WHAT: The Grammy® Award-winning Houston Chamber Choir presents its 2023 gala entitled Heart & Song on Sunday, March 26 at the Petroleum Club of Houston. The event is a celebration of the organization and a festive party for current supporters, as well as an opportunity for new friends to experience what the Choir is about. Music will be a big part of the evening.
A VIP reception for special guests begins at 5:30 p.m., featuring a signature cocktail, with the general cocktail reception beginning at 6 p.m. Well-known Houston pianist, musician and long-time friend of the Choir, Marvin Gaspard, will be “tickling the ivories” during the reception. Dinner will be served later in the evening, with a program and entertainment featuring soloists from the Houston Chamber Choir. The ensemble will also perform a few group numbers. The night will include a live auction and a raise-the-paddle fundraising event.
The gala features a $100,000 challenge match from a generous donor. Every dollar raised at Heart & Song will be matched one-to-one, up to $100,000, so that patron donations will count double to support the Houston Chamber Choir and its 2023-24 season.
St. John Flynn, a writer, speaker, podcaster, arts and culture consultant and host of the Houston Chamber Choir’s “Behind the Scenes” podcast for the weekly With One Accord program, is the evening’s host. Guests always enjoy his dry wit and musical insight.
WHEN: Sunday, March 26, 2023, from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
WHERE: Petroleum Club of Houston, 1201 Louisiana St., Houston, TX 77002
COST: Tickets start at $300, and table sponsorships are $3,000 and up. An exclusive VIP reception will be held from 5:30 – 6 p.m. for major sponsors. Visit https://www.houstonchamberchoir.org/gala-2023 to purchase tickets.
ATTIRE: Black tie optional/cocktail
Check out our website at HoustonChamberChoir.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Link to photos here
Photo credit: Jeff Grass Photography
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 26 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.
