Young Talent and Mariachis Make This Silver Anniversary a True Classic — Virtuosi of Houston’s Sweet Night

Twenty five years of nourishing young classical music talent was celebrated in black-tie glory Friday night when the current student musicians of Virtuosi of Houston displayed their remarkable talents before an appreciative audience of the more than 250.

The newly-renovated ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Downtown was the setting for an evening that featured a medley of works from Texas composer Robert Nelson (in the audience), Richard Rogers (The Sound of Music), Aaron Copland (“Hoe-Down” from Rodeo), and concluding with John Philip Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever. Dual founding directors and conductors Andrzej Grabeic and Franz Anton Krager each led a segment of the presentation, both of which received a standing ovation at their conclusion.

Many of the 45 young musicians on the stage will follow in the footsteps of those who previously studied with Grabeic and Krager by gaining entrance to Julliard and the New England Conservatory of Music as well as the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston and more.

In fact, the University of Houston contributed its own musicians to the entertainment with a rousing performance by the university’s Mariachi Pumas.

Leading the silver anniversary celebration were chairs Cheryl Byington and Beth Wolff with Philamena Baird and Monzer Hourani serving as honorary chairs. The latter provided magic of his own on this evening.

Classical music enthusiast, conductor and longtime Virtuosi patron as well as chairman and CEO of Medistar Group provided the ballroom with integrated viral protection filters, which he designed as part of the fight to end the spread of COVID-19. That design earned him the 2021 Engineering News-Record Award of Excellence.

Emceed by Houston Public Media’s award-winning personality Ernie Manouse, the evening honored Carolyn Vandiver and Cathy and Earle Steinberg as well as the University of Houston Moores School of Music.

PC Seen: Moores School of Music director Courtney Crappell and wife Conny, founding dean of the UH Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts Andrew Davis, Dianna and David Voll, Deborah Krager, Danuta Grabiec, Leila Perrin, Lia Vallone, and Betty and Jess Tutor.