Actor And Comedian Bill Murray Brings His “New Worlds” Tour To Houston For One-Night-Only Performance

April 16, 2018

Just Announced. Tickets on sale now at houstonsymphony.org

HOUSTON (Feb. 1, 2018) – The Houston Symphony announced today that legendary actor and comedian Bill Murray is bringing his New Worlds: Bill Murray, Jan Vogler & Friends tour to Jones Hall at 7:30 p.m. April 16, 2018, for a one-night-only event of music and literature.

One of film’s greatest performers and storytellers, Murray brings his irresistible charm in New Worlds, an evening of music and literature showcasing classical music and poetry. Part of a nationwide tour, the one-night-only event features some of the greatest American voices in literature and music from Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Walt Whitman to Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin and Stephen Foster.

This rare live performance features Murray as both singer and narrator along with distinguished German cellist Jan Vogler, violin virtuoso Mira Wang and Venezuelan pianist Vanessa Perez. The event will take place at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, 615 Louisiana Street, in Houston’s Theater District. Tickets may also be purchased in person at the Houston Symphony Patron Services Center at Jones Hall (Monday–Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.). The performance does not include the Houston Symphony. All programs and artists are subject to change.

NEW WORLDS: BILL MURRAY, JAN VOGLER & FRIENDS

Monday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Bill Murray, actor

Jan Vogler, cello

Mira Wang, violin

Vanessa Perez, piano

About Bill Murray

The legendary actor and comedian Bill Murray has become one of the most thought after artists in America. He was born William J. Murray on September 21, 1950, in Wilmette, Illinois. After spending time as a member of the cast of Chicago’s famed Second City improvisational comedy troupe, Murray relocated to New York City, where he took his comedic talents to radio’s National Lampoon Hour (1973-74) alongside Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, and John Belushi. In 1975, he was in an Off-Broadway spin-off of the comedy radio show when Howard Cosell recruited him for a show called Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell (1975-1976). A year later, producer Lorne Michaels tapped Murray to replace Chevy Chase on a much bigger sensation, NBC’s Saturday Night Live (SNL).

Ironically insincere and yet somehow soft-hearted, Murray is the best-known star to emerge from the cast of Saturday Night Live. On SNL from 1977-1980, he created the cheesy lounge crooner, Nick, and other lovably smarmy characters. It didn’t take long for him to move from the small screen to the big screen, and his first major film role was in the 1979 box office hit Meatballs. He then starred in two of the top-grossing comedies of the 1980s: playing a woolly-headed groundskeeper in Caddyshack (1980) and a slick-talking investigator in Ghostbusters (1984, with fellow SNL alumnus Dan Aykroyd). Murray’s comedy hits in the 1990s included Groundhog Day (1993) and the Amish bowling story Kingpin (1996). He also took more serious roles, playing a mobster in Mad Dog and Glory (1993, with Robert DeNiro) and an eccentric businessman in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore (1998), for which he won Best Supporting Actor from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. He was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his seriocomic role as a jet-lagged movie star in Tokyo in Sofia Coppola’s film Lost in Translation (2003).

More recently, Murray earned rave reviews for his portrayal of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) and he also reunited with Anderson for a role in Moonrise Kingdom that same year. Murray was also in Anderson’s next film, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), with Jude Law and Ralph Fiennes, as well as The Monuments Men (2014). He was nominated for a lead actor Golden Globe® for his role in the comedy St. Vincent (2014), co-starring Melissa McCarthy and Naomi Watts. That same year he starred as Jack Kennison in the acclaimed HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge, for which he earned his second Emmy Award. In 2015, Murray was seen in the comedy Rock the Kasbah portraying a music manager who starts to handle the career of an Afghani teen. He recently voiced the character of Baloo in the Disney animated film, The Jungle Book (2016), and will have a cameo role in Danny McBride’s new HBO comedy, Vice Principals.

Recognized not only as an actor, but also as a humorist, Bill Murray was awarded The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in October 2016. He is an avid golfer and a particular fan favorite at the annual AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. His passion for baseball and golf is just as famous as his ability to turn everything into art, and his eccentric and irreverent style have caused him to be seen by many as a folk hero.

About the Houston Symphony

During the 2017-18 season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its fourth season with Music Director Andrés Orozco- Estrada and continues its second century as one of America’s leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring and recording activities. The Houston Symphony, one of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston June 21, 1913. Today, with an annual operating budget of $33.9 million, the full-time ensemble of 88 professional musicians presents nearly 170 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Additionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s four Community-Embedded Musicians offer over 900 community-based performances each year, reaching thousands of people in Greater Houston. For tickets and more information, please visit www.houstonsymphony.org or call 713-224-7575.