The Texas Music Festival presents two concerts featuring soloist Jessica Findley, winner of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition. The first concert on Friday, June 14, 2013, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in the Woodlands at 8:00 p.m. is free.
The second concert is on Saturday, June 15, 2013, Moores School of Music, University of Houston at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15, $10 for senior and students, and may be purchased online at www.music.uh.edu or in advance by calling 713-743-3313 or at the door on the evening of the performance.
Pre-concert activities on June 15 include entertainment by Virtuosi of Houston from 6:30 – 7:20 p.m., Jane Blaffer Owen Plaza; food for purchase from Bernie’s Burger Bus, and free refreshments with concert ticket by St. Arnold’s Brewing Company.
From 6:45 – 7:10 p.m. Dr. Andrew Davis, noted author and Associate Professor of Music Theory in the Moores School of Music, presents Settling the Score, a pre-concert lecture in the Moores Opera House.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Moores Opera House; the program includes Don Juan by R. Strauss, Concerto for Bassoon in B-flat Major, K. 101 by Mozart, and Symphony No. 5 in E Minor by Tchaikovsky.
Guest Artists are:
Horst Förster, is a former Professor of Conducting, Berlin Music Academy; former music director, Schwerin Philharmonic, Loh Orchester Sondershausen; founder and conductor, Leipzig Academic Orchestra. He has led many successful tours with well-known orchestras in Eastern Europe, Russia, Canada, Scandinavia, and Asia. Active as musicologist and music historian, prizes and awards include the National Prize for the Promotion of Music, and the Leipzig Municipal Arts Prize.
Jessica Findley, a native of Wichita, Kansas, is a junior pursuing a bachelor of music degree in bassoon under Dr. Eric Stomberg at the University of Kansas. She spent her first two years of college at Bowling Green State University in Ohio studying with Drs. Nathaniel Zeisler and Maya Stone. Findley is an enthusiastic chamber musician and enjoys collaborating with a variety of unique instrumental combinations, including renaissance and contemporary ensembles. She placed as a finalist in the BGSU Chamber Music Competition and the BGSU Concerto Competition in 2011-12, won the KU Concerto Competition with her performance of the Mozart Concerto for Bassoon with the KU Symphony Orchestra, and also the first prize of the collegiate bassoon division of the Midwest Double Reed Society Young Artist Competition. Jessica has performed in opera and orchestra with the Eutiner Festspiele in Eutin, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, as well as the Perrysburg Symphony Orchestra, the University of Toledo Wind Ensemble, and the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra.
Andrew Davis is Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of music theory in the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston.