2025/26 Season Concerts
Cathedrals of Sound
Saturday, September 27th, 2025 at 7pm
South Main Baptist Church
PROGRAM
Ravel - Piano Concerto in G major
Camille Saint-Saëns - Symphony No. 3 “Organ Symphony”
Featured Soloist: Szuyu Su, Piano
Szuyu Su is a pianist currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University under Jon Kimura Parker. In 2025, she won the Shepherd School Concerto Competition with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and will perform it with the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra in Spring 2026. She also received the Silver Medal and the Audience Choice Award at the Young Texas Artists Competition.
Szuyu attended the 2023 Music Academy of the West as a fellowship recipient, winning the Solo Piano Competition and premiering two Etudes by Samuel Adams. In 2024, she returned as a guest artist to perform a solo recital, including the premiere of in place, at hand by Anthony Cheung.
She is a recipient of the CHIMEI Arts Award, Second Prize winner at the 2022 Mieczysław Münz Piano Competition, and the 2019 Beijing Chopin Piano Competition, where she also won Best Mazurka Performance. Szuyu advanced to the second stage of the 2021 Warsaw Chopin International Piano Competition and has since performed with orchestras and given recitals at various venues.
Originally from Tainan, Taiwan, Szuyu began playing the piano at age 4. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and her Master’s degree from the Juilliard School.
Sounds of Nature & Color
Sunday, November 9th, 2025 at 5pm
The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts | Zilkha Hall
PROGRAM
Jonathan Peters - Sonus Colorum (The Sound of Colors), World Premiere
Sterling Maffe - Bass Trombone Concerto, Orchestra Version Premiere
Howard Hanson - Symphony No. 2 “Romantic”
Featured Soloist: Ilan Morgenstern, Bass Trombone
On a mission to live his most interesting musical life, Ilan Morgenstern is one of the leading and most unique voices in the world of trombone.
An avid soloist, Morgenstern's concerto performances have included engagements with the with the San Antonio Symphony, United States “Pershing's Own” Army Orchestra, Millennium Orchestra (Seoul, Korea), Jeju Symphony Orchestra (Jeju, Korea), and the National Repertory Orchestra.
Morgenstern has won numerous awards for his playing including the Jeju International Brass and Percussion Competition, Zellmer-Minnesota Orchestra Competition, National Repertory Orchestra's Concerto Competition, and is a recipient of the Lewis Van Haney Bass Trombone Philharmonic Prize.
Currently the Bass Trombonist of the Vancouver Symphony, and former member of the San Antonio Symphony, Houston Grand Opera Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony and Kansas City Symphony, Morgenstern has also performed with the Detroit Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Utah Symphony, Houston Symphony, Virginia Symphony, New Israeli Opera, and the Israel Philharmonic.
Labeled a “Must Buy” in the International Trombone Association Journal, Morgenstern’s debut recording project It's Alive!! New Music for Bass Trombone, a collaboration with composer Robert Denham and pianist David Gilliland was released in May of 2016. When not playing, teaching, or thinking about trombone, Ilan can be found playing with Rham and Ravi, kitty Lola, and trying desperately to stay one step ahead of them with his wife Karina, a renowned arts administrator and Executive Director of the Orlando Philharmonic.
For more information about Ilan Morgenstern, visit: www.ilanmorgenstern.com
Music-in-Medicine Concert
Thursday, December 4th, 2025 at 4pm
MD Anderson Cancer Center | Mays Clinic
1220 Holcombe Blvd, Houston TX 77030
PROGRAM
Ravel - Piano Concerto in G
In addition to the piano concerto, we will be performing your winter holiday favorites!
Featured Soloist: Mei Rui, Piano
Dr. Mei Rui is a Yale-trained molecular biochemist and an internationally award-winning concert pianist. Bronze Medalist of the World Piano Competition in 2015, Dr. Rui was praised by the Boston Globe as a “riveting” virtuoso, and by Boston Musical Intelligencer as a concert artist with “deeply felt and intense musicality.” New York Classical Review writes of her Grammy-nominated recording of “Three by Three” by Eric Nathan (Albany Records): “Rui was amazing at what seemed to be impossible; an excellent pianist with extreme virtuosity.”
Her recent performances include all the Rachmaninoff Concerti with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Yale Philharmonic, World Doctors Orchestra, and TMC Orchestra. She has performed at some of the most prestigious concert venues around the globe, including a season-opening concert at the Louvre Auditorium in Paris, Jordan Hall in Boston; Van Cliburn Concert Hall in Dallas, Bennet Gordon Hall in Chicago, Jordan Hall in Boston; Carnegie Hall (Weill) and Steinway Hall in New York; San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Stude Concert Hall and Hobby Center in Houston; Woolsey Hall in New Haven; National Concert Hall in Taipei; Lehman Hall in Santa Barbara; Beijing Concert Hall and Shanghai Grand Concert Hall. Equally active as a chamber musician, Dr. Rui has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, Perlman Chamber Music, Yellowbarn, Taos, Music Academy of the West, Norfolk, and Van Cliburn Piano Institute.
She was featured as Artist-in-Residence at Yellowbarn Festival for its 2013-2015 season, and invited to serve on the piano faculty at Yellowbarn’s YAP program. She has collaborated with some of the most eminent musicians in the world, including Robert Trevino, Itzhak Perlman, Emanual Ax, George Manahan, Shinik Hahm, Paul Katz, Roger Tapping, and Peter Frankl.
A native of Shanghai, Mei began her piano studies at the age of 3, and was accepted into the Shanghai Conservatory of Music 3 years later. She gave her first solo recital at the age of 10 in front of an illustrious audience that included the President of Austria and other international dignitaries at the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna. At age 11, she made her orchestral debut soloing with the Beijing Radio Symphony. She won numerous regional and national competitions in China, and her performances were featured multiple times on Chinese national television and radio stations.
Voices of Heaven
Sunday, March 1st, 2026 at 5pm
The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts | Zilkha Hall
PROGRAM
Johann Strauss II - Overture to Die Fledermaus
Richard Strauss - Brentano Leider, Op. 68
Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 4 in G Major
Featured Soloist: Hila Plitmann, Soprano
Creativity, theatricality, and virtuosity have long defined the musical adventures of two-time Grammy Award-winning soprano, vocalist, and actress Hilá Plitmann. Widely recognized as one of today’s foremost interpreters of contemporary music, she regularly premieres new works by a diverse array of composers including Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Del Tredici, Frank Zappa, Aaron Jay Kernis, Thomas Adès, Jeff Beal, Xiaogang YE, Paola Prestini, Danaë Vlasse, and John Corigliano.
Her appearances as soloist have included the Los Angeles, New York, and Israel philharmonics; Chicago, Boston, London, BBC, National, St. Louis, Atlanta, Albany, Detroit, Hamburg, Stockholm, and Melbourne symphonies; and the Minnesota and Orpheus Chamber orchestras. She can also be heard as featured vocal soloist on film soundtracks for The Da Vinci Code, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Hail Caesar, and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Her discography includes Corigliano’s song cycle Mr. Tambourine Man and Vlasse’s Mythologies (both Grammy winners for Best Classical Vocal Performance); Andrea Clearfield’s Women of Valor with Tovah Feldshuh; Richard Danielpour’s Toward a Season and Peace and Grammy Award-winning Passion of Yeshua; Eric Whitacre’s Good Night Moon; and George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill.
Hilá first took the opera stage at age 14 with the Israeli Opera, and she continues to perform with companies across the US, including notable roles in works by Stephen Schwartz, Mark Adamo, Gerald Barry, and Yuval Sharon and Annie Gosfield. She was nominated as Best Actress in a Musical by the Los Angeles Ovation Awards and L.A. Ticketholder Awards for her performance in Eric Whitacre’s groundbreaking electro-musical Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings. With jazz guitarist Shea Welsh and tabla virtuoso Aditya Kalyanpur, she recently co-founded Renaissance Heart, a global music project melding classical, jazz, folk, rock, and world music.
Hilá’s work is informed by her love of poetry, focus on discipline (she holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do), and engagement with nature. She hopes her artistic risk-taking emboldens audiences to expand their comfort zones.
For more information about Hila Plitmann, visit: https://hilaplitmann.com/
Russian Fireworks
Saturday, May 9th, 2026 at 7pm
The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts | Zilkha Hall
PROGRAM
Glinka - Overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila
Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor
Mussorgsky, arr. Ravel - Pictures at an Exhibition
Featured Soloist: Diego Caetano, Piano
Brazilian pianist Diego Caetano was considered by the Italian newspaper La Stampa "a gifted pianist with a brilliant technique and musicality." He has been performing widely as soloist and chamber musician throughout the USA, Brazil, Chile, Europe, Asia, and Africa, including performances at New York's Carnegie Hall, Yokohama's Philia Hall, Lisbon's Palácio da Foz, Rio de Janeiro's Sala Cecília Meireles, and London's Royal Albert Hall.
He has worked with conductors such as Michael Palmer, Paul Hostetter, Neil Thomson, Rodrigo de Carvalho, Guilherme Bernstein, Joaquim Jayme, Daniel Guedes, and others. He has been featured in recitals and concerto appearances at the Grand Teton Music Festival, Louisiana International Piano Series, Durango's Conservatory Music of the Mountains, Bangkok's Asia Pacific Saxophone Academy, and Brasília's International Music Festival. An advocate for contemporary music, he has premiered works by composers Robert Spillman, Anne Guzzo, Marlos Nobre, Roger Goeb, and Guilherme Bernstein. Dr. Caetano received the top prizes in more than fifty national and international piano competitions, including Bonn Prize International Music Competition (2020), Bucharest Pro Piano International Piano Competition (2018), London's Grand Prix Virtuoso (2016), Carnegie Hall Debut International Concerto Competition (2014), MTNA Young Artist - Steinway & Sons (2011), "Spartacco Rossi" Piano Competition (2010), "Arnaldo Estrella" Piano Competition (2008), and many more. He has also won special awards including Best Interpreter of Brazilian Composers, Best Interpreter of Spanish Composers, and Prix d'Excellence in Performance. Dr. Caetano graduated with a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a Master of Music degree from the University of Wyoming, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Universidade Federal de Goiás (Brazil). Diego Caetano maintains an active schedule as an educator. He is the co-founder and the Director of Keyboard Studies at Ávila International Music Festival in Ávila (Spain).
Dr. Caetano is an Assistant Professor of Piano at Sam Houston State University, and a Shigeru Kawai Artist.
For more information about Diego Caetano, visit https://www.diegocaetanopiano.com
*Concert Season Underwritten by Texas Children's Hospital
Please Note: Patrons, staff, volunteers, performers, and guests must adhere to the venue’s health and safety protocols for all performances.