestigious Bruno Walter Memorial Conducting Scholarship at the Cabrillo Music Festival and named “Emergent Conductor” by Victor Yampolsky at the Peninsula Music Festival. He also attended the Pierre Monteux Festival where he received the Bernard Osher Scholar Prize. Out of 566 applicants and 78 countries, he was chosen as one of 24 finalists in the prestigious 2018 Malko Conducting Competition with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Hailed by the Gramophone magazine critics, Farias offered one of the “most fluent, honest, open-hearted, and pointed performances.”
Farias was born in Santiago de Chile, where he began his piano studies at age five. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the P.C. University of Chile and then continued his graduate piano studies at the New England Conservatory as a full-scholarship student of Wha-Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. He has won first prize at the Claudio Arrau International Piano Competition and awards at the Maria Canals and Luis Sigall Piano Competitions. As a conductor, Farias attended the University of Illinois working with Donald Schleicher, the Peabody
Conservatory with Marin Alsop, and worked privately with Larry Rachleff and Otto-Werner Mueller.
Besides having a fond love for piano, chamber, and contemporary music, Farias is a passionate supporter of second-order cybernetics as a way to help understand communication and how complex systems organize, coordinate, and interconnect with one another. This includes the interdependent and recursive nature of musical experiences, in which performers and audiences alike interact, respond, and co-create each other’s space. His final Doctoral thesis “Logical Predictions and Cybernetics” explores the case of Cornelius Cardew’s The Great Learning to redefine music activity as a self-organized organization. In addition to that, he has a warm affection for his formal studies of Zen Buddhism, which has been a major influence on his approach to music and life.
Josefina Maldonado, mezzo-soprano
Dallas-born mezzo-soprano Josefina Maldonado has been critically acclaimed by The Texas Classical Review and Theater
Jones as “vocally superb” with a “remarkably rich timbre.”
Maldonado was a young artist with The Dallas Opera Outreach Program in multiple roles in 2019. That year she also made her European debut as a principal artist in the modern-day premieres of two 17th-century serenatas by Johannes Schmelzer, Le veglie ossequiose and Die sieben Alter stimmen zusammen, for the Olomouc’s Baroque Festival in the Czech Republic.
In May 2022, she made her debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at the Cincinnati May Festival in John Adams’s El Niño, conducted by the composer, followed by her debut with the Cleveland Orchestra in the same role in November 2022. She was reengaged by the Cleveland Orchestra to sing Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater in March 2024, conducted by Dalia Stasevska.
She made her debut in May 2025 with the San Antonio Philharmonic in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 conducted by Jeffrey Kahane and has been invited back in 2026 for Bach’s B Minor Mass. This is her Houston Symphony debut.
Maldonado holds a degree from the University of North Texas where she was a frequently featured soloist with the UNT Symphony Orchestra and UNT Opera.
Oct. 3, 4* & 5
*Livestream Performance 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 17, 18* & 19
*Livestream Performance 7:30 p.m.
Gold Classics
POPS Series
Juraj Valčuha, Music Director