Anna Y. Monroe/Houston Public Media
The Houston Pride Orchestra practices at a church in the Houston area.
Three weeks ahead of its first concert, members of the Houston Pride Orchestra faced a challenge — Beethoven’s “Egmont Overture,” a highly technical piece they considered cutting from the program.
During one of the final rehearsals, after starts and stops, the orchestra finally completed the piece without any mistakes.
For some members, the practices in April required a dusting-off of instruments.
“We have people who are professionals in the classical music team, but we also have members who are just picking up their instruments again because they felt they could be an organization, that they would be accepted,” said Kenneth Cox, the artistic director and conductor.
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Acceptance is a central theme for the ensemble, which is the city’s first orchestra created and led by members from the LGBTQ+ community. Houston Pride Orchestra (HPO) is making its debut at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 3 with its first concert, “Unfinished, Unbound: A Celebration of Queer Joy,” at Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church.
The idea for the organization first struck Ruby Ortiz, founder and executive director. After playing in the International Pride Orchestra, Ortiz wanted to create a similar organization for musicians in Houston.
According to Ortiz, having an organization centered on pride means queer musicians don’t have to be guarded or question their safety.
“The general goal of HPO was to create a space where all of us can go, even if we’re, you know, allies and not a part of the queer community,” Ortiz said. “We can all go and gather, and nobody’s looking at you funny, nobody’s being weird or homophobic. It’s a welcoming community where we can all feel comfortable.”
More than an ensemble
As they prepared to launch the orchestra, Ortiz prepared for a lackluster response. They researched the smallest possible ensemble size for a symphony.
However, much to their surprise, the response was overwhelming. Now, with about 60 musicians in the orchestra, it has a waitlist ready to fill empty seats.
“I want this to be what Houston needs, what our musicians need,” Ortiz said. “I want this to be that for them, what we’ve been aching for for so long, that sense of belonging in a classical music space.”
Many of the musicians for HPO have played for years and share similar experiences of feeling out of place in the classical music field.
Cox said he’s experienced discrimination that inhibited his career. Because of that, Cox attributed his leadership skills to being built around positivity — an approach he called “leading from the light.”
“Everything that I say or do or show has to be framed from a positive lens,” Cox said.
Anna Y. Monroe/Houston Public Media
The Houston Pride Orchestra practices at a local church ahead of its first concert on Sunday, May 3.
Lucy Zhang, a violinist, said the classical music community is often stagnant, with the same music played repeatedly to similarly minded audiences. She said she knows there is a problem with inclusion and diversity in the field.
For Zhang, being part of HPO isn’t just for fun. It’s also a form of protest to say they belong in every space.
“Change will happen,” Zhang said. “It’s going to happen, and every little bit counts.”
Progress in the music
The musical pieces for HPO’s first concert were chosen specifically for the themes of queer joy and making a change, whether in everyday life or in the classical music industry.
The performance will include “Egmont Overture” by Beethoven, “Adoration” by Price, “Unfinished Symphony” by Schubert and “Finlandia” by Sibelius.
“Egmont Overture” resonated with multiple musicians. Premiered in 1810, Beethoven wrote the piece when Napoleon Bonaparte was emperor of France.
“So it was around the time that he wrote this to kind of like give a big middle finger to him, and also, like a middle finger to dictatorship in general, or tyranny,” said Bensen Kwan, music librarian and timpanist with Houston Pride Orchestra. “In a time that, like we are kind of living, it’s kind of a great parallel to draw.”
For Ortiz, “Finlandia” has a special place in their heart and needed to be included in the first concert. Composed by Jean Sibelius in 1899, it was written as a protest against Russian control and has now become a symbol of Finnish national identity.
The piece is supposed to mirror the ensemble’s sense of hope after fighting for so long.
“We were trying to be very particular about the pieces that we programmed so that we could represent what’s happening in our community, what’s happening in our country right now,” Ortiz said.
For the concert, Emilio Arredondo wants the audience to feel that classical music is for everybody and everybody can get something out of classical music.
Arredondo, personnel manager and violinist, said he hopes the first concert will promote a sense of community.
“I want to make sure that it’s not just a pride orchestra,” said Arredondo, “It’s us being prideful that we have a community that we can play with together.”