‘Live from Jones Hall’ showcases Houston Symphony musicians in streaming performances
“This is my first concert since March 8, so I am THRILLED,” writes Nicholas McGegan from Houston, with capital letters for emphasis. The Berkeley resident, award-winning music director laureate of the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, will conduct a live concert with the Houston Symphony on Aug.7, leading Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusic,” Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” and late African American composer William Grant Still’s “Summerland,” from his “Three Visions” suite, which portrays what happens to individuals, regardless of skin color, when their time on earth is over. The concert is part of “Live from Jones Hall,” a livestream series this summer in which musicians of the Houston Symphony from every section of the orchestra are being spotlighted in small ensemble settings. Patrons who purchase $10 tickets to the performances (which start at 8 p.m. in Texas,6 p.m. in Calfornia) will receive a private link to enjoy the live concert as well as a recording of it for 24 hours. COVID-19’s impact has made everybody miserable, but for McGegan,70, who has been girding the globe, leading hundreds of concerts and opera performances in his half-century long career, four months’ inactivity was intolerable.
