Houston Symphony to Present Symphony Nights Summer Series, Today

HOUSTON (June 18, 2015) - The Houston Symphony ExxonMobil Summer Symphony Nights series will continue at 8:30 p.m. on June 20, featuring the Houston Symphony debuts of guest conductor Karina Canellakis and guest artist Charlie Albright.

Currently in her first season as Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Canellakis is considered one of the most promising and dynamic young American conductors. On June 20, she will lead the Houston Symphony in performances of Dvo?ák's lively Carnival Overture, Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, and Gershwin's famous Piano Concerto, which will feature Albright. In addition to her conducting debut with the Houston Symphony, Canellakis will continue her summer appearances while leading the Grand Park Festival Orchestra in Chicago, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.

Albright, an award-winning young pianist, has performed duets and chamber music all across the United States, in France, Australia, Norway and Portugal. Throughout his travels, he has musically collaborated with several distinguished artists, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project. Albright is an official Steinway artist and recipient of many national awards, including a 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

This performance and the remaining ExxonMobil Summer Symphony Nights concerts will be "tweetcerts," a social media concert component that allows audiences to further connect and engage with the music, interact with other users, and post their comments and questions in real time. The Houston Symphony will live-tweet program notes and fun facts about the music from its Twitter handle, @HouSymphony, during the concert.

Admission is free for these concerts, but tickets are required for the covered seated area. Tickets are available at the Miller Theatre Box Office the day of the performance between 10:30 a.m. -1:00 p.m.

For Immediate Release

(Digital Images Available Upon Request)

Any remaining tickets are released one hour before the performance time. Visit www.milleroutdoortheatre.com for more information.

Saturday, June 20, 2015, 8:30 p.m.

Karina Canellakis, conductor
Charlie Albright, piano
Dvorák: Carninval Overture, Opus 92 Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances, Opus 45

Miller Outdoor Theatre 6000 Hermann Park Drive Houston, TX 77030 FREE ADMISSION

About Karina Canellakis

Currently in her first season as Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony, Karina Canellakis is rapidly gaining recognition as one of the most promising and dynamic young American conductors. She recently made headlines as a last-minute replacement for Jaap van Zweden in two subscription concerts with the Dallas Symphony conducting Shostakovich 8th Symphony and Mozart Piano Concerto K.449 with soloist Emanuel Ax, receiving rave reviews. In March 2015, she was granted a Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award.

Canellakis made her Carnegie Hall conducting debut in Zankel Hall, and frequently appears as guest conductor of New York's groundbreaking International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). She has also led performances with the Juilliard Orchestra at Lincoln Center. This season, she made debuts with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Colorado and Toledo Symphonies, and the Orchestra of St. Lukes. This summer, in addition to her debut with the Houston Symphony, she makes her conducting debuts with the Grand Park Festival Orchestra in Chicago, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. She conducts Beethoven's 7th Symphony at the Music in the Mountains Festival in Durango, Colorado.

Canellakis was the winner of the 2013 Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship, founded by Marin Alsop. In summer 2014, she was one of only two Conducting Fellows at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Music Center. She was a selected conductor in the Lucerne Festival master class with Bernard Haitink, and conducted the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in Japan, as well as the Tonhalle Orchestra in Switzerland as part of international master classes.

As a violinist, Canellakis appears as a soloist with orchestras across the United States. For several years, she played regularly in both the Berlin Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra. She has also been guest concertmaster of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway on several occasions. An avid chamber musician, she spent many summers at the Marlboro Music Festival. She plays a 1782 Mantegazza violin, generously on loan to her by a private patron.

Canellakis holds a bachelor's degree in violin from the Curtis Institute of Music and a master's degree in orchestral conducting from The Juilliard School. She won the 2013 Charles Schiff Conducting Award for outstanding achievement in orchestral conducting, as well as the American Conductors Award, Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship and the Isidore Komanoff Award. Among her most prominent mentors are Alan Gilbert, Fabio Luisi and Sir Simon Rattle.

Karina Canellakis was born and raised in New York City. She speaks French, German and Italian, and is equally at home performing all genres of the repertoire.

About Charlie Albright

Official Steinway Artist, 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant Recipient, 2009 Young Concert Artist and 2010 Gilmore Young Artist, Charlie Albright is a critically acclaimed pianist.

Having performed duets and chamber music on multiple occasions with such artists as cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project, Albright has performed or competed across the United States, France, Australia, Norway and Portugal.

Albright is the first prize winner of the the 2006 Eastman International, 2006 New York International and 2005 IIYM International Piano Competitions. He has won awards at the 2007 Hilton Head International, 2008 Sydney International, 2009 Top of the World International Piano Competitions and the 2009 Vendome Prize Competition. He was recently named the Harvard University Leverett House Artist-in-Residence for 2012. He received Harvard's 2011 Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts and Germany's 2014 Ruhr Klavier-Festival Young Artist Scholarship Award, including a debut concert in the 2014 Ruhr Festival.

Albright completed his associate of science degree at Centralia College during high school and is the first classical pianist in the Harvard/New England Conservatory B.A./M.M. five-year joint program, where he received his B.A. in economics at Harvard as a premedical student and a Masters of Music in piano performance in 2012. He graduated with the prestigious artist diploma from The Juilliard School.

He is under management with Bill Capone of Arts Management Group. Visit www.CharlieAlbright.com and www.Facebook.com/CharlieAlbrightPianist.

About the Houston Symphony

During the 2014-15 season, the Houston Symphony enters its second century as one of America's leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring and recording activities. This season also marks the inaugural year for new Music Director Andrés Orozco- Estrada. 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. Today, with an annual operating budget of $29.6 million, the full-time ensemble of 87 professional musicians is the largest performing arts organization in Houston, presenting more than 300 performances for 330,000 people, including 97,000 children, annually. For tickets and more information, please visit www.houstonsymphony.org or call 713-224-7575.

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