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    CultureMap Exclusive

    New Houston Symphony conductor reveals all: City misconceptions, burger love, Jim Parsons lessons & magic music

    Joel Luks
    Jan 21, 2013 | 12:22 pm

     Andrés Orozco-Estrada couldn't stop pacing.

     

    Hidden from view from a hundred or so guests on the stage of Jones Hall itching to learn why the Houston Symphony had summoned a last-minute press conference, something this group rarely does, the 35-year-old, Colombian-born conductor jiggled, moved, shuffled, did a happy-dance of sorts backstage waiting — craving — to reveal himself as the man who's set to hold this orchestra's top baton.

     

    His energy just cannot be contained.

     

    Orozco-Estrada was welcomed by Mayor Annise Parker, Symphony president and CEO Mark Hanson and board president Robert Peiser with open arms (read that CultureMap behind-the-scenes exclusive here). This positive, joyful reception imbued with Southern hospitality offered a glimpse inside Orozco-Estrada's prowess, charming personality, infections temperament and joie de vivre, the traits that had connected synergistically with the orchestra musicians instantaneously.

     

    I had the opportunity to sit next to Orozco-Estrada for an exclusive tête-à-tête to get acquainted with the man behind the music, during which we chatted about his aspirations, his personal interests and his thoughts about the city's premier classical music ensemble. Amid talking about steak, chocolate, American sitcoms and Romanticism, I began understanding what drives Orozco-Estrada as an individual, as a father and as a musician.

     

     CultureMap: I admit this may be an unfair question, but let's just run with it. What was your image of Houston before you came here in October, and how has your view of the city changed in the short amount of time that you've been here?

     

     Andrés Orozco-Estrada: Before I came to Houston for the first time, I happened to be watching a lot of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory. The mother of Sheldon is from Texas — and I also know that the actor that plays Sheldon (Jim Parsons) is from Houston. Of course she's a stereotype, very exaggerated. But, oh, my goodness, I though this may be a very traditional city with lots of churches, very Catholic, where everyone goes to church.

     

    I had an image of people wearing cowboy hats and boots everywhere, and people on the street spitting on the floor (laughs). I know, cliché. I thought as the city is close to Mexico, it must be filled with armadillos and Tex Mex. And hot weather.

     

    Of course when I arrived in Houston, I found a city full of very interesting contrasts, very rich in every sense — not only rich in money — but also rich in culture, in opportunities, in languages. The second time I came here I had the opportunity to visit museums, parks and enjoy the city, and I was impressed by how much the city offered all its citizens. The best thing you can find here is opportunity.

     
     

      "I hope after five years everyone in Houston will say, this was a conductor who let us feel the music as a totally alive experience."

     
     

     CM: Did you get a chance to explore the city's food scene? Houstonians take a lot of pride in their restaurants and bars.

     

     AOE: I ate steak every chance I had — I love a big steak. At lunch, at dinner, I ordered steaks at every hotel I stayed in.

     

    I love hamburgers. I always argue with my mother because she says, "Don't eat too much hamburger, this is fast food." It's not fast, I say, it's fast because I eat them so fast. But think about it: A burger has everything in it, bread, salad, meat, what else would I want?

     

     CM: Music directors leave a legacy. What would you want yours to be after your tenure with the Houston Symphony? What type of mark do you want to leave with the listeners and in the city?

     

     AOE: I don't know if I can answer that question properly today, but I'll give it a try.

     

    I want my legacy to be about the way we make music, the way we understand music and the way we approach music. That means that I give everything I have when I "do" music — and doing music also means speaking about music, dreaming about music and talking about music.

     

    Specifically, when I am rehearsing or conducting a concert, I want people to remember me as someone who gave everything he had, all my thoughts, all my experience and all my energy. I think I lose one or two kilos every time I conduct.

     
     

      "I always argue with my mother because she says, 'Don't eat too much hamburger, this is fast food.' It's not fast, I say, it's fast because I eat them so fast." 

     

     

    I hope after five years everyone in Houston will say, this was a conductor who let us feel the music as a totally alive experience.

     

    This is the thing: You have to dare let music touch you to experience this. I want to create unforgettable moments. Every concert will have unforgettable moments.

     

     CM: Maestro Hans Graf loves wine. How do you unwind outside of music? What are your interests outside of the arts?

     

     AOE: I try to read when I can, and I spend time finding the right books. I love to read American and Colombian literature. Just two weeks ago I found a very interesting writer, Tomás González. Most of the time I am very busy thinking, getting inside my head to plan, study and prepare — and that's something I love.

     
     

      "Mahler is a unique person, his music has a unique personality. His symphonies combine real life, the life after the life and the life before the life."

     
     

    I love people. I love to speak with people and really hear them. That means small groups, intimate, exclusive conversations in the moment, when you can sit there and talk for two, three, four even five hours about life, music and everything in between. Unfortunately as a conductor, I don't have many opportunities to do that because of the busy schedule. So when I do — like right now — I enjoy that even more, so I take time to relish the moment.

     

    I love chocolate.

     

    I love to sleep and try to get as much sleep as I can. And before I go to sleep I must watch one or two episodes from one of my favorite American sitcoms. It relaxes me.

     

     CM: Describe the ideal concert: How do you craft a program that speaks to you personally and to audiences?

     

     AOE: I will give you two answers, both are true and come from inside my heart. This first one is more ideal, perhaps it may seem too romantic, but it isn't. It's true.

     

    Every concert could be ideal if you make an intelligent combination of pieces and if you convince the musicians and the audience that the way we play is the best one. This is not to say other interpretations aren't good, but at this moment, at this time, this was the ultimate. This way, every concert could be ideal, perfect.

     

    For my taste, what I love is Mahler symphonies. I love this very much. His music combines many things. Mahler is a unique person, his music has a unique personality. His symphonies — all his music, really — combine real life, the life after the life and the life before the life.

     

    If you want to touch audiences, get very existential and pass across all realms, Mahler is one composer who helps you do that — if it's played well. If you cross this line, you access a different world, a world that's not here. It's somewhere else in the universe, a world you don't know or don't even know if it exists.

     

     CM: We know from talking to the musicians and administration why the extended the offer of music director designate to you. But why did you accept it? You didn't have to — you are already holding two prestigious positions.

     

     AOE: That's true, very true in fact.

     

    The first and more natural answer is because I feel it was meant to be.

     
     

      "This is an orchestra that's inspired — and wants to be inspired."

     
     

    When the Houston Symphony first asked me, I needed one minute to think about the question. Not to think about the answer, but to understand that the question was a serious one. I said, of course, yes.

     

    The first meeting with the orchestra was very natural. We had a strong connection. I had the feeling — all in one week — that the musicians were open to discovering a new way, our new way, to create music together, even if that meant repeating pieces performed before.

     

    I feel that with this orchestra it's not going to be about "my version" but about "our version," like we did for Symphonie Fantastique. This is not always possible, and not every orchestra offers this opportunity. When it happens, it's just amazing.

     

    That's why I am here. Because they can do this and play at a technically high level at the same time. This combination is key for me.

     

    At the same time, the Houston Symphony is an orchestra that's absolutely financially secure. This is very important. Sadly we know that's not the situation in other professional American orchestras.

     

    I have a feeling — a very strong feeling — as they say in German, that the musicians want to touch the stars. They are looking to touch all the stars. I want the same.

     

    I want to be the best — not in a competitive way. The best means getting closer to everyone while making music.

     

    If all this sounds very romantic, that's good. What would life be without being romantic? Without having dreams. Without inspiration?

     

    This is an orchestra that's inspired — and wants to be inspired.

     

    I had to say yes.

    "I want to be the best — not in a competitive way. The best means getting closer to everyone while making music."

    Andres Orozco Estrada, press conference, January 2013
      
    Photo by © Michelle Watson CatchLightGroup.com
    "I want to be the best — not in a competitive way. The best means getting closer to everyone while making music."
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    Best July Art

    Where to see art in Houston now: 9 fun new exhibits opening in July

    Tarra Gaines
    Jul 9, 2025 | 4:30 pm
    ​Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
    Photo courtesy of Artechouse
    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"

    Art blooms in our world class museums but also on our city streets this July. From exhibitions featuring traditional paintings and sculptures to high tech immersive and interactive shows, we’re weaving art into the best of summertime fun and dreaming up beautiful new artistic creations all over Houston.

    “Town Meeting 1978-2028” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Pioneering Houston-based interdisciplinary artists Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin continue their decades-long project to create new and sometimes monumental artworks in response to little-known pre-Stonewall queer histories. For this latest exhibition, the duo explore a more recent and influential piece of Houston history, “Town Meeting I,” the pivotal convening of 4,000 LGBTQIA+ Houstonians at the Astro Arena in 1978. For this show at Art League, they’ve used their “wind drawing” technique of stenciling unfixed charcoal powder on paper and blowing it away, leaving a ghost-image. Using archival images of “Town Meeting I” as the bases of their stenciling, the finished “wind drawings” highlight the ephemerality, beauty, and loss of queer histories. In addition to these new works, Vaughan and Margolin hope to inspire, facilitate, and develop programming in 2028 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of “Town Meeting 1.”

    “Fragmentos de un sueño que yo también soñé (Fragments of a Dream I Also Dreamed)" at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    “Every house is a body, and every individual body is a house full of memories and hopes,” says award-winning Venezuela born, Chicago-based artist, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, of her artistic focus. Molina’s fragmented, layered, and figural compositions explore that idea of home and memories. Delving into memories and stories, these figurative compositions, depicting people and relationships, fluctuate between stories of the present, past, and future. Taken together, the works in “Fragmentos de un sueño” aim to visually capture the feelings of vulnerability, nostalgia, and hope embedded in the experience of many immigrants. Art League notes that Molina’s pieces emphasize optimism over hardship, specifically addressing the longing for a home that no longer exists while striving to create a new one.

    “Every Fiber of Their Bodies” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Working with natural fibers such as linen, paper collage, and hand-spun paper yarn made from calligraphy paper and book pages, textile artist Lin Qiqing weaves stories ofhuman relationships, gender, immigration, and language. As the title hints, the labor-intensive weaving process brings thematic depth to the images of bodies depicted in the pieces. The woven pieces also make connections to the natural world, as when Lin crumples then smooths handmade mulberry paper to resemble human skin, or when she uses handwoven fiber to mimic the body’s movement. Lin process includes research and experimenting with natural materials to explore themes of the internal human struggle for existence and our interactions with the world around us.

    “Annual Juried Exhibition” at Archway Gallery (now through July 31)
    For the 17th year, the artist owned Archway Gallery celebrates Houston artists with its juried exhibition of area artists who are not members of the space. This year’s exhibition is juried by Project Row Houses founder and MacArthur "genius" fellow, Rick Lowe. The acclaimed artist and social activist has selected work from over 35 area artists representing a diversity of medium and styles. Sales from the exhibition will go to Houston’s Brave Little Company, the theater company for Houston’s kids and their gown ups.

    “Foyer Installation: René Magritte” at Menil Collection (now through August 3)
    After a critically acclaimed trip to Australia, some of our favorite Belgian-born Houstonians are back home. Yes, the Magritte paintings have returned to the Menil Collection after taking a star turn in a monumental Magritte retrospective at Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales. Now the Menil is celebrating their return with a special installation in the main building foyer. The Menil Collection owns the largest collection of work by René Magritte outside the artist’s native Belgium, and this display focuses on a core group of paintings from the 1950s and ’60s that truly represent Magritte’s status as a master creator of impossible painted worlds and an icon of the Surrealist movement. The paintings were purchased within a couple years of their making by the museum’s founders, John and Dominique de Menil. They represent and important part of 20th century art history, as the de Menils became Magritte’s biggest champions in the United States, helping to shape the artist’s reception and reputation in the postwar American art world. Stop by to welcome them home and slip into their enigmatic wonder.

    “Blooming Wonders” at Artechouse (now through September)
    The latest immersive exhibition from the Houston venue that brings art, science, and technology home together, Artechouse, lets the flowers blossom. The exhibition contains several dynamic installations, including “Timeless Butterflies,” a 270 degrees projection space that puts visitors in the middle of a butterfly cloud. Audiences journey with a flock of butterflies into an immense garden of flowers. Another immersive piece, “Infinite Blooms” takes audiences on a journey through an endless digital forest of cherry blossoms. The installation, “Akousmaflore et Lux” creates a very different type of garden where plants transform into musical instruments. “Clay Pillar” by Interactive Items / Vadim Mirgorodskii invites visitors to sculpt new forms using clay and a little help from an AI program. Note that “Blooming Wonders” runs simultaneously with the rock ‘n’ roll exhibition, “Amplified” with “Wonders” open during the daytime.

    “Weci | Koninut” at Avenida Houston (now through September 1)
    Houston is a place for big dreams, and this wondrous outdoor exhibition near George R. Brown Convention Center gives us the space to do so. Created by First Nations artists Julie-Christina Picher and Dave Jenniss, this interactive installation weaves together visual arts, Indigenous storytelling and sensory technologies in the form of six immense sculptural dreamcatchers. Each of these dreamcatchers are unique and represent one of the six seasons from the Atikamekw culture, an Indigenous people in Canada. Activated by people passing by, the dreamcatchers come to life with lights, sounds, and story, making the whole installation truly interactive. “Weci | Koninut” creators say that they want the installation to offer a total immersion experience for visitors, to create a moment where nature and dreams converge. Each piece offers a place for the public to slow down, sit, reflect, and yes, dream.

    New Murals in the East End and Midtown (ongoing)
    We could spend days viewing all the new murals painted across town, just in the last few years. But in honor of summer outdoor art viewing, we thought we’d spotlight two noteworthy new additions to our city-wide gallery of murals. As part of his major exhibition last spring at the CAMH, Vincent Valdez worked with San Antonio muralist Rubio and local students to create “Memoria, Memory.” Dedicated to his mother Theresa Santana Valdez (1947–2020), the vivid mural on historic Navigation Boulevard features her favorite bird and flower. Over in Midtown, check out “Stellar Illumination,” the latest installation in the city’s Big Walls Big Dreams mural series. Created by Robin Munro, also known as Dread, the seven stories high “Illumination” depicts a celestial scene of an astronaut gazing at Earth from space.

    “The Weight of Place” at Anya Tish Gallery (July 11-August 23)
    This group exhibition will explore themes of memory and the emotional, psychological, and physical landscapes memories can evoke. The will showcase three contemporary Texas-based female artists: Megan Harrison, Marisol Valencia, and Lillian Warren. While these artists work in different mediums–including large-scale paintings, mixed media works, and elegant porcelain sculptures–they are inspired by personal reflection and nature to create artworks that reflect on the ways we hold onto the past through sensory experience.

    “In Residence: 18th Edition” at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (July 12-June 27, 2026)
    This annual exhibition celebrating the Center’s Artist Residency Program reaches it’s big 18th anniversary. Over the many years, the residency program has supported so many emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media. The program gives them a space for creative exploration, exchange, and collaboration with other artists, arts professionals, and the public. Now arts and craft lovers will get a chance to see the culmination of that work with this exhibition featuring pieces in fiber, clay, copper, and found objects by 2024-2025 resident artists Prerata Bradley, Stephanie Bursese, Atisha Fordyce, Nela Garzón, Gbenga Komolafe, Gabo Martinez, Preetika Rajgariah, Macon Reed, Jamie Sterling Pitt, Adam Whitney, and Dongyi Wu.

    “My Texas” at Our Texas Cultural Center (July 27-August 22)
    Award winning, Russian-born photographer, Anatoliy Kosterev, chronicles his personal exploration of Texas with photographs he took around the Lone Star State. The photos offer extraordinary views of Texas, from our dynamic cities to dramatic and sometimes lonesome landscapes. Kosterev’s photographic style blends science and technology with an artistic eye. He puts those two perspectives into practice when documenting all facets of life in Texas. Using HDR, drone imaging, macro photography, and traditional camera methods, he captures a diversity of subjects from quiet human moments to vast landscapes to delicate close-ups of insects and flowers.

    \u200bArtechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
      

    Photo courtesy of Artechouse

    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds."

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