Houston Symphony's New Season

From Mozart to MacFarlane, Houston Symphony's new season has something for everyone

The Houston Symphony's upcoming season offers something for just about everyone, with a salute to living composers, an all-Mozart program on Thanksgiving weekend and collaborations with a wide range of celebrity figures, including superstar singer Andrea Bocelli, funnyman Seth McFarlane and acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

The 2016-17 season was unveiled Monday night at Jones Hall before an audience of symphony supporters. The event will be broadcast on Houston Public Media TV 8 on Friday (January 29) at 8:30 pm.

Among the highlights:

Opening Night

In his third year as Houston Symphony conductor, Andrés Orozco-Estrada opens the season with a performance of Prokofiev’s enduring classic, Peter and the Wolf, on September 17, 2016, featuring a celebrity guest narrator, at Jones Hall. A gala will follow at The Corinthian.

Salute to John Adams

As part of a salute to living composers, John Adams’ 70th birthday will be celebrated in two different programs in early 2017: Doctor Atomic Symphony, a work inspired by Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project, and Adams' Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra, featuring native Houstonian Timothy McAllister, who inspired the work.

World Premiere

Houston Symphony Composer-in-Residence Gabriela Lena Frank’s Requiem, a multicultural work that interweaves traditional Latin and Meso-American texts with new text by Pulitzer Prize-winner Nilo Cruz, will have its world premiere in May 2017.

Great Masterworks

The classical season, over 18 concert weekends, will include Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 and the completion of the three-season Beethoven cycle of all nine symphonies featuring the composer’s Sixth and Seventh Symphonies as well as Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio.

Yo Yo Ma Returns

Superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma returns for Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, a powerful masterpiece written during the time Dvořák spent in America, on February 4, 2017.

Former Conductors Are Back, Too

Former Houston Symphony music directors Hans Graf and Christoph Eschenbach are among the season's guest conductors, along with Fabien Gabel, James Gaffigan, Vasily Petrenko and Kazuki Yamada.

Seth MacFarlane Performs

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane makes his debut with the Houston Symphony on Labor Day weekend (September 4), singing hidden gems of the 1940s and 1950s swing era, along with selections from the Great American Songbook.

Raiders of the Lost Ark Live!

The Symphony’s Summer Series at Jones Hall celebrates the classic film’s 35th anniversary when the Houston Symphony performs John Williams’ score in its entirety as fans watch the epic film on the big screen.

POPs Season Highlights

Principal POPS conductor Michael Krajewski takes up the baton for his final season with a lineup that includes Broadway vocalist Linda Eder, Pink Martini, 50 years of music from James Bond films, and a "Classic Broadway" celebration featuring the music of composers Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Cole Porter and George Gershwin during Krajewski's final weekend with the POPs orchestra.

Family Stuff

The symphony family series includes a "Magic Carpet Ride,” with music from Disney’s Aladdin, a jazzy “Mardi Gras Menagerie” and “Dr. Seuss at the Symphony,” spotlighting music from Green Eggs and Ham.

For more information on the full season, visit www.houstonsymphony.org.

Pink Martini plays with the Houston POPS this season.

Courtesy photo

Pink Martini plays with the Houston POPS this season.

symphony

Remembering the Flood

Texan wins Pulitzer Prize for heartbreaking story of Guadalupe flood

Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Aaron Parsley has won a Pulitzer Prize for "Where the River Took Us," published days after the flood.

Many Houstonians know someone who was impacted by the July 4, 2025 flood that killed more than 100 people. But one story cut through the chaos with an emotionally raw, first-person view of what actually happened. Texas Monthly senior editor Aaron Parsley published his survival story in "Where the River Took Us." On Monday, May 4, he has won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.

The prestigious journalism award has 23 winners each spring. For features, the judges chiefly consider "quality of writing, originality and concision."

"Where the River Took Us," brought readers moment-by-moment from Parsley's family house on the Guadalupe River, to family members including Parsley rushing down the river itself, to reunification for most of the family and grief for his 20-month-old nephew, Clay, who drowned.

Parlsey renders each scene with arresting detail, recalling dialog and individual pieces of refuse raging past in the water: branches, furniture, a car with headlights still on. Adding to the immersion were photographs by Jordan Vonderhaar and Parsley's family. Published just days after the flood, the account was one of the first deep looks at what happened for readers who had only seen general news coverage and disorganized posts on social media.

“In a matter of hours, Aaron uncovered the singular experiences of family members wrenched from one another and thrown into a raging flood," said Texas Monthly editor in chief Ross McCammon in a story announcing the Pulitzer award. "He then braided those stories together to convey what a tragedy of this sort actually feels like. This is a deeply reported story of horror, courage, and love, and it is one of the finest magazine stories ever written.”

“I am grateful to my family for trusting me and to everyone at Texas Monthly for offering their support, talent, and meticulous care during the process of writing, reporting, and all that goes into putting this story into the world,” said Parsley. “It means everything to me, and I’m deeply proud to be a part of the Texas Monthly team.”

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