Recent years have proven challenging for Houston’s incredible Arts Scene. After KUHF’s Award-Winning program The Front Row closed its doors in 2013, the city’s diverse collection of artists and musicians lost one of their greatest champions. In the years since, Houstonians have been wondering what will become of the once robust local music and arts coverage that was offered on public radio.
Past live performance from KUHF’s The Front Row featuring members of the Houston Ebony Music Society, 2012. Performers are DuWayne Davis, Adavion Wayne, Wayne Ashley and Leon Turner with Dr. John Cornelius at the piano.
Even with excellent intermittent feature stories from the great folks at Houston Public Media’s Houston Matters and the dedicated work of Arts and Culture reporter Amy Bishop and TV8 program Arts InSight, Houston Arts have dearly missed the programming options and connectivity that our former program schedule provided, and have been left wondering if there will ever be additional options.
Luckily with 2017, part of that open question is getting answered, as Houston Public Media premieres a new program dedicated to classical music in the area. Here’s more from Clifford Pugh of CultureMap…
Fans of Houston’s classical music scene will have a new outlet as Houston Public Media debuts a new weekly radio show and podcast that highlights performances of local concert organizations. Encore Houston premieres Saturday at 10 pm, with an encore performance Sunday at 4 pm on Classical 88.7 HD-2 and online at houstonpublicmedia.org/listen-live.
The first episode features Mercury‘s performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, also known as the “Choral” Symphony, from May 2016, along with commentary and details about the chamber orchestra’s upcoming performance from Houston Public Media classical host and producer Joshua Zinn.
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Other classical groups that will be featured during the first season are KINETIC, Chamber Music Houston, DaCamera, Ars Lyrica, Houston Early Music, Context, Musiqa, Bach Society, Houston Chamber Choir, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, and St. Cecilia Chamber Music Society. The length of each show varies according to the concert performance; most shows will run between one and two hours.
Like other HPM program offerings, each episode of Encore Houston is also available via podcast, so if you’ve missed the debut, you can always go back and check out the previous shows. Beyond listening, you can also show your support for Encore Houston (and any possibilities of future arts coverage) by posting about the program on social media. Host and producer Joshua Zinn is on Twitter as @HPMZinn, and though there’s no Facebook page for the specific show yet, you can always like the Houston Public Media page and like/comment on posts about the new show.
After a noticeable drought of music and arts coverage, it’s great to see those resources slowly reforming in the community. Encore, indeed!
Wayne, I heard you today on Houston Public radio while driving. You were commenting on Chief of Police, Acevedo’s position on why it is not in the interest of the citizens having police time diverted from crime prevention and proper police action to perform duties that are properly federal responsibility. I liked your comments and heard how you could be reached at http://www.texasleftist. I looked you up and now have subscribed not only to your blog but also to Tunein and WRR Classical Music which I found from your links.
I was Democratic Committee person for my precinct in Southwest Houston for 35 years. I am still active at the precinct level and a deputy voter registrar for Harris and Fort Bend Counties.
Glad I found Texas Leftist. I like your political ideas and links.
Ron Rea, Ph.D, retired social worker but not retired as a liberal.