MUSIC

Home > MUSIC > American Festival for the Arts: World Premieres Concert

• Tweet
• Outlook
• ICAL
• PRINT
• Email
• Feedback

• RSS

• Official Website
• Add to My Favorites

American Festival for the Arts: World Premieres Concert

Presented by American Festival for the Arts and Houston Ballet at Pershing Middle School

July 23, 2010

Add Review/Comment
Comment on Facebook

Arrive early for a good seat for the American Festival for the Arts: World Premieres Concert, a  unique and inspiring event showcasing the nationally recognized collaboration between AFA And the Houston Ballet Academy, now in its thirteenth summer. Over 50 world premieres have resulted from the collaboration since its inception. The performance includes new chamber music pieces (performed by AFA Faculty Artists) and ballets written by AFA student composers and choreographed and performed by members of Ben Stevenson's Houston Ballet Academy. Presented in Partnership with Ben Stevenson's Houston Ballet Academy.

Founded in 1993 by Houston composer and arts advocate J. Todd Frazier, American Festival for the Arts (AFA) provides high quality, community-based music education programs and performance opportunities designed primarily for youth and, through its concert series and outreach, seeks to broaden the audience for both American works and the Classical music repertory.

Held in Houston, Texas, since 1995, the AFA Summer Music Conservatory has been acclaimed as an outstanding opportunity for musicians from throughout Southeast Texas to work with a nationally known faculty of composers, conductors, performers and educators. Hosted by Houston ISD’s Pershing Middle School and featuring programs in orchestra, chamber music, choir, vocal studies, jazz, piano and composition, the Summer Music Conservatory auditions and enrolls more than three hundred 4th through 12th grade students representing over one hundred schools throughout Southeast Texas each year. The AFA Summer Concert Series presents as many as twenty free concerts each summer throughout the Bayou City.

Launching in 2010, the AFA Academy and Houston Girls Chorus are year-round music education and performance programs for instrumentalists and vocalists of all ages. The Academy offers instruction in choral music, chamber music and music theory from Houston’s finest professional musicians and educators - many of whom come to AFA through collaborations with AFA’s arts partners, including Houston Grand Opera HGOco, Da Camera of Houston Young Artist Program, and River Oaks Chamber Orchestra. Academy classes take place after school or on weekends and culminate in concert performances by both students and faculty at the end of each session.

The AFA Scholarship Enrichment Fund provides students with both need-based and merit tuition assistance as well as transportation support to ensure that students have access to all of AFA’s programs regardless of their socio-economic background. In 2009, almost two-thirds of all AFA students received assistance. AFA is dedicated to the belief that financial hardship should never be a barrier to enriching a child’s life through music.