New work by Joel Thompson and Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton to be presented in partnership with the Emancipation Park Conservancy and the African American History Research Center at the Gregory School
Tickets are now available for the song cycle, set to debut June 17, 2025, in celebration of Juneteenth
HOUSTON—March 3, 2025—Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is proud to announce the world premiere of A Voice Within, a new song cycle created by HGO Composer-in-Residence Joel Thompson and librettist and Houston poet laureate emeritus Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, inspired by the life stories of residents of Houston’s Third Ward. Presented in partnership with the Emancipation Park Conservancy and the African American History Research Center at the Gregory School, the piece will premiere on June 17, 2025 at Emancipation Park Conservancy’s Cultural Center, in celebration of the Juneteenth holiday. Tickets to the event are now available at HGO.org.
A Voice Within is comprised of 12 songs for two voices and piano, composed by Thompson in his signature genre-blending style and set to poems by Mouton that share stories of Black Houstonians. Based on interviews with longtime city residents, as well as oral histories from the collections of the Emancipation Park Conservancy and the Gregory School’s African American History Research Center, the collection of songs provides a platform for voices that often have been marginalized in the classical music world.
“Poets are alchemists, sifting through the materials of life and distilling them into something new,” says HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. “Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton and Joel Thompson are both poets, the first with words and the latter with music. This moving new cycle of songs examines the inner voices which have been all around us here in Houston, unknown or under-known until now, when this unique creative alchemy has brought these songs into being. I can’t wait.”
“It has been an honor to meditate on the history of this city and to craft, in collaboration with the brilliant Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, a musical offering of gratitude to the unsung Black voices that make Houston the vibrant metropolis that is now my home,” says Thompson. “I’m so grateful to HGO and the Emancipation Park Conservancy for facilitating the community conversations that were an essential part of the creation of A Voice Within. I hope this song cycle will inspire all of us to recognize the power of our own stories to galvanize community and to lead us toward a more just and hopeful future.”
“This song cycle is the amalgamation of so many generations of Black voices in Houston. It was truly my pleasure to be able to listen to how Houston has grown, shifted, and evolved over the years,” says Mouton. “But the greatest joy was listening as Joel wrapped each voice in song; how the multitude of experiences grew into duets and high notes. The magic of music is that it is able to take a story and turn it into an unforgettable melody—making the storyteller, the story, the singer, and the listener blend into a chorus of their own experience. One that bears witness to the everyday and the exceptional Black history of Houston.”
As part of Thompson and Mouton’s creative process for A Voice Within, HGO hosted a series of public conversations, Coffee with the Composer, at Emancipation Park’s Cultural Center. At these events, the creators joined with community members to discuss and workshop the songs, which are filled with evocative, Houston-grounded imagery—including landmarks such as the Eldorado Ballroom, local streets and schools, and NASA—and explore themes of freedom, equality, and community. Houstonians past and present whose stories feature in the cycle include educator Margaret Fisher, community leader Jacqueline Bostic, and lawyer Bobby Caldwell.
The June 17, 2025 world-premiere performance will feature beloved soprano, HGO favorite, and Houstonian Nicole Heaston, joined by baritone Justin Austin, who last year was named Rising Star of the Year at the International Opera Awards and received the Marian Anderson Vocal Award. They will be accompanied by Donald Lee III, who has performed with companies across the country and recently served as pianist/conductor for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center. Moderating a pre-performance panel discussion about the new song cycle will be Emmy Award-winning Houston broadcast journalist Linda Lorelle.
The world premiere of A Voice Within will take place at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, at Emancipation Park Conservancy’s Cultural Center, 3018 Emancipation Ave. Tickets are $25; the venue capacity is 240, and they are expected to sell out. For more information and to buy tickets, visit HGO.org or call the box office at 713-228-6737.
A Voice Within was made possible by the Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Michelle Klinger and Ru Flanagan.
Photos: A link to images that can be used with coverage of A Voice Within can be found here. Images are courtesy of HGO unless otherwise indicated.
About Joel Thompson
A rising star in American music, Joel Thompson is an Emmy Award-winning composer, pianist, conductor, and educator from Atlanta. Since 2022, Thompson has served as HGO’s first-ever full-time composer-in-residence. In 2021, HGO presented the world premiere of his company-commissioned opera The Snowy Day, based on the children’s book and created with librettist Andrea Davis Pinkney. Thompson’s well-known choral work Seven Last Words of the Unarmed was premiered in 2015 by the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club under the direction of Dr. Eugene Rogers. Recent premieres include Dove Songs at HGO, Fire and Blue Sky at Los Angeles Opera, and To See the Sky at the New York Philharmonic. Thompson has collaborated with organizations including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Atlanta Master Chorale, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, and EXIGENCE. He holds degrees from Emory University and Yale University.
About Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton is a celebrated literary figure and activist, frequent HGO collaborator, and a fixture in the Houston arts scene. Heralded as a “literary genius” by the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Mouton was formerly ranked the #2 Best Female Poet in the World and is the Poet Laureate Emeritus of the City of Houston. Mouton wrote the libretto for HGO-commissioned chamber opera Marian’s Song, composed by Damien Sneed, which made its world premiere in 2020. Her memoir, Black Chameleon (Henry Holt & Co.), received the Carr P. Collins Award for Best Nonfiction from the Texas Institute of Letters in 2023.
About Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is one of the largest, most innovative, and most highly acclaimed opera companies in the United States. General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor assumed leadership of the organization and responsibility for its strategic vision in 2021. HGO was the only American finalist for Opera Company of the Year in the 2019 International Opera Awards, and the only American company to be nominated twice. In fulfilling its mission to advance the operatic art, to serve the Houston community, and to be a global leader in the future of opera, HGO has led the field in commissioning and producing new works (76 world premieres to date) and in training and nurturing promising young artists and administrators. The company contributes to the cultural enrichment of Houston and the nation through a diverse and innovative program of performances, community events, and education projects that reaches the widest possible public. HGO’s pioneering Community and Learning initiative has served as a model for other arts organizations. The company invites all Houstonians to experience superlative opera without the barrier of price through discounted single tickets and subscriptions, subsidized student performances, and free productions.
HGO has toured extensively and has won a Tony, two Grammy awards, and three Emmy awards. It is the only opera company to win all three honors.
