Carols on the Green

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) invites the community to gather at Discovery Green for Carols on the Green, the company’s annual holiday concert and sing-along combining beloved carols with festive Spanish-language favorites, held in partnership with the park.

This year’s event will be curated, conducted, and emceed by Jorge Parodi, music director of the University of Houston Moores Opera Center and general and artistic director of Opera Hispánica, a New York company that performs Latin American and Spanish opera throughout the country. Parodi has programmed a night of opera, holiday hits, mariachi, and more for audiences to enjoy during this festive celebration of Latin American and Hispanic culture.

The evening will feature performances by Butler Studio artist Demetrious Sampson, Jr., who has won raves for his performance as Sportin’ Life in HGO’s fall production of Porgy and Bess, as well as a rising opera artist from Mexico, the baritone Esau Alvarez. Alvarez is the first artist to travel to Houston as part of a new HGO initiative, created in partnership with the Novum Foundation, to discover and foster leading operatic talent from Latin America through individualized fellowships with the Butler Studio program.

Groups performing at the concert include the University of Houston’s Mariachi Pumas and the Segundo Barrio Children’s Chorus, who will be joined by members of HGO’s Bauer Family High School Voice Studio and the renowned HGO Chorus.