Houston Symphony Celebrates 100th Year with Free Concert at Miller Outdoor Theater
HOUSTON – Hermann Park -On June 22,music lovers can hear another free concert by the 100-year-old Houston Symphony at Miller Outdoor Theatre as part of their ExxonMobil Summer Symphony Nights series at Miller Outdoor Theatre. The concert will feature popular works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Led by associate conductor Robert Franz, the concert will also feature cello soloist Christine Lamprea, a native of San Antonio and winner of the 2013 Sphinx Competition, who will make her debut with the Houston Symphony performing Tchaikovsky’s technically challenging Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra.
The second half of the concert will be equally entertaining for outdoor audiences. Scheherazade, one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s most evocative works, illustrates some of the oriental stories spun by Scheherazade in the literary epic, The Arabian Nights. Opening with the themes of the frustrated sultan and the storytelling Scheherazade, the piece weaves through stories of Sinbad and his ship to festivals held in the city of Baghdad. With vast elaborate colors and dazzling, memorable themes that bring about visions of the ancient orient, audiences of all ages are sure to enjoy this performance.
The audience is encouraged to participate in the Symphony’s photo contest, OH SNAP!, in which concert-goers upload their favorite snapshots from any Summer Symphony Nights concert to the Symphony’s Flickr page. The themes upon which the winners will be selected include the following categories: Performance, Family/Friends, Fireworks, Venue, Audience and Miscellaneous. Winners of each photo category will receive a pair of ticket vouchers to a future Houston Symphony concert, and their photo will be featured on the Houston Symphony website, e-news, and blog. Additionally, the grand prize winner will be given $300. Visit www.houstonsymphony.org/ohsnapfor more information.
EXXONMOBIL SUMMER SYMPHONY NIGHTS SERIES
Miller Outdoor Theatre
6000 Hermann Park Drive
Houston, TX 77030
Saturday, June 22, 2013, 8:30 PM
Mozart and Scheherazade
Robert Franz, conductor
Mozart:Symphony No. 31 in D Major
Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra
Rimsky-Korsakov:Scheherazade
FREE ADMISSION
Admission is free for these concerts, but tickets are required for the seated area. Tickets are available the day of the performance from the Miller Theatre Box Office between 10:30 AM – 1:00 PM. Any remaining tickets are released one hour before the performance time. Visit www.milleroutdoortheatre.com for more information.
About Robert Franz
In his seventh season as Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony, Robert Franz leads the Symphony in a broad range of creative educational and family concerts. His concerts have reached over 72,000 audience members of all ages as he travels to various venues throughout the state of Texas. When not in Houston, he is also the Music Director of the Boise Philharmonic, and in 2012, Franz began his tenure as Music Director of the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Opera and Orchestra. Franz is also the newly appointed Music Director of the Windsor Symphony in Ontario. Recent and upcoming guest conducting highlights include his debut with the Baltimore Symphony, St. Louis Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra.
Under his direction, both the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (2008) and the Louisville Orchestra (2001) were awarded ASCAP’s Leonard Bernstein Award for Educational Programming. The Louisville Orchestra’s award led to the creation of an education program for Kentucky Educational Television entitled, Creating Music and Stories. Winner of the 2008 BPO/ECMEA Music Educators Award for Excellence, Franz has created arts education programs for the Carolina Chamber Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, West End Chamber Ensemble and the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony, including that organization’s innovative Bolton Research Project.
A recognized leader in the arts, the Idaho Education Committee invited him to address the Idaho Legislature on the importance of music in education. Franz has also authored his first children’s book with a CD entitled, Stella’s Magical Musical Tour of America. It introduces children to classical music by incorporating various musical excerpts intertwined throughout the story of a girl’s journey in a hot air balloon.
In addition to his current posts, Franz served as the Music Director of the Mansfield Symphony in Ohio (2003-10), Resident Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic (2005-09) and Associate Conductor of the Louisville Orchestra (1997-06). He continues to serve as Music Director Emeritus of the Carolina Chamber Symphony, an orchestra that he founded, and provides educational programming workshops at the National Repertory Orchestra during the summer.
Franz received his Master of Music degree in conducting from the North Carolina School of the Arts in 1992 and his Bachelor of Music degree in oboe performance in 1990 from that same institution.
About Christine Lamprea
Colombian-American Cellist Christine Lamprea is the Senior Division First Place Laureate of the 2013 Annual Sphinx Competition presented by the DTE Energy Foundation. She performs as part of the Sphinx Soloist Program sponsored by the GM Foundation. Noted for her “charm” and“supreme panache,” Lamprea is a multi-faceted young soloist and chamber musician. Her Sphinx Competition win has earned her a spot on the roster of the Sphinx Soloists Program, where she will be a featured soloist with major orchestras worldwide.
Lamprea has received awards from the National Foundation of the Advancement of the Arts, the Young Texas Artists’ Competition and most recently won First Prize in the 2013 Schadt National String Competition. An experienced chamber musician, Lamprea has performed in the United States, Canada and Europe alongside musicians such as Itzhak Perlman, Roger Tapping and Carol Wincenc. Most recently, she was a member of a small ensemble working with Anthony Coleman on avant garde composer John Zorn’s game piece Cobra for musical improvisers and prompter.
Lamprea strives to expand her musicianship by exploring less familiar venues of performance and teaching. She has worked with members of the Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants and studied sonatas with fortepiano with Audrey Axinn. In addition to this performance in Houston, she will be a guest artist at the Silicon Valley Music Festival in June 2013.
A passionate teacher, Lamprea worked with Ecuadorian youth in Quito and Guayaquil as part of a residency between The Juilliard School and “Sinfonia Por La Vida,” a social inclusion program based on Venezuela’s El Sistema. She continued her outreach as a Gluck Community Service Fellow at Juilliard, performing in hospitals and nursing homes in and around New York City as part of a mixed ensemble of dancers, actors and musicians. After completing her undergraduate studies with Bonnie Hampton at Juilliard, Lamprea began her Master’s studies at New England Conservatory with Natasha Brofsky in 2011.
Lamprea plays on a 1711 David Tecchler cello, generously loaned to her by the New England Conservatory.
About the Houston Symphony
During the 2013-14 Season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its 100th year as one of America’s leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring and recording activities. The Houston Symphony is one of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas whose inaugural performance was held at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston on June 21, 1913. Continuing a long standing tradition of performances at Miller Outdoor Theatre, the Houston Symphony held its first concert at Miller Memorial Theater on August 21, 1940 and has been entertaining outdoor audiences with free concerts every summer since. Today, with an annual operating budget of $28.7 million, the full-time ensemble of 87 professional musicians is the largest performing arts organization in Houston, presenting more than 280 concerts for 280,000 people, including 84,000 children, annually. For tickets and more information, please visit www.houstonsymphony.org or call713-224-7575.