Virtuosi Houston returns to Wortham Center for first time in two decades.
Virtuosi of Houston is celebrating its milestone 25th anniversary with a hint of nostalgia, heaps of passion and muscles of resilience, as it continues to cultivate future generations of classical musicians despite the challenges of the past year.
On March 6, the premier young artists chamber orchestra will return to the Wortham Theater Center for the first time since 2001 to present its annual “Concerto Concert.” Yet, rather than fill the facility’s more intimate Cullen Theater, which would have been reminiscent of its performance two decades ago, its promising instrumentalists, ages 11 to 18, will take the Brown’s 17,000-squarefoot stage, from where they will perform for an in-person audience of up to 400 socially distanced attendees. Their reach will be further expanded thanks to a livestream viewing option, made possible with the support of producers Brad Sayles and Chris Multop.
Under the baton of co-founding artistic directors and conductors Andrzej Grabiec and Franz Anton Krager, the ensemble’s 44 members — all masked and hailing from over 30 ZIP codes in the Houston area — will deliver a jubilant program that kicks off with Gordon
Jacob’s “Old Wine in New Bottles.” The setting of four Old English tunes will shine a light on the woodwind and brass musicians of the orchestra, who were unable to play alongside the strings in the first concert of the season last December due to the concerns regarding aerosol transmission.
“Getting these students together musically is so important for their own psyche,” says director of orchestra operations Karen Needham, who initially became involved with Virtuosi as a volunteer parent over two decades ago. “The reason you practice is to perform, and these students, they’re like athletes. They’re a team. You can play isolated, but when you play next to someone else, you bounce off of them. There’s just nothing like it.”
In addition to bringing the full orchestra back, Virtuosi has extended an invitation to the students’ private teachers, all of whom are local professional musicians — one being cellist Wendy Smith-Butler, the mother of the ensemble’s concertmaster — to accompany them onstage for what is sure to be an emotional reunion for everyone involved.
To make up for the cancellation of last year’s “Concerto Concert,” the evening will showcase the two grand prize winners of the 2020 Immanuel and Helen B. Olshan Foundation “Concerto Competition,” an opportunity exclusively open to Virtuosi musicians. High school senior James Laase and 12-year-old Hannah Han will perform soloist roles in an oboe concertino by Johann Baptist Wenzel Kalliwoda and a violin concerto by Max Bruch, respectively.
After intermission, the winners of the 22nd annual competition, which was held virtually at the end of January, will be announced. A brief video will provide a behindthe-scenes look at the selection process, featuring commentary by the panel of five jurors — violinist Frank Huang, double bassist Lawrence P. Hurst, clarinetist David Campbell, trumpeter Allen Vizzutti and pianist Myrthala Salazar Dávila.
As usual, the seven students who place will receive monetary prizes, ranging from $500 to $2,500, to assist with expenses related to their musical training, but new this spring, the top two champions will also be awarded a $10,000 four-year scholarship to the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, presented by its director Courtney Crappell.
Virtuosi has come a long way since its inaugural concert at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in 1996. Its young musicians, who audition every fall, present three concerts per season, including a gala in May, and they rehearse at the ensemble’s longtime Memorial City Mall studio, which was recently equipped with COVID-killing air filters invented by board member Monzer Hourani, the CEO of Medistar Corp.
Still, what unites the group remains the same.
“When they come together, they have something in common and that is the music,” Needham said. “These kids are traveling from Conroe and from The Woodlands and from Friendswood and from Seabrook and all over to play together. The commitment of the students, the commitment of their parents, it’s incredible, and for that to be supported by this community for 25 years, we’re really indebted. This is another aspect of what makes Houston great.”