Featuring Califiornia composers, the concert is Saturday, Apr. 27, at 7:30 p.m. at South Main Baptist Church
WHAT: The Grammy Award-winning Houston Chamber Choir, under the director of Founder and Artistic Director Robert Simpson, presents California Gold on Saturday, Apr. 27 at South Main Baptist Church.
The Choir has a long tradition of engaging distinguished guest conductors from around the world. This season the organization looked no further for such a guest than the internationally renowned conductor and University of Houston’s Director of Choral Activities, Dr. Betsy Cook Weber.
Well-known beyond the University of Houston as the former Director of the Houston Symphony Chorus, Weber is staking a claim that even proud Texans will discover that California composers have produced a wealth of impressive choral music. The program includes works by Eric Whitacre, Morten Lauridsen, John Cage and the Chamber Choir’s first performance of “Mass” by Igor Stravinsky.
Notably, it was announced in February 2024 that Weber will join the Houston Chamber Choir as Artistic Director Designate for the 2024-2025 season and will assume the podium as Artistic Director and Conductor beginning with the 2025-2026 season. In a unique and dynamic collaboration, Simpson and Weber will join forces for the organization’s 30th anniversary season in 2024-2025.
After stepping down, Simpson will continue to serve as Canon for Music at Christ Church Cathedral and Adjunct Lecturer of Church Music at the Shepherd School, Rice University.
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.
WHEN: Saturday, April 27, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. CT
WHERE: South Main Baptist Church, 4100 South Main St., Houston, TX 77002
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 https://www.houstonchamberchoir.org/california-gold
MORE: Parking and seating are first come, first served.
Check out our website at HoustonChamberChoir.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Link to photos here
Photo credits: Jeff Grass and Ken Jones
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.