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Earthen Vessels Dance Company - Amahl & The Night Visitors Artistic Director Sandra Organ previews her Earthen Vessels Dance Company’s annual production of Amahl and the Night Visitors. Based on the popular Christmas opera by Gian-Carlo Menotti, Earthen Vessels’ version of the story is told through movement and American Sign Language. It's presented this weekend at Houston Ballet’s Center for Dance. |
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The Christmas Revels - A German & Bavarian Celebration of the Winter Solstice Members of the Revels Houston Chorus and The Austin Troubadours perform songs, carols and dance-tunes from this year’s Christmas Revels production! They’re joined by stage-director, Brian Hamlin, who chats about the beloved Central European holiday traditions that the company brings to life in three more performances this weekend at the University of Houston’s Wortham Theatre. |
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Masquerade Theatre - Forbidden Broadway Singer-actors from Masquerade Theatre perform tunes from Forbidden Broadway, the hit musical revue that pays loving and satirical tribute to some of the legendary stars, songwriters and hit shows of The Great White Way. Masquerade Theatre’s cabaret production of Forbidden Broadway opens tomorrow night at Ovations Night Club! |
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Houston Center for Contemporary Craft - Soundforge Metalsmith Gabriel Craig and composer Michael Remson introduce us to their collaborative installation, Soundforge, on view at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. It’s an interactive piece that includes video, audio and sculptural elements, rooted in the idea that metal-forging is an act of music-making. |
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Wordsmyth Theater - "The Dog(run) Diaries" by Andrew Kramer Elizabeth Earle, co-founder of Wordsmyth Theater, tells us about Andrew Kramer’s play, The Dog(run) Diaries, which her company presents in a one-time-only staged reading, tonight at Main Street Theater’s Chelsea Market playhouse. |
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Mercury Baroque - Handel's "Messiah" Antoine Plante joins us in the studio to lead his Mercury Baroque vocal soloists and instrumental ensemble in excerpts from Handel’s Messiah, which they'll present in two versions -- Sing-Along and Complete -- this weekend at the Wortham Center. |
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Mildred's Umbrella - Museum of Dysfunction Actor Brandon Dinklage, director Jonathan Colunga and playwright Elizabeth Seabolt-Esparza talk about Mildred’s Umbrella Theatre Company’s 4th Annual Museum of Dysfunction, a showcase for new short plays. The production is in its final weekend at the Obsidian Art Space in The Heights. |
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Houston Early Music - The Dufay Collective William Lyons, director of the British early-music ensemble, The Dufay Collective, talks about the group’s concert, To Drive The Cold Winter Away – Christmas Revelry in Renaissance England. The Collective makes its Texas debut Sunday afternoon at Christ Church Cathedral, presented by Houston Early Music. |
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WindSync - WindSync in Wonderland We have a performance by WindSync, known for combining innovative programming with choreography and story-telling! They preview their two weekend concerts: WindSync in Wonderland, featuring a brand-new take on Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, and a joint performance with The Woodlands Presbyterian Church Choir of Ottorino Respighi’s Laud to the Nativity. |
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Cantare Houston - A Ceremony of Carols Artistic Director Kevin Riehle talks about Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, which is the centerpiece of Cantare Houston’s Christmas concert, taking place this weekend and next at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. |
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Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions We hear about the 2011 Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions, which will be held this Saturday in Houston for the first time ever in the competition’s 55-year history! Executive Director Gayletha Nichols gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the audition process. |
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Houston Friends of Chamber Music - American String Quartet Violist Dan Avshalomov of the American String Quartet previews the Houston Friends of Chamber Music concert that his ensemble will give tonight at Rice University. The program features works by Schubert, Webern and Bruckner. |
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Stages Repertory Theatre - The Winter Wonderettes The cast from Stages Repertory Theatre perform songs from The Winter Wonderettes, a spin-off of Stages’ hit musical, The Marvelous Wonderettes. This time, the show’s all-girl doo-wop group from 1968 are entertaining at a local Christmas Party, complete with seasonal shenanigans and retro holiday songs! |
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Society for the Performing Arts - The Irish Tenors Ronan Tynan and Finbar Wright of The Irish Tenors chat with us! They and Anthony Kearns, the three original members of the trio, bring their Holiday Reunion Tour to Jones Hall tonight, presented by Society for the Performing Arts. |
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Houston Chamber Choir - Christmas at the Villa Artistic Director Robert Simpson previews the Houston Chamber Choir’s annual Christmas at the Villa concert, this year featuring a cycle of Spanish songs for the season called Carols of the Southwest by Conrad Susa. The choir performs the concert four times this weekend at the Chapel of the Villa de Matel. |
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Da Camera of Houston - Brentano String Quartet Violinist Mark Steinberg [pictured, right] of the Brentano String Quartet previews his ensemble's exciting Da Camera of Houston concert. Fragments: Connecting Past and Present, is a program of commissioned new works, inspired by tantalizing scraps of unfinished pieces by great masters of the past. |
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Contemporary composer and performer, Stuart Hinds, demonstrates his unique style of “overtone singing,” which allows him to produce two independent contrapuntal vocal lines simultaneously! He presents two shows this week: Thursday night at the Houston Arts Alliance Gallery and Saturday night at Super Happy Fun Land. |
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Houston Symphony - Christoph Eschenbach & Mahler's 5th We welcome back to the city an old musical friend: Houston Symphony Conductor Emeritus, Christoph Eschenbach. He leads the orchestra in a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 tonight at Jones Hall. It’s Maestro Eschenbach’s first appearance with the Houston Symphony since his term as Music Director ended in 1999. |
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Alley Theatre - The Santaland Diaries Actor Todd Waite talks about squeezing into the very tall elf suit that he wears in the Alley Theatre’s 4th annual staging of The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris, based on the popular humorist’s retelling of his hilarious and outlandish experiences, working as a Macy’s elf during the holidays. |
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Shepherd School of Music - Faculty Recital Shepherd School of Music faculty violist, Ivo-Jan van der Werff, talks about the program of piano quintets by Elgar and Shostakovich that he and his colleagues will perform tonight at Rice University. Plus, he shares an excerpt from the Elgar quintet, which he recorded as a member of the Medici String Quartet! |
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A.D. Players - The Best Christmas Pagent Ever Directors Ric Hodgin and Kevin Dean talk about the two different versions of Barbara Robinson’s popular Yuletide story, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which the A. D. Players is presenting as its 2011 holiday treat! |
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Playwright Loueva Smith, choreographer Rebecca French and composer-filmmaker Robert Thoth share some secrets about FrenetiCore's multi-media production of Tenderina, the adults-only story of a stripper-ballerina in search of herself. |
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Da Camera Jazz - The Maurice Brown Effect Trumpeter Maurice Brown tells us about the unique fusion of hip-hop and jazz that he has developed into his signature style! He and his band, The Maurice Brown Effect, make their local debut performance, tomorrow night at the Wortham Center, presented by Da Camera's Jazz Series. |
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Bach Society Houston - A Cosmopolitan Advent Renowned British conductor, Ian Watson, talks about the festive works by Bach, Vivaldi and DeLalande that the Bach Society Choir and Mercury Baroque Orchestra will perform on the concert, A Cosmopolitan Advent, Sunday evening at Christ the King Lutheran Church. |
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Emerging choreographers Miranda Leonard and Laura Gutiérrez are in residence this year in Hope Stone Dance’s HopeWerks artist-development program. They and Aristic Director Jane Weiner talk about Bodies Never Lie, Ms. Leonard’s evening of new, original works! |
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James Santos, Artistic Assistant with Cirque du Soleil’s production, Dralion, talks about the show's Asian-flavored mélange of acrobatics, athletic dancing, energizing music, clowning and pageantry. The arena-sized spectacle comes to Houston's Toyota Center! |
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Piping Rock Singers - Christmas Messengers Members of Houston's Piping Rock Singers perform carols, motets, chants and songs from the Medieval and Renaissance periods! It's a preview of their 2011 holiday concert, Christmas Messengers, coming up tomorrow evening at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church. |
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Choreographer Kristina Koutsoudas - Nour-an-Nisa Dancer-choreographer, Kristina Koutsoudas describes Nour-An-Nisa – The Light of Femininity, a program of Middle Eastern, Near Eastern and North African traditional and contemporary dance that she presents this weekend at the Rothko Chapel. |
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Public Poetry - Kevin Prufer & Ken Jones We chat with poet and University of Houston professor, Kevin Prufer [pictured], and poet and singer-songwriter, Ken Jones. They are two of the featured writers on Saturday afternoon’s Public Poetry Reading at Discovery Green. |
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The Alley Theatre - A Christmas Carol Jeffrey Bean [pictured], who plays "Ebenezer Scrooge," and David Rainey, who takes the part of "Jacob Marley," talks about the Alley Theatre’s new staging of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story of Christmas. |
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Rob Seible, Artistic Director of the choral ensemble, VOX, talks about the group’s Yuletide concert, Motets and Mistletoe, to be presented Sunday afternoon at Bering Memorial United Methodist Church. |
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Artistic Director Jennifer Wood previews her Suchu Dance Company’s production of Shchelkunchik, a comic and edgy deconstruction of The Nutcracker, opening Thursday night at the Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex! |
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River Oaks Chamber Orchestra & Houston Chamber Choir Artistic Directors Alecia Lawyer of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra and Robert Simpson of the Houston Chamber Choir chat about the two different versions of Handel’s Messiah, including Messiah for Kids!, which their ensembles will perform in morning and evening concerts, Saturday at the Church of Saint John the Divine. |
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Contemporary Arts Museum Houston - Donald Moffett New-York-based visual artist, Donald Moffett, takes us on a tour of The Extravagant Vein, the first-ever comprehensive retrospective exhibition of his work, currently on view at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. |
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Theatre New West - The Normal Heart Director, Joe Watts, and lead actor, Steve Bullitt, discuss The Normal Heart, the polemical and powerful 1985 AIDS drama by writer and social activist, Larry Kramer. Theatre New West presents its 2nd annual staged reading of the play in observance of World AIDS Day. |
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Stages Repertory Theatre - Panto Red Riding Hood Producing Artistic Director, Kenn McLaughlin, and playwright Genevieve Allenbury talk about Stages Repertory Theatre's holiday offering, Panto Red Riding Hood, a contemporary American take on the Victorian-Era British tradition of the Christmas pantomime. This production is an urban update of the fairy tale, with outrageous puns, slapstick humor, cross-dressing and a little disco! |
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The Ensemble Theatre - Cinderella Actor-singers Teacake and Alex Kennedy, who play "Cinderella" and "Prince Charming," talk about The Ensemble Theatre’s holiday production: a contemporary soul-music-infused, stage adaptation of the story of Cinderella. |
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Mildred's Umbrella & Obsidian Art Space - Tender Buttons Actress-singer-composer, Cassandra Victoria Chopourian, and guitarist-composer, Gary Heidt, discuss their “derrière-garde” cabaret piece, Tender Buttons, a rock-n-roll musical-theater setting of a collection of experimental prose-poems by Gertrude Stein, originally published in 1914. |
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Houston Symphony - Vivaldi's Four Seasons Houston Symphony Associate Concertmaster, Eric Halen [pictured], Bayou City actor, Jim Johnson and guest conductor, Cristian Macelaru, talk about the multi-media concert, Beyond the Score. The program tells the stories behind Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and features a complete performance of that famous set of violin concertos! |
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Texas Renaissance Festival - Istanpitta Al Cofrin leads members of his early-music ensemble, Istanpitta, in dance tunes and songs from the 13th and 14th centuries, which they perform this weekend during the final days of the 37th Annual Texas Renaissance Festival. |
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Invisible Lines - Up Against You Performance-poets Bucky Rea, Savannah Blue [pictured] and Rachel Rogers talk about and share excerpts from their staged, dramatic reading of the collection of poems, Up Against You by Bayou City writer Debra Matthes, presented by Invisible Lines this evening at AvantGarden. |
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Houston Ballet - The Nutcracker We meet Houston Ballet’s new First Couple of Dance: Principal Soloists, Danielle Rowe and Luke Ingham. They portray "The Sugar-Plum Fairy" and "The Prince" for the first time in Houston when the company opens its annual holiday presentation of The Nutcracker! |
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Gregg Edelman, star of such Broadway blockbusters as Evita and Les Misérables, shares some of the tune he’ll be singing Saturday night at The Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston when he and fellow musical-theater veteran, Marilyn Maye, present their two-person show, Broadway Their Way. |
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Theater LaB Houston - A Contemporary American's Guide to a Successful Marriage, circa 1959 Director Jimmy Phillips and lead actors Molly Pierce and Bobby Haworth from Theater LaB Houston chat about the company’s new production: A Contemporary American’s Guide to a Successful Marriage, circa 1959. It’s a satirical comedy that takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the assumptions we've held about the institution of wedded bliss. |
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Texas Repertory Theatre - It's a Wonderful Life Actors from the Texas Repertory Theatre Company talk about their holiday production of It’s A Wonderful Life, presented in the theater as if it were a live radio broadcast from Christmas Eve, 1946, the year the movie was released. |
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DiverseWorks - My Life as a Doll Sculptor Tara Conley and writer Tria Wood talk about their art installation at DiverseWorks, My Life As A Doll, which -- underneath its whimsical façade of candy-colored environments and rhymed verse -- hints at the insidious ways in which women in our society are treated as if they are mindless playthings. |
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Classical Theatre Company - The Legend of White Snake Director Miguel Roman and dramaturg Martine Green-Rogers tell us about the Classical Theatre Company's staged reading of White Snake. It’s a Chinese folk legend about a young scholar who falls in love with a woman, who is in fact a 1000-year-old serpent that has assumed human form. |
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Guitar Houston - Elena Papandreou We have a performance by Greek classical-guitar virtuoso, Elena Papandreou! She treats us to selections from her Guitar Houston recital of works by Chopin, Giuliani, Ponce and Dyens, coming up tomorrow night at Emerson Unitarian-Universalist Church. |
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Nameless Sound - Pauline Oliveros Avant-garde and electronic-music pioneer, Pauline Oliveros, describes the technology that will enable her – here in Houston - to participate in a long-distance collaboration with a colleague in San Diego and another in Bogotá, Colombia. Nameless Sound presents Ms. Oliveros, Chris Chafe and Ricardo Arias in a live performance of totally improvised music that audiences can see and hear in all three cities! |
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Da Camera of Houston - Sharon Isbin We chat with Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist, Sharon Isbin! She joins us live to preview her duo-concert with fiddle-legend, Mark O’Connor, which Da Camera of Houston presents this evening at the Wortham Center. |
