This month, conductor Brent Havens and vocalist Rashidra Scott join the Houston Symphony at the Hobby Center for The Music of Whitney Houston, a symphonic tribute to one of the world’s most beloved superstars, as part of the Stella Artois Summer Sounds Series. The one-night program on June 19 features fan-favorite songs like “How Will I Know,” “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” and The Bodyguard soundtrack smash hit “I Will Always Love You.” In-person tickets for this program are available at houstonsymphony.org/whitney.
Nicknamed “The Voice,” Whitney Houston has been acclaimed as one of the greatest singers of all time and a cultural icon. Houston holds the Guinness World Record as the most awarded female artist of all time, with more than 400 career awards, including 6 Grammy Awards and 22 American Music Awards. She is also one of the best-selling female-recording artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. The Bodyguard soundtrack is one of the top 5 biggest-selling albums of all-time (at 18x-platinum in the U.S. alone), and Whitney’s career-defining version of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” is the biggest-selling single of all time by a female artist (at 10x-platinum, Diamond, for physical and digital in the U.S. alone).
For this one-night tribute to Whitney Houston, guest conductor Brent Havens will lead the Houston Symphony and powerhouse vocalist and Broadway star Rashidra Scott through a lively and powerful evening of Houston’s most popular hits, from power ballads to dance-friendly pop favorites that will have everyone up in their seats. Additionally, guests can enjoy specialty cocktails in the Hobby Center lobby, dubbed the “Every Woman,” for the perfect Whitney-inspired evening. For tickets and more information, please call 713.224.7575 or visit houstonsymphony.org/whitney. All programs and artists are subject to change.
THE MUSIC OF WHITNEY HOUSTON
Sunday, June 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Brent Havens, conductor
Rashidra Scott, vocalist
About the Houston Symphony
During the 2022–23 Season, the Houston Symphony continues its second century as one of America’s leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring, and recording activities. One of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, the Symphony held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston on June 21, 1913. Today, with an operating budget of $28.8 million (FY22), the full-time ensemble of professional musicians presents nearly 170 (FY19) concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Additionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s two Community-Embedded Musicians offer over 1,000 (FY19) community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches reaching more than 200,000 (FY19) people in Greater Houston annually, prior to COVID-19.
After suspending concert activities in March 2020 and cancelling the remainder of 2019–20 events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Symphony resumed activities in May 2020, opening the 2020–21 Season on schedule in September 2020 with small audiences of 150, which the Symphony gradually increased to 450 audience members per performance. Due to the financial impact of the canceled 2019–20 Season events, plus the reduction of sales capacity due to audience social distancing in 2020–21, the Symphony cut expenses, reducing planned spending from $36.2 million in 2019–20 to $22.7 million in 2020–21. The Houston Symphony’s Education and Community Engagement team continued to fulfill its mission through creative and virtual means throughout this period. The Symphony successfully completed a full season with in-person audiences and weekly livestreams of each performance, making it one of the only orchestras in the world to do so.
The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Koch International Classics, Naxos, RCA Red Seal, Telarc, Virgin Classics, and, most recently, Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category.
About Brent Havens
Berklee-trained arranger/conductor Brent Havens has written music for orchestras, feature films and virtually every variety of television program. His TV work includes movies for major networks, commercials, sports music for ESPN, and cartoons.
Brent worked with the Doobie Brothers and the Milwaukee Symphony, arranging and conducting the combined group for Harley Davidson’s 100th Anniversary Birthday Party Finale attended by more than 150,000 fans. He has worked with some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including London’s Royal Philharmonic; the Houston and Nashville Symphonies; the Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras; the Minnesota Orchestra; the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and countless others. For the past several years, he has conducted the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra with Music of Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and U2 shows.
Brent composed the score for the film Quo Vadis, a Premier Pictures remake of the 1956 gladiator film. In 2013, he worked with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens to arrange and produce the music for the Thanksgiving Day halftime show between the Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers, adapting both classical music and rock songs into a single four-minute show.
He is arranger/guest conductor for 14 symphonic rock programs, including the Music of Led Zeppelin, the Music of the Doors, the Music of Pink Floyd, the Music of the Eagles, the Music of Queen, the Music of Michael Jackson, the Music of The Who, The Music of Whitney Houston, the Music of The Rolling Stones, the Music of U2, the Music of Journey, the Music of Elton John, the Music of David Bowie, and the Music of Prince. Brent Havens also premiered a full orchestral show for Lou Gramm, The Voice of Foreigner with Lou singing out front.
About Rashidra Scott
From an early age Rashidra was known as the little girl with the big voice. From community musical theatre to church music ministry, she was constantly in demand for civic and social performances at local and national events.
Throughout the years, that little girl was still ever so alive inside, leading her to a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music. After graduating, Rashidra spent four years singing for Walt Disney Entertainment as a featured vocalist on Disney Cruise Line (Disney Wonder) and Tarzan Rocks! at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. She was a proud member of the opening team of Hong Kong Disneyland as Nala in The Festival of The Lion King. After living in Hong Kong for eight months Rashidra was led to move to New York, and that turned out to be the best nudge she could have followed.
In New York, Rashidra has been on Broadway in lead and ensemble roles in Avenue Q, Finian’s Rainbow, Hair, and most recently, Sister Act. She was on the road as a background vocalist for renowned singer Patti Austin’s BeboperElla! tour in conjunction with the release of Austin’s Ella Fitzgerald tribute album, For Ella. Rashidra’s television appearances include Violet (the singing nurse) on Sony/FOX’s Rescue Me, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Dancing with the Stars, the 2011 Tony Awards, The View, Good Morning America, the Walt Disney World Christmas Parade, and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
