The Houston Chamber Choir is vocally gliding into its 30th anniversary season, complete with eight performances and incorporating guest musicians for a diverse assortment of music that will contain something for everyone. Themed “From Startup to Standout,” this season takes special meaning as it is the organization’s founder and artistic director Robert Simpson’s final year conducting the choir as he transitions the leadership role to choral music’s widely known and respected Betsy Cook Weber.
“We have a perfect partnership for this coming year where she will conduct half the season, I’ll conduct the other half of the season, and the singers will have a chance to enjoy both of us and to feel as if the organization has had a chance to really blend our two talents to the point where, when I step out in May of 2025, the chamber choir will be moving full speed ahead, and we won’t, as they say in the business, miss a beat,” Simpson said.
Simpson feels the season theme perfectly encapsulates the growth and achievements of the choir over the last three decades.
“After these 30 years, where we have some notable successes to look back on, including winning a Grammy Award and being given the Margaret Hillis Award by Chorus America, which is given each year to one of the nation’s most outstanding ensembles in recognition of their achievements, as well as the American Prize in the professional choral division,” he said. “We can say that we have, in fact, gone from startup to stand out, and it is something that has provided me with the opportunity to work with extraordinary musicians, both our own chamber choir musicians as well as guest musicians.”
When Simpson and his wife Mariana (the organization’s longest serving vocalist) started the choir, it was with the intention that it would be an ongoing part of Houston’s dynamic arts scene long after Simpson stepped down. Thus, with Simpson making his victory lap during the 30th season and eyeing retirement, the call was sounded for Cook Weber to join the team.
Cook Weber is well known in Houston circles as well as internationally for her work with both the University of Houston’s choral program as well as with the Houston Symphony Chorus. Now, she’s taking on a different challenge with the Houston Chamber Choir, and she looks to build upon the foundation laid by Simpson.
“It is to Bob’s great credit that he started a professional choir, lifted it to unprecedented artistic heights and sustained it over a period of 30 seasons. For those of us in the nonprofit world, this is an extraordinary achievement that very, very few people manage to pull off, so the entire city of Houston owes a huge debt of gratitude to Robert Simpson,” she said. “I want to build on the excellence of the choir, knowing what a formidable goal that is. They already are so well respected and so well established.”
One of her goals for the coming season is to develop a new initiative that will stronger partnerships with churches and schools.
“We’ve developed a program that we’re calling ‘choir squad,’ where members of the chamber choir will engage with church choirs and school choirs, and then they’ll come in and observe rehearsals with the chamber choir,” Cook Weber said. “We want to be useful and helpful to the entire Houston choral community, not just give some beautifully curated concerts. My goal for this coming season is to focus on that while Bob enjoys his final season with this amazing ensemble.”
Since Cook Weber will design half of the season’s programming, she gave the Houston Press a peek into her planning process using November’s “This Sky” concert as an example.
“For my programs, I tried to find a centerpiece. For the November 16 concert, I was really drawn to a piece written by Kile Smith in 2014 called ‘The Constellation of Apollo.’ I was first drawn to it because it is a spectacular choral piece, but it has a unique connection to Houston, because it includes texts written by medieval philosophers and poets but also consists of transcriptions of the words radioed back to Earth from the astronaut crew of Apollo eight. And so it contains ‘Houston’ over and over and over again,” she said. “Then I wove pieces around ‘The Constellation of Apollo’ that have to do with pondering the sky and the stars.”
She also is looking forward to exploring the versatility of the choir’s ensemble.
“The choir started in in a very modest way, and now they have really assumed an important place in American choral music. The choir has a reputation for being able to perform beautifully in music of all styles, whether it’s a Renaissance motet or American jazz. We wanted to continue that tradition of offering music that is not stylistically singular,” she said. “For those patrons who attend all the concerts, they’ll hear though a gamut of things, from Gregorio Allegri’s ‘The Miserere’ of the Renaissance period to a new piece where the ink is not dry yet.”
Of course, she also wants to give Simpson his flowers in recognition of his hard work to build the Houston Chamber Choir to its current caliber.
“He is crescendo-ing to his finish. His work ethic is simply remarkable,” she said.
Details for the Houston Chamber Choir’s “30th Anniversary Season: From Startup to Standout” concert lineup include the following:
“The Son of Man” (Robert Simpson)
7:30 p.m., Saturday, September 21 at South Main Baptist Church, 4100 Main
The Choir launches its 30th season with the world premiere of “The Son of Man,” a new work by renowned English composer Patrick Hawes for choir, soloists and orchestra. Based on iconic texts from the Old and New Testaments, its memorable melodies, imaginative choral and orchestral writing and deep sense of drama result in a powerful experience which is very much of present time, yet reminiscent of Handel’s “Messiah.”
“I Just Want to Celebrate! Songs from the ‘70s” (Robert Simpson and Betsy Cook Weber)
7:30 p.m., Saturday, October 19 at Miller Outdoor Theatre, 6000 Hermann Park Drive
For many, there is no better pop music than that created in the ‘70s. The Houston Chamber Choir will travel through the decade with music by Roberta Flack, the Bee Gees, Carly Simon, ABBA, the Jackson 5 and many others. Rock and roll and sing along at this free concert.
“This Sky” (Betsy Cook Weber)
7:30 p.m., Saturday, November 16 at St. Philip Presbyterian Church, 4807 San Felipe
Humans have always looked to the sky for answers to the big “Why?” Composers have done the same. The Houston Chamber Choir offers a compilation of pieces that ponder the heavens. The centerpiece of this program, in addition to music by Heinrich Schütz, Venezuelan-Texan Carlos Cordero, Johannes Brahms and others, is the “Consolation of Apollo.” Accompanied by projections of images from and about space, this concert is sure to engage the imagination aurally and visually.
“Glory in the Highest: Christmas at the Villa” (Robert Simpson)
2:30 and 5 p.m., Saturday, December 7; 2:30 and 5 p.m., Sunday, December 8 at Chapel at the Villa de Matel, 6510 Lawndale
The soaring sounds of voices, organ and brass will ring throughout the beauty of the Chapel of the Villa de Matel as the Houston Chamber Choir presents “Christmas at the Villa – Glory in the Highest.” This year, special guests are the instrumental ensemble Paragon Brass, along with the return of the Treble Choir of Houston under the direction of Marianna Parnas-Simpson.
25th Annual “Hear the Future” Invitational Choral Festival (Robert Simpson and Betsy Cook Weber)
4 p.m., Sunday, January 26, 2025 at South Main Baptist Church, 4100 Main (Free community concert)
The Houston Chamber Choir has a long tradition of featuring some of the Houston area’s most outstanding school and community choirs. This year features the Chamber Choir with McCullough Junior High School, the Treble Choir of Houston and The Woodlands High School.
“Love Songs and Sonnets” (Betsy Cook Weber)
7:30 p.m., Saturday, February 22, 2025 at South Main Baptist Church, 4100 Main
How do I love thee? Composers have counted the ways through the centuries. The Houston Chamber Choir will take the listener on a romantic journey that begins in the Renaissance period with madrigals — searing and saucy. Next, are two important pieces from the Romantic period —the Brahms’ Vier Gesänge for treble choir, horns, and harp and Schubert’s Ständchen for tenor-bass chorus, followed by Sven-David Sandström’s “Four Songs of Love.” Finally, the Choir adds jazz, pop and barbershop to round out the program.
“From Darkness to Light” (Betsy Cook Weber)
7:30 p.m., Saturday, April 5, 2025 at South Main Baptist Church, 4100 Main
In 1638, Gregorio Allegri composed a setting of Miserere mei, Deus (Psalm 51) for the Sistine Chapel. The apocryphal story is that the Vatican allowed there to be only three copies in existence, and they were locked away for safe-keeping so that no one could copy or perform the work. Fast forward to 1764-65, when a young Mozart heard a performance of Allegri’s composition, went back to his inn and flawlessly copied it from memory.
Fast forward again, this time to 1989, when Estonian composer Arvo Pärt set the same text. Pärt’s Miserere is described as one of his “most dramatic and contrasting pieces.” From these two pieces of darkness, the concert moves to hope and light, working its way through a Latvian “Plaudite, Psallite” and American spirituals, including Thomas Dorsey’s “Precious Lord.” The concert closes with “Amazing Grace,” arranged by Ēriks Ešenvalds.
“Gather ‘Round” (Robert Simpson)
7:30 p.m., Saturday, May 31, 2025 at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 3471 Westheimer
On this special night, the Houston Chamber Choir family will come together to honor Simpson as he concludes his 30-year tenure as founder and artistic director. The choir will perform some of its favorites from over the years while also previewing the program it will take on tour to Sweden, Latvia and Estonia in June 2025. This evening will celebrate the love, leadership and luck that has propelled this Grammy-winning ensemble “from startup to standout.”
The Houston Chamber Choir’s 2024-25 season’s concerts take place at various locations throughout Houston. For season tickets or information, call 713-224-5566 or visit houstonchamberchoir.org. Season subscriptions range $57 – $222.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
