- Aurelie Desmarais in the studio. (Photo Credit: Catherine Lu)
- Ben Kingsley with his computer-generated counterpart, Bagheera, from The Jungle Book.. (Photo Credit: Disney, courtesy of the IMDb.)
- Pianist Daniil Trifonov, who performs with the Houston Symphony Nov. 3rd, 5th, and 6th. (Photo Credit: Dario Acosta, courtesy of the artist's website.)
- Hans Graf, former Music Director of the Houston Symphony. (Photo Credit: Christian Steiner, courtesy of CM Artists.)
- Christoph Eschanbach, former Music Director of the Houston Symphony. (Photo Credit: Eric Brissaud, courtesy of the artist's website.)
- Gabriela Lena Frank, composer of the Houston Symphony commission Requiem. (Photo Credit: Mariah Tauger, courtesy of G. Schirmer, Inc.)
This week on the Houston Symphony Broadcast, Catherine Lu and the symphony's Senior Artistic Advisor Aurelie Desmarais preview the upcoming 2016-2017 season, full of exciting concerts with an all-star roster of talented guests!
For the Houston Symphony's Opening Night concert, the orchestra will be joined by multi-award winning actor Ben Kingsley, who will be narrating Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. This combination could hardly be more fitting, given Kingsley's role as Bagheera in Disney's most recent iteration of The Jungle Book, another story about a young boy and his interactions with animals.
Later, in November, renowned Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov joins the orchestra in a performance of Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto, a piece that was originally premiered by the composer's wife Clara in 1846. This concert also features Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2.
Next February, the orchestra celebrates American composer John Adams' 70th birthday! This concert also brings back former Houston Symphony Music Director Hans Graf, leading performances of Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments, Adams' Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra (with soloist Timothy McAllister, who originally premiered the work), and Ravel's famous orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
Shortly after that in March, another former Music Director returns with Christoph Eschenbach conducting the music of Anton Bruckner, where the orchestra will also be joined by the Houston Symphony Chorus.
As the season nears its end, the orchestra and chorus will join forces yet again for the world premiere of a new commission from the Houston Symphony's composer-in-residence Gabriela Lena Frank. Lena Frank's Requiem is described as "a multicultural work that interweaves tradition Latin and Meso-American texts with new passages by Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz."
These are just a few of the highlights from the coming season, and all of the concerts, including the Pops and Family Series can be found at the Houston Symphony website. Tune in for Catherine Lu's conversation with Aurelie Desmarais and plentiful musical excerpts this Sunday (9/11) on News 88.7 or next Wednesday (9/14) on Houston Public Media Classical at 8 PM.
