'Pop-Up' Classical-Music Group Hosts Weeklong, Family-Friendly — and Free! — Concert Series
Apr. 21, 2023
IT’S NOT ENOUGH for Houston’s premier wind quintet WindSync to put on great concerts, like last February’s performance at Live Oak Friends Meeting House, or travel to London’s legendary Abbey Road studios to record an album of music by Miguel del Águila. No, this ambitious, community-minded quintet of classical music ambassadors is wrapping up its 2022-23 season with the Onstage Offstage Chamber Music Festival, a weeklong series of (mostly) free concerts, workshops in Houston schools, and two main stage concerts at MATCH and Zilkha Hall. This is the seventh edition of the festival, and its programming brings together guest professional musicians and elementary through high school level students to celebrate the quintet’s various community and educational residencies.
The festival gets rolling with two outdoor, family-friendly “pop-up” concerts. (WindSync is well known for “popping up” in venues other than the concert hall to reach audiences who may be unfamiliar with classical wind repertoire.) The first takes place Tuesday, April 25 at noon at Crain Garden, a favorite common space in Houston Methodist Hospital. Bring your lunch and enjoy some Beethoven, some blues, and (maybe?) some Beatles.
The second happens Wednesday, Apr. 26, at 6:30pm at The Lawn at Houston Farmers Market, with students from HSPVA, and a performance of WindSync’s interactive, theatrical family show, Interstellar Cinderella. (It should be said, the members of WindSync — including founding members Anni Hochhalter and Garrett Hudson and newer members Emily Tsai, Graeme Steele Johnson, and Kara LaMoure — are all unapologetic hams.)
On April 27 at MATCH, pianist Yvonne Chen joins the quintet, along with double bassist David Connor and violinist Rainel Joubert, both Community-Embedded Musicians with the Houston Symphony, for a season-finale concert featuring a special chamber-music performance of George Gershwin’s piano concerto Rhapsody in Blue.
And for an encore, on April 28 at Zlikha Hall, WindSync joins forces with musicians from the Houston Youth Symphony (HYS) Coda Music Program for a concert led by Coda director Jackson Guillen. The Coda Music Program provides after-school instruction to third, fourth, and fifth-grade Houston ISD and Fort Bend ISD students from low-income families, and for the majority of the students, this will be their first time performing downtown.
The Onstage Offstage Chamber Music Festival is made possible in part by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, the Texas Commission on the Arts, Rice University’s Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance Arts of Tolerance Program, the Huff Foundation, and the Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Research at the Eastman School of Music.
Yvonne Chen
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Katy Anderson & Michelle Watson
Apr. 20, 2023
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The theme was “A City of Bold Voices,” inspired by the current Houston Grand Opera season’s “Fortune Favors the Bold” motto. The boldness played out all night long — not only with glam gowns and black-and-gold décor rife with thousands of red roses and largescale photos of Houston icons such as rocket ships dangling overhead — but also with musical performance and other cultural references from Houston.
Guests arriving to the red carpet were greeted with the booming sounds of Texas Southern University’s famous Oceans of Soul Marching Band, for example. Other performances punctuating the night included thosse by University of Houston’s Mariachi Pumas and Houston singer-songwriter Kim Cruse, who was just a semifinalist of The Voice. Cruse sang Gershwin’s “Summertime” to commemorate HGO’s groundbreaking 1976 production of Porgy and Bess, which went on to receive Tony and Grammy awards.
“The evening was a bold celebration of the generous spirit and unique culture of Houston, and everything that makes HGO a beacon of great art throughout the city and the world,” said a rep for the prestigious company. “HGO General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor welcomed an at-capacity crowd of over 500 guests.”
Dastoor said of the city-boosting theme, contrasting to previous balls celebrating exotic, faraway places: “After decades of going around the world for Opera Balls past, this year we are bringing it home and celebrating our own city!”
The dinner menu was inspired by “hometown James Beard Award culinarians” and said to reflect “the eclectic flavors and fusions of India, Asia, Italy, Latin America, and Southern Gulf Coast cuisines,” per the HGO rep. Think smoked salmon carpaccio with tobiko and avocado aioli, followed by an entree of seared duck breast with mole poblano, paired with spinach and mushroom enchiladas.
Officially, dessert was a chocolate pecan tart with whipped cinnamon mascarpone. But hunky tenor Jonathan Tetelman’s surprise performance of “Nessun Dorma” might have been the sweetest moment.
The gala, chaired this year by longtime HGO supporters Anne and Albert Chao, raised over $1.4 million. Guests included Lynn Wyatt, Janet and John Carrig, Cindi and Franklin Rose, Andrew Pappas, Betty and Jess Tutor, Jana and Scotty Arnoldy, Kiran and Shiv Verma, Claire Liu, Joe Greenberg, Molly and Jim Crownover, Cynthia and Tony Petrello, Gracie and Bob Cavnar, Robert Sakowitz, Leigh and Reggie Smith, Ileanaa and Michael Treviño, Kirk Kveton, Daniel Irion and Tripp Carter.
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