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Then, singers from Opera Vista perform live for us. They and Conductor Viswa Subbaraman present excerpts from Vera of Las Vegas, Daron Hagen and Paul Muldoon’s chamber opera that blends the styles of 20th Century classical music, jazz, Broadway and even folk-rock. Opera Vista performs Vera of Las Vegas Thursday through Saturday evening at Rich’s Night Club, downtown... |
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The Front Row - Bayou City Performing Arts Artistic Director, Linus Lerner, talks about Songs of the Poets, a program of musical settings of poetry, from Keats to Carlisle, to be presented by the Bayou City Women’s Chorus on Saturday night at the Hobby Center... |
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The Front Row - Houston Chamber Choir Houston Chamber Choir Artistic Director, Robert Simpson, and Rice University Musicologist, Anne Schnoebelen, explore the music of 17th Century Italy, which is the focus of Venetian Vespers, the Choir’s season-finale concert, coming up Saturday evening at the Church of Saint John the Divine... |
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The Front Row - NANO Fiction Reading Series Houston poets Lauren Berry (pictured) and Rich Levy each share one of their latest creations, in anticipation of the reading they’re giving this evening at Kaboom Books, where they’re being presented by the literary journal, NANO Fiction... |
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The Front Row - Society for the Performing Arts Austin’s Jason Neulander talks about The Intergalactic Nemesis, the “Live-Action Science-Fiction Graphic Novel” that he’s written, directed and produced as a theatrical event in the form of an old-time radio broadcast. The galaxy-conquering sludge monsters from the planet, Zygon, invade the Wortham Center Thursday night, aided and abetted by their earthling lackeys, Society for the Performing Arts... |
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The Front Row - Theater LaB Houston Cast members from Theater LaB Houston, along with Musical Director Adam Stout and Stage Director Jimmy Phillips perform songs from their production of [title of show]. It's a musical about a musical written and produced by two nobodies who decide to launch an original production starring themselves and their lady-friends and guess what? It becomes a hit just like [title of show]... |
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The Front Row - Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex Choreographers Toni Leago Valle and Sophia Torres tell us about the evening of contemporary dance, Rip in the Atmosphere, that their two companies, Six Degrees and Psophonia Dance, will jointly present next weekend at the Barnevelder Movement/Arts complex, downtown... |
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The Front Row - Wordsmyth Theater Company Houston playwright, Patricia Barry Rumble, introduces us to her play, Au Revoir, Chère Bêbê, in which the Great-Grandmother of a Louisiana Creole family savors the memories of her time with her beloved, late husband, and wonders whom she can pass this legacy on to. Wordsmyth Theater Company presents a staged reading of Chère Bêbê tonight at Main Street Theater’s Chelsea Market playhouse... |
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The Front Row - Houston Masterworks Chorus Composer David Ashley White (pictured) and guest conductor, Betsy Cook Weber, preview the Houston Masterworks Chorus’s Silver Anniversary Concert, which juxtaposes Doctor White’s Texas Sesquicentennial choral work, This Bitterly Beautiful Land, with Mozart’s “Coronation” Mass... |
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The Front Row - Houston Symphony Music Director Hans Graf tells us about Deryck Cooke’s completed version of Gustav Mahler’s unfinished Tenth Symphony, which the Houston Symphony performs this coming weekend at Jones Hall... |
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THe Front Row - Saint Luke's Episcopal Church We have a second studio performance by rising young American mezzo-soprano, Jamie Barton, a graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. She presents a recital with pianist Keith Weber on Sunday evening, benefiting the Bridges Fine Arts Academy of Saint Luke’s United Methodist Church... |
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The Front Row - Houston Public Library Poets Robin Davidson and Sam Amadon read examples of their latest work, more of which they’ll share tomorrow afternoon at this month’s Public Poetry reading at the Central Library, downtown... |
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The Front Row - Greater Houston Guitar Guild Serbian classical guitarist Nemanja Ostoich performs music by Tarrega and Gismonte for us in a preview of the house concert he’ll give tomorrow night for the Greater Houston Guitar Guild... |
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The Front Row - Museum of Fine Arts Houston The Heritage of Zion Quartet and tenor Jason Oby perform for us, previewing An Evening of Freedom Songs, a program commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the historic Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation laws in the summer of 1961. Houston P-B-S presents this special performance-event this evening at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston... |
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The Front Row - Cantare Houston Members of Cantare Houston introduce us Ola Gjeilo both the man and his music! They perform a piece by the young Norwegian composer and Mr. Gjeilo, himself, joins us to play one of his keyboard miniatures and to tell us about his brand-new piece that will have its World Premiere on Cantare Houston’s season-finale concert... |
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The Front Row - Stages Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Kenn McLaughlin and actor Cristine McMurdo-Wallis (pictured) talk about Stages Repertory Theatre’s regional première production of Four Places, a play that looks at the ways families change as the children grow up and the parents grow old... |
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The Front Row - Dominic Walsh Dance Theatre And dancer/choreographer Dominic Walsh serves up the third course of his company’s season-long banquet of mixed-repertory modern ballet. The final program in the series includes the piece, Time Out Of Line, which has the performers creating an abstract painting on the floor, with their feet, as they dance... |
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The Front Row - Da Camera of Houston We welcome the second of the four acclaimed mezzo-sopranos who are performing in Houston this week. Canadian singer and broadcaster, Jean Stilwell, talks about Luciano Berio’s cycle, Folk Songs which she’ll perform on the last of this season’s Da Camera concerts, Folk Songs Transformed: Old Into New. And, we hear Houston Symphony concert-master, Frank Huang, and Moores School of Music pianist, Timothy Hester, performing a movement from Georges Enescu’s folk-music-influenced Violin Sonata... |
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Artist-in-Residence, Omar Herrera-Arizmendi sits down at the Steinway piano in KUHF’s Geary Performance Studio to preview the Cinco de Mayo recital of keyboard pieces by Mexican composers that he’ll present Friday evening at MECA... |
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The Front Row - Aperio: Music of the Americas Series Michael Zuraw, Artist Director of the Aperio, Music of the Americas series, sits down at KUHF’s Steinway grand piano! He performs selections from his group’s next concert, Waltzing to the Edge: Dance Music of the Americas, which include contemporary dance-tunes from Cuba, Argentina and the United States... |
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The Front Row - Grace Song Inc. Acclaimed young French mezzo, Marie Lenormand, who, together with pianist Keith Weber, takes us on a musical journey of song by American, French and English composers. They’ll preview the last of this season’s Grace Song recitals, Voyages, which takes place Thursday evening at Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church... |
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The Front Row - Liszt Society of America Shepherd School of Music alumna, Kana Mimaki, returns to her alma mater tomorrow night to perform an all-Liszt piano recital for the Houston Chapter of the Liszt Society of America. She gives us a live preview of her performance in just a few minutes, here on the program... |
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The Front Row - Society for the Performing Arts We chat long-distance with trumpeter and former Tonight Show band-leader, Doc Severinsen, and listen to tracks from his latest CD. Since moving to Mexico a few years ago, Doc has discovered the joys of traditional Mexican music and Latin Jazz. He and his new group, the San Miguel Five, perform at Jones Hall Friday night, in a concert presented by Society for the Performing Arts... |
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We check in with one of the country’s hottest young playwrights, Rajiv Joseph. Mister Joseph’s brand-new, surrealistic, science-fiction comedy-drama, The Monster at the Door, has its World Première Wednesday night at the Alley Theatre... |
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The Front Row - Museum of Fine Arts Houston Curator Monika Wagenberg gives us an overview of Latin Wave: New Films From Latin America. The four-day festival is running this weekend at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and one of the participating film-makers, Brazil’s Gustavo Pizzi, tells us about his first directorial effort, Riscado – or, Craft, which will be screened twice during the Latin Wave Festival this weekend at the MFAH... |
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The Front Row - Houston Symphony Mezzo-soprano soloist, Jane Dutton, and guest conductor, Mark Wigglesworth, preview this weekend’s Houston Symphony concerts, featuring Sergei Prokofiev’s dramatic cantata, Alexander Nevsky, Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and the Prelude to Richard Wagner’s opera, Parsifal... |
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The Front Row - Houston International Festival Violinist David Harrington of the ground-breaking Kronos Quartet chats about the his ensemble’s collaboration with Afghan classical-music master, Homayun Sakhi, and his Trio. The two groups share the bill on tonight’s concert that launches this year’s Houston International Festival and its Silk Road Journey Across Asia... |
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The Front Row - Grand 1894 Opera House Shirley MacLaine – yes, the Academy-Award-winning actress – shares some behind-the-scenes stories about her movies, her entertainment-industry colleagues, and her spiritual quest. She brings her one-woman show, A Conversation with Shirley MacLaine, to Galveston’s Grand 1894 Opera House this Sunday afternoon... |
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The Front Row - CORE Performance Company Artistic Director Sue Schroeder of Core Performance Company and band-leader, Billie Ledbetter, get us In The Mood...For Dance! That’s also the title of their dance sampler, which celebrates America’s Big-Band era with live music provided by the Billie Ledbetter Orchestra. The lone performance of In the Mood … For Dance is set for tomorrow night at Miller Outdoor Theatre... |
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The Front Row - Houston Grand Opera Stage director John Cox and soprano Christine Goerke, who stars as the prima-donna title character, chat about Richard Strauss’ opera-within-an-opera, Ariadne auf Naxos. It’s Houston Grand Opera’s final production of the season, opening tomorrow night at the Wortham Center... |
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The Front Row - Christ the King Lutheran Church Pianist Clive Swansbourne previews his recital of Beethoven’s mighty Diabelli Variations and shares excerpts from his brand-new recording of the work. The Diabelli Variations are the focus of Part II of Mr. Swansbourne’s recital series, Twin Peaks: The Greatest Keyboard Works of Bach and Beethoven, concluding Sunday afternoon at Christ the King Lutheran Church... |
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The Front Row - Talento Bilengue de Houston Actor-playwright Ángeles Romero and director Lidia Porto talk about The Brow, a multi-media theatrical performance-work, based on the life and times of iconic Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo. The English-language version of The Brow opens tomorrow night at Talento Bilingüe de Houston... |
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The Front Row - Mildred's Umbrella Theatre Houston playwright John Harvey and actors Ashley Allison and Rod Todd talk about Under the Big, Dark Sky, the latest première production by Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company, currently on stage at the Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex... |
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Soprano Karol Bennett and pianists Matthew and Katarina Loudermilk of Houston’s International Music Academy perform for us this afternoon! They treat us to songs and piano pieces from their all-Rachmaninoff recital, coming up Friday evening at the Dowling Music Store... |
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Curator Jorge Rojas previews Low Lives Three, an international showcase for live performance-art pieces, to be transmitted over the Web and projected in real-time at multiple venues around the world this coming weekend. One of the participating artists, Houstonian Jenny Schlief describes her piece, inspired by the writings of Nietzsche, which she’ll perform as part of the festival on Saturday afternoon at Box Thirteen ArtSpace, where it’s being presented by DiverseWorks... |
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The Front Row - Houston Friends of Chamber Music We chat with Houston composer, Pierre Jalbert, and violinist Eugene Drucker of the Emerson String Quartet. Thursday evening in Rice University's Stude Concert Hall, the Emerson will give the World Première performance of Professor Jalbert’s new String Quartet No. Five, commissioned by the Houston Friends of Chamber Music in celebration of the organization’s 50th Anniversary... |
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The Front Row - Foundation for Modern Music Saxophonist Mario Ciaccio and pianist Simone Miotto play contemporary music for us, previewing the concert they're giving this evening at the University of Saint Thomas, where they're being presented by Houston's Foundation for Modern Music and the Italian Consul General... |
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The Front Row - Houston International Festival Composer Jack Perla (pictured) tells us about his chamber opera, Courtside, which he created on commission from Houston Grand Opera's outreach arm, HGOCo, as part of its Song of Houston: East Plus West initiative. HGOCo reprises Courtside Friday night as part of the multi-cultural concert that kicks off this year’s Houston International Festival: The Silk Road: Journey to Asia... |
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The Front Row - Museum of Fine Arts Houston We have a performance by fiddler Will Taylor and vocalist Karen Mal from the Austin band, Strings Attached! They treat us to numbers from their latest album and concert program, House of Wills, which puts a twist on the tunes of iconic country singer, Willie Nelson, by playing them in the Western-swing style of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Will Taylor and Strings Attached perform tomorrow night at Houston’s venerable folk club, Anderson Fair... |
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The wind quintet, WindSync, performs for us! They share music from the concert, Wind Surfin’ USA, which they'll perform tonight at AvantGarden, prior to taking it on a West-Coast tour. WindSync serves up some summer fun in this program, which places works by classical composers – like Mozart and Bernstein – alongside the group’s own arrangements of pop songs by The Beach Boys and The Black-Eyed Peas... |
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The Front Row - Museum of Fine Arts Houston Curators Kimberly Jones and Helga Aurisch guide us through the traveling exhibition, French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, currently on view at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston... |
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The Front Row - Dance Salad Festival We preview this year’s Dance Salad Festival, a three-day showcase for international choreographers and dance companies. It opens tonight and continues through Saturday at the Wortham Center... |
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The Front Row - Classical Theatre Company Stage-director, Guy Roberts; veteran Houston actor, Rutherford Cravens and guest player, Pavel Kriz from the Czech Republic, talk about William Shakespeare’s King Lear. Houston’s Classical Theatre Company and the Prague Shakespeare Festival are collaborating on a production of the tragedy, which opens tonight at Main Street Theatre’s Chelsea Market facility... |
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The Front Row - Houston Baptist University We welcome American composer, Morton Lauridsen, to the Geary Performance Studio. He is joined by members of Houston Baptist University’s Schola Cantorum and their director, John Yarrington. The singers perform for us, and Mr. Lauridsen talks about his work and his week-long residency at HBU, which culminates tomorrow in a Good Friday Evensong service tomorrow that includes his serenely beautiful choral work, Lux Aeterna... |
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The Front Row - Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church Lutenist Slobodan Vujisic tells us about the concert of Medieval and early-Renaissance music from Mediterranean lands that he and his ensemble, the Austin Troubadours, will perform Friday evening at Houston's Emerson Unitarian-Universalist Church. |
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The Front Row - Rice University Visual artist Mary Temple shows around her latest installation, Northwest Corner, Southeast Light, in which she has painted patches of leaf-dappled light on the floor and walls of the Rice University Gallery, creating the illusion that soft, partially-shaded sunshine is spilling into the room through tree-branches and windows that don’t exist. |
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The Front Row - Da Camera of Houston Jazz bassist Thomas Helton and his band take over the George Geary Studio to perform tracks from the landmark 1957 Miles Davis album, Birth of the Cool, which Mister Helton and his sidemen will re-create in its entirely on the next Da Camera jazz JAM concert, tomorrow evening at Discovery Green Park, downtown. |
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The Front Row - Dancing for Hope Soloist Nao Kusuzaki of Houston Ballet and Shizu Yasuda of Ad Deum Dance Company talk about Dancing for Hope, a benefit performance they've organized to aid victims of the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami that dance concert coming up Thursday night at the Hobby Center... |
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Artistic Director Albert LeDoux chats about J.S. Bach's sacred masterpiece, the Saint Matthew Passion, which the Bach Society, the Houston Boychoir, and Mercury Baroque jointly present this Friday afternoon - Good Friday - at Christ the King Lutheran Church... |
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The Front Row - Houston Center for Contemporary Craft Visual artist, Michelle Samour, guides us through her installation, Truth and Transience, at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Using handmade paper, paint and light boxes, Ms. Samour creates an environment that is part science and part imagination, and which allows us to explore the microscopic biological world of viruses - beautiful in their infinite variety of colors and patterns - but also potentially deadly... |
