HOUSTON CHAMBER ORCHESTRA OPENS SEASON AT ZILKHA HALL

Houston Chamber Orchestra (HCO) opens the 2006-07 concert season with music by Ravel and Saint-Saëns performed with internationally acclaimed soloists Timothy Hester and Ferenc Illényi.

The orchestra performs Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin” and “Pavane pour une infante défunte.” Violinist Ferenc Illényi joins the orchestra as soloist in Ravel’s “Tzigane.” Pianist Timothy Hester is soloist in Saint-Saëns’ brilliant “Piano Concerto No. 2 in g minor.” The program also includes the orchestra’s performance of
Saint-Saëns’ “Havanaise”

HCO founder Michael Lowe, now in his sixth season as artistic director, conducts the concert. This season, Lowe unveils five dynamic concerts with diverse programming spanning the baroque era with works by Bach and Telemann and the classics of Mozart and Beethoven to the more modern works of Saint-Saëns, Vaughan Williams and Sibelius. The concert series is topped off with a number of contemporary pieces.

Soloists Illényi and Hester are well-known to Houston audiences. Illényi is a member of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and serves as concertmaster of HCO. Native Houstonian Timothy Hester graduated from The Juilliard School and is currently associate professor of piano at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music where he also serves as director of keyboard collaborative arts. The Moores Society named him outstanding faculty member in 2003. He has appeared in venues around the world and is a regular performing faculty member of the Schlern International Music Festival in Northern Italy. He has also performed in numerous U.S. series, including New York City’s Bargemusic, Ojai Festival in California and the Texas Music Festival.

TICKET AND VENUE INFORMATION

HCO performances are at 7:30 p.m. in Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston’s Theater District, 800 Bagby, Houston, Texas 77002.
Individual tickets are $30 and are available to students for $10. A 20 percent discount is offered to seniors and KUHF members.
Season subscriptions are $130 and include an invitation to HCO’s post-concert champagne receptions. A 15 percent discount is available to seniors and KUHF members, and season subscribers save 15 percent on additional tickets purchased.
To purchase tickets, call the Hobby Center at 713-315-2525 or go online at www.UniquelyHouston.org.

ABOUT MICHAEL LOWE AND THE HOUSTON CHAMBER ORCHESTRA:
Founder Michael Lowe is in his sixth season as conductor and artistic director of the Houston Chamber Orchestra, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization dedicated to concerts, educational programs, commercial recordings and tours to strengthen Houston’s arts community and musical culture. The orchestra’s repertoire exploits the virtuosity of individual members who are frequently featured as soloists. Programs and venues are chosen to provide intimate interaction between the audience, the orchestra as a whole, and individual orchestra members.