Concert is presented by Lago Vista Community Concerts Foundation on Saturday, June 1 at 7:30 p.m. at Stude Concert Hall, Rice University
WHAT: The Grammy® Award-winning Houston Chamber Choir, under the direction of Robert Simpson, closes out the 2023-2024 season with Brubeck! A Celebration, the inaugural performance of “The Voice of Brubeck” project on Saturday June 1 at Stude Concert Hall at Rice University. Presented by Lago Vista Community Concerts Foundation, “The Voice of Brubeck” follows the recent centennial celebration of Brubeck’s life, with a goal of showcasing the artist’s classical explorations and introducing newer generations to his timeless works.
Spearheaded by producer and Rice University professor of music composition Arthur Gottschalk, the program features the Houston Chamber Choir alongside a 19-piece orchestra with the Brubeck Brothers and Paul English Quartets. In 2006, the Houston Chamber Choir invited Dave Brubeck back to perform in Houston after a 20-year absence. Now, 18 years later, the Choir joins his sons Chris Brubeck and Dan Brubeck and noted Houston musicians Paul English and Horace Alexander Young, celebrating Dave Brubeck’s contributions to jazz and his work with new musical forms.
“The Voice of Brubeck,” to be produced and released on PARMA Recordings’ GRAMMY® Award-winning Navona Records label, will feature an underrepresented cross section of the late musical legend’s oeuvre — a diverse offering of celebrated and previously-unrecorded choral and orchestral works that Brubeck regarded as some of his finest. The ensuing commercial album by PARMA Recordings and Navona Records is expected to be released in late 2024.
Dave Brubeck had a significant impact on the music world, and his legacy continues to influence musicians today. Though less well-known, he also composed classical and sacred music featuring his signature jazz rhythms and harmonies. They are admired by both jazz and classical audiences and have firmly established Brubeck as a leading composer of the 20th Century.
WHO: The Houston Chamber Choir is made up of 24 professional musicians of diverse backgrounds who hail from some of the finest music programs in the country, including Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory in Boston, Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, , University of Cincinnati and the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Members of the Choir have performed professionally across the United States and internationally, singing in festivals, operas, concerts, church choirs, and in musical theater.
Joining the Choir are Chris Brubeck, Dan Brubeck, Paul English and Horace Alexander Young.
WHERE: Stude Concert Hall, Rice University
Stude Concert Hall is located in Alice Pratt Brown Hall on Stadium Road on the Rice University campus (6100 Main St, Houston, TX 77005). Campus Entrance No. 8 on University Boulevard is closest to the venue.
WHEN: Saturday, June 1, 2024, 7:30 p.m. CT
COST: Single tickets for the performance range from $10 for students to $45 for general admission. Seniors and military personnel receive a discount. Tickets can be purchased online at www.houstonchamberchoir.org/brubeck.
Check out our website at HoustonChamberChoir.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Link to photos here
Photo credits:
Jeff Grass Photography for Houston Chamber Choir and Bob Simpson
Courtesy of Arthur Gottschalk
Courtesy of “The Voice of Brubeck”
About Houston Chamber Choir
Led by Founder and Artistic Director Robert Simpson, the Houston Chamber Choir is a Grammy® Award-winning ensemble of 24 professional musicians selected from the finest choral artists in our region. “One of the jewels of the city’s cultural scene” (Houston Chronicle), the Houston Chamber Choir has brought Houston an array of choral works for 28 years ranging from early music and Baroque masterpieces, including the city’s first period instrument performance of Bach’s B Minor Mass, to the rarely heard Third Sacred Concert by Duke Ellington, and performances and premieres of works by today’s leading composers, many with Houston ties — David Ashley White, Christopher Theofanidis, Dominick DiOrio, J. Todd Frazier, Mark Buller, Karim Al-Zand, Pierre Jalbert, Marcus Maroney, and Daniel Knaggs.
The Houston Chamber Choir’s awards include Chorus America’s Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence and the American Prize. They were one of 24 international ensembles selected to appear at the 2020 World Symposium on Choral Music in New Zealand. The Houston Chamber Choir has appeared at national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the American Guild of Organists, and Chorus America. Tours have taken them to Mexico, Wales, and the Northeastern United States where they performed at Trinity Church, Wall Street in New York City, and Yale University at the invitation of the Institute of Sacred Music.
The Houston Chamber Choir’s recording of the complete choral works of French composer Maurice Duruflé was awarded the 2019 Grammy® Award for Best Choral Performance. In January 2022, Signum Classics released its newest recording of compositions by acclaimed British composer Bob Chilcott. For this recording, the Houston Chamber Choir is joined by the Treble Choir of Houston directed by Marianna Parnas-Simpson. The title work, Circlesong, is a 13-movement composition for two choirs, two pianos, and percussion based on indigenous poetry of North America.
ABOUT The Voice of Brubeck – Song of Hope and Peace
The Voice of Brubeck is an homage to the great American jazz pianist and composer, Dave Brubeck, with the mission to reintroduce listeners to the phenomenal legacy of his jazz, symphonic, chamber, and sacred choral music. Several decades ago, Dave Brubeck’s jazz compositions were widely performed, but audiences today are often unfamiliar with Brubeck’s music, even more so with his classical and sacred music. Presented by and in partnership with the Brubeck Brothers Quartet, the Houston Chamber Choir, the Paul English Quartet, and many other fine musicians, this project will result in fresh performances of Dave Brubeck’s serious symphonic, chamber, and sacred vocal works, the studio recording of many of Brubeck’s compositions that were never before recorded, and a series of performances and educational opportunities in the Greater Houston area. This project is intended to raise awareness of and interest in Dave Brubeck’s lesser-known serious symphonic, chamber, and sacred vocal music, and to preserve his legacy for future generations of listeners.
Lago Vista Community Concerts Foundation has launched its new multi-year collaborative project – “The Voice of Brubeck,” which is comprised of new musical arrangements of Dave Brubeck’s compositions, public performances of those works, education workshops and lectures, touring, and recording sessions.
Dave Brubeck had a transformative impact on American Jazz and his legacy continues to influence jazz musicians to this day. The classical music of Dave Brubeck, however, remains mostly unknown, remaining in the shadow of his prolific jazz output. After serving in Patton’s 3rd Army in WWII, Brubeck returned to the United States to study classical music composition, first with Darius Milhaud in his native California, and then later with Nadia Boulanger, in France. Although he found early and sustained success with his career as a jazz pianist and composer, he continued to create highest quality serious works, often inspired by his deep faith and devotion, until his untimely demise in 2012. The purpose of this project is to celebrate, promote, and preserve Dave Brubeck’s symphonic, chamber, and sacred vocal music.