HOUSTON (September 13, 2023) – In just a little over two weeks, Juraj Valčuha opens his second season as Houston Symphony Music Director on September 29, 2023 (with additional performances September 30 and October 1), leading the full complement of the Houston Symphony and the Houston Symphony Chorus onstage in Francis Poulenc’s miraculous, life-affirming Gloria, with soprano soloist Erin Morley, renowned for the beauty and purity of her lyric instrument. The all-French program opens with Messiaen’s Les offrandes oubliées (Forgotten Offerings) and ends with the sensuous beauty of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé.
The evening begins with a champagne reception followed by the Opening Night Concert at Jones Hall. Following the concert, the celebration continues at The Corinthian with dinner and sensational entertainment. The Opening Night Concert and Gala, chaired by Stephen and Mariglyn Glenn, are generously supported by ConocoPhillips, the lead concert sponsor and corporate gala underwriter for the 37th year.
Highlights of the Janice H. and Thomas D. Barrow 2023–24 Season include Valčuha leading multi-week mini-festivals centered around programming motifs and unifying concepts Symphonic Dances, Tragedy and Triumph, and an All-Strauss Festival. Tribute is paid to the Houston Symphony’s rich legacy of music directors as two past music directors return to the Jones Hall stage: Christoph Eschenbach and Conductor Laureate Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Operatic repertoire (Salomé) takes its place alongside great choral works from the symphonic repertoire like Poulenc’s Gloria, Carmina Burana, and Brahms’s A German Requiem. Houston Symphony musicians including Yoonshin Song and Brinton Averil Smith take the spotlight as soloists, and the Symphony welcomes the greatest guest artists in the world to Houston, including Emanuel Ax, Seong-Jin Cho, Alexandra Dariescu, Augustin Hadelich, Jennifer Holloway, Lang Lang, Norm Lewis, Kelley O’Connor, Itzhak Perlman, Susanna Phillips, Marcus Roberts, Rachel Willis Sørensen, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Davóne Tines. New works this season include a world premiere by Jimmy López Bellido and the U.S. premiere of Julia Wolfe’s Pretty.
“The music this season is very challenging, and every single musician will show their abilities at the highest possible level,” said Juraj Valčuha. “It is only this way that you perform this music. This ability is something that we have here in Houston, and it’s going to be something that the audience will be invited to enjoy during the next season, with all these great compositions and composers.”
“Juraj brings fresh and innovative programming and thrilling performances to the Jones Hall stage,” said Executive Director, CEO, and holder of the Margaret Alkek Williams Chair John Mangum. “In his second season as Music Director, we’re eagerly looking forward to terrific concerts, exciting new works, and even more opportunities to showcase the entire orchestra, its musicians, the chorus, and this institution’s long history of eminent musical leadership, as we continue this new era under the musical directorship of Juraj Valčuha.”
Principal POPS Conductor Steven Reineke launches his seventh season September 22 and 23, presiding over the Houston Symphony’s Bank of America POPS Series with Broadway legend Norm Lewis in a concert of great Broadway showstoppers. The season includes GO NOW!: A Tribute to the Moody Blues, I Will Survive—Diva Legends, Swingin’ Sinatra: A New Year’s Celebration with Tony DeSare, At Last! A Tribute to Etta James, 21st Century Broadway, and The Music of Star Wars.
The 2023–24 PNC Family Season kicks off with Halloween Spooktacular for Kids on October 28, 2023, and continues with Holly Jolly Holiday, Get Up and Dance!, and concludes with epic theme music from Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Superman and the like in I’m a Superhero, April 6, 2024.
New this coming season is a substantial expansion of the Houston Symphony’s free and low-cost ticket programs, designed to break down attendance barriers. Music is for everyone, and the Houston Symphony’s wants to do all it can to ensure that economic restraints don’t prevent Houstonians from hearing their Houston Symphony perform live.
This year, young concert-goers ages ten to 18 can attend any Janice H. and Thomas D. Barrow Classical Series concert for free with an accompanying paid adult. These tickets are available at showtime on a first come, first served basis.
Also new this year is the All-Access Community Pass, offering all Lone Star, WIC, SNAP, and EBT card holders access to free tickets to any Janice H. and Thomas D. Barrow Classical Series or Bank of America POPS concerts.
In addition to these programs, a limited number of Pay What You Wish tickets may be made available for select performances.
Students with a valid student ID can purchase a Student Pass, with access to all eighteen Janice H. and Thomas D. Barrow Classical Series concerts, all nine Bank of America POPS concerts, and Handel’s Messiah for a one-time payment of $75. Also, $20 Student Rush tickets are available for most Classical Series and Bank of America POPS concerts and select Special concerts as well.
And the Houston Symphony is proud to salute our military with a 25% discount for all active military personnel and their families, valid for select Janice H. and Thomas D. Barrow Classical and Bank of America POPS concerts, based on availability.
For more details about any of these ticket programs and how to apply to them, visit houstonsymphony.org/ways-to-save or call 713.224.7575.
For tickets to all 2023–24 performances and more information, please call 713.224.757 or visit houstonsymphony.org. All programs and artists are subject to change.
JANCE H. AND THOMAS D. BARROW
2023–24 CLASSICAL SUBSCRIPTION SERIES
Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé
September 29, 30, 2023
October 1, 2023
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Juraj Valčuha, conductor
Erin Morley, soprano
Houston Symphony Chorus
Allen Hightower, director
Messiaen: Les offrandes oubliées
Poulenc: Gloria
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
Seong-Jin Cho Plays Ravel
October 7, 8, 2023
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Juraj Valčuha, conductor
Seong-Jin Cho, piano
Jolas: A Little Summer Suite
Ravel: Concerto for the Left Hand
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique
Barber’s Violin Concerto + Duke Ellington
October 14, 15, 2023
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Thomas Wilkins, conductor
Valeriy Sokolov, violin
Lysenko: Farewell Waltz
Barber: Violin Concerto
Ginastera: Estancia: Four Dances
Ellington/Gould: Solitude
Ellington: Harlem
SYMPHONIC DANCES
Valčuha Conducts Rachmaninoff
November 10, 11, 12, 2023
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Juraj Valčuha, conductor
Behzod Abduraimov, piano
- Ortiz: Kauyumari
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances
Valčuha Conducts Ravel’s La valse
November 17, 18, 19, 2023
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Juraj Valčuha, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Bartók: Dance Suite
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
- Wolfe: Pretty (HS co-commission, U.S. Premiere)
Ravel: La valse
Andrés Returns
December 1, 2, 3, 2023
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11, The Year 1905
Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony + Yoonshin Song
January 12, 13, 14, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Juraj Valčuha, conductor
Yoonshin Song, violin
- Clyne: Color Field
Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 “Scottish”
Takemitsu + Brahms’s Requiem
January 19, 20, 21, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Juraj Valčuha, conductor
Lauren Snouffer, soprano
Andrew Foster-Williams, baritone
Houston Symphony Chorus
Allen Hightower, director
Takemitsu: Requiem for strings
Brahms: A German Requiem
Perlman Conducts Tchaikovsky 5
February 8, 10, 11, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Itzhak Perlman, conductor and violin
Vivaldi: “Winter” from The Four Seasons
Walker: Lyric for Strings
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Eschenbach Conducts Bruckner 8
February 24, 25, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Bruckner: Symphony No. 8
TRAGEDY AND TRIUMPH FESTIVAL
Valčuha Conducts Mahler 6
March 15, 16, 17, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Juraj Valčuha, conductor
Mahler: Symphony No. 6 “Tragic”
Mozart + Beethoven’s Eroica
March 22, 23, 24, 2024
Juraj Valčuha, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano
- Mazzoli: These Worlds In Us
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25, K. 503
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”
Romeo and Juliet + Dvořák’s Cello Concerto
March 29, 30, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Xian Zhang, conductor
Brinton Averil Smith, cello
- Chang: Northern Star
Dvořák: Cello Concerto
Prokofiev: Selections from Romeo and Juliet
Carmina Burana
April 19, 20, 21, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor
Houston Symphony Chorus
Allen Hightower, director
- López Bellido: Houston Symphony Commission, World Premiere
Orff: Carmina Burana
Pines of Rome + Grieg’s Piano Concerto
May 2, 4, 5, 2024
Fabien Gabel, conductor
Alexandra Dariescu, piano
- Shin: Kafka’s Dream
Grieg: Piano Concerto
Respighi: Fountains of Rome
Respighi: Pines of Rome
Adams’s El Niño
May 25, 26, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
David Robertson, conductor
Susanna Phillips, soprano
Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano
Davóne Tines, baritone
Daniel Bubeck, Brian Cummings, Nathan Medley, countertenors
Houston Symphony Chorus
Allen Hightower, director
Mark Grey, sound engineer
- Adams: El Niño
STRAUSS FESTIVAL
An Alpine Symphony
June 1, 2, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Juraj Valčuha, conductor
Rachel Willis Sørensen, soprano
- Strauss: Symphonic Interlude: Träumerei am Kamin from Intermezzo
- Strauss: Four Last Songs
- Strauss: An Alpine Symphony
Salomé In Concert
June 7, 9, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Juraj Valčuha, conductor
Jennifer Holloway, soprano (Salomé)
John Daszak, tenor (Herodes)
Linda Watson, mezzo-soprano (Herodias)
Mark S. Doss, baritone (Jochanaan)
- Strauss: Salomé
2023–24 BANK OF AMERICA POPS
Blockbuster Broadway with Norm Lewis
September 22, 23, 2023
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Steven Reineke, conductor
Norm Lewis, vocalist
GO NOW! A Tribute to The Moody Blues
October 27, 28, 29, 2023
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Michael Krajewski, conductor
Mick Wilson, vocalist
Gordy Marshall, drums
Nick Kendall, guitar and vocalist
Patrick Duffin, bass and vocalist
“I Will Survive”—Diva Legends
November 24, 25, 26, 2023
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Lucas Waldin, conductor
LaKisha Jones, vocalist
Nova Payton, vocalist
Very Merry POPS
December 20, 21, 22, 23, 2023
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Lucas Waldin, conductor
Mandy Gonzalez, vocalist
Houston Symphony Chorus
Allen Hightower, director
Swingin’ Sinatra: A New Years Celebration
January 5, 6, 7, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Steven Reineke, conductor
Tony DeSare, pianist and vocalist
Jazz, Love & Gershwin: A Century of Rhapsody in Blue
February 2, 3, 4, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Steven Reineke, conductor
Marcus Roberts, piano
Jason Marsalis, drums
Martin Jaffe, bass
Catherine Russell, vocalist
At Last! A Tribute to Etta James
March 1, 2, 3, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Steven Reineke, conductor
Crystal Monee Hall, vocalist
21st Century Broadway
April 5, 6, 7, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Steven Reineke, conductor
The Music of Star Wars
May 17, 18, 19, 2024
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Steven Reineke, conductor
2023–24 PNC BANK FAMILY SERIES
Halloween Spooktacular for Kids
October 28, 2023 10 & 11:30 a.m.
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Holly Jolly Holiday
December 23, 2023 10 & 11:30 a.m.
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Get Up and Dance!
February 3, 2024 10 & 11:30 a.m.
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
I’m A Superhero!
April 6, 2024 10 & 11:30 a.m.
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
2023–24 SPECIALS
Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone In Concert
July 14, 15, 2023
Hobby Center for the Performing Arts Serafim Hall
Star Wars: A New Hope—In Concert
July 28, 29, 2023 7:30 p.m.
Hobby Center for the Performing Arts Serafim Hall
Lang Lang
October 6, 2023 7:30 p.m.
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Juraj Valčuha, conductor
Lang Lang, piano
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastíque
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
December 9, 10, 2023
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker
December 12, 2023 7:30 p.m.
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
The Jazz Houston Orchestra
Vincent Gardner, artistic director
Tchaikovsky/Ellington: Selections from The Nutcracker
Händel’s Messiah
December 15, 16, 17, 2023
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Jeannette Sorrell, conductor
Amanda Forsythe, soprano
Ed Lyon, tenor
Kevin Deas, bass-baritone
Houston Symphony Chorus
Allen Hightower, director
Víkingur Ólafsson Plays Bach
January 28, 2024 2:30 p.m.
Hobby Center for the Performing Arts Zilkha Hall
Vkingur Ólaffson, piano
J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets In Concert
May 10, 11, 2024
Hobby Center for the Performing Arts Serafim Hall
Itzhak Perlman: In the Fiddler’s House
May 12, 2024 7:30 p.m.
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Itzhak Perlman, violin
Hankus Netsky, conductor, saxophone, and piano
Andy Statman, clarinet and mandolin
Members of the Brave Old World Klezmer Conservatory Band
About Juraj Valčuha
Conductor Juraj Valčuha is recognized for his effortless expressiveness and depth of musicianship. With sharp baton technique and natural stage presence, the impressive ease of his interpretations translates even the most complex scores into immersive experiences. His profound understanding of composer and score, taste, and naturally elegant style make him one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation.
Beginning in September 2022, Valčuha assumes the post of Houston Symphony Music Director. Since 2016 he has been Music Director of the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples and First Guest Conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He was Chief Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI from 2009 to 2016.
The 2005–06 season marked the start of his international career with exciting concerts on the podium of the Orchestre National de France followed by remarkable debuts in the U.K. with the Philharmonia London, in Germany with the Munich Philharmonic, and in the United States with the Pittsburgh Symphony. His Italian debut took place at Teatro Comunale in Bologna with a sensational production of La Bohème.
He has since led the Berlin Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, hr Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, BBC Symphony, Philharmonia London, Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, Montréal Symphony, and NHK and Yomiuri orchestras in Tokyo. His active career in the U.S. has taken him to the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Utah. He enjoys regular collaborations with orchestras in Houston, Minnesota, New York, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco.
International touring with the Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI took them to the Musikverein in Vienna and the Philharmonie in Berlin, as well as Cologne, Düsseldorf, Zurich, Basel, and Munich, and to the Enesco Festival in Bucharest, and to Abu Dhabi Classics. He has also toured with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin to Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn to mark the 100th anniversary of the Baltic nations.
Valčuha champions the compositions of living composers and aims to program contemporary pieces in most of his concerts. He has conducted world premieres including Christopher Rouses’s Supplica with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Steven Mackey’s violin concerto with Leila Josefowicz and the BBC Symphony in Manchester. In 2005 he conducted, in the presence of the composer, Steve Reich´s Four Sections at the Melos-Ethos Festival in Bratislava. Other composers he has supported and continues to follow with interest are Bryce Dessner, Andrew Norman, Luca Francesconi, James MacMillan, and Steven Stucky, among others.
On the opera stage, he has conducted Madama Butterfly, Elisir d‘amore, and Marriage of Figaro at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich; Faust and The Love for Three Oranges in Florence; Jenufa, Peter Grimes, and Salome in Bologna; La Bohème in Venice; and Elektra, Carmen, Bluebeard’s Castle, Die Walküre, The Girl of the Golden West, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Katja Kabanova, and Pique Dame in Napoli.In January 2020, he conducted an opera production of Tristan and Isolde at Teatro Comunale in Bologna, at the end of which the complete lockdown was introduced in most European countries. However, he was privileged during the pandemic year to conduct many livestreamed performances with Teatro San Carlo (Tosca with Anna Netrebko and Cavalleria Rusticana with Elina Garanca and Jonas Kaufmann), RAI Orchestra in Turin, Orchestre National de France, Konzerthaus Berlin, and NDR Orchestra Hamburg. In the U.S. he was one of the few conductors to travel from Europe and make music with the Dallas, Houston, Minnesota, and Pittsburgh orchestras.
Juraj Valčuha was awarded the Premio Abbiati 2018 from Italian Music critics in the category Best Conductor.
Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, he studied composition and conducting in his birthplace, then at the Conservatory in St Petersburg (with Ilya Musin), and, finally, at the Conservatoire Supérieur de la Musique in Paris.
About the Houston Symphony
Under Music Director Juraj Vačuha, 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 $37.8 million, the full-time ensemble of professional musicians presents more than 130 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Traditionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s two Community-Embedded Musicians also offer over 1,000 community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches reaching more than 200,000 people in Greater Houston annually.
After suspending concert activities in March 2020, the Symphony successfully completed a full 2020–21 season with in-person audiences and weekly livestreams of each performance, making it one of the only orchestras in the world to do so, while the Symphony’s Education and Community Engagement team continued to fulfill its mission through creative and virtual means throughout the COVID pandemic. The Houston Symphony remains committed to livestreaming all of its 2023–24 season to a broad audience in over forty-five countries and all fifty states, one of few American orchestras dedicated to transmitting live performances to a size-able audience outside its home city through this technology.
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. The Symphony’s most recent recordings include a Pentatone release in January 2022 of its world premiere performances of Jimmy López Bellido’s Aurora and Ad Astra, and a Naxos release in July 2023 of its world premiere performance of Jennifer Higdon’s Duo Duel.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Eric Skelly: 713.337.8560, eric.skelly@houstonsymphony.org
Madison Mann: 832.930.4065 x120, madison@theckpgroup.com
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