Apollo Chamber Players to Present FREEDOM in May as Part of We the People Series
Performances will take place May 10 & 18.
In partnership with Holocaust Museum Houston and Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Houston-based Apollo Chamber Players will present FREEDOM, the fourth and final concert in their 2024-2025 We the People series, on Saturday, May 10, 2025 at Holocaust Museum Houston, with a second performance to follow on Sunday, May 18, 2025 at 2:00pm at Unity of Houston.
An intergenerational dialogue about freedom, democracy, and the future, this program pairs Houston composer Mark Buller's premiere arrangement of Howard Hanson's aspirational 1957 work Song of Democracy, a musical setting for poetry by Walt Whitman, with newly commissioned works. In a highlight of this program, Apollo will present the world premiere of Marcus Maroney's The Color Blue, a commission for string quartet and choir inspired by themes of democracy. Based on text contributions from U.S. History students at Houston's Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA), with guidance from instructor Jennifer Chase, the work will be performed by the HSPVA Chorale under the direction of Marcus J. Jauregui, alongside Apollo Chamber Players. The program also features arrangements of Ukrainian, Polish, and Greek folk songs inspired by the struggle for freedom, self-determination, and democratic values. The program also features the Texas premiere of Voladores de Papantla (2019) by three-time GRAMMY-nominated composer Juan Pablo Contreras, which reflects the themes of the Holocaust Museum's current Mexican border crisis exhibition "Life and Death on the Border."
FREEDOM follows in the footsteps of Apollo's three previous We the People programs: LIBERTY - featuring the famed actor and activist George Takei - on October 5, 2024; OPPORTUNITY, held January 4, 2025; and DIVERSITY, which was performed on March 21, 2025. Timed to reflect on the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the four themed concerts illuminate key facets of the American system and character, drawing on source material from the poetry of Walt Whitman to the story of Rosa Parks.
Apollo Chamber Players has drawn broad acclaim for its incisive thematic programming. On Monday, November 25, 2024, Chamber Music America (CMA) named the quartet as the recipient of its Ensemble / Ensemble Project of the Year Award, based on Apollo's 2023-2024 theme of Silenced Voices, a series curated to shed light on censorship and oppression - whether through racial prejudice, authoritarian government, or other forces - as well as this season's We the People series. Apollo was formally recognized at an awards luncheon during CMA's National Conference on February 15, 2025 in Houston.
With the conference in its home city, Apollo played a prominent role in the four-day gathering, appearing for two performance showcases on Friday, February 14, 2025. Performances featured Apollo-commissioned works including Erberk Eryılmaz's Sis Çanı / Fog Bell, Jennifer Higdon's In the Shadow of the Mountain and Wang Jie's The Night When You See Again. Apollo Founder, Director and violinist Matthew J. Detrick was also a featured speaker at the conference, giving a talk on arts advocacy and commissioning in the 21st century.
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