Moores Music Notes
Jason Caesar Consolacion

English-born conductor Michael Lankester will replace the late Robert Shaw when the Moores School Chorale, University Chorus, Houston Symphony Chorus and Moores School Symphony Orchestra join together to perform Hector Berlioz's Requiem in March.

Lankester, currently in his 14th year as Music Director of the Hartford Symphony, has served as a guest conductor with the top symphonic ensembles of Europe and North America. Lankester is also a composer and arranger, and he serves as a commentator for opera, theater and broadcasting as well.

"I don't know him personally," said Charles Hausmann, director of choral studies at the Moores School of Music, "but from what I hear and have read about him, I think he will be a fine replacement for Robert Shaw.

"I have great confidence in him that he will make this a memorable performance."

Lankester's list of successes as a world-renowned guest conductor is lengthy. As a guest conductor in North America, he has appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra as well as with the Detroit, Montreal, Edmonton, San Diego and National symphonies.

In England, he has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony and the English Chamber Orchestra.

Lankester has also led the Orchestra Communale di Firenze when the group toured Tuscany, and he annually conducts at the Festival La Gesse in Toulouse, France. The conductor has led the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan at the International Festival of Music as well.

As a composer, his arrangements have been performed by the Hartford Symphony, the National Symphony (at the Kennedy Center) and the London Symphony, and these works have been conducted by the likes of Mstislav Rostropovich.

In the theater, Lankester was once the Music Director of the National Theater of Great Britain. There, he worked with Laurence Olivier, collaborating with him on numerous television productions.

Lankester also served as conductor for the inaugural production of Tom Stoppard's play Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, which includes music by Andre Previn. He has recently led several performances of this work in Atlanta, Chicago and Minneapolis.

Lankester has also had the privilege of working closely with three of the leading British composers of the 20th century.

With Benjamin Britten, he created an orchestral suite from the ballet The Prince of the Pagodas. In celebration of William Walton's 75th birthday, Lankester took over a series of concerts in honor of Walton. And he worked in collaboration with Michael Tippet and the Northern Junior Philharmonic Orchestra of England.

Lankester also studied at and served on the faculty of the Royal College of Music from the late 1960s well into the 1970s. From 1968 to 1980 he conducted Contrapuncti, his own chamber orchestra, which performed in London and throughout Europe.

Lankester will begin rehearsals for the Berlioz Requiem at the Moores School of Music on March 1. The two performances of the work are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, March 6 and 7, in the Moores Opera House.

For ticket information, call the Moores Opera House box office at (713) 743-3113.

Musical Term of the Week

Requiem. ('re·kwee·ehm) n. A version of the Mass performed to commemorate the dead. The sections are the Introit, Kyrie, Gradual and Tract, Sequence (Dies Irae), Offertory, Sanctus and Agnus Dei.

ex. -- The Berlioz Requiem will be performed in honor of the life of the late conductor Robert Shaw.

Definition taken from

www.creativemusic.com

Upcoming Events

-- Internationally acclaimed pianist and M.D. Anderson professor Horacio Gutierrez will hold the second of two master classes at 7 p.m. today in the Dudley Recital Hall (Fine Arts Building).

Admission is $10 ($5 for students and seniors). Tickets can be purchased at the door on the evening of the master class.

-- Robin Hough (oboe, oboe d'amour and English horn player) will perform works by Krebs, Hampton, Telemann, Read and Winstead at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16 in the Organ Recital Hall (Fine Arts Building).

Hough will be accompanied on the organ by Robert Brewer. Tickets are $6 ($4 for students).

-- The Moores Brass Quintet will perform at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17 in the Moores Opera House. Tickets are $6 ($4 for students).

-- Laszlo Varga (cello) and Zoya Shuhatovich (piano) will perform Chaconnes and Variations: Works by Vital-Luigi Silva, Beethoven, Kupferman, Bach and Tchaikovsky.

The recital will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18 in the Moores Opera House. Admission is $6 ($4 for students).

-- Timothy Hester (piano) will perform a recital dedicated to Allen H. "Buddy" Carruth Steinway at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20 in the Moores Opera House. Tickets are $6 ($4 for students).

-- Lawrence Wheeler (viola) and guest artists the Clavier Piano Trio will perform at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22 in the Moores Opera House.

The program will include works by Ravel, W.A. Mozart and R.X. Rodriguez. Tickets are $6 ($4 for students).

-- Winds of Texas and Guests will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 23 in the Moores Opera House. The program will include works by Dvorak and Forster. Tickets are $6 ($4 for students).

If you would like your recital announced in Upcoming Events, e-mail me the information you wish to be printed by 2 p.m. on the Sunday before publication. Moores Music Notes runs every other Monday in The Daily Cougar Entertainment section. The next Moores Music Notes will run on Monday, March 1.