Breaking the mold with an outdoor performance

The Houston Symphony will host its first outdoor community concert at 6:30 p.m. April 22 at Discovery Green.

“Tango and Tchaikovsky: The Houston Symphony at Discovery Green” will feature conductor and concertmaster Frank Huang leading the symphony through Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings” and Argentine composer Astor Piazolla’s “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.”

Enjoying empanadas and cake provided by Phoenicia Food Market, attendees can listen to the Houston Symphony in the Fondren Performance Space in celebration of the joint birthdays of the Houston Symphony and Discovery Green. Mark C. Hanson, CEO and executive director of the Houston Symphony, expressed his excitement for the symphony’s centennial concert.

“We are excited for this upcoming collaboration,” Hanson said. “As we celebrate our centennial season, what better way to show our appreciation and love for this city than to partner with another great organization and offer a free concert at Discovery Green, a first for the Houston Symphony.”

The concert is free for all ages.

More than a million people ride METRO

This year’s Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo at Reliant Park brought record-high ridership on the MetroRail Main Street Line.

The Metro website already boasts of its status as the region’s largest public transit provider. This seemed obvious during the three weeks of the rodeo, when the week from March 9 through 15 broke the record for ridership. Then, the next week, an 8.1 percent jump in ridership broke that record, with more than 275,000 riders between Monday and Friday.

During the rodeo, ridership reached 1.28 million, which is 6.6 percent higher than last year. Metro president and CEO Tom Lambert attributes this growth to planning by the Transit Authority Board of Directors in addition to input from the public.

“We are happy to see this increase and believe it is part of a trend fueled by confidence in our great transit services,” Lambert said.

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“Around Town: Classical performance and Metro hits” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar