The name of the Apollo Chamber Players might bring to mind for classical audiences ancient Greece. But, remember, they’re based in Houston, and they definitely have a tie to Space City. That’s made apparent in their upcoming concert “Venture,” this coming Friday at Houston’s Match Theater.
TPR caught up with Matt Detrick, Founder/Director/Violinist of the Apollo Chamber Players, along with Shirley K. Price, NASA Equal Opportunity Specialist, and Jennifer Ross-Nazzal, NASA Historian.
Says Detrick, “The world knows Houston as Mission Control for space exploration. This season we’ve been telling stories of America as this country celebrates and reflects on its 250th birthday. So we hope the world, from this program and from the stories we’ve been telling, can also see this city as Mission Control for culture and the arts — and for diversity and democracy.”
Enter “Hidden Figures: Shared Orbits,” a world premiere by composers John Cornelius and Mark Buller. It tells the story of people who were integral to America’s space travel: people who might not have been given a chance if not for the enlightened views of a few people at NASA.
Shirley K. Price, a disabled Black woman, says “I was working at the Equal Opportunity Office at the time of many of the missions, from 1972 to 1990.” Of the mission to get human beings into space, she says, “I thought I would never be involved in anything like that,” … and, she adds with a wry smile, “I really thought I wasn’t that interested. But it ended up being a life career.”
- Matt Detrick, Apollo Chamber Players; Shirley K. Price, NASA; Jennifer Ross-Nazzal, NASA
- Concert “Venture” — World premiere "Hidden Figures: Shared Orbit"
- 7:30pm Fri 5/22, at Match Theater, Houston
- apollochamberplayers.org
