Past Concerts
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
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.
Featured Soloist: Yuri McCoy, Organ
South Main’s organist, Dr. Yuri McCoy, graduated from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas, where he studied with organist Ken Cowan. Hailed by Gramophone magazine as an organist possessing “rare virtuosity,” Yuri has made his mark on the organ world through bracingly original programming and a strong desire to shed a spotlight on less traversed areas of keyboard literature. Whether it is Ligeti‘s Etudes on piano or his own daring transcription of Varese’s massive orchestral work, Amériques, for organ, percussion, and assistant, Yuri enjoys the opportunity to share new and unusual sounds with audiences. During the summer of 2019, he performed his transcription of Lutoslawski’s piano concerto alongside pianist Yvonne Chen at the Spoleto Music Festival. He also supports the music of living composers and in 2006 premiered “Voices of the Invisible Blue Butterflies” by Vache Sharafyan at the SoundSCAPE music festival in Cortona, Italy.
In 2021, Yuri released his first solo album on the Acis label. The disc, Symphonic Roar: An Odyssey of Sound from the Paris Conservertoire, was lauded by OrlgelNieuws for its “beautiful narrative” and by BBC Music Magazine for its “bonkers” arrangement of Varese's Amériques, which it proclaimed was “quite the ride.”
Many of Yuri’s performances and recordings have been broadcast nationally on NPR’s Pipedreams and With Heart and Voice. Yuri also regularly posts on his YouTube channel organ videos involving everything from B-movie acting and special effects to claymation and slapstick.
In 2016, Yuri was honored to perform for the American Guild of Organists National Convention at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston under the direction of Dr. Brady Knapp. In the summer of 2015, Yuri traveled to Leipzig, Germany, to perform on historic organs while studying with Stephan Engels at the Hochschule für Musikund Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy”.
In 2010, Yuri earned a Master of Music in piano performance from the University of Hawai’i at Mãnoa. While at the University of Hawai’i, he spent four years as the Organ Scholar of St. Andrew’s Cathedral working with the Cathedral’s Canon of Music, John Renke. Yuri and his wife, whom he met while studying in Hawai’i, have two daughters.
Tales of Adventure and Passion
Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 5pm
The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts | Zilkha Hall
PROGRAM
Strauss: Don Juan
André Waignein: Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Featured Soloist: Rachel Jimenez, Alto Saxophone, Young Texas Artist Competition Winner
Rachel Jimenez is in her second year at Sam Houston State University pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education while studying with Dr. Scott Plugge. Early in her development as a saxophone player, Rachel excelled at every opportunity, ranging from district and region band competitions, solo opportunities, and auditioned scholarships. She was a member of the Texas Music Educators Association Region 9 Band three times, Area F Band twice, and the 2023 TMEA 6A All-State Symphonic Band. Additional individual accolades include a second place finish at the Grand Oaks High School Concerto Competition, a second place finish at the prestigious 15th Annual Houston Underground Saxophone Competition - Solo Division, and a number of auditioned scholarships such as the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion and Fisher Tull Endowed Scholarship. Most recently, she was awarded the Gold Medal and Audience Choice Award at the Young Texas Artists Music Competition.
As the Soprano Chair of the Tango Quartet, of which she was a founding member, Rachel also led the group through many prestigious competitions. The quartet were semi-finalists at the 49th and 50th annual Fischoff National Chamber Music Competitions, selected to perform at the 2023 Music For All National Chamber Music Festival, selected to compete at the 10th Annual Coltman Chamber Music Competition, and were finalists in the 2023 UIL Texas Chamber Music Competition. Tango ended their 2023 competition circuit by placing 2nd at the 15th Annual Houston Underground Competition.
Rachel has already begun her professional playing career as a multi-woodwind (clarinet, flute and saxophone) artist by performing alongside some of Houston’s top freelance musicians in Bridgeland High School’s production of Follies, with more performances in that capacity upcoming. Additionally she’s been invited to perform with several local orchestras, such as the Woodlands Symphony Orchestra and the Texas Medical Center Orchestra.
From Darkness to Light
Saturday, May 10, 2025 at 7pm
The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts | Zilkha Hall
PROGRAM
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Featured Soloist: Mann-Wen Lo, Violin
Violinist Mann-Wen Lo performs extensively throughout the world in some of the most prestigious venues as a soloist and chamber musician. Lo has been a recurring artist in performances at Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Walt Disney Hall, among others. Featured on radio and TV broadcasts in the United States, Taiwan, Japan, and France, Mann-Wen has gained recognition at numerous competitions and awards. Most recently, her recording with the Mana Music Quartet featuring music of Queen Liliʻuokalani won Instrumental Album of the Year at the 2021 Na Hoku Hanohano Award
Mann-Wen has been a featured recording artist under labels such as Warner Classics, Navona Records, and CMH Label Groups. She has collaborated with musicians from world-renowned string quartets, including the Juilliard String Quartet, the Cleveland Quartet, and the Takács Quartet. Her festival appearances include Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Saito Kinen Festival, Hawaii International Music Festival, Hawaii Chamber Music Festival, Alfredo de Saint Malo International Music Festival (Panama) and Rencontres Franco Américaines de Musique Chambre.
Mann-Wen exploration beyond the Western Classical genre has led to collaborations with Grammy award winning artists such as Jake Shimabukuro (ukulele), Bèla Fleck (banjo) and Kalani Pea (Singer). She is also a recording artist with the Vitamin String Quartet, known for its popular renditions of rock and pop music.
In addition to serving as Professor of Practice at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, Mann-Wen is a recurring faculty at the Deutsch-Polnische Festival für junge Musiker in Bremen, the Montecito International Music Festival and Texas Music Festival. She has served as a jury member for the International Music Competition Opus 2022, Houston Virtuosi Concerto Competition 2023, World Wave Music Festival, and AAMA 10 Th Young Musicians Festival Competition.
Voices of Resilience
Sunday, November 10, 2024 at 5pm
The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts | Zilkha Hall
PROGRAM
Max Vinetz - Lost Child, World Premiere
Laura McCall Torno - I’m not home
Peter Boyer - Fanfare for tomorrow
Peter Boyer - Seven for action
Richard Rogers - You’ll Never Walk Alone
Peter Boyer - Coming Home
Peter Boyer - Darkness Approaching
Peter Boyer - the Journey within
Michael Gott - Love can move the world
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 4
Featured Artist: Max Vinetz, Composer
Max Vinetz’s music draws inspiration and meaning from intersections between improvisatory, popular, and traditional forms/aesthetics, and how these various intersections can be mapped onto identity transformation over time. His work centers the perception of rhythmic and timbral events and is concerned with the relationships between narrative, storytelling, musical objects, and sonic artifacts as they relate to music and other forms of media.
Max is a recipient of a Fromm Foundation Commission, ASCAP’s Morton Gould Award (2018/2020), the Paul and Christiane Cooper Prize, and the Gardner Prize from the American Viola Society. He has received additional recognition and awards from Voices of Ascension, the Doug Davis Composition and Performance Endowment, Musiqa, Copland House, Mizzou International Composers Festival, loadbang, the Hausmann Quartet, Young Concert Artists, New York Youth Symphony, BMI, Danbury Music Center, Symphony No. 1, Donald Sinta Quartet, Tesla Quartet, and Yale University, and the Shepherd School of Music.
As a Yale undergraduate, Max won the Beekman Cannon Friends Prize, awarded for a “musical composition exhibiting unusual originality and promise,” the Abraham Beekman Cox Prize awarded to the “most promising and gifted composer” in the junior class, and was also awarded the Lewis P. Curtis Fellowship, the Tristan Perlroth Prize, and the R.J.R. Cohen Fellowship for Musical Performance (2017, 2018).
Max's works and have been performed and recorded by Alarm Will Sound, TAK ensemble, Bergamot Quartet, arx Duo, Stare at the Sun, Bearthoven, Vicky Chow, Contemporaneous, DITHER, Hub New Music, Variant 6, Sō Percussion, Bakken Ensemble, The Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, Arditti Quartet, Bakken Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Miranda Cuckson, NUNC, Ensemble for New Music Tallinn, Hear&Now, Music from Copland House, DeCoda, Mivos Quartet, unassisted fold, Yale Symphony Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, Icarus Duo, members of Yale Voxtet, and Yale Schola Cantorum, among others. Upcoming projects include an evening length staged electroacoustic song cycle, The New Manila Envelope, for panSonus, new orchestral works for New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Texas Medical Center Orchestra, and San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, a collection of chamber works for soprano/double bass for Confluss, and an electric guitar concerto for Joseph Ehrenpreis.
A graduate of both Yale and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, Max is a PhD candidate in Composition at Princeton University, holding a Naumburg Doctoral Fellowship.
Hollywood Rhapsody
Saturday, June 29, 2024 at 8:30pm
Miller Outdoor Theatre
PROGRAM
Gershwin: Overture to Girl Crazy
Gershwin: An American in Paris
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue featuring Mei Rui, Pianist
Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 (New World Symphony)
Featured Soloist: Mei Rui, Pianist
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.