Blending jazz & classical

One time at band camp: Friends come together in Texas Music Festival big bang concert opener

By Joel Luks

06.08.13 | 12:00 pm

It's often said that music brings people together. Some prefer to take this adage a step further, making bold claims to the likes of music being a universal language, music as a bridge that ...

Amelia Earhart at Moores

Music engineering: An emotional meltdown gives flight to Daron Hagen's Amelia opera

By Joel Luks

01.27.12 | 11:16 am

When composer Daron Aric Hagen arrived at University of Houston's Moores School of Music, it wasn't just to witness the production-in-progress of his newest large-scale opera, Amelia &mdash ...

Cougar Pride

Top national prize honors UH Moores Opera Center production and deceased composer Daniel Catán

By Joel Luks

12.27.11 | 2:16 pm

The University of Houston Moores Opera Center's production of Il Postino by acclaimed Mexican composer Daniel Catán received accolades from the National Opera Associa ...

An Opera Vista Dream

Grab your stripper poles! Bringing opera to a nightclub, skimpy outfits included

By Joel Luks

05.12.11 | 10:31 am

A stripper pole may not be the quintessential opera prop. But then again, Opera Vista isn't your granny's opera either. As art in bars becomes progressively mainstream, the idea of incl ...

Opera Vista presents Vera of Las Vegas

Rich's [closed]

05.12.11 - 05.14.11

Opera Vista's production of Vera of Las Vegas, by Daron Hagen and Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Muldoon, tells the story of two ex-IRA operatives on the run from the INS and two rogue MI

UH Moores Center Dedication

Renowned opera composer Daniel Catán dies, leaving a Houston void

By Joel Luks

04.11.11 | 11:20 am

Mexican composer Daniel Catán — an influential and beloved figure in the Houston opera world — died Friday in Austin. No details have been made public, but officials at the U ...

Big Opera Deal

Mexican composer Daniel Catán thrives on Houston: Moores Opera Center presents Il Postino

By Joel Luks

04.07.11 | 3:38 pm

Mexican and Los Angeles-based composer Daniel Catán feels musically quite at home in Houston and in many ways, owes his international notoriety to the city's support of new ope ...

Who will win?

The Final Four: Opera Vista Festival compositions are sexy, funny, legal & gay(er)

By Joel Luks

03.18.11 | 1:07 pm

Pretty music makes us like a character. Ugly music has the opposite effect. Think Smurfs and Gargamel.  This attitude was expressed numerous times by the judges at the 2011 Opera Vist ...

Art and About

3D glasses for the opera: Moores puts the Stars Wars into Magic Flute

By Joel Luks

01.27.11 | 10:43 am

What would you get if Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Avatar, The Matrix and opera were to mingle? Definitely not Kill the Wabbit.  Throw in a little Dungeons and Dragons and some S ...

A Southern Charmer

Leaving a musical void: Renowned Houston opera teacher Hal Lanier dies

By Joel Luks

01.05.11 | 1:03 pm

Inspirational and influential Houston music personality/teacher Hal Lanier passed away from post-surgery complications Tuesday afternoon. What had started as a manageable pain in Lanier's l ...