Published by The Center for the Performing Arts at The Woodlands
June - July 2010 Volume 11, Issue 2
It’s a summer of fun and exploration as the arts take center stage at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Texas Music Festival Orchestra
European Adventure
June 18 • 8 p.m.
June 10 • 8 p.m.
Pack your bags for a musical journey June 10 as the Houston Symphony travels across Europe with a family concert for all to enjoy. With Robert Franz in the driver’s seat, buckle your seat belts for an exciting European Adventure! Tickets are $15 for orchestra seating. Mezzanine and lawn seating are free courtesy of The Wortham Foundation. Tickets are not required for free seating. Gates open at 7 p.m.
Listen to the future of orchestral music June 18 as The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion presents a free concert by the Texas Music Festival Orchestra featuring more than 100 gifted musicians from around the world. Presented in conjunction with the Immanuel and Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival, this concert features some of the best young musicians performing today. Tickets are not required. Gates open at 7 p.m.
Franz leads this musical tour with tunes from all across Europe. Travel to Germany with Humperdinck’s “Hexenritt” (“Witch’s Ride”) from “Hänsel und Gretel.” Richard Strauss called Humperdinck’s piece “a masterpiece of the highest quality...all of it is original, new and so authentically German.”
The Texas Music Festival is a University of Houston’s Moores School of Music summer orchestral training program. Orchestra participants Horst Foerster (Orchestral Fellows), chosen by competitive live and recorded auditions, are advanced students and young professional musicians who come from throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico, Asia, Canada, Central and South America to participate in the four-week residency program on the UH campus. The Orchestral Fellows study and rehearse under the guidance of an international faculty of artists/teachers and conductors.
On your next stop, the symphony performs Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor. The Hungarian Dances are a set of 21 lively dance tunes based on mostly Hungarian themes. They are among Brahms’ most popular works, with No. 5 as the most famous of the Hungarian Dances. Continue your melodic journey to Italy with the sounds of Rossini’s Overture to Il barbiere di Siviglia (“The Barber of Seville”) and Overture to Guillaume Tell (“William Tell”). “The Barber of Seville” has proven to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music. Even after 200 years, its popularity on the modern opera stage attests to its greatness. Rossini’s “William Tell,” though Italian in its origin, is most famously known as the theme for “The Lone Ranger” TV and radio show. Your European Adventure includes stops before the show with pre-concert activities beginning at 7 p.m. in the Fidelity Investments Plaza. For details, see page 3. Pack your camera and capture your memories of this summer European Adventure!
Under the direction of Horst Foerster, founder and conductor of the Leipzig Akademisches Orchester and former professor of conducting with the Berlin Music Academy, the orchestra performs Wagner’s Overture to Die fliegende Holländer (“The Flying Dutchman”) and Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique.” Joining the orchestra for Bartók’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra is violist Rita Porfiris, faculty member of The Hartt School and New York University and former member of the Houston Symphony. Pre-concert activities begin at 7 p.m. For details, see page 3. Admission is free, sponsored in part by Houston Community Newspapers.
Star-Spangled Salute July 3• 8 p.m.
Celebrate America’s independence with the return of the Houston Symphony’s Star-Spangled Salute July 3. This free IndeMichael pendence Eve spectacular, generKrajewski ously sponsored by The Woodlands Development Company since its inception in 1990, features the Houston Symphony in a selection of patriotic favorites. All seating is general admission. Tickets are not required. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. Led by Principal Pops Conductor Michael Krajewski, the Symphony performs Sousa’s “The Liberty Bell,” Grofé’s “Grand Canyon Suite,” Hayman’s “Service Medley” and Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” complete with cannons from the top of the hill. Other selections include “Shenandoah,” “My Country,” “Bandstand Boogie” and “Rockin’ with the Beach Boys.” Photo by Jeff Fitlow
Performing with the Houston Symphony are The Texas Tenors, singing such hits as “Mountain Music,” “My Way,” “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” “God Bless the U.S.A.” and Puccini’s “Nessun
Dorma.” The Texas Tenors have various backgrounds in the performing arts, but decided to combine their individual talents mixing country and classical music with their own Texas flavor. The group, a contestant on “America’s Got Talent” in 2009, enjoys doing what they love and representing their deep-rooted love for the Lone Star State. The Star-Spangled Salute kicks off at 6:30 p.m. with Lord Stirling’s Fifes and Drums performing early-American military “field music” in the plaza and on the hill. Other pre-concert festivities include activities in the plaza by Market Street-The Woodlands. For details, see page 3. Commemorate the birth of our nation by joining the Houston Symphony in this grand celebration. It’s an evening of good, old-fashioned family fun! But best of all…it’s free!
The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion’s 2010 Performing Arts Season Presented by The Woodlands Development Company and sponsored by Donoho’s Jewellers, Audi of America, official automobile of The Pavilion, The Woodlands Convention & Visitors Bureau, Houston Community Newspapers, The Pavilion Partners, The Wortham Foundation, and Continental Airlines, official airline of The Pavilion. The North Plaza is sponsored by Fidelity Investments and Market Street-The Woodlands.