Houston Symphony And Hilary Hahn Perform For Enthusiastic Audience At Philharmonie Essen In Second European Tour Stop

The Houston Symphony and Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada continued their eight-city European tour Sunday, March 11, in Essen, Germany, performing in front of an enthusiastic crowd of more than 1,300 at the Philharmonie Essen.

The concert took place at the Alfried Krupp Hall, the venue's largest event hall boasting brilliant acoustics and a sophisticated look featuring wood paneling and warm colors. Orozco-Estrada introduced the evening's program with an intimate pre-concert lecture which included commentary from the stage and musical examples alongside members of the orchestra.

The first half of the program began with Bernstein's Overture to West Side Story, followed by the lyrical Serenade for Violin featuring three-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn. Both works are central to tour repertoire as the orchestra celebrates the composer's centennial year. Hahn will join the Houston Symphony in all tour stops.

"The Houston Symphony has a very special sound and a very interesting way to approach these different composers, and particularly the symphonies we're playing on the tour like Dvo?ák's Symphony No. 7 and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5," said Orozco-Estrada. "We share a very strong and special connection with these works, which at the end is what matters the most; that we connect ourselves with the music and with the audience."

The evening concluded with Dvo?ák's dramatic Seventh Symphony, a work that was featured in Orozco-Estrada's critically-acclaimed inaugural recording with the Houston Symphony. Orozco-Estrada and the musicians of the orchestra earned an enthusiastic standing ovation after the performance.

The Houston Symphony's next stops on the European tour are Konzerthaus Berlin (March 12) and the Filharmonia Narodowa (March 14) in Warsaw, Poland. The orchestra then travels to Vienna, Austria (March 15) to perform at the Wiener Konzerthaus before returning to Germany for the last leg of the tour to make their debut at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg (March 17) and perform at the?Hannover Congress Centrum (March 18) and Gasteig München (March 19).

For more information about the European tour, visit https://www.houstonsymphony.org/european-tour.

During the 2017-18 season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its fourth season with Music Director Andrés Orozco- Estrada and continues its second century as one of America's leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring and recording activities. The Houston Symphony, one of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston June 21, 1913. Today, with an annual operating budget of $33.9 million, the full-time ensemble of 88 professional musicians presents nearly 170 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Additionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony's four Community-Embedded Musicians offer over 900 community-based performances each year, reaching thousands of people in Greater Houston.

The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Naxos, Koch International Classics, Telarc,?RCA Red Seal, Virgin Classics and, most recently, Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg's Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category.

For tickets and more information, please visit www.houstonsymphony.org or call 713-224-7575.

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