Andrés Orozco-Estrada To Celebrate Music Of The Americas

The Houston Symphony and Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada celebrate the return of French piano star Jean-Yves Thibaudet to Jones Hall in a program that explores the former's interest in music of the Americas and the latter's penchant for jazz in Gershwin's Piano Concerto & Porgy and Bess at 8 p.m. Sept. 27 & 28 and 2:30 p.m. Sept. 29.

Featuring works by North American composers, the program opens with Mexican composer Carlos Chávez's Symphony No. 2, Sinfonía india. Then, pianist Thibaudet's virtuosity, style, and interpretive flair are all showcased in Gershwin's Piano Concerto, full of vibrant, jazzy, and colorful melodies. Also on the program is Copland's musical sketch of his own favorite slice of Mexico: a colorful dance hall called El Salón Mexico. Orozco-Estrada closes out the program with a symphonic suite from one of Gershwin's greatest achievements, the opera Porgy and Bess. The suite is full of well-known tunes such as "Bess You Is My Woman Now," "It Ain't Necessarily So," "I Got Plenty 'o' Nuttin'," and "Summertime."

Gershwin's Piano Concerto & Porgy and Bess, part of the Shell Favorite Masters, takes place at the Houston Symphony Sept. 15 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 houstonsymphony.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the Houston Symphony Patron Services Center in Jones Hall (Monday-Saturday, 12-6 p.m.). All programs and artists are subject to change.

About the Houston Symphony

During the 2019-20 season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its sixth 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, one of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston June 21, 1913. Today, with an annual operating budget of $35.2 million, the full-time ensemble of 88 professional musicians presents nearly 170 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Additionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony's four Community-Embedded Musicians offer over 1,000 community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches reaching nearly 200,000 people in Greater Houston annually.

The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Naxos, Koch International Classics, Telarc, RCA Red Seal, Virgin Classics and, most recently, Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg's Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category.