May 10 & 18: Apollo Chamber Players Presents FREEDOM, Including Marcus Maroney W

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Apollo Chamber Players Presents FREEDOM 

Final Program in Season-Long We the People Series

Highlights Marcus Maroney World Premiere, The Color Blue

May 10, 2025 at 7:00pm | Holocaust Museum Houston – Houston, TX
May 18, 2025 at 2:00pm | Unity of Houston – Houston, TX

Apollo Receives Ensemble of the Year Award at
2025 Chamber Music America Conference

“...a young, dynamic ensemble...creating programs in response to current events.” – NPR

“superb and out of this world” – Gramophone

“recasting music for a diverse and multi-ethnic generation” – Strings Magazine

www.apollochamberplayers.org
 

Houston, TX (April 7, 2025) – In partnership with Holocaust Museum Houston and Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Houston-based Apollo Chamber Players will present FREEDOM, the fourth and final concert in their 2024-2025 We the People series, on Saturday, May 10, 2025 at Holocaust Museum Houston, with a second performance to follow on Sunday, May 18, 2025 at 2:00pm at Unity of Houston. An intergenerational dialogue about freedom, democracy, and the future, this program pairs Houston composer Mark Buller’s premiere arrangement of Howard Hanson’s aspirational 1957 work Song of Democracy, a musical setting for poetry by Walt Whitman, with newly commissioned works. In a highlight of this program, Apollo will present the world premiere of Marcus Maroney’s The Color Blue, a commission for string quartet and choir inspired by themes of democracy. Based on text contributions from U.S. History students at Houston’s Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA), with guidance from instructor Jennifer Chase, the work will be performed by the HSPVA Chorale under the direction of Marcus J. Jauregui, alongside Apollo Chamber Players. The program also features arrangements of Ukrainian, Polish, and Greek folk songs inspired by the struggle for freedom, self-determination, and democratic values. The program also features the Texas premiere of Voladores de Papantla (2019) by three-time GRAMMY®-nominated composer Juan Pablo Contreras, which reflects the themes of the Holocaust Museum’s current Mexican border crisis exhibition “Life and Death on the Border.”

FREEDOM follows in the footsteps of Apollo’s three previous We the People programs: LIBERTY – featuring the famed actor and activist George Takei – on October 5, 2024; OPPORTUNITY, held January 4, 2025; and DIVERSITY, which was performed on March 21, 2025. Timed to reflect on the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the four themed concerts illuminate key facets of the American system and character, drawing on source material from the poetry of Walt Whitman to the story of Rosa Parks.

Celebrated by NPR as “a young, dynamic ensemble… creating programs in response to current events,” Apollo Chamber Players has drawn broad acclaim for its incisive thematic programming. On Monday, November 25, 2024, Chamber Music America (CMA) named the quartet as the recipient of its Ensemble / Ensemble Project of the Year Award, based on Apollo’s 2023-2024 theme of Silenced Voices, a series curated to shed light on censorship and oppression – whether through racial prejudice, authoritarian government, or other forces – as well as this season’s We the People series. Apollo was formally recognized at an awards luncheon during CMA’s National Conference on February 15, 2025 in Houston.

With the conference in its home city, Apollo played a prominent role in the four-day gathering, appearing for two performance showcases on Friday, February 14, 2025. Performances featured Apollo-commissioned works including Erberk Eryilmaz’s Sis Çani / Fog Bell, Jennifer Higdon’s In the Shadow of the Mountain and Wang Jie's The Night When You See Again. Apollo Founder, Director and violinist Matthew J. Detrick was also a featured speaker at the conference, giving a talk on arts advocacy and commissioning in the 21st century.

Program Information
Saturday, May 10, 2024 at 7:00pm
Holocaust Museum Houston | Houston, TX
Tickets: $10
Link: apollocp.org/freedom

Sunday, May 18, 2025 at 2:00pm
Unity Houston | Houston, TX
Tickets: $10-$35
Link: checkout.square.site/merchant/XDJQSXZKN9SZW/checkout/WPNFGLPJOU3WIZHSN2NMMN4G

Program:
Howard Hanson/Walt Whitman (Arr. Mark Buller) – Song of Democracy (2025) [World Premiere Arrangement]
Marcus Maroney – The Color Blue (2025) [World Premiere, Apollo Commission]
Juan Pablo Contreras – Voladores de Papantla (2019) [Texas Premiere]
Ukrainian, Polish, and Greek Folk Song set

Performers/Guests:
Apollo Chamber Players
Marcus Maroney, composer (University of Houston Moores School of Music)
Mark Buller, composer
HSPVA chorale, led by Marcus J. Jauregui (chair)
HSPVA U.S. History students, led by Jennifer Chase, instructor
Tonya Burton, viola (artist affiliate)

About Apollo Chamber Players
Houston-based Apollo Chamber Players “performs with rhythmic flair and virtuosity” (The Strad) and “recasts music for a diverse and multi-ethnic generation” (Strings Magazine) through globally inspired programming and multicultural new music commissions. A recipient of Chamber Music America’s prestigious Residency Partnership award, the ensemble has performed for sold-out audiences at Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center, and is featured frequently on American Public Media’s nationally-syndicated program Performance Today.

In March 2024, Apollo’s censorship-inspired programming rose to national prominence as the featured story on NPR’s Weekend Edition, in which cultural reporter Neda Ulaby lauded Apollo as a “young, dynamic ensemble...creating programs in response to current events.”

Released on the GRAMMY®-winning label Azica Records, Apollo's With Malice Toward None album reached No. 1 on Amazon’s Hot New Release chart, and the ensemble’s catalog of records has been featured on hundreds of radio and media stations worldwide. The organization’s debut feature film, MoonShot: The Remarkable Journey of Apollo Chamber Players, won international accolades, including Best Documentary and Best Documentary Soundtrack at the Seattle, Vancouver, Houston and Screen ATX International film festivals. It is now available on Amazon Prime and Tubi.

A passionate advocate of contemporary music, underrepresented composers, and art reflecting the times in which we live, Apollo counts an expanding catalog of more than 50 commissioned works. As part of this endeavor, the ensemble concluded a bold initiative to commission 20 new multicultural works by the end of the last decade. 20x2020 features a diverse roster of the world’s leading composers and instrumentalists including Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Pamela Z, Leo Brouwer, Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, Vanessa Võ, and Tracy Silverman.

Apollo’s community partners include schools and universities, at-risk youth centers, refugee and veterans’ service organizations, and public libraries. The ensemble’s vanguard Library Voyage project, an initiative to perform in all Harris County/Houston Public Libraries, is the first of its kind in the nation. Apollo was founded in 2008 by violinist and music entrepreneur Matthew J. Detrick and violinist Timothy Peters.

Photo Credits: Apollo Chamber Players by Lynn Lane, Marcus Maroney by Robyn Arouty, HSPVA Chorale courtesy of Apollo Chamber Players, 2025 CMA Conference by Melissa Taylor.

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