Houston Symphony Honors Local Educators

The Houston Symphony honored two deserving music educators Wednesday evening at Jones Hall during the annual Spec's Charitable Foundation Salute to Educators concert, which featured the talented musicians of the Houston Youth Symphony performing side-by-side with the Houston Symphony.

Salute to Educators is an annual tribute concert for outstanding teachers in Greater Houston and their immeasurable contributions to the community. This year's program recognized Gabe Musella, a veteran music teacher with nearly 30 years of teaching experience in Texas, with the Spec's Charitable Foundation Award for Excellence in Music Education. Musella is the director of bands at Spring High School and his students have earned many awards and invitations to perform at festivals and clinics nationwide under his direction. In addition to his teaching contributions, he is an active, published composer and serves on the board of the Foundation for Music Education.

"I've always believed that there are no limits to how good you can be other than the limits you place on yourself," Musella said. "That drives my philosophy on guiding my band program."

Carolyn Vandiver received the 2017 Aubrey and Sophia Meyer Farb School Bell Award for Lifetime Achievement. She has been the director of orchestras at Stephen F. Austin High School since the school opened its doors in 1995 and was a founding member of the Arlington ISD String Program prior to that. Vandiver has been the co-conductor of the string orchestra of the Houston Youth Symphony for the last 19 years and was also a founding member and manager of the elite chamber orchestra Virtuosi of Houston, an organization designed to provide pre-professional performance opportunities for young musicians.

Brittany Xiao, a former student of Vandiver, said, "Mrs. Vandiver had a great influence on me and my fellow peers, inspiring us to treat school as more than just a class and to pursue lifelong passions of music and foster an appreciation for the arts."

Led by Associate Conductor Robert Franz, the first half of the evening's program included Mendelssohn's "The Hebrides" and Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, which featured 16-year old Steven Dong, first place winner at the 2016 Houston Symphony League Concerto Competition. The second half of the concert welcomed the Houston Youth Symphony to perform Debussy's "La Mer" side-by-side the Houston Symphony.