Renowned Opera Singers Join Houston Symphony and Chorus for Haydn's CREATION

Acclaimed international vocalists Nicole Heaston, Toby Spence and Peter Rose will join the Houston Symphony and Chorus in a performance of Haydn's grandiose oratorio, The Creation, led by Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada Sept. 29 and Oct. 1-2.

Inspired by the Bible's The Book of Genesis and Milton's Paradise Lost, this three-part oratorio is a musical depiction of the creation story narrated by the archangels Gabriel (Heaston), Uriel (Spence) and Raphael (Rose). The first and second parts describe the creation of light, water, landscapes, and plants followed by the creation of animals and human beings. The final part, told in the second half of the program, describes the idyllic love story of Adam (Rose) and Eve (Heaston) in the Garden of Eden.

A lauded soprano with international audiences, Chicago-born Heaston has appeared with opera houses throughout the U.S. such as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Dallas Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Semperoper Dresden and Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Heaston is an active concert and recital soloist and a regular guest at the Houston Grand Opera.

Spence is one of the worlds' most accomplished operatic tenors, with strong links to the English National Opera and Paris Opéra. He has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and the Vienna Philharmonic. Spence, who will be making his Houston Symphony debut, will appear with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra later in the season.

A regular guest at the world's most important opera houses, Rose's enormous repertoire includes Ramphis, Fasolt, Basilio and Prince Gremin, among various others. He has won particular acclaim for his performances of Bottom from A Midsummer Night's Dream, which he has sung in Aix-en-Provence, Paris, London, and Rome in addition to his debut at the Metropolitan Opera.

The Houston Symphony Chorus, under the leadership of Dr. Betsy Cook Weber, will be celebrating its 70th anniversary this season with several choral masterpieces, including three classical programs led by Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Haydn's The Creation will be recorded for commercial release through the PENTATONE label.

The concert will take place at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, 615 Louisiana Street, in Houston's Theater District. For tickets and information, please call (713) 224-7575 or visit www.houstonsymphony.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the Houston Symphony Patron Services Center in Jones Hall (Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.). All programs and artists are subject to change.

HAYDN'S THE CREATION

Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016, at 8 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 1, 2016, at 8 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016, at 2:30 p.m.
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor

Nicole Heaston, soprano

Toby Spence, tenor

Peter Rose, bass

Houston Symphony Chorus

Betsy Cook Weber, director

Haydn: The Creation

Tickets from $25

About Andrés Orozco-Estrada

Houston Symphony Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his tenure in the 2014-15 season. He immediately established a dynamic presence on the podium and a deep bond with the musicians of the orchestra. Andrés carefully curates his programs to feature engaging combinations of classical masterworks paired with the music of today, significant artistic collaborations with composers and guest artists, and innovative use of multimedia and visual effects, all in order to make meaningful connections with the audience.

In the 2016-17 season, Andrés will continue to engage with audiences both with casual commentary from the stage and discussions with guests in "Behind the Scenes with Andrés" videos. On the recording front, Andrés and the Symphony will release the third disc in their critically acclaimed Dvo?ák Symphony series. Additional projects with Dutch recording label Pentatone are recordings of the Music of the Americas, which will include Gershwin's An American in Paris and Revueltas' Sensemayá; Rachmaninoff's complete orchestral piano works with Denis Kozhukhin; and Haydn's The Creation.

Born in Medellín, Colombia, Andrés began his musical studies on the violin and started conducting at age 15. At 19, he entered the Vienna Music Academy, where he studied with Uroš Lajovic (pupil of the legendary Hans Swarowsky), and completed his degree with distinction conducting the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Musikverein. Andrés burst on the international scene with two substitutions with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra: the first, his debut in 2010, standing in for Esa-Pekka Salonen, and then in 2012, substituting for Riccardo Muti at the Musikverein. Orozco-Estrada now regularly appears with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome and the Orchestre National de France.

Recent debuts have included the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. In the summer of 2014, he also made his debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera conducting Don Giovanni, which immediately led to an invitation to conduct La Traviata in 2017. The 2016-17 season includes debuts with the San Francisco Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

In addition to his post in Houston, Andrés is chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

About Nicole Heaston

Soprano Nicole Heaston has appeared with opera companies throughout the world including the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Dallas Opera, Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Glyndebourne Festival.

Since her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Ms. Heaston has appeared regularly with the theater and been heard as Ilia in Mozart's Idomeneo, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte (conducted by James Levine), and Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos. In recent seasons, Ms. Heaston made her Italian debut in Adriano in Siria at the Fondazione Pergolesi, Jesi. She also made her debut with the Los Angeles Opera as Musetta in La Bohème, joined the New Orleans Opera in Rigoletto, and returned to Carnegie Hall for the Marilyn Horne Foundation "The Song Continues" annual recital. Engagements in recent seasons also include La contessa Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro and the title role in Alcina at Den Norske Opera in Oslo, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Arminda in La Finta Giardiniera at the Glyndebourne Festival, Pamina with the Houston Grand Opera, Alcina and Alice Ford at the Royal Danish Opera, and La contessa Almaviva at the Utah Opera. Ms. Heaston also appeared as the title role in L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Semperoper Dresden and Alice Ford in Falstaff with Opera de Lausanne.

Ms. Heaston's engagements for the 2016/17 season include Adina in L'elisir d'amore at the Houston Grand Opera, Haydn's The Creation with the Houston Symphony, La contessa Almaviva at the Boston Lyric Opera, and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra.

About Toby Spence

An honours graduate and choral scholar from New College, Oxford, Toby Spence studied at the Opera School of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was the winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society 2011 Singer of the Year award

In concert, Toby has sung with the Cleveland Orchestra under von Dohnanyi, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic under Rattle, the San Francisco Symphony under Tilson Thomas, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Pappano, the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Gergiev, the London Symphony Orchestra under Davis, the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Nézet-Séguin, the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Dudamel, the Bayerischer Runfunk under Gardiner, and at the Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals under Norrington and Mackerras. Toby sang an acclaimed Madwoman in Britten's "Curlew River" for the Edinburgh Festival, where he has also appeared in recital and most recently in HMS Pinafore in 2015. Other recitals include the LSO St Luke's, Opera de Lille and the Wigmore Hall. He has made numerous recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, BMG, Philips, Collins, Linn Records, Hyperion and EMI.

For the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Toby has sung Ferdinand (The Tempest), David (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Count Almaviva (IL Barbiere di Siviglia), Ramiro and Tom Rakewell. For English National Opera his roles include Tamino, Candide, Paris (La Belle Hélène), Lensky and Faust. His many roles at the Paris Opera include Tom Rakewell and David. He has sung with the Glyndebourne Festival, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Hamburgische Staatsoper and La Monnaie, Brussels. In America he has appeared with the San Francisco Opera, the Santa Fe Festival, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Opera.

Recent opera engagements include Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Antonio (The Tempest) for the Metropolitan Opera, Don Ottavio and Tito for the Wiener Staatsoper, Essex (Gloriana) and Tamino for the Royal Opera House, Tito, Tamino and Henry Morosus ("Die Schweigsame Frau") for the Bayerische Staatsoper and David ("Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg") at Paris Opera. Recent concert performances include the London Symphony Orchestra with Tilson Thomas and Gergiev, Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Ticciati, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with Adès, and at the Tonhalle, Zurich with Dutoit.

Engagements for the coming season include Captain Vere in the Teatro Real's new production of Billy Budd and Don Ottavio at the Liceu Barcelona. In concert, Toby will appear with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Houston Symphony.

About Peter Rose

A regular guest at the world's most important opera houses, Peter Rose's enormous repertoire includes Ramphis, Fasolt, Somnus, Daland, King Mark, the Commendatore, Basilio, Kecal, Ochs, Banquo, Philip, Prince Gremin, Leporello, Osmin, Gurnemanz, Zaccaria, Claggart and Falstaff. He has won particular acclaim for his performances of Bottom which he has performed in Aix-en-Provence, Paris, London, Rome, on the occasion of his debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera, and for Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

A prolific concert artist, he has sung under, among others, Giulini, Rattle, Kleiber, Maazel, Barenboim, Boulez, Mehta, Solti and Masur with orchestras that include the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New York, Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras.

About the Houston Symphony
During the 2016-17 season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its third season with Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and continues its second century 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. Today, with an annual operating budget of $32.8 million, the full-time ensemble of 87 professional musicians and 4 community-embedded musicians is the largest performing arts organization in Houston, presenting more than 300 performances for 400,000 people, including 97,000 children, annually. For tickets and more information, please visit www.houstonsymphony.orgor call 713-224-7575.

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