CLASSICAL
HOUSTON SYMPHONY’S PRINCIPAL CELLIST BRINTON AVERIL SMITH
Meet Houston Symphony musicians in their living rooms.
The sudden loss of their season has hit members of the Houston Symphony hard, but the orchestra is hoping that — as it has during the growing “Listen at Home” video collection — technology will again allow them to connect with their audience far from the suddenly precarious environment of Jones Hall.
“The shutdown and cancellation of all concerts left me completely at sea,” principal cellist Brinton Averil Smith says. “I became even more acutely aware that it is sharing music with a live audience that makes it truly meaningful.”
To that end, selected orchestra section leaders will livestream hour-long solo recitals from their homes for the next four Fridays, often joined by spouses and other family members. The so-called Living Room Series begins this week with pianist Scott Holshouser and his son, vocalist Sean Holshouser, performing works by Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Debussy and an improvisation based on George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”
“We're really excited to launch this new concert series,” says the orchestra’s executive director and CEO, John Mangum, also holder of the Margaret Alkek Williams chair. “I’ve really enjoyed learning more about our musicians during this time and seeing their creativity come through in the videos they've filmed in their respective homes. We thought this would be a chance to combine that creativity with a virtual version of the live concert experience.”
The series continues with clarinetist Mark Nuccio on May 8, Smith on May 15 and violist Joan DerHovspian on May 22. Priced at $10, each ticket enables the purchaser to access a private YouTube link to the performance. A Q&A session with the featured musician will conclude each week’s performance; users must have a YouTube account.
“Every member of our orchestra is a gifted artist in their own right, and this gives us a chance to really highlight that,” Mangum adds.
For Nuccio, these virtual concerts are an idea whose time has come. He presented a similar plan to symphony management in the spring of 2017, he explains, but thanks largely to Hurricane Harvey and now this pandemic, nothing ever came of it. Now the clarinetist is planning his recital with an eye toward matching his musical selections — an arrangement of Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy for Piano, as well as other composers representing four regions of the world — with suitable cocktail and wine pairings, both available at Spec’s.
“Someday we hope we can do this in Jones Hall, and I will get to see each of you,” Nuccio says. “Stay well and enjoy the evening!”
Smith and his wife, pianist Evelyn Chen, are planning to perform several short pieces by the early-20th-century cellist Emanuel Feuermann that cover a variety of styles and emotions and “are as fun for Evelyn and I to play as they are to listen to,” he says. Others will feature their daughter, an aspiring opera singer who will enter Northwestern University in the fall.
“There is an inspiration in a concert you can't find in rehearsal, knowing that an audience is living in that same musical moment with you,” Smith explains. “The thought of performing for a live audience is much more exciting to me than just recording something.
“There is a different approach to live music-making, and even the anticipation of the concert makes me begin to feel like a cellist again,” he adds.
DerHovspian is also planning to perform with her spouse, Houston Grand Opera orchestra bassist Erik Gronfor. One piece is a duet for their respective instruments the couple has been playing together for the duration of their 20-year marriage, she says.
Their program will also include works from the Baroque and Romantic eras, as well as welcoming their violinist teenage daughter for a few tunes with the “family trio,” DerHovspian adds.
“We turn to the arts for consolation during difficult times, and we’ve seen the wide world come closer through music during this pandemic,” she says. “The last several weeks have highlighted for me the need for live connectedness between performers and listeners, for many reasons.”
“I hope this series can be a first step toward gradually returning to that ideal.”