Robert Simpson News

Houston Chamber Choir presents the 2020 gala themed a?oeTake Flight! a?" An Evening of Wanderlust Awaitsa?? to celebrate and honor the remarkable accomplishments of the Choir's founder and artistic director Robert Simpson. Serving the Houston music and arts community for more than 25 years, Robert Simpson has changed the landscape of choral music locally while receiving national and international recognition.

The Chamber Music Society of Louisville presents the Emerson String quartet in the third of six concerts on March 1st celebrating the 250th Anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven's birth. The Louisville Beethoven Festival is a program of international proportion and one of very few presentations of all 16 of Beethoven's string quartets in one cycle in the U.S. in 2020, and, it's all coming to Comstock Concert Hall, 105 W. Brandeis Ave in Louisville, KY.

Houston Chamber Choir's has won the GRAMMY® Award for “Best Choral Performance” for its Signum Records recording of “Duruflé: Complete Choral Works,” a performance of music by 20th century French composer Maurice Duruflé. Houston Chamber Choir founder and artistic director Robert Simpson conducted, with Ken Cowan on organ. Simpson accepted the award at the Jan. 26 ceremony, along with his wife, Marianna Parnas-Simpson, a Houston Chamber Choir member.

The GRAMMY AWARDS Premiere Ceremony took place at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, January 26, from 12:30-3:30 p.m. PT. Preceding the 62nd Annual GRAMMY AWARDS telecast, the Premiere Ceremony was hosted by two-time GRAMMY winner and current nominee Imogen Heap and featured a number of performances by current GRAMMY nominees. Performers included classical violinist Nicola Benedetti, jazz legend Chick Corea, folk music supergroup I'm With Her, West African sensation Angélique Kidjo and Best New Artist nominee Yola.

Houston Chamber Choir welcomes renowned British composer Bob Chilcott for the world premiere of his newly revised Circlesong, a complete life cycle based on indigenous writings. Set for adult and youth choirs and percussion ensemble, each movement expresses a unique facet of the love and loss that was the Native American experience as our nation expanded westward.

Join the GRAMMY-nominated Houston Chamber Choir on Jan. 26 for Hear the Future, an annual event in which the company invites three outstanding choirs (elementary, middle and high school) from the Greater Houston area to participate in its invitational choral festival. This also happens to be the day the GRAMMY Awards will be televised nationwide. Houston Chamber Choir is nominated for Best Choral Performance for 'Duruflé: The Complete Works.'

Join the GRAMMY-nominated Houston Chamber Choir on Jan. 26 for Hear the Future, an annual event in which the company invites three outstanding choirs (elementary, middle and high school) from the Greater Houston area to participate in its invitational choral festival. This also happens to be the day the GRAMMY Awards will be televised nationwide. Houston Chamber Choir is nominated for Best Choral Performance for 'Duruflé: The Complete Works.'

Houston Chamber Choir's has been nominated for a 2020 GRAMMY® Award for 'Best Choral Performance' for its Signum Records recording of 'Duruflé: Complete Choral Works,' a performance of music by 20th century French composer Maurice Duruflé. The recording was also part of a second GRAMMY® nomination: Blanton Alspaugh was nominated for Producer of the Year, Classical, for his work on eight recordings including Houston Chamber Choir's Duruflé recording.

Recording Academy® President/CEO Deborah Dugan alongside Academy Chair of the Board of Trustees and renowned record producer Harvey Mason Jr., as well as GRAMMY Awards® host Alicia Keys and past two-time GRAMMY® nominee Bebe Rexha, today revealed nominees for the 62nd GRAMMY Awards in select categories. This year's nominees reflect a melting pot of artistic innovation that defined the year in music, showcasing the unparalleled craftsmanship of established artists and the industry-shifting impact of rising music creators. Leading nominees Lizzo (8), Billie Eilish (6) and Lil Nas X (6) not only topped the charts but ignited a cultural conversation around their genre-bending hits. As the only peer-selected music award, the GRAMMY Awards are voted on by the Recoding Academy's membership body of music makers, who represent all genres and creative disciplines, including recording artists, songwriters, producers, mixers and engineers.

Houston Chamber Choir presents Christmas at the Villa: Arise, shine, for your light has come! at Villa de Matel Four holiday concerts Dec. 14-15 with specials guests the Treble Choir of Houston and Houston Bronze

Houston's vibrant and active arts scene is enriched by a growing number of A-List composers. In Houston Chamber Choir's third concert of the season, titled By Local, five of these composers are in the spotlight with a diverse program showcasing their immense creative talents. The Houston Chamber Choir will bring its special flair to these pieces. The evening extravaganza will include talks from each of the presenting composers throughout the concert, including Mark Buller, Daniel Knaggs, Pierre Jalbert, Rob Landes and David Ashley White. As an additional treat, patrons will enjoy viewing artwork created by several of Houston's local visual artists who will display their pieces in a joint gallery exhibition and reception prior to the concert.

Houston Chamber Choir joins the Holocaust Museum Houston to celebrate the reopening of the expanded museum by presenting the first major setting of The Diary of Anne Frank, Annelies, by English composer James Whitbourn on Sept. 21 and Sept. 22.

Houston Chamber Choir announces its 24th season, Illuminations, with a diverse and enthralling repertoire featuring world renowned special guests and guest artists, new partnerships and a world premiere. Some of the works explore deeper, existential matters, while other performances will lean toward lighter fare and tradition.

Houston Chamber Choir's newly released recording of Durufle: Complete Choral Works, produced by Grammy Award winning producer Blanton Alspaugh for Signum Records, has received accolades from two world-renowned choral professionals, Dale Warland and Simon Carrington.

Houston Chamber Choir's new recording of Durufle: Complete Choral Works, produced by Grammy Award winning producer Blanton Alspaugh for Signum Records, will be released Apr. 5. The Choir's Artistic Director Robert Simpson joins renowned organist Ken Cowan of Rice University to help realize a dream of creating an iconic Houston Chamber Choir work of art. Signum Classics is one of the United Kingdom's leading independent classical labels and home to diverse and eclectic repertoire by some of the finest artists and singers from around the world.

The African-American Shakespeare Company closes their production of Leslie Lee's Black Eagles this weekend on March 31st. The show is directed by the company's Artistic Director, L. Peter Callender. This marks a return of the company to the Marine's Memorial where it presents the extraordinary drama about the Tuskegee Airmen, America's first black fighter pilots. The play opens onstage during a reception honoring the airmen. As the now-elderly WWII pilots reminisce, their younger selves join them, which serves as the basis for the story of this brave company to be retold.

Houston Chamber Choir has been selected to participate in the prestigious World Symposium on Choral Music 2020 (WSCM2020), to be held in Auckland, New Zealand July 11-18, 2020, where 24 of the best choral ensembles in the world will perform. The festival, held every three years in different locations across the globe, received a record 179 entries this year. This is the first such invitation for the Houston Chamber Choir, which was notified of the honor right before Christmas.

Houston Chamber Choir has just been signed to Signum Classics, a highly prestigious British record label which will release the company's fifth CD in April 2019 featuring the complete choral works of 20th century French composer Maurice Duruflé with renowned organist Ken Cowan of Rice University. Signum Classics is one of the United Kingdom's leading independent classical labels and home to diverse and eclectic repertoire by some of the finest artists and singers from around the world.

Celebrate an early 4th of July at Music Mountain, America's longest running summer chamber music festival! The 89th season continues with the music of Beethoven as the Shanghai Quartet performs Beethoven Quartet Cycle Program #4 on Sunday, July 1 (3pm). The festivities begin on Saturday, June 30 (6:30pm) with Michael Berkeley in a salute to the great Broadway and movie tunes that celebrate America! Concerts are scheduled through September 23.

Robert Simpson, the founder and artistic director of Houston Chamber Choir, has been in a whirlwind, a waking dream as intoxicating as communion wine and as unreal as that spinning top in the last scene of INCEPTION, since Good Friday when he learned that Houston Chamber Choir, the chorale he established in 1995, was winner of the 2018 Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence. But he still took time to break bread with BroadwayWorld. See the interview inside!