MUSIC

Cirque du Symphony and The Planets—An HD Odyssey featuring the world-renowned Houston Symphony are just two of the programs highlighting a season of the extraordinary and unexpected at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. This season encompasses a journey filled with classical music, Broadway hits, patriotic fanfare, acrobatics, images from outer space, dancing and more. The season begins with the Houston Symphony’s Tribute Concert to Cynthia Woods Mitchell, a concert showcasing the music Cynthia Mitchell loved. In addition to eight exhilarating performances by the Houston Symphony, the Texas Music Festival Orchestra returns to the stage along with Houston Ballet for a mixed-repertory program, Three for the Ages. And the 15th Annual Children’s Festival erupts with family fun.

Thursday, April 29
Tribute Concert to Cynthia Woods Mitchell
Houston Symphony / Robert Franz, conductor
7:30 p.m. / Gates open at 5:30 p.m.
Hats Off to Reading Celebration 5:30 – 6:45 p.m.

Tickets: $15 orchestra seating / Free mezzanine and lawn seating courtesy of The Wortham Foundation

Celebrate the life of Cynthia Woods Mitchell and the music she loved with this special concert featuring some of her classical favorites including Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien. Cynthia Mitchell had an enormous impact on shaping The Pavilion and The Woodlands community. She came up with the idea of creating a performing arts center in The Woodlands while visiting her daughter in Austin in 1976. They were enjoying a performance by Austin Ballet at Zilker Hillside Theatre, eating take-out chicken and sipping wine on a quilt, surrounded by families on blankets, children in swimsuits, frisbees and dogs. She loved the fact that everyone, not just the elite, could enjoy the performance. She soon convinced her husband, George P. Mitchell, founder of The Woodlands, that a venue such as Zilker would be perfect in The Woodlands. He took the hint.

Cynthia Woods Mitchell, patron of the arts, impassioned environmentalist and avid historical preservationist, died Sunday morning, December 27, 2009, surrounded by family at her home in The Woodlands, Texas. She was 87.

Join us as we pay tribute to the amazing Cynthia Woods Mitchell.

Pre-concert activities begin at 5:30 p.m. with the Hats Off to Reading Celebration in The Pavilion’s Event Tent. Other pre-concert activities in the Fidelity Investments Plaza begin at 6 p.m. with Radio Disney, strolling characters, arts and crafts, an Instrument Petting Zoo, and the public dedication of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Smokedance Garden at 7:10 p.m.

For more information regarding upcoming events at The Pavilion, call 281-363-3300 or visit www.woodlandscenter.org.

The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion's 2010 Seasonis presented by The Woodlands Development Company and sponsored by Audi of America, Donoho’s Jewellers, Houston Community Newspapers, The Pavilion Partners, The Wortham Foundation and Continental Airlines, official airline of The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.

Pictured:  Cynthia Woods Mitchell.