HOUSTON SYMPHONY'S GRAF TO GUEST CONDUCT
Office of News and Media Relations
Margot Dimond
Director, News & Media Relations
713-348-6775
Email: mdimond@rice.edu
Hans Graf, music director of the Houston Symphony, will be a guest conductor this month for an all-Mozart program at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. The program will feature the Rice Chorale, the Chamber Orchestra and vocal soloists at the Shepherd School.
Performances will take place in Stude Concert Hall Friday, March 18, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 20, at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are required. General admission is $10 and $8 for students and senior citizens.
The first half of the program will be the Houston premiere of Mozart’s oratorio “Davide Penitente,” generally thought to be the first collaboration between Mozart and his then-librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. Premiered in Vienna in 1785, this work is based on the music of his unfinished “C Minor Mass,” which at the time had not been heard in Vienna. With the addition of two newly composed arias and a cadenza for three solo voices, the Italian text is derived from selected Psalms.
The second half of the program will be devoted to excerpts spanning a large portion of Mozart’s operatic output. Two ensembles from the opera “Idomeneo” will be included, as well as portions from the better-known works “The Abduction from the Seraglio,” “Don Giovanni” and “The Magic Flute.” The evening will conclude as it began, with what is often considered the best-crafted opera ensemble of all time, the second-act finale from “The Marriage of Figaro.”
Graf is an artist in residence at the Shepherd School. He debuted with the Houston Symphony in March 2000. Less than two years later, he took the podium as the orchestra’s 15th music director. Known for his intensely musical interpretations of a wide-ranging repertoire and creative programming, Graf is one of today’s most highly respected musicians.
For more information, call 713-348-8000.
