Today is National Observe the Weather Day, and it’s a good time to do so since it looks like our own weather will be improving over the next week. That means it’s perfect to go out and enjoy our picks for best bets, which include a nature-inspired music, a sneak peek at an upcoming documentary, and more. Keep reading for the complete list of this week’s best bets.
Enjoy live music by WindSync when the quintet returns to their Houston home for Taxonomies at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 25, at the McGovern Centennial Gardens. The quintet, formed at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, is now in its 15th season as it brings its national touring program of music inspired by nature, i.e. a program specifically designed for its location at the Cherie Flores Garden Pavilion. Viet Cuong’s 2023 composition Flora, commissioned by WindSync, joins work from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Leonard Bernstein, and more. General admission tickets can be purchased here for $10 to $35, with a $75 VIP ticket also available that includes priority seating and a private post-show reception.
Little more than one year ago, on September 16, 2022, Mahsa Amini died in a hospital in Tehran following the Iranian Kurdish woman’s detainment by Iran’s morality police for not violating the country’s Islamic dress code. Her death “triggered Iran's longest anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution,” with the call “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi” taking center stage. On Thursday, January 25, at 7:30 p.m. Asia Society Texas will present Echoes of Change: Musical Perspectives on Iran’s Woman-Life-Freedom Movement, a collection of eight new solo piano works inspired by protest music and created and performed by four pianists and eight Iranian composers (four of which whose names are being withheld because they still reside in Iran). Tickets to the performance can be purchased here for $10 to $20.
Giacomo Puccini’s classic tale of a Japanese girl who marries an American lieutenant only to be abandoned, Madame Butterfly, comes to Houston Grand Opera on Friday, January 26, at 7:30 p.m. Ailyn Pérez, who will sing the lead role of Cio-Cio-San, recently told the Houston Press that she doesn’t “think you should think of Butterfly as a victim. I don't think her suicide is dishonorable. I think she is making a choice.” She also notes that Butterfly “is taking her iron will to the very last breath.” Performances of the opera, sung in Italian with English subtitles, will continue at 7:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Wednesday, and 2 p.m. Sundays at the Wortham Theater Center through February 11. Tickets can be purchased here for $25 to $280.
To listen to saxophonist and bandleader Joshua Redman’s latest album, where we are, is to go on a journey around the U.S., celebrating the good and acknowledging the bad, as each song refers to a specific place is America from San Francisco to New England. On Friday, January 26, at 8 p.m. DACAMERA will welcome Redman, vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa, pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Philip Norris and drummer Nazir Ebo as they bring the album – featuring songs by Count Basie, John Coltrane and Bruce Springsteen – to the Wortham Theater Center. Redman recently shared with the Houston Press that he does feel some responsibility to play the album’s songs “even if I'm not 100 percent sure that I am ready to play it right now or that folks are ready to hear it.” Tickets are available here for $46 to $86.
On Saturday, January 27, at 2 p.m. you can catch Jason Dirden, the Houston-born actor who you may have seen in American Soul or Greenleaf, taking on the role of Boy Willie in The Ensemble Theatre’s production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. Dirden recently told the Houston Chronicle about his “desire to tell a true, full representation, not only of my people, my ancestors … but the truthful representation of what America was and is. And that's what you get from an August Wilson play. … And, at the end of the day, because of all that in there, what you get is the human experience.” Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 3 p.m. Sundays through February 25. Tickets are available here for $34 to $55.
Celebrate the contributions of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to musical theatre canon – you know, shows like The Sound of Music, Cinderella and Oklahoma! – at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 27, at The MATCH when Houston Musical Theater Company presents My Favorite Things: The Songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein. David Hock, the executive director of HMTC, recently told the Houston Press that "besides just being able to hum along, if one really listens to it, you realize how poignant Rodgers and Hammerstein was," says Hock, adding that "they touch on so many human emotions” in a “way that's digestible." The show will also be performed at 8 p.m. Saturday, January 27, and 2 p.m. Sunday, January 28. Tickets to any of the performances can be purchased here for $32 to $38.
A story of triumph and hits like “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” and “Conga” are coming to the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts when Theatre Under the Stars brings the national tour of On Your Feet! The Story of Gloria and Emilio Estefan to town on Tuesday, January 30, at 7:30 p.m. Glendaliris Torres-Greaux, a member of the production’s ensemble, recently spoke with the Houston Press and said, “As a Latina, lots of musicals out there they represent our culture and On Your Feet is one of those shows that represents who I am as a person and what it means to come to the United States and fight for that dream just like Gloria and Emilio Estefan." Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through February 11. Tickets are available here for $25 to $139.
