Former Houston Symphony Conductor Returns

Former Houston Symphony Music Director Christoph Eschenbach returns to Houston to lead the orchestra and guest violinist Leila Josefowicz in a work written expressly for her, as well as a towering romantic work by Austrian composer Anton Brucker in the program Eschenbach and Josefowicz at 8 p.m., Feb. 28 & March 2, and 2:30 p.m. March 3.

Best known and beloved by Houston audiences for his tenure as Houston Symphony music director from 1988 to 1999, Eschenbach succeeded in significantly enhancing and strengthening the orchestra's national and international reputation during that time. Renowned for his prowess conducting late Romantic composers like Wagner, Mahler, and Bruckner, Eschenbach returns to lead the Houston Symphony in Bruckner's Symphony No. 4, Romantic. Bruckner's Fourth Symphony is full of lyrical melodies, intense harmonies, and thundering climaxes inspired by the imagery of medieval romance, including vivid images of knights riding forth from castles and the sounds and sights of nature.

Fiery virtuoso Leila Josefowicz is the soloist in Esa-Pekka Salonen's Violin Concerto, which the composer wrote expressly for Josefowicz, herself a staunch champion of new music. The Canadian-American violin virtuoso earned a 2014 Grammy nomination for a recording of Salonen's fiery violin concerto with the composer himself conducting the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Eschenbach and Josefowicz, sponsored by Rand Group, takes 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 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 2018-19 season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its fifth 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 $33.9 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 900 community-based performances each year, reaching thousands of people in Greater Houston.

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.