A Symphony Sensation

The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion’s 2008 Season of the Arts

The Woodlands, TX – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion’s 2008 Performing Arts Season takes you on a journey filled with fun, dancing, classical music, old favorites and more. In addition to eight exhilarating performances by the Houston Symphony - including its annual Star-Spangled Salute - the Texas Music Festival Orchestra returns to The Pavilion with guest conductor Christoph Campestrini and the 14th Annual Children’s Festival erupts with family fun. The Houston Ballet returns to The Pavilion in the fall with Classics on Pointe, a mixed repertory program on Oct. 2. All this and more with The Pavilion’s 19th Performing Arts Season.

Friday, May 16
Spanish Nights
Houston Symphony ? Hans Graf, Conductor/ Eliot Fisk, Guitar/ Shai Wosner, Piano
8 p.m. / Gates open at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $15 / $10 / Free lawn seating courtesy of The Wortham Foundation

On May 16, travel to Spain without ever leaving your seat as Music Director Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony perform a concert of romantic and passionate Spanish works. Appropriately titled Spanish Nights, this evening features three works by Spanish composers and one piece by a Russian composer based on Spanish melodies.

Manuel de Falla’s “El amor brujo” (“Love, the Magician”) tells the story of a gypsy girl tormented by the ghost of her faithless former lover. The music contains moments of remarkable beauty and includes the celebrated “Ritual Fire Dance” and “Dance of Terror.” Pianist Shai Wosner joins the symphony for another of Falla’s works, Noches en los jardines de España (“Nights in the Gardens of Spain”). The evening also features classical guitarist Eliot Fisk performing with the symphony on Joaquín Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez for Guitar and Orchestra,” a piece written in Paris in 1939 amid the tensions of the pending war. The concert concludes with the lively melodies of “Capriccio Espagnol,” Op. 34, by Russian-born Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. This work, one of his most-famous orchestral compositions, features a large percussion section and many special techniques and articulations. Pre-concert activities begin at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, May 21
Let’s Dance!
Houston Symphony ? Brett Mitchell, Conductor
8 p.m. / Gates open at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $15 / $10 / Free lawn seating
Sponsored in part by FOX26 & MY20

Get your dancing shoes on for the Houston Symphony’s Let’s Dance! May 21. Brett Mitchell, conductor, leads the Symphony in an evening full of music that makes your heart dance and spirit soar.

Mitchell gets the audience tapping their feet with Offenbach’s Can-Can from “Orpheus in the Underworld,” Tchaikovsky’s Waltz from “The Sleeping Beauty,” excerpts from Bernstein’s Divertimento for Orchestra, Waldteufel’s “Les Pantineurs,” (“The Skaters”), Op. 183 and Sousa’s “The Stars and Strips Forever.” The performance also features dancers from Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy. Get ready to sway to the music at Let’s Dance! Pre-concert activities begin at 7 p.m. in the Fidelity Investments Plaza.

Friday, June 13
Musical Road Trip
Houston Symphony ? Robert Franz, Conductor
8 p.m. / Gates open at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $15 / $10 / Free lawn seating
Sponsored in part by Houston Community Newspapers

Pack your bags for a musical journey with the Houston Symphony’s Musical Road Trip June 13. Robert Franz conducts the Symphony and leads the audience on a trip through the prairies of Texas and across America connecting the repertoire through dialog with the audience.

Drive down the melodic highway with the sounds of Dragon’s “Yellow Rose of Texas,” Copland’s Celebration Dance from “Billy the Kidd,” Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” Wagner’s Overture to “The Flying Dutchman,” Smetana’s “Moldau,” Grofe’s Mardi Gras from the “Mississippi Suite,” Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” first movement and Hayman’s “Sing Out America.” Pack your camera and capture your memories of this summer expedition with Musical Road Trip.

Before your road trip begins, savor your sweet tooth with free ice cream in the Fidelity Investments Plaza and relax with the sounds of the Sharpstown High School Band, Sollopa as they publicly premiere a piece of work the students have written under the direction of Kurt Stallmann, a composer and professor of music at Rice University. Sollopa is made up of 10 students from the Sharpstown High School Band. Pre-concert activities begin at 7 p.m. Free ice cream is from 7 to 7:30 p.m. and the band performs from 7:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. The first 2,000 travelers to embark on their journey get free leis as they enter the gates.

Friday, June 20
Texas Music Festival Orchestra ? Christoph Campestrini, Conductor
8 p.m. / Gates open at 7 p.m.
Free event sponsored by The Pavilion Partners and Houston Community Newspapers

Join us as more than 100 gifted musicians, in conjunction with the Immanuel and Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival, return to The Pavilion this summer for a family-favorite filled with great music.

The festival is an intensive four-week study program at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music summer orchestral training program with component guitar, jazz and flute institutes. The Texas Music Festival Orchestra participants (Orchestral Fellows), chosen by competitive live and recorded auditions, are approximately 95 advanced students and young professional musicians who come from throughout the U.S., Europe, Mexico, Asia, Canada, Central and South America to participate in the residency program on the UH campus. The Orchestral Fellows study and rehearse under the guidance of an international faculty of artist/teachers and conductors who also perform on the festival’s Distinguished Artist Series concerts, presented weekly at Texas A&M University and in the Moores Opera House at the University of Houston.

Under the direction of Christoph Campestrini, these young artists perform Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 and Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture.” The program also includes a special solo performance by this year’s winner of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition. The winner is determined the night of the performance. Pre-concert activities begin at 7 p.m. in the Fidelity Investments Plaza.

Thursday, July 3
Star-Spangled Salute
Houston Symphony ? Michael Krajewski, Conductor
8 p.m. / Gates open at 6:30 p.m.
Free event generously sponsored by The Woodlands Development Company

This free Independence Eve spectacular features the Houston Symphony in a selection of patriotic favorites! Led by Principal Pops Conductor Michael Krajewski, joined by special guest Kaitlyn Lusk, vocalist the Symphony performs pieces from the Judy Garland songbook, “The Trolly Song, “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe,” and “Over the Rainbow” as well as “God Bless America” and “American Anthem” from Ken Burns’ celebrated documentary “The War.”

Caring on that American tradition, the Symphony performs a variety of traditional favorites, American classics, sing-alongs. Star-Spangles Salute includes “Service Medley,” paying tribute to our Armed Forces, John Williams’ “Olympic Fanfare and Theme” in anticipation for this summer’s Olympic Games and of course, Tchaikovsky’s "1812 Overture" complete with cannons from atop the hill. Don’t miss commemorating the birth of our nation by joining the Symphony in this grandiose celebration. It’s an evening of good, old-fashioned family fun! Pre-concert activities begin at 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, August 27
Zoot Suit Symphony
Houston Symphony ? Michael Krajewski, Conductor
8 p.m. / Gates open at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $15 / $10 / Free lawn seating courtesy of Woodforest National Bank & Macy’s

Travel back in time to the era of the 1940’s big bands and night clubs with the Houston Symphony’s Zoot Suit Symphony Aug. 27 at 8 p.m. It’s a night of swingin’ music and rhythm as the Symphony, under the expert direction of Michael Krajewski, go all out with this high-energy show. Pre-concert activities begin at 7 p.m. in the Fidelity Investments Plaza.

Friday, September 19
Music of Mozart
Houston Symphony ? Hans Graf, Conductor
8 p.m. / Gates open at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $15 / $10 / Free lawn seating courtesy of The Wortham Foundation

Relish in an evening full of classical Mozart music on Sept. 19 with the Houston’s Symphony’s Music of Mozart. Hans Graf conducts the world-renowned orchestra in Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 and Symphony No. 35, or “Haffner” Symphony. Also on the program is Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin.” Take pleasure in the classics with Music of Mozart! Pre-concert activities begin at 7 p.m. in the Fidelity Investments Plaza.

Thursday, October 2
Classics on Pointe
Houston Ballet
8 p.m. / Gates open at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $15 / $10 / Free lawn seating

Houston Ballet presents Classics on Pointe, a mixed repertory program featuring “Five Tangos,” “Falling,” and “Symphony in C.” Classics on Pointe showcases three prolific and internationally acclaimed choreographers presenting their own interpretations classical dance.

“Five Tangos” by Hans van Manen is a unique mix of the power and sensuality of tango and the cool abstraction of classical ballet. It is what the tango is all about: a dance of love and death. Stanton Welch’s “Falling” is a classical, playful piece for five couples set to Mozart’s “Salzburg Symphonies.” Originally created for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1947, it is now in the repertory of companies across the globe. “Symphony in C” is a dazzling full-company classical showpiece set to music of Georges Bizet. Created by George Balanchine, the ballet features four movements, each featuring a different ballerina, danseur and corps de ballet. The entire cast of 48 dancers from all four movements gather for the rousing finale. Pre-concert activities begin at 7 p.m.

Friday, October 24
Hocus Pocus Pops
Houston Symphony ? Brett Mitchell, Conductor
7:30 p.m. / Gates at open 6 p.m.
Tickets: $15 / $10 / Free lawn seating courtesy of H-E-B

Bring your family and friends to this “spooktacular” Halloween event. Hocus Pocus Pops is a night of tricks, treats and enchanting music as the Houston Symphony casts a magical spell on The Pavilion. Daddies, mummies and all the little ghosts and goblins are invited to dress up in their favorite Halloween costumes. Concertgoers are sure to have a “hauntingly” good time. Pre-concert activities begin at 6 p.m. in the Fidelity Investments Plaza.

Thursday & Friday, Nov. 13 & 14 (school day performances only)
Saturday, Nov. 15, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 16, 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.
14th Annual Children’s Festival
Tickets: $6 in advance / $8 at the door

The Pavilion is transformed into a giant playground of fun for the young and young at heart at the 14th Annual Children’s Festival. Award-winning children’s performers educate and entertain thousands of children during four days of non-stop fun and excitement. Each artist has a unique ability to delight and inspire children with programs that not only amuse, but also communicate positive messages. The festival features music, dance, puppetry, theater, comedy, arts and crafts, games, hands-on activities, face painting and more! Billy Jonas, a re-percussionist specializing in family-oriented concerts in venues nationwide, performs during all four days of the festival.

Ticket Information
Performing Arts subscriptions for the 2008 season are still available for $150 per seat. Subscriptions include covered reserved seats to all Houston Symphony concerts (including preferred seating for the Star-Spangled Salute and Texas Music Festival Orchestra performances), VIP on-site parking and Woodforest Bank VIP Club access for each show, as well as a subscription to The Pavilion’s CenterStage newsletter. Subscribe before May 24 and receive bonus tickets to the performing arts concert of your choice and bonus tickets to the 14th Annual Children’s Festival!

Tickets and subscription packages can be purchased at The Pavilion Ticket Office, located at 2005 Lake Robbins Drive in The Woodlands. The Ticket Office is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and on event days through the start of the show. Individual tickets also are available at all Ticketmaster outlets, including Macy’s, Fiesta, select FYE and H-E-B locations, Wherehouse Music and Media Magic, by calling 713-629-3700, or online at www.ticketmaster.com. Most major credit cards are accepted. Some service charges may apply.

For more information regarding upcoming events at The Pavilion, call 281-363-3300 or visit The Pavilion’s Web site.

Educational Outreach Programs
The Center for the Performing Arts at The Woodlands, home of The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, offers a diverse assortment of educational and community outreach programs that touch the lives of nearly 30,000 children and their families annually throughout the Greater Houston area. These programs are an integral part of The Center’s mission to offer live performances to students regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or economic status. The Center has developed programs to support fine arts students, offer academic and social incentives, foster new audiences and partner with other community organizations for community enrichment opportunities.

Musical Scores: One of The Pavilion’s signature educational programs, Musical Scores primarily serves “at-risk” middle school students who earn the opportunity to attend a special event and concert at The Pavilion by displaying model behavior and achieving specific scholastic goals. Administered by teachers and counselors from schools throughout the Greater Houston area, students are rewarded when they reach their goal or “musical score.” They are designated as Super Achievers and are treated to a free performance, t-shirt and lunch at The Pavilion. Approximately 4,200 students are scheduled to attend Musical Scores May 6.

Fine Arts Education Day - A David Dewhurst Symphony Explorer Concert featuring the Houston Symphony: On May 28, approximately 4,000 students are slated to attend Fine Arts Education Day, a program created for Conroe ISD fourth grade students to experience orchestral music and learn about the various instruments in both band and orchestra. The purpose of the program is to expose students to music before they enter fifth grade and have to choose an elective, thus fostering the performing arts. For the first time ever, the program features the Houston Symphony. This program, offered for free to students, is produced in conjunction with Conroe ISD.

The Pavilion also offers several other community outreach programs and activities throughout the year. These programs include Pavilion Talk, informative pre-concert discussions led by noted music scholar and college professor Ira J. Black; Young Talent Spotlight, an effort to encourage the artists of tomorrow by exposing them to the joy of performing in front of a live audience; and Fine Arts Scholarships, awarded through The Pavilion Partners to high school seniors and university students majoring in Fine Arts.