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Press Releases
Apollo Chamber Players Presents VENTURE
A Powerful Season Finale Exploring the Human Stories
Behind Space Exploration – From Apollo to Artemis –
Illuminating the Hidden Figures
Who Shaped America’s Journey to the Moon
Featuring Original Compositions and Co-Production by
Houston-Based Composers John Cornelius and Mark Buller
Friday, May 22, 2026 | MATCH in Midtown | Houston, TX
“...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
Houston, TX (April 9, 2026) – As humanity once again turns its gaze toward the Moon, the Houston-based Apollo Chamber Players meet the moment with VENTURE, the final program in their season-long American Story series, on Friday, May 22, 2026 at 7:30pm at Houston’s MATCH in Midtown. With this program, Apollo returns to its foundational source of inspiration – the American space program and the Apollo Project – for a musical reimagining of the troubled Apollo 13 spaceflight and the ingenious mission to save its three-man crew.
Co-produced by Houston-based composers John Cornelius and Mark Buller, the program brings the world premiere of the duo’s staged concert work Hidden Figures: Shared Orbit, composed with input from space historian Jennifer Ross-Nazzal to highlight some of the unsung heroes from the Apollo 13 mission and its era at NASA. Among the figures spotlighted in the work are Miguel Hernandez, a Cuban immigrant who fled his homeland and later served in NASA’s Mission Control – where he was on hand to receive the famous transmission, “Houston, we’ve had a problem” – and Shirley K. Price, a pioneering Black and disabled leader who expanded access and opportunity within the space agency. Composed for string quartet and vocals, the performance will feature Houston-based vocalists Jolie Rocke, soprano, and Ivan Moreno, tenor. The program also includes works by Beethoven, Reena Esmail, and Arthur Gottschalk.
Celebrated for their “passion for new music and impressive virtuosity” (The Whole Note), Apollo has dedicated its 2025/26 season to narratives of American heritage and spirit as the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary. In VENTURE, they capture the enduring human drive for exploration – and the often untold stories that make such journeys possible – within the American ideals of innovation, collaboration, and the free exchange of ideas.
“This program focuses not on the mission alone, but on the individuals whose voices, labor, and resilience have shaped the course of discovery – from the challenges of the Apollo 13 mission to the renewed ambitions of today’s lunar exploration,” said Apollo violinist and Executive Director Matthew J. Detrick. “In doing so, it illuminates the enduring truth that progress is not the product of a single voice, but of many – working together, often behind the scenes, to nurture democracy and propel humanity toward a more interconnected future.”
Presented in two halves with an intermission, VENTURE opens with the finale to Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 59 No. 3, with its anticipatory energy evoking the moment of “liftoff.” It will be followed by two works that speak to the broader American themes of the program: Reena Esmail’s Zehar (“Poison”), on the cleansing power of truth and free expression, and the first movement of Arthur Gottschalk’s Imágenes de Cuba, a 2016 Apollo commission capturing the immigrant experience as an introduction to Miguel Hernandez’s role in the Apollo program.
The entire second half will be devoted to Cornelius and Buller’s Hidden Figures: Shared Orbit, an expansive three-movement work incorporating Apollo 13 transmissions and historical accounts interwoven with the stories of its two NASA trailblazers, Hernandez and Price. Drawing on Houston’s identity as a bold city shaped by diversity, innovation, and collaboration, the work reveals how the unique qualities of those outside the conventional NASA mold – and their determined endeavors to be part of its story – become essential to progress and discovery.
Apollo Chamber Players Season 18: American Story
Info: www.apollochamberplayers.org/american-story-2526.html
Tickets: www.matchouston.org/events/2026/american-story-venture
Subscriptions: checkout.square.site/merchant/XDJQSXZKN9SZW/checkout/UTGOURC4DTMO6YCKMRUHERAX
Concert 4: VENTURE
Friday, May 22, 2026 at 7:30pm
MATCH in Midtown | Houston, TX
Guest Artists:
Mark Buller, composer and co-creator
John Cornelius, composer and co-creator
Jolie Rocke, soprano
Ivan Moreno, tenor
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. The ensemble is the 2025 honoree of Chamber Music America’s prestigious Ensemble of the Year award, which cited its recent themed concerts, highlighting American democratic ideals and the dangers of censorship, as exemplars of “exceptional artistry, musicality and groundbreaking impact on the chamber music landscape.” Also a past recipient of Chamber Music America’s 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.
Celebrated for blending vibrant multicultural commissions with social commentary, Apollo was described by NPR’s Neda Ulaby as a “young, dynamic ensemble...creating programs in response to current events.” The ensemble has drawn recent acclaim for its collaborations with the legendary actor, author, and activist George Takei, who delivered a live narration in the opening concert of its 2024-2025 We the People series. Takei and the Apollo Chamber Players were recognized for the program with City of Houston Proclamations by Houston Mayor John Whitmire and Councilmember Willie Davis. U.S. Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher, who represents Texas’s 7th District, including the city of Houston, wrote a letter commending the ensemble’s “artistic effort to bring enlightened inspiration of the Founding Fathers meaningfully into the 21st century, to expand on those ideals, and to help build a more perfect union through connection and community.” For the 2025-2026 season, Apollo continues on its themes of American heritage and justice with its American Story series timed for the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.
Takei can also be heard on Apollo’s newest album, BAN: Stories of Censorship on Azica Records (August 2025). Previous Azica releases include Trace of Time (2024), praised as the work of “gifted musical storytellers” by Musical America, and With Malice Toward None (2021), which reached No. 1 on Amazon’s Hot New Release chart. 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 globally-inspired contemporary music and art, Apollo counts an expanding catalogue of more than 60 commissioned works and eight critically acclaimed commercial albums. The ensemble’s diverse roster of leading and emerging composers includes Jennifer Higdon, John Corigliano, Libby Larsen, Pamela Z, Jerod Tate, Allison Loggins-Hull, Brian Raphael Nabors, and Vanessa Võ.
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.
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Photo credits: Clockwise from top left: Apollo Chamber Players by Lynn Lane; Shirley K. Price, with NASA administrator James C. Fletcher and First Daughter Tricia Nixon Cox; Miguel Hernandez, Jennifer Ross-Nazzal, Mark Buller, and John Cornelius courtesy of Apollo Chamber Players.
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