Concert is Friday, Mar. 21 at Moores Opera House through Lago Vista Community Concerts Foundation and the University of Houston
WHAT: Tickets are still on sale for the Voice of Brubeck: Themes and Explorations, presenting major orchestral and vocal works of jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck, set for Friday, March 21 at the Moores Opera House on the University of Houston (UH) campus. Presented by Lago Vista Community Concerts Foundation, in partnership with UH, this is the second installment in the Voice of Brubeck series, following the sold-out, inaugural concert last June with the Houston Chamber Choir, the Brubeck Brothers Quartet, and the Paul English Quartet.
The Voice of Brubeck: Themes and Explorations brings back jazz artist Chris Brubeck, along with The Moores School of Music Symphony Orchestra (dir. Franz Anton Krager), soloists Simone Gundy (The Voice) and Horace Alexander Young, the Paul English Quartet, with pianist and bandleader John Cornelius joining the program. As with the inaugural edition, the UH program will be professionally recorded and released later this year on Navona Records.
Volume Two will feature some of Dave Brubeck’s freshly arranged sacred vocal music, a few of his jazz masterpieces, and a five-movement orchestral tour-de-force, Theme and Explorations, commissioned by Andre Previn for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The March 21 concert creates a unique opportunity for the listener to experience Brubeck’s versatile and complex musical narrative unrestrained by stylistic boundaries. People of all ages and musical tastes will find something to love with this concert.
Several other activities will lead up to the March 21 concert, including two Choir Invitationals and a French Horn recital by UH student Luke Khi Sian Chong on March 17 and a Faculty Artist Series: Romantic Bookends – Schumann & Dohnányi on March 18. All are free.
WHEN: Friday, March 21 at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Moores Opera House, 3333 Cullen Blvd., Houston, TX 77004
TICKETS: Price range is $10 to $20. Tickets can be purchased online at www.voiceofbrubeck.com/voice-of-brubeck-themes-and-explorations/. Students attend for free with ID.
Check out our website www.voiceofbrubeck.com/voice-of-brubeck-themes-and-explorations/ for full details.
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Link to photos and video here
Photo and video credits:
Courtesy of Arthur Gottschalk
Courtesy of “The Voice of Brubeck”
Courtesy of Chris Brubeck
Courtesy Franz Anton Krager
Courtesy of Simone Gundy
Courtesy of Horace Alexander Young
Courtesy of Paul English
About Voice of Brubeck
The Voice of Brubeck is an homage to the great American jazz pianist and composer, Dave Brubeck, with the mission to reintroduce listeners to the phenomenal legacy of his jazz, symphonic, chamber, and sacred choral music. Several decades ago, Dave Brubeck’s jazz compositions were widely performed, but audiences today are often unfamiliar with Brubeck’s music, even more so with his classical and sacred music. Presented by and in partnership with the Brubeck Brothers Quartet, the Houston Chamber Choir, the Paul English Quartet, and many other fine musicians, this project will result in fresh performances of Dave Brubeck’s serious symphonic, chamber, and sacred vocal works, the studio recording of many of Brubeck’s compositions that were never before recorded, and a series of performances and educational opportunities in the Greater Houston area. This project is intended to raise awareness of and interest in Dave Brubeck’s lesser-known serious symphonic, chamber, and sacred vocal music, and to preserve his legacy for future generations of listeners.
Lago Vista Community Concerts Foundation has launched its new multi-year collaborative project – “The Voice of Brubeck,” which is comprised of new musical arrangements of Dave Brubeck’s compositions, public performances of those works, education workshops and lectures, touring, and recording sessions.
Dave Brubeck had a transformative impact on American Jazz and his legacy continues to influence jazz musicians to this day. The classical music of Dave Brubeck, however, remains mostly unknown, remaining in the shadow of his prolific jazz output. After serving in Patton’s 3rd Army in WWII, Brubeck returned to the United States to study classical music composition, first with Darius Milhaud in his native California, and then later with Nadia Boulanger, in France. Although he found early and sustained success with his career as a jazz pianist and composer, he continued to create high quality, serious works, often inspired by his deep faith and devotion, until his untimely demise in 2012. The purpose of this project is to celebrate, promote, and preserve Dave Brubeck’s symphonic, chamber, and sacred vocal music.
About The Moores School of Music
The Rebecca and John J. Moores School of Music is the music school of the University of Houston. The Moores School offers the Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Arts in Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in music performance, conducting, theory and composition, music history and literature, pedagogy, and music education and also offers a Certificate of Music Performance. It is a component of the University of Houston’s Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts. The Moores School is a fully accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM).
The mission of Moores School of Music is to provide an outstanding comprehensive music education on the undergraduate and graduate levels, overseen by a faculty and staff second-to-none; to continue to develop recognition of the school at the local, national, and international levels in order to attract students of the highest caliber; and to provide the university community and the city with the highest quality performances that will both educate and entertain.