{"id":251040,"date":"2025-09-24T12:10:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T12:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/251040\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T12:10:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T12:10:25","slug":"houston-symphony-turns-to-a-grammy-winner-to-lift-off-its-new-season-inside-a-most-lavish-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/251040\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Symphony Turns To a Grammy Winner To Lift Off Its New Season \u2014 Inside a Most Lavish Celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bold modernism of Stravinsky\u2019s The Firebird washed over Jones Hall in a tsunami of orchestral and choral brilliance that launched the Houston Symphony 2025-26 season, a two-tiered evening that began in the theater and concluded with a gala dinner at the Houston Corinthian.<\/p>\n

\"236_HouSymphonyOpeningNight_DanielOrtizPhoto_091925\"<\/a>Vicki West & Ralph Burch at the Houston Symphony\u2019s 2025 Opening Night Concert & Gala.<\/p>\n

In a nod to the dazzling Opening Night Concert and Gala theme, the 300 black tie-attired supporters who would later adjourn to dinner, as well as all concert-goers were greeted by a magnificent 9-foot tall floral firebird, remarkably sculpted in feathers, florals and a variety of leaves.<\/p>\n

Under the direction of Juraj\u00a0<\/b>Val\u010duha<\/b>,<\/a> Houston Symphony\u2019s music director and Roy and Lillie Cullen chair, the orchestra was\u00a0 joined by two-time Grammy Award winning soprano Angel Blue<\/strong><\/a>, alongside the\u00a0Houston Symphony Chorus<\/a> and the Houston Chamber Choir<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"321_HouSymphonyOpeningNight_DanielOrtizPhoto_091925\"<\/a>Paula & Reggie DesRoches at the Houston Symphony\u2019s 2025 Opening Night Concert & Gala.<\/p>\n

On and equally high note, symphony executive director and CEO Gary Ginstling<\/b> revealed that Val\u010duha\u2019s inspiring leadership will extend through the 2027-28 Symphony season.<\/p>\n

Kudos to evening chair Carey Kirkpatrick<\/strong><\/a>, governing director on the symphony Board of Trustees, for the evening that earned $550,000 for the orchestra\u2019s education and community engagement initiatives and artistic programming.<\/p>\n

\"268_HouSymphonyOpeningNight_DanielOrtizPhoto_091925\"<\/a>Board chair Barbara Burger at the Houston Symphony\u2019s 2025 Opening Night Concert & Gala.<\/p>\n

At the concert\u2019s close, Symphony supporters were whisked via coach to the Corinthian where City Kitchen prepared the dinner for which Lindy<\/strong> and John Rydman<\/strong> and Lisa Rydman Lindsey<\/strong> of Spec\u2019s Wine, Spirits, & Finer Foods provided the wine pairings. The Events Company dressed the ballroom in the vibrant colors of the mythical bird that inspired the evening.<\/p>\n

Following dinner, David Caceres<\/strong> and his orchestra ratcheted up the energy with a host of danceable tunes.<\/p>\n

\"74_HouSymphonyOpeningNight_DanielOrtizPhoto_091925\"<\/a>Lindy & John Rydman at the Houston Symphony\u2019s 2025 Opening Night Concert & Gala.<\/p>\n

A special anniversary was marked too. This is the 40th consecutive year that ConocoPhillips has served as concert sponsor and lead gala corporate underwriter.<\/p>\n

PC Seen: Marta Lederer, Margaret Alkek Williams,<\/strong>\u00a0Barbara <\/b>and Pat McCelvey,\u00a0<\/b>Mariglyn <\/b>and Stephen Glenn, Janet F. Clark,\u00a0 Barbara J. Burger, Jesse\u00a0<\/b>Tutor, Sippi <\/b>and Ajay Khurana, Phoebe <\/b>and Bobby Tudor, Betsy <\/b>and\u00a0Fredric Weber; Vicki West <\/b>and Ralph Burch,\u00a0<\/b>David Peavy <\/b>and Stephen\u00a0<\/b>McCauley, Hallie Vanderhider and Bobby Dees, <\/b>and Scott and Geraldina\u00a0<\/b>Wise.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bold modernism of Stravinsky\u2019s The Firebird washed over Jones Hall in a tsunami of orchestral and choral…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":251041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4345,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-251040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-texas","10":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115259207408084360","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}