(Credit: IMG Artists) Patrick Summers has joined the roster of IMG Artists for General Management! Summers will be represented by Managing Director of IMG Artists Americas, Romana Jaroff. For the last two decades, Summers has been with Houston Grand Opera, where he has served as Music Director since 1998. Under his leadership, the company has gained international recognition for its {…}
Houston Grand Opera has announced that Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers is transitioning to a new role in the organization. Summers, who has been at the helm for over 25 years with the company, will step away from his current position in Spring 2026 and become Music Director Emeritus, where he will serve as an advisor, scholar, and guest {…}
(Credit: Courtesy of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music) Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music has announced that Cristian Măcelaru and Patrick Summers have joined its faculty. Măcelaru, who studied at the institution from 2006-2008, will serve as distinguished visiting artists from 2025-26 through 2027-28. In his new role he will work with Distinguished Resident Director of Orchestras Miguel Harth-Bedoya on {…}
(Credit: Gerard Collett) On the eastern side of the Cape of Good Hope, at the very tip of South Africa, sits Port Elizabeth, a city with a population just shy of one million people. The population size matters because it makes soprano Vuvu Mpofu one in a million, a ratio perhaps not unlike the shot she had at making it {…}
The Houston Grand Opera has announced that conductor Christophe Rousset has withdrawn from the company’s premiere of “La Favorite” due to personal reasons. In his stead, Houston Grand Opera Artistic and Musical Director Patrick Summers will take over, leading all five performances of the run. The production kicks off on Jan. 24 and runs through Feb. 9, 2020. It will {…}
The Houston Grand Opera has announced the semifinalists for the 32nd annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias. The event, which will take place on Feb. 7, 2020 at 7 p.m. at the Wortham Theater Center. Sopranos led the semifinalists with a total of seven participants – Tatiana Carlos, Lindsey Chinn, Amani Cole-Felder, Caitlin Gotimer, Emily Kern, {…}
Readers looking for a thought-provoking, feel-good book about the powers of arts education and music’s spiritual force: look no further than “The Spirit of This Place: How Music Illuminates the Human Spirit (The University of Chicago Press).” Written by Houston Grand Opera Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers, a self-professed lover of writing, the book is a collection of 36 {…}
Houston Grand Opera Artistic and Musical Director Patrick Summers is releasing “The Spirit of This Place.” The book, which explores the role of art in society and in individual lives, is available on Amazon and through the Chicago University Press, which published the book. “The Spirit of This Place” places an emphasis on the importance of supporting the arts. He {…}
The great German soprano Lilli Lehmann once famously remarked that singing all three Brünnhildes in Wagner’s Ring Cycle , which equals about eight hours of singing, was less taxing than a single performance of Bellini’s “Norma.” Indeed, a great “Norma” certainly doesn’t grow on trees, and in any given generation there are maybe a handful of singers who can tackle {…}
The Houston Grand Opera announced its 2017-18 season Thursday with opening night featuring Verdi’s “La Traviata.” In sum, there will be seven operas overall between October 20, 2017 and May 11, including one World Premiere. The 2017 Operas “La Traviata” opens the season for seven performances with Albina Shagimuratova. This will be the soprano’s fourth run of the work in {…}
The Houston Grand Opera has announced the second half of its 2016-17 season, which kicks off in January with the 30th anniversary of John Adams’ “Nixon in China.” The opera originally made its world premiere with Houston Grand back in 1987, though this new production is slated to play up the media and technology themes of modern-day. The opera, which {…}