“This weekend the Houston Symphony planned a welcome back … to its music director and conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada,” writes Andrew Dansby in Wednesday’s (5/5) Houston Chronicle. “The coronavirus pandemic kept him away the past year, but he’d hoped to bring the 2020/21 season to a close before joining the symphony for its 2021/22 season, which would be his last here. But travel restrictions will keep the conductor from leaving his home in Austria and returning this month to Houston…. The culprit: the National Interest Exception on travel restrictions. Artists whose work could be framed as supporting the economic recovery of the United States were granted entry prior to March 2, 2021…. The Houston Symphony’s efforts to bring its maestro back for two weekends of performances proved unsuccessful…. Houston Symphony CEO John Mangum said the organization’s success bringing in other European-based conductors earlier this year created a hope that Orozco-Estrada could return. But, he said, ‘the rules changed, and were tightened.’ … David Robertson [will] step in to lead the symphony…. Orozco-Estrada’s return remains viable and likely at some point this year.”
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