Houston Symphony Presents Blockbuster Broadway With Norm Lewis, September 22-23
On September 22-23, the Houston Symphony welcomes Broadway legend Norm Lewis to the Jones Hall stage to perform hit songs spanning his illustrious Broadway career. Led by Houston Symphony Principal POPS Conductor Steven Reineke, Lewis lavishes his rich baritone voice on a plethora of Broadway hits, many of which made him a star, including “Ya Got Trouble” from The Music Man, “The Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera, “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables, “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’” from Porgy and Bess, “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid, and many more. Fans will have the opportunity to livestream the performance on Saturday, September 23 at 8 pm.
Since 1986, Norm Lewis’s storied career comprised roles in theater, film, and television. Following his Broadway debut in 1993 in the ensemble of The Who’s Tommy, the two-time Grammy nominee has since landed starring roles in beloved theatrical titles such as Miss Saigon, The Little Mermaid, and Les Misérables, among others. Lewis has played Javert in the musical Les Misérables several times and originated the role of King Triton in the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid. In 2012, he joined the cast of the hit American political drama Scandal and his was the first Black portrayal of the title role in Broadway’s The Phantom of the Opera in 2014. He received several award nominations, including a Grammy nomination, for his work on The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess in 2013 and was nominated for a Grammy award again in 2019 for his studio album version of Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. In 2021, he was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for his work on Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods.
For tickets and more information, call 713.224.7575 or visit houstonsymphony.com/normlewis.
HOUSTON SYMPHONY PRESENTS BLOCKBUSTER BROADWAY WITH NORM LEWIS
Friday & Saturday, September 22 & 23 at 8 p.m.
Livestream available Saturday, September 23 at 8 p.m.
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Steven Reineke, conductor
Norm Lewis, vocalist
About Steven Reineke
Steven Reineke has established himself as one of North America's leading conductors of popular music and is in his second decade as Music Director of The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. Additionally, he is Principal Pops Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Principal Pops Conductor of the Houston and Toronto Symphony Orchestras.
Reineke is a frequent guest conductor with The Philadelphia Orchestra and his extensive North American conducting appearances include Dallas, Detroit and the Ravinia Music Festival.
On stage, Mr. Reineke has created programs and collaborated with a range of leading artists from the worlds hip hop, R & B, Broadway, television and rock including: Maxwell, Common, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Ne-Yo, Cynthia Erivo, Ben Rector, Cody Fry, Sutton Foster, Megan Hilty, Cheyenne Jackson, Wayne Brady, Peter Frampton and Ben Folds, amongst others. In 2017 he was featured on National Public Radio's All Things Considered leading the National Symphony Orchestra - in a first for the show's 45-year history - performing live music excerpts in between news segments. In 2018 Reineke led the National Symphony Orchestra with hip hop legend Nas performing his seminal album Illmatic on PBS's Great Performances.
As the creator of more than one hundred orchestral arrangements for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Mr. Reineke’s work has been performed worldwide, and can be heard on numerous Cincinnati Pops Orchestra recordings on the Telarc label. His symphonic works Celebration Fanfare, Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Casey at the Bat are performed frequently in North America, including performances by the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic. His Sun Valley Festival Fanfare was used to commemorate the Sun Valley Summer Symphony’s pavilion, and his Festival Te Deum and Swan’s Island Sojourn were debuted by the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestras. His numerous wind ensemble compositions are published by the C.L. Barnhouse Company and are performed by concert bands worldwide.
A native of Ohio, Mr. Reineke is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio (2020 Alumnus Distinguished Achievement Medal), where he earned Bachelor of Music degrees with honors in both trumpet performance and music composition. He currently resides in New York City with his husband Eric Gabbard.
About Norm Lewis
Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and SAG Award nominee, Norm Lewis, recently starred in Spike Lee’s critically acclaimed, Da 5 Bloods, and in the groundbreaking FX series, Pose. Additionally, he stars in ABC’s newest series, Women of The Movement; and offscreen, he is heard in the latest season of Apple TV’s animated series, Central Park. He played Caiaphas in the award-winning NBC television special, Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert!, alongside John Legend, Sara Bareilles, and Alice Cooper.
Norm returned to Broadway in 2021, starring in Chicken and Biscuits at the Circle in The Square Theatre. He previously appeared in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island and as Sweeney Todd in the Off-Broadway production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the Barrow Street Theatre, receiving the AUDELCO Award for his performance. In May 2014, he made history as The Phantom of the Opera’s first African American Phantom on Broadway. He received Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle award nominations for his performance as Porgy in the Broadway production of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. In London’s West End he appeared as Javert in Les Misérables and Les Misérables: The 25th Anniversary Concert, which aired on PBS.
He was seen on PBS in the Live From Lincoln Center productions of Showboat with Vanessa Williams, Norm Lewis: Who Am I?, New Year’s Eve: A Gershwin Celebration with Diane Reeves, as well as American Voices with Renée Fleming and the PBS Specials First You Dream–The Music of Kander & Ebb and Ella Wishes You A Swingin’ Christmas. His many TV and film credits include his recurring role as Senator Edison Davis on the hit drama, Scandal.
Norm is a proud founding member of Black Theatre United, an organization that stands together to help protect Black people, Black talent, and Black lives of all shapes and orientations in theatre and communities across the country.
About Houston Symphony
Under Music Director Juraj Vačuha, the Houston Symphony continues its second century as one of America’s leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring, and recording activities. One of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, the Symphony held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston on June 21, 1913. Today, with an operating budget of $37.8 million, the full-time ensemble of professional musicians presents more than 130 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Traditionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s two Community-Embedded Musicians also offer over 1,000 community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches reaching more than 200,000 people in Greater Houston annually.
After suspending concert activities in March 2020, the Symphony successfully completed a full 2020–21 season with in-person audiences and weekly livestreams of each performance, making it one of the only orchestras in the world to do so, while the Symphony’s Education and Community Engagement team continued to fulfill its mission through creative and virtual means throughout the COVID pandemic. The Houston Symphony remains committed to livestreaming all of its 2023–24 season to a broad audience in over forty-five countries and all fifty states, one of few American orchestras dedicated to transmitting live performances to a size-able audience outside its home city through this technology.
The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Koch International Classics, Naxos, RCA Red Seal, Telarc, Virgin Classics, and, most recently, Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category. The Symphony’s most recent recordings include a Pentatone release in January 2022 of its world premiere performances of Jimmy López Bellido’s Aurora and Ad Astra, and a Naxos release in July 2023 of its world premiere performance of Jennifer Higdon’s Duo Duel.
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On September 22-23, the Houston Symphony welcomes Broadway legend Norm Lewis to the Jones Hall stage to perform hit songs spanning his illustrious Broadway career. Led by Houston Symphony Principal POPS Conductor Steven Reineke, Lewis lavishes his rich baritone voice on a plethora of Broadway hits, many of which made him a star, including “Ya Got Trouble” from The Music Man, “The Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera, “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables, “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’” from Porgy and Bess, “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid, and many more. Fans will have the opportunity to livestream the performance on Saturday, September 23 at 8 pm.
Since 1986, Norm Lewis’s storied career comprised roles in theater, film, and television. Following his Broadway debut in 1993 in the ensemble of The Who’s Tommy, the two-time Grammy nominee has since landed starring roles in beloved theatrical titles such as Miss Saigon, The Little Mermaid, and Les Misérables, among others. Lewis has played Javert in the musical Les Misérables several times and originated the role of King Triton in the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid. In 2012, he joined the cast of the hit American political drama Scandal and his was the first Black portrayal of the title role in Broadway’s The Phantom of the Opera in 2014. He received several award nominations, including a Grammy nomination, for his work on The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess in 2013 and was nominated for a Grammy award again in 2019 for his studio album version of Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. In 2021, he was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for his work on Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods.
For tickets and more information, call 713.224.7575 or visit houstonsymphony.com/normlewis.
HOUSTON SYMPHONY PRESENTS BLOCKBUSTER BROADWAY WITH NORM LEWIS
Friday & Saturday, September 22 & 23 at 8 p.m.
Livestream available Saturday, September 23 at 8 p.m.
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Steven Reineke, conductor
Norm Lewis, vocalist
About Steven Reineke
Steven Reineke has established himself as one of North America's leading conductors of popular music and is in his second decade as Music Director of The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. Additionally, he is Principal Pops Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Principal Pops Conductor of the Houston and Toronto Symphony Orchestras.
Reineke is a frequent guest conductor with The Philadelphia Orchestra and his extensive North American conducting appearances include Dallas, Detroit and the Ravinia Music Festival.
On stage, Mr. Reineke has created programs and collaborated with a range of leading artists from the worlds hip hop, R & B, Broadway, television and rock including: Maxwell, Common, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Ne-Yo, Cynthia Erivo, Ben Rector, Cody Fry, Sutton Foster, Megan Hilty, Cheyenne Jackson, Wayne Brady, Peter Frampton and Ben Folds, amongst others. In 2017 he was featured on National Public Radio's All Things Considered leading the National Symphony Orchestra - in a first for the show's 45-year history - performing live music excerpts in between news segments. In 2018 Reineke led the National Symphony Orchestra with hip hop legend Nas performing his seminal album Illmatic on PBS's Great Performances.
As the creator of more than one hundred orchestral arrangements for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Mr. Reineke’s work has been performed worldwide, and can be heard on numerous Cincinnati Pops Orchestra recordings on the Telarc label. His symphonic works Celebration Fanfare, Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Casey at the Bat are performed frequently in North America, including performances by the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic. His Sun Valley Festival Fanfare was used to commemorate the Sun Valley Summer Symphony’s pavilion, and his Festival Te Deum and Swan’s Island Sojourn were debuted by the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestras. His numerous wind ensemble compositions are published by the C.L. Barnhouse Company and are performed by concert bands worldwide.
A native of Ohio, Mr. Reineke is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio (2020 Alumnus Distinguished Achievement Medal), where he earned Bachelor of Music degrees with honors in both trumpet performance and music composition. He currently resides in New York City with his husband Eric Gabbard.
About Norm Lewis
Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and SAG Award nominee, Norm Lewis, recently starred in Spike Lee’s critically acclaimed, Da 5 Bloods, and in the groundbreaking FX series, Pose. Additionally, he stars in ABC’s newest series, Women of The Movement; and offscreen, he is heard in the latest season of Apple TV’s animated series, Central Park. He played Caiaphas in the award-winning NBC television special, Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert!, alongside John Legend, Sara Bareilles, and Alice Cooper.
Norm returned to Broadway in 2021, starring in Chicken and Biscuits at the Circle in The Square Theatre. He previously appeared in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island and as Sweeney Todd in the Off-Broadway production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the Barrow Street Theatre, receiving the AUDELCO Award for his performance. In May 2014, he made history as The Phantom of the Opera’s first African American Phantom on Broadway. He received Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle award nominations for his performance as Porgy in the Broadway production of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. In London’s West End he appeared as Javert in Les Misérables and Les Misérables: The 25th Anniversary Concert, which aired on PBS.
He was seen on PBS in the Live From Lincoln Center productions of Showboat with Vanessa Williams, Norm Lewis: Who Am I?, New Year’s Eve: A Gershwin Celebration with Diane Reeves, as well as American Voices with Renée Fleming and the PBS Specials First You Dream–The Music of Kander & Ebb and Ella Wishes You A Swingin’ Christmas. His many TV and film credits include his recurring role as Senator Edison Davis on the hit drama, Scandal.
Norm is a proud founding member of Black Theatre United, an organization that stands together to help protect Black people, Black talent, and Black lives of all shapes and orientations in theatre and communities across the country.
About Houston Symphony
Under Music Director Juraj Vačuha, the Houston Symphony continues its second century as one of America’s leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring, and recording activities. One of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, the Symphony held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston on June 21, 1913. Today, with an operating budget of $37.8 million, the full-time ensemble of professional musicians presents more than 130 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Traditionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s two Community-Embedded Musicians also offer over 1,000 community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches reaching more than 200,000 people in Greater Houston annually.
After suspending concert activities in March 2020, the Symphony successfully completed a full 2020–21 season with in-person audiences and weekly livestreams of each performance, making it one of the only orchestras in the world to do so, while the Symphony’s Education and Community Engagement team continued to fulfill its mission through creative and virtual means throughout the COVID pandemic. The Houston Symphony remains committed to livestreaming all of its 2023–24 season to a broad audience in over forty-five countries and all fifty states, one of few American orchestras dedicated to transmitting live performances to a size-able audience outside its home city through this technology.
The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Koch International Classics, Naxos, RCA Red Seal, Telarc, Virgin Classics, and, most recently, Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category. The Symphony’s most recent recordings include a Pentatone release in January 2022 of its world premiere performances of Jimmy López Bellido’s Aurora and Ad Astra, and a Naxos release in July 2023 of its world premiere performance of Jennifer Higdon’s Duo Duel.
