Maestro Hans Graf will return for his first Houston conducting appearance since winning the Grammy Award earlier this year when he presents an all-Shostakovich program Saturday, June 30 for the Grand Finale of the 29th Annual Immanuel and Helen Olshan TEXAS MUSIC FESTIVAL (TMF).  The international music residency brings 95 of classical music’s rising stars to the University of Houston Moores School of Music (MSM) to study and perform with world-class conductors, soloists and faculty artists for the month of June.  

 

“We’re honored to welcome Maestro Graf back to our stage to conduct “’Shostakovich: First and Last’, featuring three works by one of his favorite composers,” said Alan Austin, TMF General and Artistic Director. The Festival is made possible by a gift from the Immanuel and Helen B. Olshan Foundation and support from the UH MSM, a part of UH Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts.

 

Graf, the longest serving Music Director in Houston Symphony Orchestra (HSO) history, will present “Shostakovich: First and Last,” from Scherzo No. 1 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 1, which the composer wrote at age 13, followed by Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10, completed at age 18 for his Petrograd Conservatory graduation, and finish with Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarotti, Op. 145a. with bass soloist Nikolay Didenko performing. Didenko is a Houston Grand Opera Studio alumnus who performs on the Grammy Award-winning Penderecki Conducts Penderecki, for Best Choral Performance (2017.)  

 

Pre-concert programs of TMF Orchestra Series will include performances by members of Virtuosi of Houston and Settling the Score lectures. TMF will showcase the talents of its faculty artists on four faculty chamber music concerts for its PERSPECTIVES Series Tuesdays, 7:30 p.m., the last of which will be June 26 at UH Dudley Recital Hall. 

 

Saturday TMF Orchestra Series performances are general seating and parking is free at the UH Moores Opera House, UH Main Campus, I-45 at Cullen Boulevard, Entrance #16.  For packages and group and individual ticket information and purchases, go to www.tmf.uh.edu or call the UH College of the Arts Box Office 713-743-3388.